Who is behind it?
We lost legitimate weight using OPTAVIA’s Lean & Green plan, which included incorporating OPTAVIA bars/snacks as fueling substitutes. This piece actually made it convenient for us, considering all of the Zoom calls to sit through each day – sometimes it is just easier to fire down a bar with everything you need for that meal (which occur about every 2.5 hours).
NOTE: We are *not* affiliates and make absolutely nothing by recommending this plan.
You and your OPTAVIA Coach are the two largest success factors contributing to your weight-loss, so finding a good coach is the pro tip – Coaches earn by working with you and being engaged to ensure you achieve your health goals. Look for someone who supports you and your unique health journey by showing you alternatives to certain areas that may be particularly challenging at times.
What Is It?
The basic concept of the Lean & Green diet is that your meal consists of a lean protein and some healthy veg. There are portion guidelines you can follow at the beginning to start building your dietary “muscle memory”, and you should catch on pretty quickly.
The starting suggestion is that you have one (1) of these types of Lean & Green meals and five (5) “fuelings” each day. The fuelings are what you’d think of as a snack – a protein bar, a bag of protein chips, a shake, bowl of cereal, cookie, mac and cheese, pancake, pudding, biscuit, Laughing Cow, etc. – and five of these spread 2.5-3 hours apart coupled with your Lean & Green meal makes for a pretty full day of eating.
My wife had no issue with “5 and 1”, but I was too hungry, too often, to stick with the plan. Our coach suggested I move to four fuelings and two meals a day (“4 and 2”) so I was eating more actual food each day. Of course, the expectation was set that I woudln’t lose weight as quickly, but I’d still get there. This was great by me because two meals is really easy to anchor on in the spirit of better health and steady weight loss.
Our coach also helped us select the various fueling varieties to keep it interesting for us and not bore us with the same bars day in and day out. I don’t know how many texts we’ve sent back and forth to our coach, but let’s just say she is always there for us and she always has something else to try when we get into a jam.
We’ll cover individual fuelings throughout BiteSeeing, and your coach can get you started with selections, so I’ll leave you with a bit more specificity than “a lean protein and some healthy veg.”…. I wish you the best on your journey and hope you find something helpful here!