Good Morning.....First things first...get that big glass of water down before your morning coffee. If I can do it, so can you!
Today I would like talk about speeding up our metabolism, who doesn't want that? When we eat foods that are high in fat, (meat and dairy), little fat droplets get into our cells. When these fat particles get into our cells, our "fat burner" cells called mitochondria have a hard time burning fat. It's the mitochondria's job to metabolize fat, but when these fat droplets are inside the cell, the mitochondria has a very hard time doing it's job. Think of the fat inside the cells like gum, it makes it very hard for the mitochondria to burn away fat.
Our goal is to have nice "clean" cells without a lot of fat inside of them. A nice clean cell can pull in glucose and convert most of it to energy. But, fatty foods can pack fat into our cells making it very difficult for glucose to get inside, (remember the gum), and our metabolism gets no boost. With the mitochondria unable to burn up the fat, the fat continues to build in our cells and we don't get the "burn" we should have.
How do we remove the fat from our cells and get our metabolism back? Well, one way is surgery, which in my mind is extremely drastic and many times very unnecessary. There is a much easier way to evict this fat from our cells. Very simply, LEAVE FAT OUT OF THE FOODS YOU EAT. That means, avoid animal fats AND vegetable oils. Choose nonfat dressings, get rid of the greasy fries, steam, broil and bake your foods instead of frying. That would cut even more fat from your diet. Researchers took away animal products and vegetable oils from a group of participants, and found the amount of "fat droplets" in their cells dropped by 87%. Do you realize what that can do for your metabolism? WOW!
So, the secret is this: if you take most of the fat out of your diet, our cells will respond to insulin much more quickly, (glucose turning calories into energy). Our cells will become supercharged ready to burn off calories faster.
Ok, with that in mind, the Day 16 menu looks like this:
Breakfast: Frozen vegan waffles with peaches and maple syrup or cereal with almond milk and fruit
Lunch: Vegan cup of soup or leftover Sloppy Joes with summer pasta and bean salad
Snack: Mali chips
Dinner: Savory French lentils and brown rice with a side of steamed greens
Dessert: Mango lime sorbet or baked cardamom pears
For the above recipes, go to the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart website. Again, there are many more sites for Whole Food Plant Based recipes. One of my favorites is Straightupfood.com, really, really good. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store, get lots of food that doesn't come with nutritional labels on it, (vegetables and fruit), and try recipes using these foods with different spices. After eating this way, your body will reward you....I promise!!
Today I would like talk about speeding up our metabolism, who doesn't want that? When we eat foods that are high in fat, (meat and dairy), little fat droplets get into our cells. When these fat particles get into our cells, our "fat burner" cells called mitochondria have a hard time burning fat. It's the mitochondria's job to metabolize fat, but when these fat droplets are inside the cell, the mitochondria has a very hard time doing it's job. Think of the fat inside the cells like gum, it makes it very hard for the mitochondria to burn away fat.
Our goal is to have nice "clean" cells without a lot of fat inside of them. A nice clean cell can pull in glucose and convert most of it to energy. But, fatty foods can pack fat into our cells making it very difficult for glucose to get inside, (remember the gum), and our metabolism gets no boost. With the mitochondria unable to burn up the fat, the fat continues to build in our cells and we don't get the "burn" we should have.
How do we remove the fat from our cells and get our metabolism back? Well, one way is surgery, which in my mind is extremely drastic and many times very unnecessary. There is a much easier way to evict this fat from our cells. Very simply, LEAVE FAT OUT OF THE FOODS YOU EAT. That means, avoid animal fats AND vegetable oils. Choose nonfat dressings, get rid of the greasy fries, steam, broil and bake your foods instead of frying. That would cut even more fat from your diet. Researchers took away animal products and vegetable oils from a group of participants, and found the amount of "fat droplets" in their cells dropped by 87%. Do you realize what that can do for your metabolism? WOW!
So, the secret is this: if you take most of the fat out of your diet, our cells will respond to insulin much more quickly, (glucose turning calories into energy). Our cells will become supercharged ready to burn off calories faster.
Ok, with that in mind, the Day 16 menu looks like this:
Breakfast: Frozen vegan waffles with peaches and maple syrup or cereal with almond milk and fruit
Lunch: Vegan cup of soup or leftover Sloppy Joes with summer pasta and bean salad
Snack: Mali chips
Dinner: Savory French lentils and brown rice with a side of steamed greens
Dessert: Mango lime sorbet or baked cardamom pears
For the above recipes, go to the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart website. Again, there are many more sites for Whole Food Plant Based recipes. One of my favorites is Straightupfood.com, really, really good. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store, get lots of food that doesn't come with nutritional labels on it, (vegetables and fruit), and try recipes using these foods with different spices. After eating this way, your body will reward you....I promise!!