OK, before I get started I have to say that what I am doing may not be for everyone. I have hired a nutritionist that is tailoring my meal plans to me and only me. There is no medical advice in this post and I am in NO WAY advocating changing your diet until you talk to a professional. However, I love sharing my experience and, if you get the OK from your doctor or nutritional professional, I am happy to share what I have learned, including recipes I am making!

Clean Eating: My Week 1 Experience + Tips and Ideas

That being said, this last week of education in foods, how to shop and how to eat clean has been eye opening! If you follow me on Facebook and Instagram, you have seen most of the process. The most surprising thing about it is that I don’t feel like I am missing out on anything and even as a single mom of three kids with a very busy schedule, I have been able to stick to it. Even on gymnastics night when I pick the kids up from the bus stop and head straight to the gym for 2 hours and then home for the easiest convenience meal ever, I have stuck to it. So I know anyone can too!

Also for the moms. Even though your kids can absolutely eat everything you do, we all know that active kids need more. So add to theirs a side of pasta, mac and cheese, potato and/ or roll to make sure they are still eating and loving it. But the veggies, steaks and fish I am eating, they are learning to love too! As with any kids meal, make enough that they love and they will try what they don’t know! In this last week my kids have discovered bison steak, asparagus and have developed a love for brown rice (with a dab of butter and salt for them). I really have been surprised but I guess the parenting truth is proven. Kids watch and do what you do. You eat fish, they will try fish!

OK, the next excuse I always had was cost. The truth is, I can hit a grocery store and rack up a $300 bill in an hour. On just easy stuff. Tear open, pop in the microwave, serve it up on a plate stuff. Listen, I have zero objection to that stuff and you will continue to see posts on great foods that are easy to serve and taste delicious to my kids. But as with everything in life, moderation is key. I was doing that 7 days a week. Mixing in clean eating with a few needed convenience meals is really a better way of doing it. So please don’t think I have become some health nut. I live in the real world with a real, demanding, family too. But at some point, I have to learn about food and how to eat better or I won’t be here as long as I want to.

Clean Eating: My Week 1 Experience + Tips and Ideas

Now to my back to the basics plan.

I am making most of my carbs and starches a morning affair. I do have some in my protein bar or shake mid afternoon, but none at dinner or after dinner. Since I had a HUGE sugar addition, this is helping retrain my taste buds on how to react to foods.

I have never been a chips, bread, snack kind of girl – unless it was popping candy in my mouth – so modifying ‘snacking’ behavior was fairly easy. I was more the forget to eat until 2pm, load up on carbs and whatever I could get my hands on, leave veggies off the dinner plate, load up on candy, pie, chocolate at night kind of eater. See the problem? So a real focus has been made on getting me on a solid eating schedule including breakfast! Eating the same types of things each day has been very helpful with this and it is retraining my taste buds to crave foods without all the fat!

Here is the other thing. The recipes I am preparing and posting on Facebook and Instagram are made with super easy stuff that is not time consuming. I won’t do this if I have to chop spinach into little pieces. So I buy the precooked, 1 cup portions of brown rice, steamable bags of veggies in the freezer section and some prepackage, frozen fish. So keep it simple or you won’t do it.

Also, I still have my coffee every morning. I use splenda and almond milk to flavor it and that is fine with my nutritionist.

Breakfast

2 eggs – any way, a dash of salt and pepper

1 piece of toast with a drizzle of honey OR  1/4 cup oatmeal with a handful of blueberries, mashed or whole.

Snack after my Crossfit workout (or your morning exercise)

Syntha-6 protein shake. (A large bottle will last a few months, easy.)

Lunch 

See this recipe for Clean Eating Chicken Lettuce Wraps that you will LOVE!

Brown Rice

Any protein – 6 – 8 ounces (chicken, fish, turkey, ground chicken, etc) – Tuna steaks have become a favorite. Make them like the bison steak below and enjoy! SO good!

As many veggies as you can stomach.

Snack around mid-afternoon

Hardboiled egg OR

Protein bar where the Protein and Carb counts are at least close in number or the proteins are higher. Bars with higher carb counts than protein counts are actually more geared towards bulking up. Pure Protein and QuestBar are the two my nutritionist want me on for a leaning down program.

OR

Shake

OR

Low fat cottage cheese. I buy the small Breakstone individual packs.

Dinner

Clean Eating: My Week 1 Experience + Tips and Ideas

 

6 ounces of any protein like:

Bison Steak (oh my goodness, this is actually better than other steak), seasoned with Grill Seasoning and cooked, covered in a small spray of cooking spray. Flip after a few minutes and cover again. 4-5 minutes gives you a medium rare steak. Let sit while you prep your veggies in the same pan with a little more grill seasoning.

Orange Roughy fish, season with non salt seasoning and lemon. Grill covered 2 minutes on one side, then flip to the other for a minute. Serve with broccoli prepared in the microwave.

Chicken breast (I put 6-8 in the slow cooker on Sunday and let it cook 6-8 ours with a quarter cup of low sodium chicken broth. Store it in the fridge and serve what you need. It comes out much more tender than the over and lasts all week!)

Turkey can be your protein here too.

So that gets us started. There are so many more things I will share over the coming weeks but it is too much to put in one post. Come talk to me on Facebook and Instagram for day to day tips and ideas too!

I have lost 6 pounds in a week but it is most likely water weight. You have to lose that to get to the fat. So push yourself to try to eat cleanly for at least 30 days to really start losing some fat!