Clean Eating - Guide to Planning

One of the BIGGEST keys to success with clean eating is PLANNING. Think about it ... you wouldn't show up at a job interview, start your day or go on vacation without a having a plan first, correct? Well this is NO different!

One of the biggest "excuses" I hear for not being "able to" eat clean is: "I'm so busy and always on the go." Well, yes!! Aren't we all?! I use to eat on the go and grab anything that was near, normally JUNK! Guess where that got me!? Feel crummy about myself and my body.

Think of meal planning and prepping your cooler or lunch bag as your PLAN for a HAPPY, HEALTHY body! Your biggest obstacle is going to be managing your time so that getting healthy and fit doesn't compete with your other commitments, like spending time with your family and friends!

Believe it or not, planning and prioritzing ahead will actually make life ... wait for it ... EASIER! Not to mention, it will set you up for success in the long term! It may seem trivial but I promise it's worth it! Having everything pre-cooked, ready and packed will be less stressful than leaving your meal choices up to chance and heading to whatever take out joint or gas station that is near buy for a quick hunger fix! Hello muffin top!

Clean Eating Prepping Tips:

* If you are on the go a lot, pack cook-free snacks (protein powder, chopped veggies, raw almonds, low-fat string cheese, hummus, fruit, ezekiel bread, etc.). You can keep ziplock baggies of almonds in your car so that you ALWAYS have something to grab

* Schedule time on the weekends to buy and prepare your food for the week! SO WORTH IT! A little time in the store and kitchen on Saturday means for the rest of the week, you can JUST grab and GO!
*** This took Ben and I a good few weeks to really get down. I was actually really scared about it at first, but LOVE it and it's SO easy! We grocery shop on Friday and find time on Saturday or Sunday to prep 90% of our meals for the WEEK!

* GET YOURSELF A COOLER: Find one that suits you. Always pack 1 extra snack than you really need! Pack it the night before and grab and go!!

Sometimes people will give me excuses about the cost of eating healthy. The fact of the matter is ... I spend less money now than I did before, when I was buying a TON of processed JUNK! Not to mention, being less embarrassed when I go through the check out line with a cart FULL of HEALTHY food, not frozen, processed CRAP! But even if it did cost more, aren't you worth the investment?

STOP MAKING EXCUSES!

OK, now on to more ... what should you eat? That's the key right there ... EAT! IF you starve yourself or even if you unknowingly are not consuming enough, your body will go into starvation mode and hang onto fat for dear life. It might sound counter-intuitive, but you need to eat to LOSE!

Calories are not all created equally. You cannot consumer 1900 calories of chocolate and chips and 1900 calories of chicken/rice/veggies and expect to get the same results. Your body needs all of the essential building blocks to keep your body functioning properly to give you energy!

Here's a meal plan that will keep you full, energized and very satisfied --> Meal Plan

OK - Onto grocery shopping, which can be daunting if you are trying to eat healthy, but don't know what you should be looking for. When I made the decision to clean up my food, I wanted someone to take me by the hand and show me EXACTLY what to buy, what to eat and how to make it! A lot of labels are misleading and if you aren't careful, you could end up buying foods that are working AGAINST your GOALS! Hopefully, these guidelines will help you choose the foods that help you attain that sexy, strong body that you're aiming for!

* Eat a nutritious meal BEFORE you go grocery shopping!

**When you go to the store on an empty stomach and hungry, you will be very likely to subconsciously grab the worst foods for you. Typically, these are the foods FULL of SUGAR that spike your insulin levels FAST, or the ones that are laden with FATS (and/or trans fats) that fill you up quickly, but WREAK havoc with your health!

 ** Make sure you have eaten properly before going to the store. Have low glycemic index carbohydrates like brown rice, yams or oatmeal combined with a lean protein like chicken, turkey or lean fish and some vegetables.

* Do NOT go grocery shopping when you are feeling DOWN!
** Don't go grocery shopping when you are sad or emotional. If you do, you will be very likely to grab "comfort foods." Leave it to another day, when you are feeling better, or give someone else the grocery list and have them shop for you!

Beware of Food Labels
* One of the biggest reasons people gain weight in fat when they are trying to lose weight is because they are being mislead by food labels. How often do you hear that someone is trying to lose fat, but instead, they gain fat and have NO clue why it happened because they are "eating healthy?"

* The companies producing the foods are misleading you to think a food product is healthy, when it is really NOT! The food production companies realized people are trying harder and harder to lose that stubborn fat. More and more people are trying to buy more healthy conscious foods and companies market their products as "healthy" to increase sales. They use CLEVER manipulation words ... and words ONLY. They use words which are not lies, but that are absolutely misleading, to make their food products LOOK healthy or healthier than they once used to be. Do NOT believe me? Here are a few examples:

Example 1: Low Carb Cookies or Candy Bars
* In this example, they don't say "fat-free" because they DO use glycerine and maltitol to sweeten them. Though these two ingredients do not have an impact in blood sugar levels, they do have CALORIES! However, the FDA allows such products to claim that they are "low carb." In addition, if you look at the fats contained in these foods, they are typically partially hydrogenated oils (transfats)! This is neither healthy nor will it help you attain your fitness or weight lose GOALS!

Example 2: Fat Free, Preservative Free Cookies
* This the reverse of the first example. Did you see the boxes of cookies (even chocolate ones) lately? They will read: "Fat free, gluten free, no preservatives or artificial flavors." Is this true? YES, it is. BUT, if we look on the back side of the package to read the ingredients ourselves, what do we see? Most likely the first word you will find will be SUGAR, or high glucose-fructose corn syrup. So it's pretty much ALL sugar! Is this healthy?! NOT even close!