Transitioning to Regular Life after the Program

This 8-week program is purposefully designed as a high protein plan - the reason this works so well for ladies is because scientific studies show high protein meals DO indeed cause individuals to feel more full and satiated such that the desire to overeat and overconsume calories is indeed reduced - and this makes a significant impact on the ease of stabilizing and maintaining weight loss. Thus high protein during these weeks while transitioning from a VLCD and learning to maintain is a wise approach.

My suggestion to you as you continue to utilize these recipes in life maintenance and continue to pave your own life eating path is to gradually increase your daily vegetable and fresh whole fruit intake, and decrease your meat/dairy/egg protein intake - not remove, but reduce. I will explain why below, but first, how best to do this with P3toLife recipes:

In most cases, if you simply reduce the main protein serving down (example: recipe says 5oz of chicken breast, reduce to 3-4 oz per serving) and then compensate by using a larger quantity of vegetables already used in the recipe, along with a little of whatever fat/oil is used (for instance, adding another 2 tsp of olive oil, or a bit more avocado etc) will make for transitioning yourself into a way of eating that is more alkaline and less acidic.

Now I'd like to explain a little about the WHY on this recommendation:

Complete protein from the meat, eggs, and dairy sources are acidifying to the body. Whereas as vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts are alkalinizing to the body.

Over time, a body that is continually in a too-acidic state can develop problems with osteoporosis/penia, arthritis and other inflammatory issues.

Shooting for a more alkaline state is known to be much better for the body in terms of staving off disease, reducing/preventing inflammation, and allowing for healing from chronic diseases.

Since you have been on P3toLife, you've been avoiding all grains and sugar sources, foods you may have been eating daily prior to hCG and P3toLife, which these too are very acidifying - so congratulations, you are ALREADY on your way there!

Now it's time to take it to the next level.

Various ways to increase your intake of alkaline promoting foods:

• You can eat more of them in your meals - as we discussed decreasing your meat protein a little, and increasing your vegetables and fruits.
• You can also juice the vegetables - we have this juicer, and it takes me exactly 9 minutes to wash, juice, and clean up and end up with a quart glass of juice that contains 1 whole head of organic celery and 2 organic cucumbers. I dilute it half by water, add a squeeze of lime (don’t skip this! Tastes wayyyy better), add a little organic stevia, and drink half and give my hubby and son the other half. I drink mine with glass straw and it's quite actually quite refreshing! If you decide to try this, I'd like to recommend sticking with juicing green things to keep the sugar content down.

While I don't do this daily yet, that is my goal! Part of what makes it more likely to get into a routine is to have what you need set up and ready to go - we keep our juicer on the counter now, plugged in. Cutting board and knife right next to it. When I think it will take too long, I think to myself: 9 minutes. And honestly I could probably do it faster. Wanna race? 😉