Diets, Diets, and More Diets....and Clean Eating

I have tried a lot of diets over the years:

Atkins

Weight Watchers

 The Richard Simmons Food Mover (yes seriously)

Somehow I never really lost any weight. I started trying clean eating back in December and the weight started coming off. I went from 229 pounds to 216 pounds within 4 months. With no exercise!

Eating the right will get you to lose weight, however if you don't exercise what is going to replace the fat? I will talk more about exercise tomorrow, back to eating clean.

When I started eating clean I realized there is no way I can realistically eat clean 100% of the time. It's just not doable for me. So I gave it 90%. I decided if I can eat clean the majority of the time I can also have some of those cheat meals or treats that I love so much. This made the process a lot easier for me!

Here are some simple ways I got started:

1. Do a little research: there is a lot of good information on clean eating available. Check to see which ingredients are "clean". Some tend to sound clean, but aren't so if you aren't sure look it up!

2. READ THE INGREDIENTS LABEL, not the nutrition facts. This was a hard one for me to adapt to, but you have to read the ingredients. As a rule of thumb for myself. If I can't pronounce it or don't know what it is I google it. If there needs to be more than one ingredient google I don't even bother, because it's probably not clean. You should be able to recognize the foods as real food!

3. Eat at home. Most out to eat foods are loaded with preservatives. The best way to avoid them is to cook your own meals.

4. Plan ahead. Every Sunday I sit down, make a plan for out weekly meals, grocery shop, come home and cut up the fruits and veggies and cook what I can in advance. This is a pain on Sundays, but it saves me the rest of the week when I already know what's for dinner and don't have to resort to ordering pizza because I'm so tired of thinking of what to make.

5. Eat more whole foods: fruits, vegetables, lean meats (make sure they are REAL with no additives), and nuts. I eat more of these foods and less whole grains and dairy. This has done wonders for me!

6. Make your own convenience food: you can make your own breakfast burritos, pizza, frozen waffles...anything! This will save you money and will be much healthier!


I will be posting a lot of recipes on this blog as well as different meal plans for the week.