just got my BR - disappointed with food plan!

stephanj

...not that I am surprised, it's typical Jillian. Very little actual nutritional advice, just a bunch of recipes. Her other books are the same.

I wish she would take more time in her books to teach her clients WHY a certain recipe is good for them , not just "don't eat flax or strawberries", but eat tons of greek yogurt. Why, Jillian, why? (I do know why, because I've done tons of other reading, but for some this could be their first attempt). I think wrapping a weight loss plan around very specific recipes sets you up for failure, because you are not able to think on the fly. I also think the best trainers are teachers. I am a "throw a chicken breast on a salad with some healthy dressing" kind of gal. I don't think it needs to be this complicated!

That being said, a lot of the recipes do look delicious! Does anyone know if you COOK the quinoa first for the quinoa crunch? Anyone tried it? Anyone else tried any of the recipes that are really good?

Well, I will move forward with my usual eating plan, at 1200 calories, which is actually quite similar to the kickstart anyway, I really do want to have faith in this process and give myself over to my personal trainer, illian, totally and completely!

k8es

I am also a little disappointed with the "why". She is such an advocate for a proper diet and it surprises me that she does not explain more. I am just finishing up the Kickstart and with a lack of explanation, I followed the diet rules to a T. I knew it would be restricting but I also figured I could do anything for a week and it turns out both were right In the mean time I've been trying to find the method to Jillian's dietary madness because I don't know if I can sustain her meal plan for the 3 months let alone after that. Somewhere (I can't remember where) I read that it was better outlined in her Master your Metabolism book. Can anyone confirm or deny this? Has anyone found it beneficial to join her website Jillianmichaels.com? or has the info and support on MFP been sufficient?

All of that being said, I love Jillian. I drank the kool-aid about a year ago and own too many of her DVDs and love her from the Biggest Loser. I am very excited about this program and if anyone wants to friend me I say the more the merrier in this adventure!

stephanj

WTG making it through kickstart! I think one thing I can do is try plugging some of her meal plan into fit pal and see what her macronutrient ratios are. I used the oxidizer quiz in her book Making the Cut to figure out I should be eating about 40% protein, so I stick with that as much as possible.

Good luck with it!

Sarahbear83

Her cookbook does have more information in it about nutrition. She goes through lots of ingredients and explains what they do to your body and how they improve overall function.

As far as her website is concerned, if you're going to do the recipes/meal plan then it's worth it for the grocery shopping lists. It's basically log your calories, food, exercises etc and there are forums and achievements where you chart your progress. Most of it is available on sites like this that are free. But you do get a meal plan and grocery lists that are customized based on what you have in the pantry and fridge (you can uncheck items you have already).

aprrae

I was also disappointed. All those DVDs and she couldn't include one DVD where she discusses her eating guidelines. I don't particularly like all the recipes in the main food plan, so I have been creating new ones that fit her NEVER foods list and her basic calories structure.

My take is that I have to improve my eating by choosing REAL foods and control my portion size. Following this has worked so far. Though I guess I won't know if Jillian's actual suggested meals would have improved my weight loss.

TyFit08

I still don't understand why we must avoid strawberries and flax seed, but oh well I will give it a try. I bought BR a few weeks ago but delayed it until I have time to devote to kickstart. I am starting Monday Morning. I am disappointed by the meal plan. I am a picky eater and this doesn't really leave much flexibility. There's lots of nuts and meat. I did the math, it looks like it is 20% carbs, 45% protein, 35% fat (mostly healthy fats) I am going to try to follow that and see if the lbs drop

chm2616

I have made the following recipies:
BF:Steel Cut oats w/apples, Oatmeal Choc Chip Muffins (thought I swapped out the chips for blueberries!), pancakes
L: stuffed peppers, pesto chicken & pasta, roasted veggies, tom/avo/spinach w/tortillas I add chicken breast to the first three for a more filling lunch.

