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SETTING UP YOUR SUGAR IMPACT KITCHEN
Let’s get your kitchen into tip-top shape so you’re ready to whip up all of the spectacular low- and medium-SI recipes to come.
Your kitchen brings your commitment and foundation to life. You’ll stock it with all the right foods and tools; it’s the place your success starts to take shape. A clear kitchen is about a clear mind—making sure you’re faced with only good choices and the weight loss and health-supporting foods you need. Fast fat loss, higher energy, better health, and joie de vivre are the real dishes made in your kitchen.
So first things first. To make room for the good, you have to clear out the bad. It’s like any good spring cleaning: you want your bright, shiny, fat-loss foods to take center stage and the stealth saboteurs to hit the highway. Trash those triggers! It’s not that I don’t trust you but… I don’t trust you. That’s only because it’s impossible to believe you’ll win a game of willpower against cravings and addiction. I don’t even trust myself! I would never want either of us in a position to be tempted by something that could unravel all our hard work. Get the enemy out of the house.
TIME TO TOSS
Tossing is so liberating. It’s like a seesaw in your kitchen. The swing from unhealthy and toxic food to fat burning and healthy food feels like you’re being lifted up before you’ve tasted a thing. Your mouth will be watering to get started as you’re stocking the shelves.
Start with the boxes and bags—pitch anything with a long list of unrecognizable ingredients. What you’re really doing is denying yourself access to anything that will tempt you and wreck your progress. Don’t even have the battle with yourself. If it’s not in the house, you’d have to work pretty hard to get it, and my hope is you’ll think twice before you do. Besides, you’ll be stocked up with lots of terrific swaps with great taste but half or less of the SI. You’ll satisfy your craving and not punish your waistline or health in the bargain. Here’s a short list to get you started based on what most people have in their kitchen.
Toss It!
Juice
Dried fruit
Bisquick
Bread
Sodas—regular or diet
Splenda or Nutrasweet
Corn-fed meat
Trail mix (you know, the kind with peanuts and chocolate)
Fruit-sweetened yogurt
Crackers
Chips
Pasta
Baked beans
Vegetable oils
Ranch, blue cheese, French dressings
Milk, soy milk, nondairy creamers
Mayonnaise
Cereals
Snack bars (those candy bars in disguise)
Frozen “light” dinners
Agave, honey, maple syrup
As you sweep the shelves, here are some other things that should get tossed: any foods containing artificial sweeteners and colorings, gluten, nonfat dairy, high-fructose corn syrup, and/or partially hydrogenated oils. Also, clear out frozen treats, baked goods, deep-fried foods, candy, soy-based products, and anything that came from a fast-food restaurant.
When in doubt, throw it out. It’s going to feel great, I promise! Almost like you’re pitching the pounds themselves. Don’t let that devil on your shoulder get a foothold! No matter how hard you try to spin it, “fat-free” does not magically make anything a health food. Artificial sweeteners don’t give “sweet” a halo. Stay strong!
SHORT AND SWEET LABELS
Have you noticed that you don’t see many foods on the high-SI lists that can hit the grocery store without a label? Eating as close to nature as possible means you’ll be eating as far from processed as it gets, and the more processed a food, the higher its SI usually is. So steering clear of foods with eye charts for labels is a simple rule of thumb to keep your SI low.
Buy organic whenever you can, but you don’t always have to buy organic. The nutritional benefit of eating non-organic fruits and veggies outweighs any pesticide risk, and is always better than eating none at all.
There’s a cheat sheet that can help you make good choices whether you’re on a budget or you just want to be more informed—it’s the Environmental Working Group’s list of both the “Dirty Dozen Plus” (fruits and veggies dosed with the most pesticides) and the Clean Fifteen (just the opposite). Find it here: www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php. But watch out: even organic fruit can carry dirt and germs, or “pesticide drift” from nearby farms, so always wash any produce before you eat it.
Of course, you also need to be on the lookout for GMOs (genetically modified organisms). A GMO is a plant or animal that’s been genetically altered to increase its yield or prolong its shelf life. That’s done by inserting bacteria, viruses, or other plant and animal genes into the DNA of the organism. There are serious health risks associated with genetically modified food, according to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine. Need to know more? Check out www.responsibletechnology.org. You’ll find a complete list of foods packing GMOs and a downloadable non-GMO shopping list. You can also look for foods with the certification of the nonprofit organization Non-GMO Project, which gives its approval to brands it determines are GMO free.
