80/20 Plants Breakfast Week!

Sooooo I've joined another whole foods meal plan program! Every few months, I like to do a reset to get myself back on track. My goal is to eat more whole foods, reserving junk food and processed treats for just that – TREATS. But it's hard, y'all. Especially with so many new plant-based meats and treats on the market. It's easier than ever to be vegan. But it's hard to be a whole food, plant-based vegan these days!

As a member of the No Meat Athlete Tribe, I was offered a special discount rate for a test version of their new 80/20 Plants program! So I figured I should take advantage of that. I love the premise for this new program — eat 80% whole foods and 20% whatever else you want (plant meats, desserts, oils, and other processed foods). Going 100% whole foods, plant-based is not feasible for me. I love vegan junk food, and a life without doughnuts is no life at all. But I think this sensible 80/20 plan is just right for me.

Much like the NMA Health Made Simple plan, this new 80/20 Plants plan eases you into whole foods. The first week, we're only focusing on whole food, plant-based breakfasts. And the rest of my meals can be whatever. They don't provide a set meal plan but rather recipes so you can create your own. On my first day, Tuesday, I made Avocado Toast on whole wheat bread.

The next day, my breakfast was Steel Cut Oats with maple syrup, walnuts, flax, and berries.

And today, my breakfast was this Strawberry Banana Smoothie with spinach, flax, and walnuts.

They provide a handful of 80/20 Plants official recipes, as well as links to 80/20-approved recipes from around the web. There are also really cool "blueprints" that offer easy meal ideas for, say, building a taco or building a bowl. You get daily videos led by vegan Olympian and nutritionist Julia Murray (this morning's video was about re-organizing your pantry, and now I'm inspired to do that!). And you have access to a health coach for any questions you may have!

80/20 Plants is not accepting sign-ups right now because it's in a test phase. Those of us who are participating will provide feedback, and they'll use that to make the program even better before its released to the public. I'll be sure and let y'all know when that happens! It'd be a perfect program for someone looking to go vegan, as well as someone like me who just needs a whole foods reset.

I'll be blogging about my progress along the way, but don't be surprised if you see my usual posts of plant-based meats and treats pretty regularly for a few weeks. Next week, we start focusing on whole foods-based snacks, but we don't clean up our lunches or dinners for a couple weeks. Until then, I'll be working my way through all the junk food in my freezer!