Plan Ahead

Plan at least one week's meals (and snacks) in advance so you know what and when you are going to shop.  There is nothing worse than coming home tired and hungry and not knowing what you are supposed to eat Getting serious about doing a "clean" P1, or even P2. Make a list. Make a schedule. Make a plan. Even if you don't follow it exactly, you'll be more likely to stick within the guidelines than if you just say you're going to "be good."  Wash out flax oil bottles well, make up large batches of dressing and save 3-4 servings in each bottle, to  freeze to take out when needed.  Always, or at least whenever you can, cook enough for leftovers. This includes protein and vegetables. Once you get a rhythm going, you'll almost always have a quick meal in the refrigerator or freezer. Wash, chop and freeze dill, parsley, onion, celery, bell pepper, green onion, garlic, ginger (great for smoothies, stir fries, etc.), etc. Then when you need them for a recipe, just take what you need.  If you like the breakfast pancake, made with whey, fruit and egg, make a few at a time for those hurry-up mornings.  Buy apple cider vinegar by the gallon to save money, but I decant it into a quart bottle that is handier.  Make and print out a daily checklist. Check mark it as you finish your morning LLC, take your supplements, have your lemon juice, take your walk. It will remind you what needs to be done as well as provide a record of what you did.  If you've only used a little bit of low-salt broth, pour the rest into ice cube trays, label (beef, chicken, veggie), and freeze so you'll be able to pop out a cube or two when you need to sauté.    For your hot lemon drink, squeeze your lemons at the beginning of the week and freeze in an ice cube tray, labeled “Lemon.”  Pop a cube and some water into the microwave. Rushed for time in the a.m.?  Individually pre-package your smoothie ingredients for a week and store them in the freezer. Then just add some water and ice and whir away. If you use metric measurements, make sure you do conversions from standard to metric correctly.  (One Canadian FF’er wound up buying twice as much cabbage as needed.)  Use the "find messages about" function above when you have a question about a topic (or want a recipe) that you think may have been asked before.     Organic beef or another FF friendly meat on sale? Buy up a bunch, cook it and freeze for quick meal starters. Fill a large veggie steamer with several kinds of Phase 1 veggies, steam and store in refrigerator.  For the next 4 or 5 days, pick out the ones you feel in the mood for. Also great to nibble.  Instead of taking your FF Journal and Shopping Guide to the store, copy pages you’ll need for each phase to be sure your selections are on target. Make yourself a FF cookbook, and keep it somewhere in the kitchen where you can see it and read it when you're looking for ideas you know you'll like. Add only recipes you’ve tried and loved. If your dial-up connection takes ages to load every change of page, open Internet Explorer with the Fat Flush Message board, then open a second window and load it with the Fat Flush Forum. You can then look at one board while the other is loading.

Preparation and Kitchen Hints

With all the washing, cleaning, chopping of veggies we have to do, get your kids or grandkids to help. Even little ones can tear the lettuce for the salad. Older ones can do a lot more. I started mine off with plastic knives & softer veggies when they were little in the hopes that they would want to eat the veggies they were chopping. It worked! Of course, you should always supervise.  Rearrange your spices so the FF spices and herbs are the easiest to reach. Even better if you put them somewhere in sight to peruse when you cook to invent new combos and flavors.  Keep a dark container from Barlean’s Forti-Flax to store your home-ground flaxseed, toasted and processed a pound at a time. Keep refrigerated.  Save time by using frozen vegetables. Prepare the whole package and save the rest for soups, omelets, salads, side dishes. Food warm or cold with some FF dressing, or vinegar, lemon and garlic.  Mix garlic and onion powder together and store in a small shaker bottle with snap-on top.  Also mix meat-rub spices and put in another shaker bottle for quick use on chicken, turkey, etc., before grilling. Also good for FF curry powder.  I converted an old pair of salt and pepper shakers into cinnamon and ginger shakers... easy enough to grab and sprinkle on apples and into teaspoons.  Inexpensive kitchen gadgets, such as a lemon reamer, can make FF'ing easier. A bit more expensive, my mini-food processor gets used almost daily for chopping large quantities of garlic and ginger and for making FF mayonnaise. Though you may need a blender to make the fruit smoothies, because it takes the blades to break up the fruit. However, protein shakes can be made with an old-fashioned malt maker! These put alot of air into the shake, so the volume goes way up. If you use a lot of a particular FF spice, consider buying it in bulk from your health food store (assuming you trust the freshness of their products.) The savings may be major.  Your spices will add even more flavor it you grind them yourself. Use the same coffee grinder you have for your flaxseed. Just wipe it out gently and don't worry about a little flavor getting into your flaxseeds. It's an added bonus!  Consider getting a George Foreman Grill (the simpler, the better) and/or a hand blender. FF’ers are big fans of these appliances.  Put leftover broth into one a squeezable container with a spout for quick access when “frying” or to pour into ice cube trays.  Wash an old soy sauce or teriyaki sauce bottle with a plastic top that stops it from pouring out so you can drizzle it.  Freeze extra lemons whole.  Later, when needed, the peel of frozen lemons grates easily. If you need juice, poke a small hole in the frozen lemon, microwave it on low for a few seconds, and then squeeeeeeze. To keep fresh parsley, and cilantro, fresh in the refrigerator longer, cut off an inch at the bottom of the stems and place in a tall glass of water.  Cover with a plastic bag, and store.  It should stay fresh up to 2 weeks, or longer. If your flax crackers stick to the pan and you turn them into flax crumbs trying to remove them, save them to use as flavored garnish (on salads, over your eggs, etc.). Make crumbs from the “heels” of your bread and freeze for future use.

