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
I am on week one of the extreme cycle and am loving it so far! Unfortunately, I can?t consume protein powder and a lot of the recipes in the book call for protein powder. Can you recommend any alternatives? Would plain Greek yogurt (80 calories, 0g fat, 6g carbs, and 15g protein in each 5 ounce serving) be a suitable substitute for protein powder in some of the recipes (such as the shakes) ? Thanks for all the great tips and advice!
Hi Sarah: Yes! Plain Greek yogurt would be a great substitute for powder in recipes like shakes. And if there are any recipes with protein powder where yogurt isn’t an acceptable sub, you can use a like recipe instead (low-carb for low-carb, high-carb for high-carb, etc.). Hope that helps!
Hi:) I am on week two of the Extreme transformation and am loving it. On most days, I take recipes directly from the book to make all 5 meals. I have also used the guides at the bottom of the post to mix it up a bit. I enter the ingredients of all of the recipes in to my fitness pal. I have a question about how the macros are adding up. Today, I followed the recipes in the book for breakfast and three other meals. I created a meal with 5 cups of air popped popcorn and a 200 calorie protein shake that has the macro ratio the book recommends. My daily macros for today are:
Carbs 117g (33%)
Fat 44g (29%)
Protein 131g (38%)
I thought the whole purpose of high carb days was to stay low-fat. I’m trying to figure out how I end up with so much fat for the day when I am following the books recipes and choosing the appropriate meals. The two items containing the most fat were the cheese stick with dinner and the strawberry quinoa muffins. Is the macro ratio more important in individual meals vs the whole day? Maybe I’m just confused;) Thank you!
Hi Kelly: So sorry for your confusion! When you put together your own meals, and if you combine these with meals in the book, it is very tricky to match the recommended macros exactly, so please don’t worry! Things tend to average out over time and you should be good to go. As long as you’re staying as close as you can to the daily recommended macro percentages, you will be fine. You can do this!
Hi, I’m thinking about purchase the book to try the new extreme way but I have a few questions? Do you see better results than the other carb cycling program ? Basically what I’m asking would I see better results trying the turbo cycle or the new extreme to see the biggest change/results ? I really like the previous books and see if I should stick with the old cycling or try the new?
Hi Amy: You can get the fastest results with either the Extreme Cycle or the Turbo Cycle, and you can change cycles at any time. You can do this!
Hi Team Powell,
I just completed week 3 of the Extreme Transformation book and for week 4 I’ve started over. I have had success in weight loss, although I feel that starting this transformation journey the week before Easter did hamper my numbers a bit as I know that I did not stay within my calorie range of Easter Sunday. However, everything else has been going smoothly. I love the recipes and haven’t really had any issues with any of the food on the lists.
I do wonder though, I have been doing the metabolic missions as well as doing some resistance work with machines at my gym targeting most/all muscles groups in the legs, arms and abs as well as my 60 minute cardio. I find that my large muscle groups are quiet sore afterwards. Am I doing too much resistance/weight training or will the tenderness work itself out once my muscles get used to working so hard? Any tips for relief from the achiness?
Thanks!
Hi Olivia: Congratulations on finishing one Extreme Cycle cycle! If you’re doing weight training at the gym, you can skip the Metabolic Missions. Depending on which mission you do and what you do at the gym, you could be overdoing it a bit on some muscle groups. One thing to keep in mind is to not work out the same muscle groups two days in a row – give those muscles a day of rest in between workouts so they have a chance to heal and get stronger. For sore muscles, in general, a warm bath with Epsom salts as well as regular stretching can help. And make sure you’re drinking all your water every day too. Hope that helps!
Hello!
I’m going to start the extreme cycle, but the problem I’m running in to is my husband and I usually eat dinner left overs for lunch the next day. Any suggestions on how to stretch my dinner to lunch on a high carb day?
Thank you!
Hi Shanai: Welcome to carb cycling! It can be tough to use a dinner (low-carb) recipe for a high-carb lunch. You can put your own low-carb meals together with a protein, fat, and veggie portion, then use the leftover protein and veggies for lunch on a high-carb day plus add a portion of carbs. Hope that helps!
Heidi,
Question about fruit…I see it’s labeled in the carb section, can fruit replace some carbs if say you don’t feel like rice that day on high carb days? Or maybe just for two meals?
Hi Kelly: You can use fruit as the carb portion of any high-carb meal. Just remember that it’s good to eat a variety of carbs also.
My biggest thing is I don’t like veggies, yogurt, I’m a picky eater. I’ve been able to eat brown rice and whole wheat bread, but that’s been my limit on changes…
I think the best way to get your daily veggies in is to invest in a juicer. Juice your fruits & veggies and drink a small drink 5 times a day with meals and snacks.This way you do not have to eat your veggies and mixing them with fruit makes them taste better. My kids think of veggie juice as medicine for their body.It is what your body craves & needs.
for sweet potatoes do you know how many grams is ok? its hard to determine the amount we can have since they come in different sizes
Hi Carol: If the sweet potato is the only carb for a high-carb meal (not breakfast), you can have about 200 grams. Hope that helps!
Can I still drink the bode shakes with milk? I don’t see milk on the approved food lists anymore. On the old turbo cycle I used to drink them on high carb days as a meal
Hi Megan: If you can drink them with unsweetened almond milk, that’s the ideal combination.
Love your books but I have one question. On your reset week (high carb week) do I need to eat high carbs for my last meal or do I treat it like any high carb day and eat fat for my last meal instead?
Hi Rachel: For the Extreme Cycle, on your Slingshot Week, you’ll eat double carb portions for all your meals, but treat meal #5 as if it’s a “regular” high-carb day. Hope that helps!