CHAPTER 3
The Fat Flush Plan: As Easy as 1–2–3

Among all the fine arts, one of the finest is that of painting the cheeks with health.

—JOHN RUSKIN

The Fat Flush Plan has a rather basic and clear-cut mission: to increase metabolism, flush out bloat, and speed up fat loss. At the core of the plan is the commitment to promote a balanced lifestyle and champion simple healthy habits that we all overlook or forget about as a result of life in our hectic twenty-first century. Every aspect of each phase of the plan is targeted like a guided missile to accomplish this goal: helpful essential fats [e.g., flaxseed oil, gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)], amounts of protein (8 ounces or more per day plus two eggs), antioxidant-rich vegetables, moderate amounts of fruits, calorie-burning herbs and spices (e.g., apple cider vinegar, mustard, cayenne, ginger, and cinnamon), cleansing diuretic beverages, exercise, journaling, and even sleep.

The Fat Flush Plan comprises real foods. It eliminates all weight loss–inhibiting foods and beverages such as white flour, white sugar, margarine, vegetable shortening, artificial sweeteners (e.g., aspartame), and caffeine in regular coffee, tea, chocolate, and many soft drinks.

In fact, the more meals you build around the Fat Flushing foods on the plan, the more weight you will lose and the healthier you will be. That’s right. Hunger will stop, food cravings will disappear, and even depression will be a thing of the past, and triglyceride and cholesterol levels will balance out. Your circulation will increase, and you will look years younger as you feel reenergized, renewed, and refreshed.

The Fat Flush Plan is a springboard for a workable eating strategy. Each phase can be further individualized to target your personal needs by adding either more protein or more carbs sooner rather than later. For example, if you are a weight lifter or a large-framed, muscular individual, or if you have been suffering from severe stress due to an illness, you may need more than the 8 ounces of protein per day, perhaps even 12 ounces. Feel free to increase the meat, fish, poultry, or whey protein shake recommendations to fit your needs. Similarly, when you embark on the Two-Week Fat Flush but feel you absolutely must maintain your weekly two-hour or longer exercise schedule, then you may need to pop in a friendly carb or two right at the get-go.

The good news about the Fat Flush Plan is that you won’t have to cut out your favorite foods forever or maintain a strict daily routine permanently. You just need to know the basic principles of Fat Flushing, which are discussed below, so that you can rely on the foods that will keep you lean with the help of the easy-to-follow menus and simple recipes.

My original Two-Week Fat Flush has been so wildly popular with clients and cyberspace visitors that I have fine-tuned and expanded the original program to maximize your results. You will have not only fourteen days of menus but more than twenty deliciously simple recipes to enjoy on the Two-Week Fat Flush. And you can always personalize any menu (breakfast, lunch, or dinner)—or recipe for that matter—to satisfy your own tastes based on the expanded lists of Fat Flushing foods provided.

I’ve also taken the program one step further to include an ongoing Fat Flush Program and a Lifestyle Eating Program. These are discussed below as phases 2 and 3.

Moreover, as so many of my clients have experienced, you can look forward to shedding unwanted pounds and feeling refreshed, cleansed, and nourished on all levels at every step of the plan. On the diet front, you will be putting a tight lid on and counteracting the effects of toxic foods, birth control pills, medications, and a stressful lifestyle. And this is important because your system likely has been overloaded and overburdened, creating havoc in your liver and lymph and decreasing your body’s fat-burning ability. The Fat Flush Plan allows you to clean up and take control of your body and your life.

Here’s what is in store for you to enjoy during every phase of the Fat Flush Plan:

POWERFUL PROTEINS —with 8 ounces or more a day, such as lean beef, chicken, and fish—boost metabolism by up to 25 percent for about twelve hours to keep metabolic fires burning. Proteins are the tissue and muscle rebuilders par excellence. For every pound of muscle gained, you burn an extra 70 calories per hour. Subsequently, you will help stop hunger and keep blood sugar/insulin levels steady as well as support your system’s detoxification process. And you’ll actually be eating eggs with yolks on the diet because the sulfur-bearing amino acids they contain help the liver metabolize fats.

AMAZING OMEGAS —such as high-lignan flaxseed oil and GLA-rich botanicals from evening primrose oil, borage, or black currant seed oil—trigger fat burning rather than fat storage. Flaxseed oil tops the satiety scale and can attract oil-soluble poisons that have been lodged in your fat stores and transport them out of the system. The GLA oils can mobilize brown adipose tissue (BAT), which burns off excess calories and boosts energy.

COLORFUL, FRIENDLY CARBOHYDRATES —such as antioxidant-rich fruits and veggies—that are high in natural enzymes, vitamins, and minerals such as potassium keep sodium out of your cells to banish water retention.