Play with Your Food

Each time you go the supermarket for produce, try to make yourself purchase at least one vegetable you've never tried, or at least haven't eaten for long time.   For FF wraps, replace the pitas or tortillas with romaine lettuce or steamed cabbage ... or find your own favorite leafy vegetable  Don't be afraid to spice up that a.m. smoothie. A big chunk of fresh ginger (about a square inch) will give it a bit of zing and help your metabolism. There's also cinnamon, coriander, cloves, anise, turmeric. Any FF spice/herb is fair game! Put the juice of half a lemon in a smoothie as well as whatever other fruit you fancy to cut the whey, make it less "slicky" in the throat, and improve the flavor. Want to save your fruit for snacks but still want a smoothie? Make one with Teeccino (even better if half of it is frozen) or rhubarb (it counts as a vegetable and you can have half a cup day on all phases.) Or try CL-hoppole's citrus smoothie. http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-fbfatflush/?msg=20860.2  Go back and trying a FF food that didn't appeal to you at first. You may find your tastes have changed and now it tastes fabulous.  Make meals more appealing by digging out your prettiest plates and nicest crystal. Amazing how tasty that cranberry juice becomes served in stemware.  If you don't have a set of either, go and buy a single plate and goblet just for you to use. Buy yourself a fancy or whimsical  'egg cup' and make yourself a 4 or 7 minute egg for breakfast. Just a little leftover soup? Drain off the broth and freeze it and use the solid stuff in your morning eggs.  Zip up a soup with a little lemon juice squeezed in before serving. For a crunchy, almost sweet snack, discover jicama, which looks like a turnip in a potato skin. Slice it, put in a container and add the juice of a couple limes. Maybe a bit of cayenne if you like it. Store in the refrigerator and shake occasionally. (It’s pronounced "hickama", in case you need to ask for it at the grocers.) To add extra flavor to your FF meals look beyond your FF herbs and spices. There are some real flavor enhancers hidden in the vegetable list: onions, garlic, (of course) daikon (white radish), parsely, chives, green and red (and yellow and orange) peppers, mushrooms, olives, radishes. And while they're not listed, shallots are close enough to onions and garlic to be OK When you add salt back into your plan (not P1, please), get some of the "good stuff." Maybe even a salt grinder and some of that fancy crystallized sea salt. Or Sea Salt mixed with herbs. It not only tastes "saltier," but if it's expensive you may be more parsimonious in its use. Bored? Sometimes even the tiniest change can perk up regular lunch or other meals. For example, add some fresh (P2) herbs to salad and use lemon instead of vinegar. A whole new taste. Craving for nuts? Chew on a teaspoon of ground toasted flaxseed, followed by plenty of cran-water. (Caution, do not do this shortly before a visit to the dentist)

Flax Oil Issues

To get down a serving of flax oil, defrost 2-3 frozen strawberries in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds then mash with a fork. Add 1 tablespoon of flaxseed oil and a packet (or less) of Stevia Plus and blend together. Spread on a piece of FF-legal toast (P2). Pour a tablespoon of flaxseed oil onto ground turkey patties, fixed on the grill (when done cooking), Let it soak in for about a minute. Use your lemon water as a "chaser." Squeeze the flaxseed oil out of the bottle into the tablespoon and grab the lemon water with your other hand hand. Try to keep the oil from touching your tongue then you can "chase" it with the water. Make deviled eggs or egg salad using the recipe of p. 157 of the main book. You can even add more flax oil than the recipe calls for. To be sure you’re getting all the lignans out of the bottom of the flax oil bottle, store it upside down in your fridge door. (Careful of leaks.) Flax oil on sale? You can freeze the unopened bottles to keep them fresh until you need them. Carefully pour liquid for your smoothie into a container of flaxseed oil, give it a gentle shake and pour it into the blender to get the absolute last bit of oil.. To avoid stains on countertops when you take the flax oil out of the refrigerator, put it in the sink.  To avoid stains, wrap the bottom of the flax oil bottle w/paper towel & aluminum foil. Do the same for the cruet with my ff dressing.  To avoid flax dribbles, put a salad plate in the back of the fridge, large enough to hold the flax oil bottle and the flax dressing cruet.

