Chris and I have been so excited and touched by the positive feedback we’ve received on our new book, Extreme Transformation! We seriously poured our lives—and lots of blood, sweat, and tears—into this book with the hope that it would help you begin and achieve your transformation goals, whatever they may be. And…we included 21 days? worth of amazing meals in this book after so many of you asked for a daily meal plan. We aim to please! 😉
Many of you have loved the daily meal plans, but we’ve heard that some of you are a little overwhelmed with all of the shopping, prepping, and cooking involved with some of the amazing recipes in the Extreme Cycle. We know it is a lot to take in all at once, and we did not mean for this new way of doing things to be a “do it all now” type of experience. We recognize that it takes just small baby steps to begin to incorporate new healthy habits into your lifestyle, and that’s exactly how we expect it to be with this new carb cycle. That being said, here are five options we’ve laid out for you to help simplify your meal planning on the Extreme Cycle:
Option 1: Follow the 21 day’s worth of meal plans as outlined in Extreme Transformation.
We’ve outlined the shopping list, meal prep, and other tips for you to use to prepare and cook your meals for 21 days. We tried our best to include a variety of recipes each week, because variety is huge when you’re trying to incorporate new habits into your life.
Option 2: Follow the daily outline of low- or high-carb meals in Extreme Transformation with some substitutions.
If you find a day’s plan that works well for you, do it again! You can double up the same meals during the week to cut down on meal prep (eat the same dinner on Monday and Thursday, for example), or swap meals (high-carb for high carb, low-carb for low-carb, clean cheat for clean cheat, breakfast for breakfast) to make meal planning and prep easier. If you find that some recipes are easier to prepare than others, then go for those!
Option 3: Use other high-and low-carb recipes.
If you have our other books, Choose to Lose and/or Choose More, Lose More for Life, you can use any of the high-carb and low-carb meals from these books in the Extreme Cycle. And if you have your own low- and high carb recipes, you can use those too.
Option 4: Put your own meals together.
We know there are times when you’re out and about and need a quick, healthy meal. Or you need a fast ‘n easy meal made in 5 minutes or less, and simply don’t have time to put one of our recipes together. Be sure to scroll to the end of this post for some guides straight from Extreme Transformation that will help you design your own meals!
Option 5: A combination of the other 4 options.
We want this meal plan to be very user friendly, which is crucial to long-term carb cycling success, so do what works best for you and your schedule! If cooking is your thing, we’ve got you covered for 21 days! If meal prepping and cooking different meals doesn’t fit into your life, then bulk prep meals. You can even freeze many of our meals for a quick option later. If you like to put your own meals together, that works too. And it’s always a good idea to keep quick options with you wherever you go so that you don’t derail your eating plan because you don’t have healthy options available. And what about eating out? Our guides in option 4 will help you navigate any menu so you can make the best choices for your goals.
And no matter which option you choose, remember that this is a life-long journey! You’re not expected to do everything at once—perfectly. One of the best things about any transformation journey is all the things we learn along the way, so it’s 100% okay—and absolutely normal—to encounter some bumps on the path. With practice and patience, you will figure out what works best for you!
If you have any other questions about meal planning on the Extreme Cycle, please leave me a comment below. And please share what’s worked for you so we can all learn from each other!
Xoxo,
Heidi
Related reading:
Carb Confusion
The Power of Protein
Protein Powder: It’s Not Just for Shakes Anymore!
Ask the Powells: How Can I Structure My Meals?
Pre-Workout Problem: To Eat or Not To Eat?
Avoiding Road Trip Road Blocks!
Are you ready to begin your own Extreme Transformation? Grab a copy of our book today, and let’s go!
640 Responses
Good morning! Just made out my grocery list. I am a little nervous how big the list is!!! Will I really eat all the food for week one?? I do not want to buy all that and waste any…also what if I can not find Kodiak pancake mix? And what are coconut aminos? Excited to start this journey…I have already lost 125lbs with lifestyle changes and am looking forward to getting off the next 100lbs. I work out 30 min on the elliptical each day..can that be my accelerator? Can I do the metabolic missions in the morning and the accelerator in the evening? Thanks for your guidance!!!
