plantpure for life guide

 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
PLANTPURE FOR LIFE
GUIDE
1 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome 3 Stocking Your Kitchen 4 Reading a Nutrition Label 6 Easy Plant-­‐Based Meal Ideas 8 Trying New Recipes 10 Dining Out 11 What About Fast Food? 13 Friends and Family (the Trickiest Part!) 14 What if You Make a Mistake? 15 Final Thoughts 16 2 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
Welcome Congrats! You’re well on your way to adopting a plant-­‐based diet! You’re likely already seeing the positive changes in your body and your health. Now it’s time to talk about integrating this way of eating into your lifestyle. Many people find that they have more energy and feel healthier overall. This feeling of well-­‐being is what usually helps people during the transition phase because they want to continue to feel better. As important as the 10-­‐day Jumpstart is, a successful transition into a WFPB lifestyle is just as critical. Our PlantPure for Life program supports you during this phase of your journey by continuing to provide meals while encouraging you to experiment with preparing your own plant-­‐based dishes. First, you will figure out how to make this diet a lifestyle: what recipes you like, how to shop, what to order at a restaurant and what to do when you visit friends and family. In addition, your taste preferences will change. Most people remember changing from whole milk to skim milk and how watery it tasted initially. Then after some time, whole milk tasted thick and fatty. This is the same type of transition that will occur as you feed your body the foods it will thrive on: fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds. Your taste buds will change, and suddenly the thought of a fresh, ripe peach will seem pretty amazing. A great resource that will help to guide you through this growth phase are the educational videos that you received during your 10-­‐day Jumpstart. 3 Stocking Your Kitchen The first thing you’ll want to do is create a healthy PlantPure kitchen. A good start is to re-­‐watch the Pantry List education video from the Jumpstart. Also, reference the pantry list included in The PlantPure Nation Cookbook. Following these guidelines, you should cleanse your pantry of the old, unhealthy items and then fill it and your fridge with all of the good stuff. This step has two main benefits: First, it can be very frustrating trying to cook new recipes when you don't have the right ingredients and have to keep going to the store, and second, when you open the fridge or pantry to decide what you are going to eat, it is a lot easier to make good choices when those are your only options! STEP 1: Remove all of the food items on the list below. We know you’re thinking you’ve spent a lot of money on these items, and you don’t want them to go to waste, but it’s crucial to your success to remove any temptation that could trip you up before you’ve completely adopted a plant-­‐based lifestyle. Here is the problem: If it is in the house, your chances of continuing a PlantPure lifestyle go way down. Also, think of the money you will save in medical bills because of your new WFPB lifestyle! In the long run it will cost you a lot more to keep eating the standard American diet. Here is a list of things to remove from your pantry, refrigerator and freezer: PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
● Any animal products (fish, chicken, beef, pork, deli meat, etc.) ● Any products containing dairy (butter, milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream). Later, we will share great replacement recipes for many of these favorites. ● Any products that have added oil (look at the ingredients label) ● Any products that have high amounts of added sugar (breakfast cereals, energy bars, etc.) 4 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
STEP 2: Here is a suggested list of foods for stocking your pantry, refrigerator and freezer. These are suggestions, a good place to start, until you figure out what you like best. You’ll find a lot of products you like on your own, too! Seasonings •
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Pantry items Canned products •
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Ginger paste Liquid aminos Chili garlic sauce — find in international/Asian section of stores Frozen crushed garlic — huge time saver; look in the frozen foods section Good dijon mustard Pickled jalapeño peppers or banana peppers Cooking sherry Soy sauce Rice wine vinegar Vegan Worcestershire sauce Tahini Spices (the secret to great WFPB cooking is a wide variety of spices, which you will accumulate as you begin your journey) •
Canned beans: garbanzo, red, kidney, pinto, white, black Diced tomatoes: plain and with chilies Good low-­‐sugar and no-­‐added-­‐fat spaghetti sauce Individual snack-­‐pack size of no-­‐sugar applesauce (use in baking and as a good snack) Light coconut milk Good salsa Boxed soups – try black bean or sweet potato ginger soups (watch the ingredients to make sure there is no added fat or animal products) 100% whole-­‐grain pastas Brown rice Quinoa Wild and/or black rice Boxed silken tofu (no refrigeration needed) 5 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
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Monk fruit (hard to find) or truvia/stevia Egg replacer (find at most health food stores) Oats Plain soy or almond milk in non-­‐refrigerated container – look for brands without carrageenan, as that can cause gastric upset in some people Real maple syrup Molasses Ground flax seeds Chia seeds Raw cashews (great in sauces) Nutritional yeast (find at most health food stores) Dried cranberries Onions Peppers Spinach Broccoli Peas Corn Carrots Stir-­‐fry blends Blueberries Mangoes Mixed berry blends Reading a Nutrition Label Reading a label sounds quite simple, but the food industry has found clever ways to trick even the most educated consumer. Knowing how to read labels is the most powerful piece of knowledge you will have to understand food. You may want to watch again the video on this subject provided during your Jumpstart.