THERMOGENIC SPICES —such as anti-inflammatory ginger, cayenne, mustard, and cinnamon—raise your body temperature and kick your metabolism into high gear. In fact, studies show that some of these seasonings triple the body’s ability to burn calories for fuel rather than store them as fat.

ELIMINATION OF METABOLISM BLOCKERS —such as wheat, milk, and yeast-based seasonings—to protect your fat-burning process and ward off those unsightly allergy-related symptoms, such as puffy eyes and dark circles under the eyes. Omitting them is vital to your weight loss success because they have a way of retaining fluid, slowing down metabolism, and making fat stick.

LONG LIFE COCKTAIL —To increase elimination, you’ll drink this refreshing mixture filled with emulsifying enzymes from unsweetened cranberry juice diluted with water to help digest those fatty globules in the lymphatic system—your body’s fat disposal dump, discussed in detail in Chapter 2. The high-fiber additions of psyllium (or ground-up flaxseeds) to the cocktail block fat absorption, increase fat excretion, and bind toxins so that they are not reabsorbed into the body.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

The week before you begin phase 1 is the best time to prepare your system for the Fat Flush Plan. Probably one of the most important preparations is to begin increasing your water intake between meals. Begin drinking at least two glasses between breakfast and lunch and two more between lunch and dinner. This will start increasing your hydration and create the new habit of power drinking to get more water into your system. After you feel confident that your hydration levels are increasing, begin to banish all trans fats from margarine, fried foods, and processed vegetable oils (see Chapter 4). Next, eliminate all the whites from your diet: white sugar, white rice, and white flour. Stock up instead on lots of fiber-rich veggies in all colors of the rainbow. Green, yellow, red, and orange veggies aid the cleansing process by providing natural fiber, which helps sweep out toxins, and pigment-based antioxidants that aid the liver by keeping its detox pathways on the move. Adding a couple of pieces of fresh fruit also will help cleansing because fruits are a rich source of enzyme-activating potassium that starts to move accumulated fluids from your tissues.

By far the most important thing you can do to prepare your system for the plan is to gradually taper off all alcohol, coffee, tea, colas, and soft drinks. This includes any regular or decaf or aspartame-sweetened beverages. As you learned in Chapter 2, even decaffeinated beverages have some caffeine, which stresses the liver and impedes its ability to break down fat. In addition, the acidity in decaffeinated coffee, for example, is higher than that in regular coffee because of the beans they use to make decaf. Add to this the rancid oils and chemicals such as trichlorothylene or methylene chloride (dry-cleaning chemicals) used in the decaffeinating process, and you can see why decaf coffee is not the Fat Flushing beverage of choice.

Thus, if you are a heavy coffee drinker (having more than two cups per day), here is what I suggest: Replace it with dandelion root tea or dandelion root coffee, which give you the taste and feel of the real McCoy. The beverages I enjoy and serve to my heavy-duty coffee–drinking friends not only are flavorful and satisfying but also are brewed like real coffee. Although there may be more types on the market, the one that lends itself best to the Fat Flush Plan is from the liver-loving dandelion.

I would cut down coffee consumption gradually by eliminating one cup every other day until you are down to just one cup a day, using the herbal coffees as a substitute for the other cups.

Taking these easy steps will help to prevent the withdrawal symptoms that about one in four Fat Flushers experience while on phase 1 during the first four days. Withdrawal from caffeine and sugar in particular can include such symptoms as headache, fatigue, irritability, and even increased hunger. These symptoms typically disappear by day five.

PHASE 1: THE TWO-WEEK FAT FLUSH

This kickoff phase, which is based on an average of 1100 to 1200 calories daily, is designed to jumpstart weight loss for dramatic results. This two-week phase will transform your shape by accelerating fat loss from your body’s favorite fat storage areas—your hips, thighs, and buttocks. Some individuals report up to a loss of 12 inches during this first phase of the diet, whereas they may lose only 5 pounds. This means that they are losing fat and bloat, not muscle (as with so many other diet programs). Remember, muscle weighs more than fat, so dropping a couple of dress sizes can be more significant than losing 10 pounds on the scale.

Regardless of how much weight or how many inches you need to lose, everybody needs to start with phase 1. Why? Because we all need a good cleaning out in order to activate and support the fat-burning process. The Two-Week Fat Flush is a cleansing program first and foremost because cleansing helps to facilitate weight loss by giving your liver—the body’s premier fat-burning organ—some well-deserved support and nourishment. By doing this, you’ll help your liver’s ability to break down fats more efficiently the way it was designed originally. Remember, as you learned in Chapter 2, a liver clogged with chemicals and poisons cannot perform its fat-burning duties. Many of my clients refer to this two-week phase rather affectionately as “Diet Boot Camp.” And I agree. It is a program that is especially motivating if you have had difficulty losing weight before or if you have a lot of weight to lose. Period.

