The Vegan Challenge Begins - Here are some tips.

Dear clients, friends and family,

Today is the official start day of the Vegan challenge - a chance to flush our system and eat really clean and fresh for a whole month.

Here are some guidelines, courtesy of Derrick deLay, one of our trainers and the author of www.VibrantVegan.com, to make vegan/vegetarian month easier for you. Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might benefit from a diet rich in fruits, veggies and whole grains.

1. Focus on being Vegan one day at a time.
2. Plan, Prepare and Pack your food so you don't fall back into old habits
3. Instead of looking at this month as giving up something (like cheese), look at it as an opportunity to try new foods.
4. Do your best to eat whole foods. Fake meats and cheeses and overly processed foods are OK every now and then, but the bulk of your diet should be whole foods. (Note, I didn't follow this guideline. If I was going to have even a remote chance of succeeding at this challenge, I needed some cheese substitutes. So I purchased some Tofu cream cheese, Tofu sour cream, Tofu Shredded Cheese and some soy-based Yogurt. I made Burritos last night with the Tofu shredded cheese and seriously couldn't tell the difference and my kids ate them up like crazy!)

Here's a shopping list to help you.

Grains
Rolled oats
Loaf of bread (Whole-grain)
Brown rice
Quinoa
Whole wheat pasta

Milk - Try Soy, rice, almond, or plant-milk of choice

Beans
Black, Pinto & Garbanzo beans (canned or dried)
Dried green lentils

Fruits
Bananas
Apples
Berries (fresh or frozen)
Raisins

Vegetables
Broccoli (fresh or frozen)
Spinach (fresh or frozen)
Lettuce
Carrots
Cucumbers
Canned tomatoes
Marinara sauce

Did you know that going vegan for this month reduces your impact on the environment as much as taking your car off the road for 1160 miles! That is the equivalent of not driving your car for the entire month!

Last but not least - remember exercise and moving your body has to part of any health and wellness program. I don't care how healthy you eat - if you're not moving your body, you're not as healthy as you could be!

Every night (okay, I won't promise every night), I will blog what I ate for the day to give you ideas. Together, we can do this! It will be interesting to see how our bodies respond.

Yours in health and fitness,

Sherri McMillan

ps. Our 10 week Fat Loss program would be a very nice compliment to this challenge. You can get more details at http://www.nwpersonaltraining.com/subs/events/event_details.php?event_id=105