Cranberry Kisses

To avoid stains when making cranberry juice from fresh berries, or mixing it with water in my quart sports bottles, I put a wash cloth on the counter to protect.  For Canadians--8 oz of cran-water plus 56 oz of water equals approximately 2 liters. Pour 8 oz of cranberry juice into a two-liter jug and fill the rest up with purified water.  When making your own cranberry juice from fresh berries, get the most out of a bag. Wash berries and put in blender with about 2 cups of water. Blend the heck out them. Then add two more cups of filtered water and simmer for the 20 minutes. When you strain out the juice, it should be a bit darker and you should have only about half a cup or less of pulp. Add a little more water to bring the results to a quart.  Don't throw the cranberry pulp away. Add a packet of stevia and eat warm or keep in refrigerator for a treat later.   Find a bottle that's a liter and a half. Drink your 8 oz. of cran-water in the morning and fill the bottle, leaving 8 oz. for your p.m. LLC. It’s a handy way to carry and keep track of your daily cran-water Missing hot tea? Heat cran-water and added cinnamon and a bit of stevia. (Use sparingly as added ingredients change PH of cran-water.)

Health & Beauty

If you eat meals away from home, use an old Altoid tin to carry your day’s supply of supplements.  A handout on stevia from a health food store suggests gargling with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon stevia and warm/hot water for a sore throat. (It has worked.)  Chewing a coffee bean has been suggested as an antidote for garlic breath. Take a hint from Indian restaurants. Have a small bowl of fragrant FF seeds and spices on the table/counter to freshen your mouth ... fennel, coriander, cloves, cinnamon stick pieces are all OK. Use ginger works instead of Dramamine for fighting motion sickness, with no side effects.  Having trouble waking up in the morning, (after you're out of bed, of course) try eating an apple.  Been proven to be more efficient than caffeine, and healthier.

Away from Home

Keep nine 1000 mg flax oil capsules (9 1000 mg. flax oil capsules = 1 TB flax oil) in a tightly sealed container with you so you'll be able to make an emergency salad dressing. Carefully prick the capsules with the tine of a fork (hold away from you) and squeeze over salad. Ask server for extra lemon wedges.   Carry individual packets of Stevia Plus AND FiPro Flax in your purse. The latter is great sprinkled over salads, soup, eggs, etc. At Burger King, buy a "side salad" and throw the meat from a plain hamburger on top.  Have 4-ounce servings of protein (such as salmon patties or turkey brochettes) in your freezer. When you leave the house grab a serving of protein and put into a thermos cooler carrier with a boiled egg, steamed veggies and a fruit. In a restaurant, make sure what's going to be in that "garden salad."  Since when does cheese grow in a garden?"   Carry your FF salad dressing in jigger-size Tupperware containers. You can even freeze them so they’re easy to grab as you go out the door. Be sure to carry them in tightly sealed plastic bags.

Inspiration

Start saving now for your new wardrobe. It will come as quite a shock otherwise, and you will end up with nothing to wear! If you spot something in a sale, or in a charity shop, in the size you are aiming for ...get it and put it by.  Ideally, we shouldn't eat while sitting at the computer or watching television.  Savor each and every bite and appreciate the taste and texture of the food.    When you have “terrible craving,” ask someone dear to you to drop everything and give you a hug, and maybe rub your back while there.   When all else fails and you just feel like crying into your cran-water, find an old Lucy re-run (or drop in a Marx Brothers DVD) and laugh until your sides hurt.  For motivation when really hungry, put on a nice pair of slacks or a dress from your closet that is not too-tight, just tight enough not to wear in public, to remind yourself you can do this.  Need a reward for reaching a "small “goal. How about that kitchen gadget you've coveted but felt you didn't really need. (julienne cutter, lemon squeezer, mushroom brush). Use visualization as means to keep your focus on your goal. Find a mediation that works or use your computer to put your head on a body with the shape you want (be realistic!). Review your FFP book on a regular basis, because you’re likely to learn something new every time you go through it. Take time to enjoy your meal. Sit at the table and share conversation with your family. Take half an hour to eat an orange. Make a meditation out of it. Examine it slowly, look, smell, "go into" the orange. Start to peel it, again look, smell, feel the orange. Carry on peeling and eating the orange with total awareness. Examine the pits, realizing there's an entire tree in that little seed.  It's a way to relax, and make a meal out of a snack. Oranges are especially good for this because of their intensity, but it can be done without other foods, esp. fruits and vegetables