While fat can be burned off by eating the proper foods, taking thermogenic agents, and exercising, other weight loss regimens rarely rid your body of stored toxins. Unburned poisons often migrate from the shrinking fat reserves to the bloodstream, organs, and tissues, causing discomfort such as headache, irritability, and nausea. This is why most people find it difficult to stay on other weight loss programs and wind up not feeling well.

Phase 1, the Two-Week Fat Flush, counters this quite effectively by increasing oil (in the form of flaxseed oil), fiber, water, and exercise. While fiber, water, and exercise can flush out toxins through the bowels, urine, and sweat, the oil can attract oil-soluble toxins that have been lodged in the fatty tissues of the body and carry them out of the system for elimination too.

Now, if you have a lot of weight to lose (over 25 pounds), you can stay on the initial phase of the program longer than two weeks. In fact, up to one month would be safe—but a little boring, to tell you the truth, because your food choices would be so limited. You may have more success moving to phase 2, where your weight loss will slow somewhat but you will have a greater variety of foods from which to choose. Please note that phase 1 of this program is a bit too severe and rigorous for individuals who have kidney or liver disease, are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a history of eating disorders, or are under age twelve.

PHASE 2: THE ONGOING FAT FLUSH

Phase 2, the Ongoing Fat Flush, is the next step for those individuals who have additional weight to lose but who also want to pursue a more moderate cleansing program and enjoy a bit more variety in food choices while still losing weight. This phase 2 program is designed for ongoing weight loss, with 1200 to 1500 calories each day, and is designed to be followed until you reach your desired weight or size.

Phase 2 is the perfect transition for those who are moving toward but are not quite ready for a lifestyle eating regimen. The Ongoing Fat Flush includes the foundational Fat Flushing foods from phase 1 with the addition of up to two friendly carbohydrate choices put back into the menu plan one at a time each week. Easing them in this way will help you to determine whether the new food is helping or hindering your weight loss goals.

Interestingly, some individuals may notice a slowdown in weight loss because of the additional carbohydrates, whereas others progress at the same rate as in phase 1. I recommend that you stay on phase 2 until you have achieved or nearly achieved your weight goal. For some, this may mean two weeks; for others, it may mean another four to six weeks; and for still others with a lot of weight to lose, it may mean months.

Journaling at this transition time is absolutely key. If you start adding on a pound or two, you will be able to track this immediately and cut out or reduce the amount of the offending food before it becomes a real challenge. Journaling also will help you in the phase 3 lifestyle plan to track which foods you can’t tolerate. Symptoms such as bloating, gas, drowsiness, and the return of cravings are your body’s private distress signals that should spur you on to take action—immediately!

And keep in mind that you can always go back to phase 1 if you need the structure of a more disciplined regimen.

PHASE 3: THE LIFESTYLE EATING PLAN

Phase 3, the Lifestyle Eating Plan, is really the Fat Flush maintenance program for lifetime weight control. This phase offers over 1800 calories daily, providing a basic lifetlong eating program designed to increase your vitality and well-being for life. At this time, you will be using phase 2 as your foundational program, with its one or two friendly carb choices. You can now add up to two dairy products as well as two more friendly carbs, making the grand total up to four friendly carbs—weight permitting. Phase 3 friendly carbs include more choices from a variety of starchier veggies and nongluten hypoallergenic grains. As in phase 2, you will add these latest foods one at a time to make sure that you are tolerating the new additions without any allergic symptoms.

Phase 3, I believe, is more appropriate for both pregnant and breastfeeding women because of the higher calorie and calcium content from the additional starchy and nongluten grains and dairy products. My experience on the Fat Flush Plan has taught me that although leafy greens are also rich in calcium—for example, ½ cup of collard greens or turnip greens contains about 250 milligrams (mg) of calcium, compared with a cup of milk at 300 mg of calcium—and are widely available in all phases of the program, most dieters prefer dairy calcium. And it makes menu planning a heck of a lot easier.

However, if you have noticed that cellulite has disappeared because you have avoided all dairy products on the other phases and are reluctant to put dairy back in your diet, I would suggest that you cover your calcium bases with a low-dose calcium supplement. Take twice as much magnesium to ensure absorption and utilization.

To make sure that you don’t gain back fat even if you gain back some weight during the phase 3 lifestyle program, the supplement CLA will be introduced. Remember that clinical trial I told you about in Chapter 2? In a research study in which one of eighty overweight people who dieted had regained weight, it was discovered that those who took CLA put the pounds back on in a ratio of half fat to half muscle.

ALL THREE PHASES

To optimize the results of your diet and exercise program on all phases of the plan, powerful nutrients that cleanse, support, and regenerate the liver as well as those which enhance both fat and carbohydrate metabolism are also recommended. These include dandelion root, milk thistle, Oregon grape root, methionine, inositol, choline, lipase, chromium, and the nutrient L-carnitine, an amino acid shown to raise the body’s fat-burning ability eleven times.