Many of the recipies and I just rolled my eyes at (the squid one...?! LOL). For breakfast I will also have some Kashi Go Lean, protein shake or eggs w/toast. Most of my dinner meals are reasonably healthy and almost all of them are homemade recipies. As you said there are plenty of meat recipies. I just tweak them to my liking. I always make sure to have a cup of veggies and healthy grains with them (quinoa, barley, bulgar). We still have pizza! I make my own whole wheat crust and sauce

As for snacks, I always have an apple, banana and her recommendation for the yogurt (though I can't eat it all at once! I have 1/2 at work and the 1/2 after I workout when I get home). I also will add other snacks in (i.e. a pack of snackwells, string cheese, homemade mostly healthy brownie--made with quinoa!) if I am hungry/need to have a few more calories. I was noticing that I was going slightly overboard with the working out and not eating enough of my calories back, so I am adding a few more snacks in here and there.

I don't think you cook the quinoa. I think it's toasted dry in a pan. If you cook it, it won't be crunchy at all (unless you burn it! LOL)

Making the above dishes has really helped me to eat a better and more balance breakfast and lunch. My snacks and dinners have always been pretty well rounded. And I don't avoid strawberries or flax seed LOL They are HEALTHY!!! In one recipe it says to use ground flax---HUH?!?! lol Anyways, I still eat things I like and have learned to eat better. I still will treat myself and not feel guilty. I am getting into great shape and still losing inches (more so that lbs and that's ok with me!)!

twinmomtwice4

The quinoa crunch is one of my favorite recipes! You don't need to cook the quinoa first. It gets toasted along with the other ingredients in the oven.

For the record, I have a thyroid condition and still ate strawberries from time to time and it didn't seem to affect my weight loss.

k8es

Thanks for all of the insight and advice. That whole strawberry thing was confusing and I too wondered about that little flax seed contradiction. After hearing from some of you I am going to take a cue from Jillian and eat cleaner, be more accountable for my calories, while just being more mindful of what I am putting in my body. I am going to try some of her recipes even if I don't strictly stick to Jillian's meal plan. This morning I made the steal-cut oats and I don't know if it was due to a lack of carbs in the kickstart, but those were the best oats ever! I am going to be adventurous and try the calamari tonight so if no one hears from me later we'll all know that one didn't turn out well

Definitely looking forward to trying the yogurt quinoa concoction tomorrow and now I know not to cook it first

gerbies

Here are my thoughts:

If you are eating cookies now and decide to have strawberries instead, you're going to lose weight and feel better. I would imagine these stories are for individuals who already have a thyroid issue AND eat an abundance of strawberries. I do not think this is for the average person who might eat a cup of strawberries a day when they are in season.

WTJS

My 2 cents...
I think her meal plan, in general, is geared toward people who do not eat clean and perhaps, have no concept of what clean-eating is. If you are used to a society (ours) that tells you that you should be eating and drinking processed "diet" foods, then having the meal plan laid out for you will be a revelation. I too think that the ball was dropped on JM's part by not giving a "why" for her meal plan, especially since one of her lines in phase one is "If you have a WHY you can tolerate any HOW." If she had a why for her meal plan, then I believe more of us would be following her meal plan exactly.

As for myself, I have been eating clean, about 85% of the time, since about 2004. At the time I didn't know what my way of eating was called. I just had access to an awesome fresh food farmers market and got interested in cooking at the same time. Over time I learned about what my style of eating was called and did research and watched documentaries that further supported that how I was choosing to eat was the right way for me. I had eaten that way until 2011 when two things happened: my mom passed away and I got a new job that left me with little time to cook. As a result, I ate like crap, ate larger portions of everything, including healthy food , exercised less and gained about 30 lbs.

Long story short, I do not follow her meal plan to a T, but I don't feel that I need to. I believe that healthy, clean eating will get me back to my goal weight, no matter what exact foods I eat. It's my lifestyle and it kept me at a healthy weight for 7+ years. I gained weight because I ate too much and exercised too little. Not because I ate strawberries, peanuts, raw broccoli and peaches!

That said, I have made and enjoyed a few of her recipes, though I have modified some of them since I just can't leave well enough alone. I think I have some circuit in my brain that just won't allow me to follow a recipe without changing something!

WTJS

Almost forgot to mention the recipes I think are really good!

Breakfast: Pumpkin cranberry muffins(I used Craisins), Blueberry banana muffins, multi-grain pancakes with raspberries(I used Bob's Red Mill Multi-grain Buttermilk mix for the whole wheat flour, omitted the baking soda/powder and used spelt flour for the buckwheat since that is what I had on hand). All the recipes froze well, which is super important for me since I refuse to spend time on breakfast in the morning.