STOCKING YOUR SUGAR IMPACT KITCHEN
You may be surprised to learn that stocking your fridge and shelves to the gills with lean protein, healthy fats, slow, low carbs, vegetables, and some fruit doesn’t mean you’ll be living in a grocery store. Well, unless it’s Whole Foods. Whole Foods deserves a moment of wild applause, especially for its 365 brand. If you’re lucky enough to have a Whole Foods nearby, you may already know that 365 is GMO free and natural, but priced to compete.
If there’s not a Whole Foods within a day’s drive of you, that doesn’t mean you have to throw in the towel. People who value eating clean and close to nature want to talk about it, whether it’s to expand their horizons or yours. So outside of the grocery stores, get online to find your peeps. Join Facebook groups or follow blogs that give you the support you need. Or find a food collective or CSA (community-supported agriculture) in your area so you can support farms directly. And farmers’ markets are always—without fail—an amazing source of great, fresh food and fabulous people. You’d be surprised by what you can learn about your food, all while making friends to enjoy it with. You can also always call on the farmers themselves. They’ll appreciate the visit, and connecting personally to your food will make you feel that much better about it.
Also, whenever and wherever possible, buy local and in season. We used to do this naturally—it’s all we had to choose from!—but now you have to really pay attention to whether that avocado should be in that bin or not. It’s worth it, though—food tastes so much better and is more nutritious if it hasn’t traveled the globe to get to you. Think about the juicy berries of springtime and the tart, crunchy apples of fall, or the tomatoes popping off your vines in the summer. Well-traveled food is usually packing preservatives for the trip, is wrapped in plastic, and has a higher energy cost than local food. Besides, as soon as fruits and vegetables are harvested, they get more sugary and their nutrients decay. It’s why you should also buy your produce whole or as close to it as possible, not cut up—taste and nourishment! I can’t think of any better reasons to eat food! To learn more about sourcing seasonal foods, you can visit www.cuesa.org/eat-seasonally/charts/vegetables.
And what about the animals you eat? The benefits of supporting local farms can be huge, for you and for the animals. Farmers who supply their neighborhood supermarkets and butchers depend on those relationships (and your happiness). They tend to the health and meat quality of their animals in ways that factory farmers never will. Patronize those hardworking people who feed us so well!
SHOP ’TIL YOU DROP
Let the fun begin! Shopping can be a blast, especially when you feel so great about every little thing you drop in your cart. When you look at a food and just know that it’s the medicine you’ve been searching for, you can’t help but get excited. You’re going to want to start digging in before you even check out! Try to hold out and just enjoy the good feeling you get shopping for low-SI food. Imagine your pantry, fridge, and freezer bursting with food that will keep your metabolism revved and burning fat. Foods that do this will be your only choices!
Before you go, make a list to take with you. Do not skip this step! It’s mission critical that you give thought to what you’re going to buy before you get there and that you stick to your list. I’m only looking out for your best interests—you know the tractor beam–like pull of the end caps in those supermarkets! Once you make eye contact with those bags of popcorn, it can be hard to look away. Check out the Staples Shopping List below, or download a copy to take to the store with you from http://sugarimpact.com/resources.
KITCHEN TOOLS
You may already be master of your domain. But whether you’re already accomplished at whirring and whipping and blending or you’re a complete newbie, terrified at the thought of slicing or dicing anything, you’re about to make big things happen in your kitchen. It all comes down to having the right tools. Check this list against your inventory and add to your drawers and countertops where you see the need. They’ll make those beautiful, tasty, low-SI masterpieces seem effortless and fun.
Box-style grater and Microplane grater
Can opener
Cast-iron skillet
Chef’s knife, paring knife, and serrated knives
Coffee grinder for herbs and spices
Colander
Dry and liquid measuring cups, measuring spoons
Food processor
Handheld electric mixer
Heat-resistant spatulas
Ice cream maker
Instant-read meat thermometer
Kitchen scale
Kitchen shears
Kitchen timer
Ladle
Magic Bullet or NutriBullet for traveling
Mason jars
Mixing bowls
Parchment paper
Pots and pans: cast-iron, enamel, and/or hard-anodized nonstick skillets; stainless steel pots, saucepans, Dutch oven
Salad spinner
Shallow roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet
Slow cooker/Crock-Pot
Steamer basket or insert
Storage containers
Tongs
Vegetable peeler and/or spiralizer
Whisk
Wooden cutting boards (2)
Wooden spoons
TIME-SAVING TIPS
We have lives, right?! None of us can afford to spend hour after hour cutting and chopping for every meal. Nothing else would ever get done! So let’s promise each other we’re only going to spend as much time in the kitchen we absolutely have to, unless we’re having fun. Which I hope will be true when you’re making Sugar Impact Diet recipes!
