The idea of changing your current diet to a CLEAN diet can
be daunting. What will you eat? What will you feed your family? How do you
cook “clean”? What can you have, and
what shouldn’t you? Is it
complicated? Do you have to buy weird or
expensive food? Sometimes the questions
that fly around clean eating can prevent people from taking the plunge. I would like to put some of those doubts and
questions to rest! You can absolutely
eat clean IN A SIMPLE WAY. Your family doesn’t
have to hate you, and you shouldn’t have to make two separate meals. Here, I give you my top tips that I share
with my challengers in order to make the shift to clean eating SIMPLY.
11. Quarter
your plate. In terms of meals, one of
the simplest ways is to quarter you plate, and then fill each section with
clean, lean food. One quarter should be
lean protein, like, chicken, fish, lean beef, or pork; another quarter can be
from a starchy carb (we frequently have brown rice, baked sweet potatoes, or
roasted fingerling potatoes at my house).
The other half should be vegetables, and it should always include
something GREEN. For example, dinner
might be a grilled pork chop, baked sweet potato, and frozen veggies.
22. One-cup servings. For things that are harder to measure because
they are an amalgamation of items, such as soups, stews, and casseroles, a good
rule of thumb when it comes to a portion size is to keep it to one cup. That should help to keep you from going overboard. If it doesn’t seem like it is enough food,
add some vegetables or a salad (which you should probably be doing anyway to
meet your carbohydrate from veggies requirement).
33. Minimize preparation. Some people prep all meals and snacks on
Sundays. Personally, I don’t have time
for that. For me, Sundays should be for
reading, naps, and catching up on the DVR, not three hours of elaborate meal
preparation. I am a firm believer in
prepping, and I have found that simply prepping my three snacks a day for the
week saves me a ton of time on a daily basis, and if done correctly, can be done
in 20-30 minutes. Keep snacks
simple! Foods that can be easily counted
out and divvied up into baggies, like nuts, seeds, or berries work well and
don’t take long. Other items that can be
grabbed as a whole and thrown in a lunch bag are also ideal (whole fruits like
apples, bananas, and oranges, or a single-serving container of plain Greek
yogurt, a piece of string cheese, or a boiled egg). I try to keep the number of items I have to
cut or chop to one; same goes for anything I need to spoon into containers like
hummus or cottage cheese.
44. Reinvent the wheel. When it comes to meals, you don’t have to
develop a brand new arsenal of complicated recipes that you are not sure your
family will eat. Take what you typically
have for dinner in a week, and figure out how you can clean it up and make it
healthier, and then be conscious of your portion sizes. Turkey tacos, turkey meatloaf muffins,
chicken fajitas, soups and stews, all go over well. Pinterest is a great source for recipes. Just pick your poison and search “clean (fill
in the blank)”. You’ll get approximately
a million options.
55. Intentional Leftovers. Let’s face it: at the beginning meal planning can be
overwhelming! I notice my challengers are
always stuck on trying to choose something different every day for every meal
and snack. One of the ways I combat this
is to make intentional leftovers at dinner.
So for example, last night, my husband made turkey burgers. There are two of us, and we eat a burger a
piece, but when he made dinner, he made four burgers. When I made my plate, I also packed up lunch
for the next day. Lunch for tomorrow is
DONE. All I have to do is throw it in my
lunch bag on my way out the door in the morning. I do that every night. It saves a ton of time, makes meal planning
simpler, and even saves money because I don’t have to come up with a unique
lunch every day. And no extra prep on
Sunday J.
66. Simple additions and substitutions. What I have noticed with myself and my
challengers is trying to make a shift to a healthier lifestyle when your family
might not exactly be on board can be tough.
For example, my husband doesn’t eat very many vegetables – at all. And by at all, I mean his veggie choices are
limited to green beans, carrots, and corn, and maybe some lettuce if it is
smothered in cheese, bacon, croutons, and lots and lots of ranch dressing. So I know that when it comes to veggies, I’m
pretty much on my own. Frozen veggies
(without sauce or seasoning) are a lifesaver here. I like the kind that steams in the bag in the
microwave, and I will add some Mrs. Dash seasoning to flavor them up. The hubs just passes on them, for the most
part. Frequently, I have a side salad
with grape tomatoes and sliced cucumbers and a little oil and vinegar, and he
can have his cheese and dressing bomb.
It is just as easy to throw a white potato in the microwave with my
sweet potato, so that we can both have the “baked” starchy carb that we prefer.
Some changes can be much simpler: whole wheat for white flour bread; whole
wheat or corn instead of white flour tortillas; whole wheat spaghetti noodles;
brown rice instead of white. Ground
turkey is a natural replacement for ground beef, and if it is seasoned well,
your family may not even be able to tell that they are eating something
different.
77. Experiment gradually. For simplicity’s sake, PLEASE do not pick a
week’s worth of new recipes to try all at once.
First, it is so much work! You
need meals that are familiar and uncomplicated, not meals that require
seventeen steps and reading a recipe.
That said, I DO encourage you to try ONE new recipe a week. I LIKE to cook, so I usually choose to try
out a new recipe on a Sunday, when I know I will have time to do it
justice. I have found some great go-to
weeknight meals to work into our dinner repertoire this way!
88. Be progressive.
Consider that clean eating is a spectrum. Depending upon who you ask, there are
different definitions. There is A LOT of
gray area. But if you are just starting
out, and I tell you that you have to make all of your salad dressing from
scratch, you can only eat Ezekiel bread, and you have to give up dairy, that is
going to be intimidating and overwhelming for you and you are going to give up
before you even get started. Begin
simply; plan your meals, avoid fast food, and read the labels on
EVERYTHING. If there are ingredients you
can’t pronounce, either look them up to see what they are or don’t eat it. Eat food that looks as close to its natural
source as possible. After a while, you
may feel comfortable with that and decide that as your experiment that week,
you WANT to try Ezekiel bread or go dairy-free.
Or maybe not, ever. I always
consider: am I making progress? Am I doing better than I was doing last year
or last month?
99. Plan around the sale ads. So how do you choose what to eat when you are
making your meal plan? Do what I do –
plan around the sale ads! I frequently
shop at Aldi, so I will pull up the sale flier on my computer when I am making
a meal plan for the week. I typically
look at two things: what kind of meat and what kind of produce is on sale. I’ll plan dinners (and intentional leftovers
for lunch) around the meat on sale and the recipes I know my husband and I can
make on a weeknight in 20-30 minutes. I
plan most of my snacks based on the produce on sale. This helps me not only get ideas for what to
plan, but it helps me to save money on the grocery bill, as well.
110.
Have ONE meal per day that you don’t have to
think about. I’m not going to lie; this
all takes effort and work, but it does get easier over time. That’s why I recommend that you have one
“duh” meal per day that you don’t have to think about. For me, that meal is Shakeology. With my crazy busy life, teaching over 100
teenagers every day, dogs, working out, taking care of my family, etc I need
something that I can depend on every single day. Shakeology takes 60 seconds to
make and has all the dense nutrition of several servings of salad all in 150
calorie glass. Hello, flat belly foods ;) The energy it provides me is insane
and so important since I struggle I have so much on my plate! Trust me - you’re
going to LOVE this. And just in case you don’t (but you will!) there’s a 30 day
“bottom of the bag” guarantee, so you get to try for yourself and see.
If you would be interested in learning more about clean
eating or joining a challenge group, fill out the application! I promise I will work with you until we can
find something that works for you.
In the meantime…
BE FIERCE!
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