The Ultimate Guide to Clean Eating: A Path to a Healthier Lifestyle
The need for eating healthier, nutritious meals is greater than it has ever been. Back in the day your groceries were more likely to consist of naturally harvested foods from fruits to veggies to grains, but these days it’s becoming harder to find foods that have not been heavily processed in one way or another. Also, it is not unusual to meet people who say that they can’t go a whole day without eating at a fast food restaurant.
In this write-up on clean eating, you will get to know a bit more about clean eating to help you take that next step with confidence.
Understanding What Clean Eating Is All About
Clean eating is not a fad or a dietary choice that should be taken lightly by any one. This lifestyle decision requires a conscious effort on your part to steer clear of eating any refined food and protecting yourself from the health risks that come with consuming processed foods.
With clean eating you plan your meals around naturally grown foods like whole grains, fresh fruits, healthy fats, lean meat, plant proteins and green vegetables.
How Clean Eating is Beneficial to Your Health
There are quite a number of reasons why you should adopt a clean eating lifestyle today. But here are five (5) benefits that every fitness enthusiast may find quite interesting.
- Clean Eating Enhances Your Overall Health
Whenever your daily meals consist of veggies and fruits, you not only boost your immune system with essential phytochemicals, minerals, and vitamins, but you also increase the amount of antioxidants in your body to help minimize your exposure to chronic ailments like cancer, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular health complications.
- Clean Eating Helps You to Better Manage Your Weight
Naturally occurring foods are often rich in nutrients, but with a low calorie count. You should try consuming foods that are highly nutritious with a good balance of macro and micronutrients that are essential to your overall wellbeing, general health, and body weight. What’s more, while clean eating can help with weight management, you need to know that foods like vegetables and whole grains tend to curb hunger pangs, keeping you full for a much longer length of time and stopping you from binge eating.
- Clean Eating can Boost Energy
Whenever you consume whole foods, such as; starchy veggies and complex carbohydrates, you equip your body with slow releasing, sustainable energy that will keep you both alert and active all through your daily activities. In addition to this, the slow energy release from whole foods ensures that you do not experience sudden spikes or crashes in your blood sugar levels.
- Clean Eating Improves Digestion
Whenever you eat foods that have a high fiber content like whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, your digestion is greatly improved protecting you from a host of digestive system health concerns like bloating, indigestion, and constipation.
- Clean Eating can Boost Mental Health
Whenever you regularly consume a diet that is balanced with protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, minerals and vitamins, you will be able to boost your mental health. Foods like flaxseeds and fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that are important for enhancing your cognitive function and improving your overall mood.
5 Important Principles of Eating Clean
Before you begin eating clean today, there are some important principles that you need to take to heart.
Principle #1: Consume Whole Foods
We have already mentioned the importance of eating whole foods in this write-up, but it can not be overemphasized how important it is for you to consume natural, nutrient-dense foods like seeds, nuts, whole grains, lean proteins, organic vegetables, and fruits.
Principle #2: Steer Clear of Processed or Refined Foods
You should try as much as possible to avoid consuming refined and/or processed foods, as they often consist of empty calories as well as harmful, carcinogenic refined sugars, preservatives, and artificial additives.
Principle #3: Always Read the Labels of Your Grocery Items
Whenever you go shopping, you should try as much as possible to read the labels of your grocery items. Try to avoid buying items that have artificial flavors and colors, added sugars, unhealthy fats, and other additives or chemicals that you may be suspicious of. You should pick those products with whole natural ingredients.
Principle #4: Nothing Beats Home Cooking
You won’t go wrong if the majority of your meals are home cooked. You can be sure of the quality of your whole foods as well as the ingredients used in the preparation of your meals. What’s more, you can be sure of the freshness of your foods, cooking to your taste, and avoiding any additives that are common in foods cooked in eateries for example.
Principle #5: Avoid Dehydration
To avoid dehydration you should always drink lots of fluids while avoiding alcoholic beverages, energy drinks, and/or other sugary drinks. You can drink infused water and herbal teas to help with hydration. Staying hydrated will aid your metabolism and digestion to improve your general health.
Your Possible Clean Eating Grocery List
Here’s a grocery list to help you out if you are just starting out clean eating today.
Veggies & Fruits
Veggies and fruits will provide you with antioxidants, vitamins, and essential minerals to help boost your immunity, prevent ailments, and keep you generally healthy. You can get veggies and fruits like kale, sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, berries, and apples.