It’s pretty hard not to be happy with simple, easy meals specifically designed to lower your SI, and help you burn fat fast and feel fabulous. Smart meal prep—including planning ahead and using a few shortcuts—will make you even happier. Let me make certain you use your time well:
1. First, invest a little effort when it’s not mealtime; it pays big dividends when you’re squeezed. That can be as simple as making sure your pantry, fridge, and freezer are well stocked with the building blocks of a healthy, energizing, fat-burning meal. Think of them as a safety net. When you always have good ingredients at your fingertips, you can have a Sugar Impact Shake (here), a colorful, crisp salad, a soup, or a wrap in front of you fast.
2. The best way to be successful at #1 is to make at least one big grocery pilgrimage a week. No more countless runs back to the store. You’ll save the time—and gas money—normally chewed up when you shop by pop in, one item at a time.
3. You can also reclaim some time and relieve some stress if you use the weekend to prep meals for the week ahead. Think about taking just a couple of hours on Sunday to make and freeze meals. Then imagine your relief when you find yourself up against dinnertime without a plan—phew! That running start from the weekend is a lifesaver!
4. When you’re actually doing the cooking part, double or triple the recipe and freeze the overflow. Or stick the extra in the fridge for tomorrow’s lunch. Repurposing can be such a huge help! When you’re scheduled wall to wall, there’s no relief quite like realizing you have frozen meals or leftovers as emergency bailouts.
But I’m not the only one with ideas—members of my Facebook community are always willing to chime in and share their creative time-saving go-tos… so visit www.facebook.com/jjvirginfanclub to get some extra tips!
BUDGET BACKERS
I get questions all the time about how to do the Sugar Impact Diet on a budget. That’s not a small concern, I know! Sometimes a quick look at the shopping list or recipes gives people the impression they’ll be shut out of everything this diet has to offer, and I’m here to tell you that is just not the case.
It’s hard to feed a family well while you’re juggling bills and working ’til you drop. It can seem impossible to get a healthy meal on the table every night. Grass-fed beef and wild salmon may not seem to fit in the daily food budget. But I designed the Sugar Impact Diet to be practical and affordable.
In the end, when you tally your bills, I believe you’ll save money doing the Sugar Impact Diet. Why? Because you won’t be loading your cart with overpriced processed foods or buying trendy, expensive coffee drinks with a side of stale Danish. You’re also gaining a lean, healthy physique—and better long-term health—which is priceless.
To help you get even more value out of the weeks you’ll spend on the Sugar Impact Diet, here are a whopping twenty strategies to make the most of your food dollar. Pick just a few or use them all and keep your money where it belongs—in your wallet!
1. Buy in season. Asparagus peaks in spring, while blueberries are ripest in summer. Besides being fresher and more likely to be locally grown, produce is more affordable in season.
2. Buy frozen and stock up. Ever regrettably tossed a head of broccoli that sat in your fridge for a week? Frozen foods eliminate that problem and save you money. You can literally buy months of veggies and other foods to store in your freezer, so you always have organic frozen spinach to toss into soups or stews, or to use as a side dish.
3. Less meat, more plant-based foods. I encourage you to only choose the best quality meats, like grass-fed beef and wild-caught salmon. But they aren’t cheap, especially if you’re trying to feed a family of four or more. Rather than buy lower quality, conventionally produced meats (sorry, but farm-raised salmon is just gross), load your plate with less meat and more green veggies, good fats like avocado, and low-impact, high-fiber carbs.
4. Start your day with the Sugar Impact Shake. Occasionally someone will write that they can’t afford the protein powder in my online store. A little math solves that problem: even when you add in the coconut milk and other goodies, you’ll be spending about 3 to 4 dollars total per Sugar Impact Shake. That’s less than you’d spend on a nutrient-empty, fat-storing muffin and a latte.
5. Don’t snack. I have clients total the money they spend at bodegas, vending machines, and other snack meccas. They’re often shocked at the amount. Don’t snack unless you absolutely must (and even then, choose wisely). You’ll keep your blood sugar stable and save money, too.
6. Join a farmers’ collective or co-op. More cities now have food co-ops where you volunteer your time for reduced-cost produce and other locally grown and raised foods. Farmers’ collectives provide similar opportunities with grass-fed beef and other pasture-raised foods. You probably have a farmers’ market during warmer months (which in some places is nearly year round), though some cities now have indoor year-round farmers’ markets.
