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This week you get a super-sized meal plan. I’m finishing up the last week of my second round of the 4 Week Gut Protocol and talking about why it’s important to follow the program with no cheats. Plus, I’ve added in some Carb Cycling to get ready for our vacation to Kauai. Check out what is on this week’s 4 Week Gut Protocol meal plan.
Why No Cheats
If you’re familiar with Portion Fix, you know that you can still enjoy foods you love while following the plan like wine, chocolate & treats. The same is not true for 4 Week Gut Protocol. So why the difference?
Portion Fix is designed as an eating plan you can follow for the rest of your life. It’s not about restrictions, it’s about making sure you’re getting enough of each nutrient you need to fuel your body while still enjoying your favorite foods.
On the other hand, 4 Week Gut Protocol is designed to help you heal your gut and reduce gas, bloating and inflammation. The only way to really do that is to fully remove the foods that cause issues with your gut. And not just for one day but for the full four weeks.
Here are a couple analogies to help you better understand the process:
- Inflammation- Think about inflammation like a fire. Left alone a fire usually starts to die out. But what happens when you add lighter fluid to the fire- it flares back up. Now your almost extinguished fire has grown even bigger than before. And if you add more fuel to the fire it just continues to grow. The same is true when you’re trying to heal inflammation in your gut. If you avoid the things that cause inflammation for a couple days, your inflammation may go down a bit, but will spike right back up when you have those inflammatory foods again. Giving your gut some time to fully heal means you’ll experience much less inflammation when you do add back inflammatory foods.
- Bloating- Think about bloating like a balloon. You can take a balloon full of air and let a little out for a second or two. But if after a couple of seconds you add air back in before it’s had a chance to fully deflate you’re going to end up with an even bigger balloon. However, if you let the balloon fully deflate for several seconds and then add a little air back in it won’t be as big. The same goes for getting rid of bloat in your body.
Live Meal Planning Video
Check out this week’s live meal planning video to see how I planned this week’s menu and learn about the importance of staying on plan.
Be sure to join the Healthy Meal Planning, Easy Recipes & Beachbody Support group on Facebook and turn on notifications to be alerted when I go live. Click the link to join now.
Printable Weekly Meal Plan
The weekly meal plan is a word doc so you can download and make changes to suit your needs. Just click on the image below to download, edit and print. Meal Plan Templates for 4 Week Gut Protocol can be found for plans A-E in the What’s Working Here Resource Library.