Hi Bridgett: You can substitute the Kodiak pancake mix with any high protein pancake mix, and you can find coconut aminos on amazon. And be sure and take a look at the other options for meal planning in this post – they can be super helpful too! And yes, you can use the elliptical as your Accelerator, as well as any other form of cardio. Congratulations on losing 125 pounds – that’s amazing!
that list is huge so i picked a few recipes i liked and repeat them thru the week! once you have your pantry staples its not so bad but swapping meals and repeating days definitely helps with the grocery bill!
Yeah, I wished I had given more thought to it and used fewer recipes. It was a huge list and came to about $300, but I learned a lesson. Less variety and just repeat meals 2 or 3 days, also making extra and freezing helps and cuts down on prep later on. Fortunately I have a friend who is always making food for the homeless so I gave her the heaps of produce I had leftover.
It is very useful post for me, thanks!
Hi Heidi,
Thank you to you and hubby, Chris, for the Extreme Transformation book. I just got it and my man and I started on Monday. We are so excited and enjoy how well laid out everything is. He is going great guns and loving it! I am enjoying it but struggling much more than he. I am doing the daily metabolic missions. I am having to modify some things quite a bit due to knee and back injuries, however, I am pushing myself and getting it done. I am eating the 5 meals and following high carb and low car meals, but I just realized that I didn’t measure portions. I realized that I’m nervous that my years of poor eating have forever messed up my metabolism. I have about 40 pounds to lose. I’m feeling frustrated and afraid to get on the scale. I know that this can work for me. I just want to do it correctly to get the best results in the fastest manner.
I’m guessing food prepping would help me with portions? Do you think that the modifications that I’m having to do will slow my progress? How much benefit comes from doing the Accelerator?
Thank you! You and your husband are inspiring us to make the needed healthy change in our lives!
Hi Annette: Welcome to carb cycling! Please remember that any lasting change is all about taking those baby steps and keeping those small promises to yourself. And a huge part of weight loss is the nutrition side, so even though your movement might be a bit limited, you can still achieve your goals! The Accelerators (cardio) are a big part of weight loss also since that’s where you can burn some major calories, so try and get in as much movement as you can. Meal prepping can also help since everything is ready to go and all portioned out for you. You can do this!
Hello Heidi,
I just started the carb cycle but I struggle within eating 30 minutes of waking as I like to workout early in the mornings and I get an upset stomach if I eat a meal prior. Do you have any suggestions for this. Is it ok to push my meal until 30 minutes after my workout?
Thank you
Camas
Hi Camas: Here’s a post that talks about eating and working out: https://heidipowell.net/9194/qa-with-the-powells-to-eat-or-not-to-eat/. Hope it helps! ?
I have the same problem with my schedule. I drink a whey protein isolate protein shake before I get to the gym and it doesn’t upset my stomach and then by the time the next 3 hours rolls around, I’m at work eating the official meal 1.
Hello Team Powell! I love the show, the blog and all the carb cycling books! I just finished the 21 Day Transformation and lost the 10 lbs. I was hoping for! The transformation daily lessons really helped me fight my food addiction! I’m a runner and as running season is getting underway, I don’t know how to structure the Extreme Cycle moving forward. Normally my low carb days are Thursday and Friday, but I will be doing long runs Saturday mornings and I believe I need some carbs stored up for those runs. What do you recommend for structuring a week to someone who is training for their first marathon and looking to maintain? I appreciate your help because I want to stay on plan and keep my food addiction under control!
Hi Ali: This is awesome – congratulations!!! You can move the weekly schedule one way or the other so that it better fits with your training program, just keep the days (low- and high-carb) in the same order. Good luck on your marathon!
Hi again! For the unlimited veggies is that just on low carb days?
No, that’s for every day!
