I’m so excited! I want to post today about my three friends who are beginning their own 6 week challenge today! And I am doing it with them. And it makes me so happy.

Two of them are doing the 6 week challenge, the third friend is gathering information for a later start-date. All three of them are single, college age women. What nerve! I mean that. When you are single it seems that food is an especially social event, sometimes it feels like 98% of the things you do socially completely revolve around food. I concur that the same could be argued for couples. Eating a nutrient-dense meal plan takes nerve, and you have to ask yourself why you are doing it. You also have to be ready to answer that same question when others ask you, and, you have to be ready to be met with skepticism.

The most frequent comment I heard from others when I began my own 6 week challenge was “I could never do that.” I think that what most people mean when they say that falls into two categories:
1) I could never do that because I don’t really want to do that, I don’t really understand the appeal and I have no interest in that; or
2) I could never do that, even though I understand the appeal of it and I’d really like to know how it would feel to eat such purely nutrient-dense food all of the time, I just think it would be too hard.
The funny thing is that almost everyone I know who has taken the 6 week challenge seriously and has permanently changed their nutritional intake began by saying the phrase, “I could never do that.” Including myself. And guess what? I did it! And I have confidence that my friends will be successful in their 6 week challenge as well.

What is the 6-week plan? Well, I’ve blogged about it before. And I’ll give you the basic rundown below, but you can also check out the index on my right sidebar: “The Plan” and “The Beginning” give some insights to how we approached this.

Using Dr. Fuhrman’s Eat to Live as our guide, the plan is quite simple:

Prioritize Veggies and Fruits:
Eat 1 lb raw veggies per day (lots of salad!)
Eat 1 lb cooked veggies per day
Eat plenty of fruit each day (unlimited)

Also:
Eat at least 1 cup of beans/legumes per day, or more (beans are wonderful and also help regulate blood sugar levels)
Eat whole grains in moderation (mostly whole grain rice, or whole grain pita) but not too many, especially not at the expense of your 1 lb raw and 1 lb cooked veggies
Eat a few nuts
Drink water
Include a good source of Omega 3′s (I put ground flax seed in my green smoothies, and try to remember to take Omega 3 supplements)

Avoid:
Sugar
Salt
Prepared foods (they all have lots of sugar and salt, or crazy ingredients you can pronounce)
Added fats

And that is it! It is important that you approach this challenge with a mental attitude of ABUNDANCE. Think of all the food you are eating! 1 lb raw and 1 lb cook veggies per day, with unlimited fruits, beans, a moderate amount of whole grains–that is a lot of food!

Stay tuned for more…