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Ingredients list PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
Ingredients are listed in order, starting with those found in the largest amounts, by weight, and descending to those present in the smallest amounts. Sugars — like sucrose, corn syrup, fructose, and fruit concentrate — can be listed in order to remove the word "sugar,” but know that these are sugars nonetheless. Fats are hidden by calling them monoglycerides, diglycerides, or triglycerides. Lecithin is also a fat you may not recognize as such. Avoid ingredients that say partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated fats; these are simply trans fats. Dairy-­‐based ingredients are casein, caseinate, lactalbumin, whey or whey solids, milk solids, or low-­‐fat milk solids; these are all derived from cow's milk. Albumin comes from eggs. Any other ingredients that sound unfamiliar should be avoided. Ingredients that are whole foods are best. Fat: Find the percent of total calories that come from fat. This should not exceed 20 percent of total calories. Ideally we like to keep this percentage to less than 15%. To get the percent of total calories from fat, divide the fat calories by the total calories. In the example to the right, this is 50% (70/140). Cholesterol: This must be zero. Cholesterol comes only from animal products. Salt (sodium): Sodium should be around a 1:1 ratio to calories. If calories per serving are 220, then sodium milligrams should be around 220. In the example to the right, this is 1.29 (180/140). Added sugars*: Added sugars should be kept to a minimum. Check sugars by looking at the ingredient list. If there are sugars, they should not be listed in the first 3–5 ingredients. You should never exceed 25 grams of added sugar in one day. If one serving has 12–20 grams of sugar, then you have almost exceeded your limit just by eating one serving of this dish. (The average person consumes almost 100 grams of sugar per day.) * Please note that we are referring to added sugars, not naturally occurring sugars such as the ones in an apple or carrot. This guideline is specifically for added sugars. 7 Now that you have made your kitchen PlantPure, it is time to start the real fun! The easiest way to choose your first recipes is to think of foods you already eat on a regular basis that can be made PlantPure (spaghetti, stir-­‐fry dishes, rice and beans, etc.). Try modifying recipes that you like by adding eggplant, mushrooms, or beans in place of meat or chicken. Easy Plant-­‐Based Meal Ideas Cooking PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
Next, start with some easy-­‐to-­‐prepare recipes that sound good to you. Here are some ideas for easy plant-­‐based meal ideas that don’t require a visit to a speciality store. We encourage you to try some of these out during your transition so you can start experimenting with plant-­‐based meal preparation. Don’t be afraid to get a little adventurous and try some new things you haven’t tried before or things you haven’t liked. Palates change over time, and what wasn’t tasty a few years ago could be a completely different experience now. ☐ Breakfast We have provided many easy breakfast ideas in the Breakfast educational video during the Jumpstart. Take a moment to re-­‐watch that video and develop a healthy breakfast from the ideas Kim Campbell presented. ☐ Wraps and sandwiches Have 100% whole-­‐wheat wraps or sandwich breads handy for a quick lunch. Fill wraps with a fat-­‐free bean dip (hummus or refried beans), lettuce, avocados, corn, and salsa. (You can substitute the veggies for the ones you have available.) Toast bread and make an ALT instead of a BLT, replacing the bacon with the avocado slices. Skip the mayonnaise (unless it’s plant-­‐
based, such as that from The PlantPure Nation Cookbook) and opt for mustards, salsas, sriracha, and fat-­‐free dressings. 8 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
