Clean Eating Basics

Have you heard of clean eating, but feeling confused?  I know when I first started working with my Beachbody coach, Melanie, she talked about eating clean and it being what helped her lose 30 pounds.  After completing P90x, she was frustrated because she wasn't seeing results and once she started eating clean, the weight came off.  Diet is 80% of the battle with weight loss, and exercise is the other 20%.  This principle didn't sit well with me, because I like to eat and workout, so why can't working out be enough?  Well, it has taken me many months of thinking and allowing it to sink in to finally accept that my life long weight struggle is because I don't eat clean.  Luckily, the exercise keeps me in a healthy range, but I was never at the size or had the shape I wanted.  Now I am creating my plan of attack to get the weight off after I have baby # 2 in May.  It's very easy for me to know which workout program I will start with, and that I will be drinking Shakeology daily, but I also have to retrain myself with my eating habits.  (This pregnancy has given me a finicky appetite, more so than usual, so I rarely can come up with something I want to eat, and just end up eating something out of convenience, which isn't always healthy.)

While looking at all my resources, I rediscovered The"Eat- Clean Diet" from Tosca Reno.  One of the more popular takes on principles of clean eating.   Tosca has several books and cookbooks, all of which I have read, or own.  The difficult thing is that it seems there are a lot of rules, and it can be confusing.  There is a version of the book, "Eat- Clean Diet, Just the Rules", that boils it all down.  I wanted to take it a step further and

simplify things to the most basic level for myself (and hopefully for you too) into the basic rules of eating clean so that I can start easing back into it, planning to be back in the habit by the time baby comes.  (I don't think I am going to have a lot of brain power to be trying to remember all of this once I have a newborn!)

Do:

• Eat six small meals a day.
• Eat breakfast every day, within an hour of getting up.
• Eat lean protein and complex carbohydrates at every meal. (Think hummus and carrots.)
• Have two or three servings of healthy fats every day. (Unrefined organic coconut oil.)
• Get fiber, vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes from fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Control your portions.
• Drink 2 to 3 liters of water (about 13 8-ounce cups) every day.
• Complex carbohydrates should be in the form of whole grains- quinoa, brown rice, whole oats.
• If it has ingredients you can't pronounce, don't eat it.  (In general, packaged foods are not part of clean eating.)
• Include cardio and strength training as part of a regular exercise routine.

Avoid:

• Processed foods, especially white flour and sugar
• Artificial sweeteners
• Sugary beverages, such as soda and juice
• Alcohol
• Foods with chemical additives like food dyes and sodium nitrite
• Foods with preservatives
• Artificial foods, such as processed cheese slices
• Saturated fats and trans fats
• Anti-foods -- calorie-dense foods with no nutritional value