Bonfire

A Word of Encouragement
Eating healthy is not as difficult as it may seem at first; as with anything else new in your routine, it will just take a short adjustment period to get better at planning your shopping and food preparation.  Remember to stay focused on the goal (great health), and all the added benefits that come along with it. 

Finally, don't be hard on yourself if you're not perfect, or the best chef, or whatever - just make your goal to improve in these areas.  A cornerstone principle of Bonfire is "progression, not perfection."  After a week or two, you'll get the hang of it in terms of learning to plan and prepare things ahead; and to develop the vital behavior of cooking extra food so you'll have leftovers for lunches and snacks.

Helpful Resources:
Planning and Preparation
Master Shopping List
Critical Concepts: Food Shopping
Fuel Level 1 Expectations
Fuel Level 3 Expectations

Level 2 Expectations and Assumptions
Congratulations!  At Level 2 it is expected and assumed that you are now doing or are soon to be adopting the following nutritional diet style; you are not expected to be "perfect," but you're moving and progressing toward adopting the following vital behaviors:

• You now eat breakfast every day - most, if not all, prepared at home.
• You drink water throughout each day.
• You now understand about the importance of eating more and more of your food raw - meaning lots of fresh fruits, salads, and vegetables, along with raw nuts and seeds.
• Your diet style is becoming more plant-based - you now eat a minimum of 10 large vegetable salads per week as the main part of your lunches and dinners.
• The animal-based foods you eat are now natural, without hormones or antibiotics; you consume a minimal amount of dairy products, which are organic and whenever possible made from raw milk.
• You only eat refined sugars and refined carbohydrates once or twice a week - they are never in your home.
• Soda pop is looked upon as the "disease-in-a-can" that it is.
• You've now been making green smoothies.
• You've now shop at a "whole foods" market.
• You now know where to purchase a Vita Mix blender (take the plunge - you will love it!).
• You have learned to identify foods that regularly contain hydrogenated oil or high-fructose corn syrup.

For Breakfast:  Eat quality protein, poached, such as free-range organic eggs, vegetables (yes, veggies at breakfast), fresh fruit after working out (and preferably organic fruit that's local and in season, versus fruit that has been shipped two to five thousand miles), raw nuts, almond or hemp seed milk, bananas or berries, and healthy smoothies or raw vegetable juice.

For Lunch:  Always eat a large salad with or as your lunch itself; you can, of course, add fish, chicken, etc. and perhaps some whole grain crackers ("multigrain" is a trick - although it may have some whole grains, the major ingredient is regular processed flour).  To make eating large salads much more enjoyable, add toppings such as avocados, sliced pears with freshly toasted walnuts, Greek olives, leftover chicken or fish, leftover steamed vegetables from the night before, sardines, etc.; dress salads with fresh lemon or lime juice and/or fresh olive oil or vinaigrette dressing.  An incredibly delicious topping is Cashew Crunch, a raw cashew Parmesan cheese that's super fast and easy to make.

For Dinner:  Again, always base this meal around a large salad and steamed, sauteed, or grilled vegetables.  As a Level 2 eater, you've learned how critical it is to eat little to no starches such as breads, pastas, potatoes, etc. - these foods are very high on the glycemic index (meaning they cause abnormal blood glucose levels similar to sugar) and gluten, the protein in wheat, oats, barley and rye, is pro-inflammatory.  And of course, eating adequate amounts of quality protein and fat is very important as well (organic/natural beef, lamb, chicken, fish, seafood, etc.).

Why people fail to eat healthy?
The specific design of the first phase (month 1) for Level Two Menu Plan was created for the purpose of exposing you to as many healthy recipes and meal plans so you can begin to reduce eating unhealthy food options.  One of Bonfire Health Program’s purposes in Level One is to remove the addiction dependency people have for foods that they know are unhealthy for themselves.  Since you have graduated from Level 1, you have succeeded in giving yourself new opportunities in life for making decisions without being in direct conflict with your personal values.  We know you desire to be happy and healthy and, most of all, at peace with all the decisions that make up your LIFE.  Following Bonfire Health will allow you to choose the lifestyle habits that are congruent with the values of the life you truly desire to live.  We deeply appreciate you being a part of our vision to change and transform the lives as many people as we can.  We kindly request, that as you see results in your own life, you share our program with your friends and loved ones too!

Snacks are optional!
You may have heard that eating 4-5, even 6, times per day is the preferred method to manage blood sugar and metabolism for effective weight loss, etc.  This is not necessary.  If you eat nutrient-dense foods, (raw organic fruits, vegetables, and raw nuts and seeds) and quality protein (organic eggs and organic grass-fed lean meats), you will not need to eat every 2 or 3 hours.  Eating nutrient-poor grains and "snack foods" is the cause of frequent and increased hunger cravings.

SNACK TIP:  If you simply drink a large glass of purified water it will often satisfy your desire or perceived need for a snack and hold you over until your next meal.  If you’re not hungry, we suggest you don’t eat.  Longevity studies show, the fewer calories you take in each day, the longer you will live.  Should you feel the need to snack, the best foods to eat are vegetables (such as cut carrots, celery, cucumber, etc.) or fruit, along with raw nuts and seeds.  If you want to snack, it’s okay if you’re burning the calories.

Important Recommendation:
To save money (and the environment), have a Reverse Osmosis water purification system installed at your kitchen sink (GE unit at Home Depot - $250, for plumber to install - $125).  You will be amazed at how much more health-promoting water you will drink when it’s readily available and tasty.

Although they are now ubiquitous in our society, and no matter how inexpensive they may be at Costco or Wal-Mart or Trader Joe's, we can't keep buying plastic bottles of water for many reasons:

• It's too costly in the long run.
• The quality of the purification process varies widely.
• The plastic bottles leach cancer-causing chemicals into the water and then into your body.
• The impact of buying plastic water bottles on the environment is tremendous.  There are over 2 million plastic water bottles disposed of every day in America, which is creating a huge trash problem.
• This environmental "cost" is unacceptable [FACT: Today, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where the currents converge, there is a mass of floating plastic twice the size of Texas called The Great Pacific Garbage Patch that is so large and has so much mass that it is a "navigational landmark" and shows up on ships' radar!]
• Although some plastic bottles often get recycled into cool things like Patagonia clothing, most ultimately ends up inside marine animals or landfills.