You know what I'm doing? I started BR with one week shred instead of the kickstart and the meal plan has some great recipes. Download it, it's free.

http://www.gaiamtv.com/sites/default/files/OneWeekShred_MealPlan.pdf

I'm combining it with some recipes from the BR Meal Plan. There are lots of meal plans from Jillian free to download (30 day shred, ripped in 30...) and I find that the recipes are easier to cook and with less ingredients. And tasty!

To be honest I'm not following her meal plan although I plan to use some of her recipes because they look great. The first week of the programme she suggests an extremely low calorie set up which seems way too low for anyone who isn't 90 pounds and 4'11". Sometimes her 'GO DOWN A JEANS SIZE IN A WEEK!!!!' marketing strategy seems to get in the way of good balanced judgement, LOL.

The rest of the plan consists of (roughly) a 250 cal breakfast, a 400 calorie lunch a 150 calorie snack and a 400 calorie dinner, for a whopping grand total of 1200 calories per day. This is probably too low for most. She offers 10 breakfasts, 15 lunches, 10 snacks and 15 dinners and you can swap and switch between these, within each meal group (ie, substitute one lunch for another but not one lunch for a snack). 400 mg a day limit on caffeine, which equals roughly two cups of strong coffee.

She strongly suggests avoiding soy, peanuts, raw cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, kale etc), booze, peaches and strawberries). The reason for avoiding the above is because of the impact these foods can have on the thyroid, which interferes with fat metabolism among other unpleasant things. Background: while JM was putting this programme together she was battling PCOS, which messed up her thyroid, and so she recommends that others stay on the safe side by avoiding foods that trigger these problems. Might be worth following this advice if thyroid issues run in your family, but other research suggests that a handful or two of kale in a green smoothie every now and then isn't going to cause any health problems.

Also avoid MSG, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, artificial colours, artificial flavours, nitrates, no heavily processed chemical food.

Good stuff:

organic dairy, low fat or fat free such as milk, nonfat yogurt, low fat cheese

lots of zinc, selenium and iodine-rich foods to boost your thyroid such as low fat yogurt, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds (I'm listing the vegetarian options there).

vitamin C to inhibit cortisol. fruits and veggies

lean proteins

vitamin b foods - avocados, legumes/beans, oats

green tea is good too.

Overall she advocates good quality, whole foods and organic where possible, with a lean protein balanced with carbs such as brown rice and lots and lots of fruits and veggies and healthy fats, ideally from seafood sources or avocados and the like. Her recipes aren't particularly low carb per se, but they tend to be low in fat and high in protein and quite low calorie overall.

Personally, I wouldn't stay on 1200 calories per day for 12 weeks solid, but at least the meal plans include some interesting recipes and a little bit of context for the rationale why some foods are included and others are excluded. I'm sticking with my own calorie and macro counts during the programme, as I did when I finished the 30 Day Shred. I had fantastic results with The Shred while eating back exercise calories and that's why I'm doing this programme now....

Hope this helps.