Hi! I just bought 4 of your books and so far love them. It’s great that I don’t have to make major changes to how I already eat – some tweaking to the number of meals and when to eat them. I just started the carb cycling this week. I have a couple of questions.
1 – I am a vegetarian and do not eat processed soy so in addition to the meats listed in the program I also won’t eat the vegetarian protein options. I will eat some wild caught seafood and dairy but it has to be grass fed, cage free and I prefer to buy stuff straight from the farm so I where it came from. Getting my proteins in can be challenging since I do not have as many protein choices. I know black beans are listed as carb, which I totally understand but can they be used as a protein substitute on occasion? I do supplement with a vegan protein powder but one can only eat so many shakes or liquid mixes. Thankfully I still get to eat all my fresh veggies!! Although I do miss one of my favorite snacks, a granny smith apple and raw organic almond butter (doesn’t look like there are carb and fat meals, other than on my reward day).
2- Unsweetened Almond milk is listed as a beverage. How do I count that when making a meal? Does it go under the category of a carb or a fat? Not that I am drinking a lot of it but on low carb days when I make a protein shake I assume it is OK to use as I saw it listed in a couple of the recipes in the various books. I haven’t started reading Extreme Transformation yet but finished Choose to Lose, 30 simple Habits to Lose Weight, and half way through Choose More, Lose More so maybe more of the questions I have will be answered there.
Thanks and your website and Chris’s TV show are so inspiring!
Niki
Hi Niki: Let’s get you some answers to your questions! 1. Since you are a non-soy vegetarian, you can use black beans as a protein source if you need to, just make sure your calories/macros are falling within the guidelines for each meal (there’s an awesome chart in this post). 2. For unsweetened almond milk, 2 cups counts as a fat serving. If you’re using less, say a cup, just count that as more of a flavoring but be sure and include those calories in your daily calorie count. And welcome to carb cycling – you can do this!
Thanks Team Powell!!
Hi there!!! I just wanna say how much I love the Powells and how I admire what you do!!! I’m from Brazil and dream of meeting you!!?????
I have just started today but am struggling with portions too. I had a gastric sleeve WLS five years ago and have gained some weight back over the years, especially after an injury and surgery that has significantly impacted my activity level. I have two questions.
1. Will this program work if I have cannot do all of the exercises? I am undergoing rehab for my injury and can only do limited things.
2. My stomach is smaller and I can’t possibly fit some of the meals in at once. For example, I had the Egg salad sandwich with blueberries today for lunch. I could only finish one and a third pieces of the bread with the egg salad and spinach on them. I couldn’t eat any of the blueberries. I had the Apple Cinnamon Muesli for breakfast and couldn’t finish it either. Is it okay to break my meals in half and eat every one and a half hours or will that mess the whole thing up?
I love the recipes that I have tried so far and am excited to start losing!
Thank you for your help!
Hi Elizabeth: Let’s get you some answers to your questions! 1. Yes, it can work. A huge part of weight loss is your nutrition, so do the best you can with that part of the program, move as you can, and you can achieve our goals! 2. With your gastric sleeve surgery, it would be best to discuss this program with your healthcare team and then follow any modifications they recommend as far as how to put your meals together and the quantity of foods you’re eating. We wish you the best – you can do this!
Hello I’ve just bought your book and really enjoyed reading. However I’m not really sure how to get started with all the meals. For the last year I’ve been following a Paleo diet and the for the past 3 months switched to a ketogenic diet. I haven’t really lost and weight and am just feeling exhausted, so need to get myself sorted I have 12 pounds to lose in total that I keep losing and then putting back on again constantly for the past 5 years. I’m just worried about suddenly starting with eating 4 days of carbs after 3 months of no carbs and lots of fat and protein. Should I start gradually to give my body chance to get used to it? Or should I just start the meal plan today as its Monday straight away. Thanks Eve x
Hi Eve: The answer to your question could be different for each person, so I’d begin the program as it’s written, and if you decide you need to go into it more gradually after a few days, then I’d do that. You can do this!