Sorting out what to eat could be 75% of the effort put into whatever food plan your are starting. What will taste good? Will it satisfy me? What if I get a sweet craving? All these questions have popped up during the 12-week shredding plan, and here is the breakdown of how I dealt with them.
Carbohydrates
Probably the hardest thing I had to give up, for me the texture of food is important, and having that heaviness with bread or rice was the only way I could get a fulfilling meal. Then I was introduced to the protein wrap and protein toast; they were filling and gave me the heaviness I was craving.
Sugar
For me, eating a meal is a passage to dessert; I have salty food to enjoy the sweet! So you can imagine my horror when I had no source of sweets, not even fruits…
Then came the lifesaver, Quest Nutrition Salted Caramel Protein; heaven for my sweet tooth. I mix it with ice and water only (you honestly don’t need to add anything else).
Water
During the summer this wasn’t hard to do, but as the temperatures dropped, I found it really hard to get past 1 liter of water. That’s when Krissy introduced me to Robinson’s natural fruit concentrate; I add just a bit to my water to make it bearable. A little bit goes a long way, it could get overly sweet if you add too much.
Supplements:
Finding a brand I liked and my body responds to well took some time, the hardest for me is iron, I always get nauseated if I take iron supplements. I recently found a brand that makes their supplements from food sources, and it has been my go to brand for everything ever since. Wild Nutrition has been my favourite for a while now, but I don’t always find what i need, so I get from Solgar. This is a list of supplements I took during the plan;
- Multi Vitamin – Wild Nutrition
- L-Glutamine – Solgar
- MSM – Solgar
- Fish Oil – Minami
- Magnesium – Wild Nutrition
- Spirulina – Titan Kuwait
- BCAA – Optimum Nutrition
Others
Here is a list of other things I used in conjunction with food and supplements. They were mainly used to relax and recover the body.
Magnesium Bath Salts – The most amazing think to soak in when your whole body is sore. This also comes in a spray, but I really like the bath salts as the warm water adds to the soothing effect.
Foam Roller – Ok, this isn’t food but I need to mention it for recovery. I have a love/hate relationship with this product; it hurts like HELL when you are using it (I punched my husband once because he pressed too hard!), but afterwards you feel all those knots loosened up.
