Maintenance Programs

Now that you've invested in losing weight and cleaning up your body, doesn't it make sense to keep it healthy? Who wants to go back to living in a body that was heavy and felt lousy? Instead, why not use this opportunity to build upon the good habits and feelings you've developed over the past three weeks, using the detox as the catalyst to help you create a healthier, lighter-weight lifestyle? Now that you've completed one detox, it will be easier to do another. I suggest that you engage in one 21-day detox once a year, a 7-day cleanup each calendar season, or a weekend detox each week.

Follow these guidelines to mainatain your health and weight loss:

Eat More:

• Eat a balanced diet containing nutrients from each food group -- protein, fruit, vegetables, grains, healthy fat, vitamins, and minerals.
• Focus on eating natural foods that help you avoid digestive discomforts and maintain your lighter weight.
• Eat as many whole foods in their natural state as possible.
• One-half to three-fourths of your diet should be comprised of living foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, where the enzymes are alive.
• Consume maximum nutritional supplements in small doses; green drinks, antioxidant berry drink, and protein shakes.

Add to Your Diet:

• Nonmeat Protein. Avoid consuming excessive amounts of saturated fat by eating animal products such as chicken and fish, not red meat, no more than two times per week; rice and beans once or twice weekly; and one protein shake three to four times weekly.
• Probiotics. Add good bacteria to the intestinal tract to help the body digest food more effectively, strengthen the immune system, and regulate and maintain health and vitality. One way to do this is by eating yogurt that contains at least 10 billion cultures of probiotics. If you don't like yogurt, take probiotic supplements.
• Fiber. It lowers the risk of diabetes and heart disease and may also aid weight loss and weight management. Eat a wide variety of high-fiber foods -- both soluble and insoluble -- such as whole wheat, wheat germ, nuts, oats, peas, beans, apples, citrus fruits, carrots, barley, and psyllium.
• Essential fatty acid (EFA) liquid or flaxseed oils. These are fats that the body cannot make on its own. Add it to your diet by eating salmon, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and olive oil.

Eat Fewer:

• Foods containing artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics.
• Unnatural sugars like sucrose, fructose, maltodextrine, and sugar substitutes.
• Do not add salt to your food. Eat only foods that contain natural sources of sodium, such as celery and kelp.
• Try getting your calcium from fruit, vegetables, and fish.

Shop Smarter:

• Shop the perimeter of the store, where the fresh foods are sold and there are fewer processed items.
• Avoid the prepared foods department where ingredients like butter, whole milk, trans fats, salt, sugar, and artificial flavors are used to make foods look and smell better.
• Read the labels of any prepared or processed foods you buy, minimizing the number of ingredients whose names you can't pronounce or don't recognize.

Avoid common digestive problems by following these guidelines when combining foods:

• Eat protein with vegetables only. Protein digests easier when you consume it with vegetables.
• Eat starches -- like rice, grains, bread, potatoes, pasta, flour -- with vegetables only. Starches digest easier with vegetables.
• Eat fruit by itself, two hours before or after meals. The enzymes in fruit digest better if you eat them alone, which makes fruit the perfect food to snack on.
• Eat rice and beans together. They form a complete protein that contains all of the essential amino acids. You can substitute this for animal protein.
• Eat omega-3 and omega-6 oils with protein. The body digests protein better when combined with omega oils. Salmon, sardines, and mackarel are high in these oils.
• Eat animal sources of protein no more than three times per week. Eat more protein from vegetable sources, rice, beans, and nuts, which are lighter, and contain good essential fatty acid liquid or flaxseed oils.

For more support, visit the MV Diet Detox Maintenance Group.

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