Lunch: Chicken salad with grapes (my favorite! I used almonds instead of pecans. The recipe is for more than 2, btw), roasted chicken w/whole wheat pasta and spinach pesto.

Dinner: Cucumber and yogurt salad( Best if you use less yogurt and thinly slice the cucumbers, don't shred! I thought it was too wet shredded), lemon chicken, Mediterranean lamb burgers(I added Greek seasoning),

k8es

As for snacks, I always have an apple, banana and her recommendation for the yogurt (though I can't eat it all at once! I have 1/2 at work and the 1/2 after I workout when I get home). I also will add other snacks in (i.e. a pack of snackwells, string cheese, homemade mostly healthy brownie--made with quinoa!) if I am hungry/need to have a few more calories.

About that mostly healthy brownie ... any chance you wouldn't mind sharing that recipe???

For those that have made the Quinoa Crunch that goes in the yogurt, do you use whole flax seeds or ground? I ground mine this morning but wasn't sure if it made a difference.

Grissay

I agree! She doesn't explain why in Body Revolution but she does explain in her books Master Your Metabolism.. I guess she just assumes we're all big fans of hers haha

I'm following the meal plan day by day. I love the food, the variety and that we can freeze the extra servings.

chm2616

As for snacks, I always have an apple, banana and her recommendation for the yogurt (though I can't eat it all at once! I have 1/2 at work and the 1/2 after I workout when I get home). I also will add other snacks in (i.e. a pack of snackwells, string cheese, homemade mostly healthy brownie--made with quinoa!) if I am hungry/need to have a few more calories.

About that mostly healthy brownie ... any chance you wouldn't mind sharing that recipe???

For those that have made the Quinoa Crunch that goes in the yogurt, do you use whole flax seeds or ground? I ground mine this morning but wasn't sure if it made a difference.

LOL Sure!

http://www.presidentschoice.ca/LCLOnline/recipes.jsp?type=details&recipeId=lclor42016
* After cooking the quinoa, drain off most of the water.
* Instead of oil, I used applesauce!
* I used whatever milk (usually almond or coconut milk) I had on hand.
* Don't dust with powdered sugar! The brownies are so moist that they suck in all of the dusting!!!

I was REALLY shocked the first time I made them. Especially since they're made with quinoa! The second time I made them with the applesauce and they STILL tasted awesome!! My husband loves them too!

ENJOY!!
Erin :bigsmile:

TyFit08

Trying to stick to JM's diet, had greek yogurt and almonds. I am trying to make myself like nuts, but I really hate nuts

k8es

Thanks for the recipe CHM2616, can't wait to try it!

I hear what you are saying about the nuts mrsmalcolm, that is how I felt/feel about fish and more specifically, salmon.

aghart18

I was really discouraged by the food plan too, because most of the recipes just did not appeal to me in the slightest. And I'm not one who can just suffer through something for a week because I know that in the end, I'll just get bored and binge on all the foods I love that are not good at all for me. A couple weeks ago, I bought Bob Harper's book The Skinny Rules and found that the recipes that he has are more appealing to me. I don't know how many of you have read his book, but he also has a meal plan that is one month long... I've found that I'm not too impressed with that part of it, but I do feel like between doing Jillian's Body Revolution and loosely following Bob's Skinny Rules that I can actually start eating better and being more active.

TyFit08

Thanks for the recipe CHM2616, can't wait to try it!

I hear what you are saying about the nuts mrsmalcolm, that is how I felt/feel about fish and more specifically, salmon.

I don't mind cooked salmon, but she has smoked salmon on there. I bought it, but the idea of eating it makes me want to gag. And after breaking out after eating almonds with my greek yogurt, I think I will not be eating anymore almonds

natvanessa

I really bought this program for her workouts. I like to have a program to follow that gets more challenging every week.
I was open to following the meal plan as well but all the recipes just have way too many ingredients and are not simple enough for my busy lifestyle.

I've been eating clean and doing her workouts for the past 3 months and I got nice results! As one poster mentioned I think it's more meant for people who eat a lot of processed food and don't have much in the way of basic healthy eating experience??