☐ Grains Make a large batch of your favorite grain (brown rice, barley, quinoa, whole-­‐wheat couscous, or farro) and refrigerate it so you can pull out a grain for a quick meal. You can do this with almost any grain and store it for up to a week. Grains can dry out a bit and may need to be reheated in a small amount of water to moisten. Sometimes a quick meal of rice, black or pinto beans, corn, salsa (or any sauce), and a topping of avocado can be made in a minute or two and microwaved. You can be very creative with rice and beans. All over the developing world people eat rice and beans as the main staples of their diets, and these populations have the lowest disease rates! ☐ Potatoes Bake several potatoes (white or sweet) at one time and keep them in your refrigerator. Baked potatoes are great topped with beans, steamed vegetables, salsa, or ketchup. Sweet potatoes go perfectly with black beans, mango chunks, and salsa. You can even create a potato bar with a variety of toppings to build your own. Toppings might include sautéed mushrooms and peppers, steamed broccoli, vegan gravy, vegan cheese sauce (go easy on this, however, as many of the fake cheeses are loaded with oil), green onions, baked beans, and a favorite salsa. ☐ Salads Start with a plate of mixed greens and build a salad. A cup of brown rice or quinoa in the center will give your salad the starch that is necessary for satiety. Choose a bean, sweet peas, corn, carrots, broccoli, and cucumbers, and make it your own tailored salad. For dressing, we recommend using vinegars, lime or lemon juice, salsa, or one of our quick dressing recipes to store for the weekend (see The PlantPure Nation Cookbook). Salads are fun and different, and with the starch from the beans and rice, you will feel satiated. ☐ Veggie burgers Boca has a vegan veggie burger that is the cleanest of the veggie burgers. Unfortunately, most veggie burgers are loaded with oils and often have hidden dairy or eggs, so read the ingredient list before you buy them. They also use textured isolated soy proteins that are highly processed … another reason not to make a veggie burger your daily lunch or dinner option. See our recipe section (and The PlantPure Nation Cookbook) for quick and easy burger recipes. Top your burger with lots of fresh veggies and serve with a baked potato. 9 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
☐ Stir fry Using a variety of fresh vegetables (peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots ...) is healthy, but frozen Asian blends can also be very good and are loaded with the same nutrient content as fresh. Sauté the veggies in water and season with tamari, teriyaki, or soy sauce. You can add some agave for sweetness and sriracha for heat. Stir-­‐fry sauces in the store are often oily and high in sodium, so we don't recommend them, but if you choose one, be sure to read the label. ☐ Crockpot stew or soup A great option since you have more time on the weekends and you can leave the crockpot in the morning and come back to it later. Double the batch and you will have lunch the next day too! ☐ Mexican night at home Place all the essential foods on the table for a Mexican taco, burrito, or salad (just like Moe's or Chipotle). Our favorite list: greens, brown rice, corn, olives, guacamole or chopped avocados, steamed onions and peppers, warm black or pinto beans, salsa, and mango chunks. Drizzle a sweet lime sauce over the top and you have a winner. ☐ Baked tofu You can buy baked tofu (usually at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods), but it can be expensive and difficult to find. Alternatively, you can simply cut extra-­‐firm tofu into one-­‐inch chunks, brush or marinate the tofu with an oil-­‐free sauce, place it on parchment paper and bake in a 400-­‐
degree oven for 20 minutes. Keep baked tofu in your refrigerator and add to any stir fry, salad, or wrap. Trying New Recipes Finally, try out some new recipes. One important thing to remember is that, just like when you were cooking using animal products, not all recipes will turn out perfect the first time. The same will be true for WFPB recipes. Some you will find to be bursting with flavor and you will make over and over again, while others will be unappealing. The key to finding great recipes is figuring out what flavors you like and then finding recipes that have those ingredients. PlantPureRecipes.com is a great way to get ideas on recipes that have been taste-­‐tested by other PlantPure eaters. Another great resource is The PlantPure Nation Cookbook you received as part of your Jumpstart. 10 Strategies for Success PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