Lean Meat and Proteins
Lean meat is necessary for your supply of protein which is important for the repair, recovery, and growth of muscle tissues. Get lean meat from white meat sources, such as; fish, turkey, and chicken. You can also source protein from legumes and tofu.
Whole Grains
The consumption of fiber-rich whole grains will help to keep you full and supply your body with glucose which is converted to glycogen when in your muscle tissues giving you the energy you require for your workout. Buy whole grains like oats, quinoa, whole wheat bread, and brown rice. Fiber-rich whole grains promote better digestion to prevent constipation.
Healthy Fats
You can get your daily supply of healthy fats from a variety of healthy foods like your favorite seeds, nuts, olive oil, and avocados. Healthy fats help to improve brain function, energy levels, and hormone production.
Dairy Substitutes
Are you lactose intolerant or do you prefer plant-based alternatives? Well, rather than buy dairy products, you can try out dairy substitutes like nutritional yeast, coconut yogurt, and almond milk.
A Sample of A Clean Eating Meal Plan
Here’s a sample of a clean eating meal plan just to give you an idea of what you could do when preparing your own meal plan. This meal plan consists of breakfast, lunch, midday snack, dinner, and dessert.
For Breakfast
For breakfast you can have a high fiber meal that is also rich in antioxidants and energy to keep you active long into the day. Prepare oatmeal with toppings of berries and chia seeds with a drizzle of pure honey.
For Lunch
For lunch you can try out a grilled chicken breast salad. In this salad you can add lemon vinaigrette, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and mixed veggies. You will be nourished with healthy fats, proteins, and vitamins.
For Midday Snack
For your midday snack, you can have apple slices with a spread of almond butter. With this snack, you will supply your body with dietary fiber and healthy fats that keep you full for long hours during the day.
For Dinner
For your dinner, you can try out a meal consisting of quinoa and baked salmon with broccoli on the side. The baked salmon provides you with healthy fats as salmon supplies your body with omega-3 fatty acids. As for the quinoa, you are provided with protein while the broccoli gives you a good supply of dietary fiber, vitamins, and essential minerals.
For Dessert
You can end your day with a dessert of Greek yogurt and toppings of fresh fruit and flaxseeds. This yummy dessert will provide you with healthy fats and protein.
How to Begin Your Clean Eating Journey
While it may not be easy to change your diet and indeed your lifestyle overnight, this is exactly what is needed if you want to successfully start your clean eating journey.
I know you may have wanted me to say, start the transition gradually and slowly switch to a clean diet, but experience has taught me that this approach really doesn’t work, as you are more likely to binge on unhealthy fast food when the chips are down.
Most people will compare the tastes of the food they are already used to with the taste of the new food(s) that they want to switch to and prefer to stay where they were or at least not completely deviate from eating unhealthy food.
So, it is better to be prepared mentally for the transition knowing that there is no going back on the journey you are about to embark on. These days my advice to anyone that wants to jump from unhealthy meals to a clean diet is to just take a leap of faith and go for it without looking back.
Tips for Preparing Your Meals
Always Prep in Advance
You can plan way ahead of time by having your grocery list in hand, buying all you need for a week’s supply and having a clear idea of what you will eat throughout the week in question.
Cook and Store Large Meals
You can cook large meals at a time to save you time. You can put your food in airtight plastic containers that will keep them fresh for much longer. Refrigerate your prepared meals and pick a refrigerated container whenever you need to eat.
The Most Common Clean Eating Constraints
The most common constraints to your desire to switch to clean eating are:
High Budget
It may be less expensive getting unhealthy processed or refined foods from your local grocery shop compared to buying healthy natural foods from a popular farmers’ market. However, as we have already explained, healthy natural meals will beat unhealthy processed foods any day.
Time Challenge
You may find it hard to keep up with the purchase and preparation of your meals. You can manage your time by seeking the help of family and friends in preparing your meals.
Hunger Pangs
It is not unusual for people that have recently made a switch to eating clean to have hunger pangs. It is quite normal to have cravings for sweet tasting treats, as your body comes to terms with adjusting to the new diet. What you can do to curb your hunger pangs is to stick with eating green vegetables and fresh fruits as your snacks instead of eating french fries and burgers for example.
Conclusion
You should feel free to take up a clean eating diet to help improve your health in the long-run. While at this point you may be hesitant to make up your mind, you can seek the reassurance of a fitness expert here today.
