Last updated on June 30th, 2022 at 09:45 am
New month, new challenge! Start fresh and join the 7-day challenge to lose some weight and feel amazing! This is a one-week healthy meal plan for weight loss with delicious easy meal ideas and a grocery list included. The plan includes healthy recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as some snack options.
Now it’s a thing, it’s a tradition! Here’s to the second month this year I’m making a clean eating challenge and sharing a healthy meal plan.
Losing Weight Without Exercise Or Counting Calories
The challenge this month is to be eating lower carb after 2pm for 7 days. This method has served me very well in the past, whenever I needed to lose a few pounds without counting calories, overthinking and exercising all the time.
It’s a natural way to reduce your caloric intake so that your body can lose fat easier.
Recap On The Last Clean Eating Challenge
The last challenge became very popular very quickly, I guess we’re all on the same page: we know resolutions aren’t over after January and we all need a little bit of a reset and challenge every month.
For me, the first clean eating challenge definitely made me more conscious of what and how much I’m putting into my body. I still didn’t eat extremely healthy, but I felt good about it. I mean, I was invited to some events and birthdays and I can’t say no to a piece of cake because I’m doing a challenge.
The biggest goal for me was to snack less and to really let myself feel hungry before I eat. And I achieved that goal. It involved lots of water, but already by day 2, I felt like I have this snacking under control. I started having 2 real meals that were really healthy and indulged in small desserts here and had one smoothie a day (lately I’m not much of a breakfast eater).
This Challenge & Diet Plan For Weight Loss
For this month’s challenge, we’re going to try something a little different.
We’ll be again eating as healthy as possible, but also trying to eat lower carb after 2 pm. Look, it doesn’t mean keto, but just fewer carbs.
So if you’re vegan, don’t make yourself crazy trying to make this happen, strive to make your meals a little bit lower carb. Maybe instead of 1 cup quinoa, you use 1/2 cup quinoa and add more avocado, vegetables or nuts.
Also if you cheat, cheat. Life happens. Try not to make a big drama about it because that can lead to overeating. If you’re craving something, have it and promise yourself you’ll be okay with it, let go of the guilt. Then do better the next meal.
Why Eating This Way Works For Weight Loss
There are a few theories on why eating fewer carbs in the afternoon might work. One is that we tend to be less active during the evening, so it gets harder to burn off the carbs if you eat them at 8 pm which might lead to water retention and in the end those carbs stored as fat.
To be honest with you, I am not sure this is the truth, I haven’t found any good paper on this, although it does make sense,
As I said, I have seen it work for me 4 years ago, my stomach was flat in the morning which never happened before.
I personally think that when you consciously limit your carbohydrate, fat or overall calorie intake at a certain time of the day, the thing that happens is that you end up eating less OVERALL. And with me, I know I eat a lot of carbs on a regular day. I like my bread, I like my pasta and I would have them all on the same day. If I cut out one of these, I know I’ll end up eating less overall and my body will be able to handle the carbs coming in better.
Why this works might be 1/ preventing insulin spikes and keeping your blood sugar stable, 2/ the water retention, 3/ it could also be our circadian rhythm. Whatever it is, it works. This is simply my observation, experience and
Healthy Meal Plan Grocery List
If you do want to try this clean eating meal plan and challenge, you can get the grocery list here.
After The One Week
If you enjoy this one week challenge and want to keep eating healthy, but would also love to try some more healthy recipes, check out my Clean Eating Recipe Binder!
It’s a digital download with everything you need to start and live a healthy lifestyle – like cooking healthy, tips to stay organized in the kitchen, printables to help you track your habits, to create a meal plan and a fillable recipe card to help you create your own recipe binder. When it comes to keeping a healthy diet, it’s great to have a recipe binder with your favorite healthy recipes and meal ideas that you can just go to whenever you’re feeling in a cooking rut. Stay organized, stay motivated. If you want to check out the clean eating recipe binder, you can do so here. Make sure to use the code NTB20 for 20% off.
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