Make a menu at the beginning of the week with the meals you are planning on eating, and then make a grocery list based on this menu. This allows you to walk through the door after a long day and not have to decide what to make; you already have a plan and the food is in the kitchen. Make a double batch so that you can take the leftovers for lunch the next day or freeze one batch for use in a few weeks when you are too busy to cook. Plan simple meals for those crazy busy days. The last thing you want to do after a day of running around is walk in the door and cook for an hour. On those days plan on a simple meal (see above for ideas). These are the days to pull out a meal you have frozen ahead or to use one of the PlantPure frozen meals. You are more inclined to fall off the plant-­‐based wagon on busy days when other options are more convenient. Make sure you are packing meals and snacks when you leave the house — getting hungry without something healthy to snack on can be another temptation. Dining Out An important aspect of adopting a PlantPure lifestyle is dining out at restaurants with family and friends. Start by watching the PlantPure menu educational video you watched during the 10-­‐day Jumpstart. The first few times you eat out and go plant-­‐based may seem like a daunting proposition, and you may be worried about being a waitstaff’s nightmare, but we promise it’s not that tough to find options at most restaurants, even when the rest of your party is going for steaks. 11 •
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I would like this entree, but could you hold the meat? I would like this entree, but could you hold the cheese? I would like a salad, but can you tell me what oil-­‐free dressing options you have? If you have no oil-­‐free dressing options, could you put the dressing on the side? Can you make the entree with no or minimal oil? Here are a few more helpful hints: •
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Here are the key questions you can ask a waiter or waitress without feeling like you are being a burden: PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
If you know the restaurant you are going to, review the menu online for ideas. Sometimes it can be difficult to read the menu closely and converse at the same time. Choose several good options ahead of time that can be easily modified. Ask for fries to be replaced with steamed or grilled veggies. If nothing jumps out on the menu, ask the server if there are any veg options not listed on the menu. (Sometimes the chef can prepare something quickly that meets your needs.) If that fails, then order from the sides menu — veg soups, steamed or roasted veggies, baked potato, rice, corn, black beans, etc. — just make sure there’s no dairy and minimal added oil or flour. One thing to remember is that your favorite restaurants may change. If you had previously gone to a steakhouse during your nights out, you may find that you now prefer more flavorful options, such as Japanese, Italian, Mexican or Cuban. These restaurants normally have many vegetarian dishes, and sometimes they can adapt a vegetarian dish fairly easily. Also, sometimes just mentioning that you are a vegan or plant-­‐based eater can get you information about several items not on the menu. 12 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
Chinese and Japanese restaurants usually offer vegetable sushi or steamed vegetables with sauces on the side if you request it. By ordering sauce on the side, you can control the salt and oil. Request that your dish be cooked without oil or with minimal oil. Try to avoid the curry dishes, as they tend to use large amounts of coconut oils and milks. (We have some great coconut curry dishes in our PlantPure frozen food line that are healthy and delicious.) Many Mexican restaurants will offer a bean burrito with your choice of vegetables inside. Avoid refried beans in restaurants because they often contain lard. Ask them to hold the cheese, sour cream, and Spanish rice. Often the waiter can bring out warm corn tortillas instead of the fried tortilla chips to dip in the salsa. Italian restaurants usually offer pasta marinaras. Sometimes you can have mushrooms or peppers added to the marinara dish. Ask that oil be kept to a minimum. American restaurants often have a vegetable plate, salad bar, baked potato, baked beans, or spaghetti. For salad dressings, use vinegars or lemon juice on the side. Most restaurant salad dressings are simply oil, salt, and sugar. What About Fast Food? Nowadays there are many great fast-­‐food options for WFPB eaters. You just have to be aware of them. Here are just a small handful of choices: •
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Subway, Jersey Mike’s, and Jimmy John’s: vegetarian sub, no cheese or mayo, and put as many veggies as possible; consider including guacamole Chipotle, Moe's, and Qdoba: brown rice and black beans topped with grilled veggies and salsa; ask for dairy free and no dressing Wendy’s: baked potato, plain, with salt and pepper and a side salad; no cheese and no oil dressing 13 If you're lucky, then your friends and family will be happy to see you getting healthier, and they will be supportive. However, sometimes people will feel threatened by your new lifestyle and can subtly try to sabotage your progress; they may not even know they are doing it. You will have people making comments like these: •
