Plan-D is designed to enable your body to function at its optimal level.  Following it provides ways for you to participate in the care of your own health.  The underlying themes of Plan-D are nourishment, mindfulness, awareness, and taking nutritional responsibility.  It is not a quick-fix food program.  There are no pre-packaged meals to buy, no powdered drinks or energy bars to replace real meals, no weigh-ins (although you are encouraged to weigh yourself), and no counting calories.  You will learn how to eat for long-term health.  The focus is on nutrient density, variety, taste, and enjoyment, not calories, fat grams or glycemic index.  In fact, you may to need to re-wire your brain and let go of the diet mentality as I did in order to clear some space for new concepts and scientific truths about food, fat, and healing.

If you do not need to lose weight, but are interested in improving your health through nutrition, you are in for a treat.  You will learn how to feed yourself and your family with high-quality nutritious food while building an arsenal of nutritional knowledge that will sustain you for the rest of your life.

Plan-D sets you on a path of lifelong learning about nutrition, the healing effects of whole foods, and a spiritual approach to food and to life.  You will choose among a wide variety of healthy foods and eat them in proper portions to achieve proper body chemistry.  Proper body chemistry is essential for maintaining weight, for assimilating nutrients, eliminating waste, and warding off disease.  Daily exercise is moderate and designed to assist in balancing your body chemistry. You will better understand food and appreciate it as an instrument of personal healing. Nourishing yourself according to the principles of Plan-D becomes a wise, mature, and loving act of awareness cultivated through a one day at a time approach.

Processed-Free Living

Processed-Free Livingg is the nomenclature we have coined to describe the philosophy of Plan-D. Others have described it as holistic nutrition or clean eating.  The nutshell of processed-free living is this:  Eat foods in their closest to natural form as possible, avoid processed and refined foods, artificial sweeteners, and chemical preservatives, and you will reap the benefits of a healthy and happy body.

When I say closest to natural form as possible, I mean eating a piece of fruit instead of a fruit roll-up, or a baked potato instead of French fries.  It also means staying away from the junk that typically makes up the Standard American Diet (S.A.D). 

A person who eats processed-free generally adopts the following practices:

• Eliminates white sugar and white flour
• Eliminates artificial sweeteners
• Eliminates trans-fats and foods fried in unhealthy oils
• Eats a variety of whole grains
• Minimizes consumption of dairy products, with the exception of a daily serving of yogurt
• Minimizes exposure to pesticides
• Always eats breakfast and never skips meals
• Reads food ingredient lists and avoids as many chemical additives as possible
• Eats an abundance of vegetables and fruits
• Incorporates legumes, nuts, and seeds into their daily meals and snacks
• Cooks healthy meals
• Packs healthy meals and snacks
• Makes healthy choices when dining out
• Drinks an adequate amount of water
• Eliminates alcoholic beverages (or significantly limits it)
• Stays within healthy portion guidelines, but does not obsess about calories
• Has a healthy relationship with food and approaches it with reverence
• Surrounds themselves with a social community supportive to healthy eating