7. Shop warehouse stores for bulk buys. This can be a great way to go, but take a list and stick to it, because warehouse stores love to tempt you with “bargains.”
8. Load your plate with high-fiber foods. Fiber slows stomach emptying, balances blood sugar, curbs cravings, and makes you full faster. What’s not to love? Shoot for 2 to 3 high-fiber foods at every meal. Avocados, lentils, and other legumes, nuts, seeds, and leafy greens are all excellent choices.
9. Prepare ahead of time. If you know you’ll be stuck late at work, prep dinner ingredients in the morning and take away the temptation of delivery or takeout.
10. Make your own. Now that you know hidden sugar in your favorite dressing could be stalling your fast fat loss and holding your health hostage, make your own. You’ll save money and know exactly what you’re getting when dressings, sauces, spice blends, and other condiments come from your kitchen.
11. Try my stoup recipe. Stoup is my hybrid of soup and stew. It makes a great fast, economical, hearty meal. You can even toss leftovers into the slow cooker, and voilà! You have dinner waiting when you get home from work. Portion and refrigerate leftovers for office lunches.
12. Brew your own. Coffee and tea, that is! Ever tallied how much you spend on those fancy coffee-shop drinks? That doesn’t even take into account the sugary pastry or low-fat muffin (aka the adult cupcake) you might have grabbed before you found the Sugar Impact Diet. Become your own barista and brew a cup of organic coffee or green tea for far less than what you’d spend at a coffee shop.
13. Skip convenience foods. Supermarkets take advantage of your need to save time, and they sock you in the wallet with presliced veggies, trimmed-and-cleaned chicken breasts, and precooked—well, just about everything. Once I realized prepped broccoli florets cost twice as much as organic broccoli heads and that I could buy a whole chicken for the same cost as two tiny breasts, I decided saving a little time wasn’t worth spending a lot more money.
14. Shop day-old foods. Many grocery stores and butchers discount must-sell-quickly meats and other perishable foods. If you don’t see them reduced in the refrigerated aisles, just ask: most stores are happy to get rid of them before their sell-by date. And you’ll get good meat cheap. Time for an impromptu cookout!
15. Buy generics. Generic foods have evolved since we were kids. Whole Foods 365 products are fabulous and sometimes even less expensive and healthier than the equivalent conventional store products. Stores often market their own brand, but because they don’t have a middleman, you can buy an identical product for less money. You can win in other ways, too. When I compared brand-name and store-brand almond butters, guess what wasn’t in the store brand? Sugar.
16. Make spa water or healthy lemonade. If I had a dollar for every time I heard “I don’t like water,” I would be on a permanent vacation in Waikiki. For even the most water-phobic, lemonade made with fresh lemons, filtered water, and stevia hits the spot without soda’s price or sugar overload. You can also upgrade water by steeping fresh lemon, lime, or orange slices in filtered water. You’ll get the spa experience for the cost of a piece of fruit!
17. Set a budget and make a list. You’ve done this and so have I: you realize you’re out of something for a meal you’re preparing, hop in the car, and, next thing you know, you’re swiping your credit card for a triple-digit grocery bill. Wait, how did all that stuff get in your basket? Because you didn’t bring a list and stick to it. Plan ahead: determine what you’re going to spend, write down everything you need, and don’t deviate.
18. Learn the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen. In a perfect world, every food would be organic. But in reality, sometimes it’s hard to justify spending three times as much for organic produce. So get to know the Dirty Dozen: the 12 most-contaminated foods. Always try to buy those organic. The “Clean 15” are the least-contaminated foods. If you’re going to buy non-organic, they’re your best bets.
19. Don’t overbuy. Stock up on essentials but don’t become swept away by great deals. Know how much you’ll use and restrain yourself from overstocking, especially with perishable foods.
20. Look at the big picture. When and where you can, invest a little more money in high-quality food. The savings in health care down the road will pay you back in spades—with more quality years in your life! I’d call that a high return on your investment!
I hope you couldn’t possibly feel more prepared or inspired. You know just how to set up your kitchen and which nutritious, weight loss–promoting foods to stock it with, and you have the tools to take them to town. The remarkable recipes in this cookbook will come to life in your hands and deliver you from the extra pounds and frustration that have plagued you. You’re about to experience weight loss the way it should be—no deprivation, only delicious, energy-fueling, healthy food. You’ve got nothing to lose, except up to 10 pounds in just 2 weeks!