You are to eat normally except nothing with sugar or starch in it.
Following Phase 2 your body will likely be nearly starved of protein. Therefore, for the first 3-4 days on Phase 3 Maintenance you will want to eat unprocessed protein every 3 hours to replenish the depleted supply.
Failure to do this can result in you becoming protein starved and rapidly gaining water weight. If left unchecked this condition can cause severe medical issues.
To prevent this from happening eat, of the following, during the first week of Maintenance:
Unprocessed (natural) proteins: fresh/frozen turkey breast, chicken, steak, fish, eggs (NOTHING ground (such as ground beef, sausage), smoked or cured (such as bacon) pressed (such as deli meat) or marinated etc.
Fresh vegetables (non-starchy ones) if you are unsure check this website: Non-starchy Vegetables - American Diabetes Association
Fruits (low-sugar ones) if you are unsure check this website: Low-Carb/Low-Sugar Fruits: A list of the best and the worst fruit for low-carb dieters.
You can now mix all fruits and vegetables.
1 cup of whole milk and a introduce a little fat (such as PAM to spray on cooking surfices or olive oil)
No processed foods.
The average serving size for snacks is roughly 2-3 ounces and for main meals roughly 6-8 ounces
After the first week you can eat a larger variety of fats. Stick with homemade salad dressing, Organic Peanut Butter things like that. The only thing allowed in cans is Tuna. The only thing allowed in jars is Organic Peanut Butter or regular mayonaisse.
Keep the water intake high during this period.
You will eventually add back in cheeses, Greek Yogurt and nuts – just not until later on in maintenance. The second week will be fine to start slowly adding these.
Stop eating when you are full, even if there are just a couple of bites left.
When you are eating really pay attention to the event. Listen to your body. It will know what it wants.
Here is a rough schedule for reintroducing foods during Maintenance:
P3 week 1 - get your body used to larger quantities of food (same foods as P2 for most part) except add 1cup milk and 2 tablespoons fat maximum.
P3 week 2 - get your body used to higher fats, start cooking with oil (Olive Oil is great) and butter if haven't been already included it in week 1, add one of these cheese, nuts, Greek Yogurt and avocado for example.
P3 week 3 - get body used to additional no starch foods, add many different meats (ground beef would be fine), veggies, fruits, mixing things, add more dairy
One last thing, trust your body to tell you what it wants.
If you are a client of Yourhcg.com you can check our Member’s Only Website for additional guidance on P3 Maintenance.
After reading all of this let me know if you have additional questions.
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Originally Posted by Kelly W