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You need to eat more protein or you will get sick. If you don't drink cow's milk or consume dairy, you will develop osteoporosis. You need to eat olive or coconut oil; they are good for you. The key is to listen, smile and thank them for their concern. By now you are pretty well educated on the benefits of your new PlantPure lifestyle and are aware of how inaccurate their comments are. The most important thing is not to get into an argument with them. If they seem interested, encourage them to watch PlantPure Nation and/or Forks Over Knives, or visit NutritionFacts.org and look at the research that clearly shows a WFPB diet will resolve many of the health concerns people are facing today. Modeling how much better you feel eating the PlantPure way is the best way to motivate other people to change their diets. Strategies for visiting other people Friends and Family (the Trickiest Part!) PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
By now your friends and family should know about the positive changes you are making in your life. If they don’t yet know, then this is a perfect opportunity to share your journey. One very important strategy is to offer to bring a dish to the gathering. Pick something that is substantial and that you think the group will like. Usually there will be at least one dish (usually a side dish) that is plant-­‐based that you can add to the dish you have brought. 14 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
Be flexible and realize that your eating may not be perfect in these unusual situations and that your goal is to stay plant-­‐based. If you need to have a snack either before you go or when you get home, no problem — just stay plant-­‐based. Remember that the real purpose of visiting family or friends is to enjoy their company — not so much their food. Strategies for dealing with children or a spouse who does not want to eat plant-­‐based The first thing to remember is that you are making this change for you — to improve your health and lifestyle — not anyone else. That said, you may find yourself in the position where one (or more) of your family members does not want to eat a plant-­‐based diet. Here are two strategies you can use to help encourage them to at least try this way of eating. First, if it is a child and your spouse is on board with plant-­‐based eating, try to choose recipes that you think your child will like (tacos, pastas, rice and beans, burritos, etc.), and most of all, engage your child in the process of shopping and cooking. Getting your child involved this way will get him or her far more vested in the food and will open up new possibilities. And along with this, educate your family with movies like PlantPure Nation, Forks Over Knives, Food Inc. and Supersize Me. Finally, be a positive role model to let them see how much you enjoy eating this way. A second direction that can be taken in this circumstance is to make a plant-­‐based meal and then have an animal protein side dish (i.e., chicken, fish, or beef). That way you can still eat plant-­‐based and your family does not feel threatened. It also gives them the opportunity to taste plant-­‐based food and possibly decide to make the change themselves. What if You Make a Mistake? Our goal is that you stay PlantPure, but we understand there may be times that, for whatever reason, you eat animal products, processed foods, or perhaps overly fatty, sweet or salty foods. In these instances, the most important thing is to forgive yourself. The more quickly you forgive yourself and ensure your next meal is PlantPure, the more likely this moment will only be a small detour in your journey. Another good strategy is to ask yourself how you felt after you ate the unhealthy food. Most likely it did not make you feel very good. Once you realize that the food didn't make you feel very good, it is easier to resist the mistake the next time the situation comes up. 15 PLANTPURE FOR LIFE GUIDE
Final Thoughts Remember you are creating a PlantPure lifestyle that will ultimately add quality years to your life! Be patient and kind to yourself and remember that true change takes time. Eventually, you will look back and be amazed at how good you feel and the progress you have made. Joining a PlantPure Pod will help make this journey so much easier and help keep you on track. Networking with like-­‐minded people within your Pod will give you great ideas on how to continue your journey and will help you make friends who can provide support along the way! 16