The Power of Ritual

Once you experience the cleansing aspect in the initial phases of the plan, you’ll probably discover that you think more clearly and are more mentally alert. As one first-time Fat Flusher remarked, “We can’t expect to have sharp minds and luminous spirits when our bodies are polluted.” Many devotees find that when their bodies are cleansed, they are more willing—and better prepared—to deal with other facets of their being.

Because the Fat Flush Plan was designed originally as a seasonal tuneup, done four times a year at designated times, it taps into the power of ritual. Its practical, systemized approach not only creates a sense of order but also is reassuring when it is so easy to become confused and overwhelmed by the sheer choices of eating plans.

Tuning in to Your Deeper Side

You’ll discover journaling to be a vital companion to your Fat Flush experience. It helps you keep tabs on your food and eating habits. As a matter of fact, this in itself has been shown to be enough to prevent weight gain according to some experts. Your Fat Flush journal helps you track your food consumption, food responses (e.g., bloating, drowsiness, irritability, and headaches), and progress.

This is why during all three phases I suggest that you record your measurements, since you may be losing inches faster than pounds. And this is good, because when you’re losing inches, you are actually losing fat. And let’s face it, fat loss—while still maintaining your lean body mass—rather than weight loss should be your main long-term goal. Once you graduate to phases 2 and 3, where you’ll be adding friendly carbohydrates and some dairy, the journal will give you an opportunity to discover your body’s distress signals, alerting you to negative food reactions.

However, I also believe that journaling nurtures your body and soul beyond the diet component. This is why you’ll also be tracking emotions along the way, giving you a clear idea of the feelings behind your eating impulses so that you can handle them successfully. Journaling creates a safe, comfortable place where you can vent your feelings, chart your success, recognize patterns, and enter a private world of self-discovery. Because of this, journaling helps you eliminate one of the five hidden weight gain factors you’ve already read about in Chapter 2 that we all seem to share—stress! Besides, taking the time to write in your journal has been shown to actually reduce food consumption, which helps reduce your fat-gaining potential.

Tapping into the Power of Exercise

The exercise component of the Fat Flush Plan represents another progression beyond other exercise programs. The Fat Flush Exercise Plan (see Chapter 7), like the diet plan, centers around the lymphatic system, the body’s built-in fat-processing plant. This secondary circulatory system is constructed of millions of tiny channels running through all parts of the body. The lymphatic channels transport all kinds of waste products and fats from the intestines to the blood and then to the cells, relying on muscle contractions for their flow via the thighs and arms. But the lymph doesn’t have a pump like the heart, so it has to be “exercised” with either a bouncing action, deep breathing, or movement of the arms while walking briskly.

To help purify your lymph during all Fat Flush phases, you’ll bounce on a minitrampoline or rebounder for five minutes a day to gently ease waste materials and fat out of the lymph. By cleansing the lymph through gentle pressure on the thighs, lymphatic drainage is activated and fatty cellulite deposits begin to disappear. The greatest thing about this lymphmoving exercise is that virtually anyone can do it regardless of age or physical challenges. For instance, individuals who can’t walk can still benefit from this exercise by sitting on the rebounder while someone else bounces on it.

On all three levels of the Fat Flush Plan you’ll enjoy moderate low-intensity exercise—starting with brisk walking done daily and later adding strength training twice a week to help tighten and tone the muscles. Strength training, in particular, will aid your weight loss efforts because it builds muscle (lean body mass), which is metabolically more active than fatty tissue. In phase 1 you’ll do twenty minutes of brisk walking, dramatically swinging your arms back and forth to stimulate lymph flow and keep toxins moving. Then you’ll graduate to thirty minutes in phase 2 and forty minutes in phase 3. Doing more than forty-five to sixty minutes every day is now considered too strenuous for the body, so on the Fat Flush Plan, less is definitely more for many reasons that you will discover.

Exercise keeps insulin levels low and can even improve your emotional health because it releases endorphins, those natural mood elevators in your brain that make you feel good. Without a doubt, you’ll feel centered, focused, and more in control.

Learning the Beauty of Proper Slumber

You’ll also discover the value of getting the proper amount of quality sleep. Sleep reduces cortisol production—a key ingredient to stress fat—and helps restore the body physically. Throughout the program, you’ll have a set bedtime (that magical time of 10 P.M.) and wakeup time, leaving you refreshed eight hours later!

All these fundamental elements weave together a splendid tapestry reflecting all the beauty of a balanced lifestyle. And let’s face it, that’s something we twenty-first-century men and women definitely need.

All the slimming details of the Fat Flush Plan are discussed in the following chapters. So let’s get started!