Maybe you’ve heard of eating clean as a buzzword, but what is it exactly and how can you apply it to lose weight? Eating clean at its core is choosing a variety of natural minimally processed foods for your meals. I’m here to simplify how to eat clean for beginners losing weight. You won’t believe how easy it is once you start.
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There are many additives to the food you find in a box or a bag. For example, take a look at a box of crackers or chips and see if you can pronounce everything you see.
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Our bodies don’t know how to process these things and may lead to excess weight gain. In addition to the unpronounceable compounds added, there is typically excess sugar or sodium (salt) added to processed foods. Again this causes additional calories to be consumed that don’t add nutritional value.
I like to keep this first step as simple as possible. Do everything you are doing today, the only thing to focus on is adding in natural foods. There are many natural foods you could choose from so start I like to start with fruits or vegetables.
Step 1: The most simple option (as well as the healthiest) is to add in one veggie and one fruit per day. Here are a few ideas but you are certainly not limited to this list.
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Remember, just shoot for adding in one vegetable and one fruit into your daily intake. Here’s an example, pair fresh celery with almond or peanut butter for a snack. Slice a banana in your oatmeal for breakfast or snack.
Step 2: As you get in the habit of eating one vegetable and one fruit, try to mix up which veggie and fruit you choose each day. One day could be carrots and peanut butter, the next could be celery, or you might add in roasted asparagus for dinner. The idea is to just choose one veggie and one fruit and experiment with swapping in more variety as you become more familiar with what you like most.
Step 3: Experiment with recipes you find online, Pinterest is a great place to find clean eating recipes that are simple and delicious. Try a clean eating version of your favorite cookie recipe or a clean eating main dish you love.
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Processed as we can’t always eat unprocessed food, nor do we always want to. Sometimes convenience on a road trip means breaking out the kettle chips.
However, just because something is processed doesn’t make it good or bad, it depends on the situation. For instance, you could consider baking a potato a form of processing. It’s a heated up form of its original state. But does that make it bad? Of course not, who eats an uncooked potato? In fact, heating up certain foods can make the nutrients more bioavailable to us. This means we are better able to digest and absorb the nutrients of that food.
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However, take that same potato, chop it up, throw on some cornstarch and deep fry it into French fries. Is that healthy? Well considering the crunchy texture and added fat for flavor, what was once a simple potato has now become a highly desirable French fry. In this format, it’s hard to stop eating a normal portion given its new highly palatable format making over consumption quite likely.
I’m not saying French fries are bad, I certainly love them (who doesn’t). But when you are trying to lose weight while eating a highly palatable food, you can see how it can be a challenge to stop at your dietary needs.
Well for starters, if something has a label, chances are it’s processed in some way. Typically real food is grown in the ground or sea or eats food grown in the ground or sea. Produce like veggies and fruit or protein like poultry or fish typically don’t come with a label.
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When looking at a label, it can feel intimidating. Let me simplify it for you. There are a bunch of macro and micro nutrients and their portion sizes listed, skip down past those and look for Ingredients.
First, as you read the ingredients, the order matters. They are listed in order of most present in said product to least present. As a result, the first few ingredients are the most important. Where this comes into play is if you read the front of a package that says “sweet potato chips” you might think oh sweet potatoes are healthy. However, if you look at the first ingredient it’s usually corn. Tricky tricky.
Second, make sure everything on the label is something you recognize. For instance, companies are notorious for adding chemical compounds that make a “food” uber palatable, leading us to eat more than our dietary needs.
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Third, look for added sodium or sugar (this comes in many names and forms). However it can be tough to know exactly if an ingredient is actually sugar. Therefore, if you don’t recognize an ingredient be sure to look it up. Usually a giveaway is if it ends in -ose such as fructose.
+ Processed meats such as deli cold cuts, Italian cured meats to >> raw chicken, beef, fish, or pork cooked at home
+ Common yogurt brands packed with sugar (such as a brand that rhymes with cannon) to >> low or nonfat Greek yogurt
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When it comes to cooking, I have found many people over complicate it quite a bit. If you’re cooking for clean eating or for weight loss there are very simple processes to follow.
Pan sear or bake your food. Use extra-virgin olive oil or coconut oil for cooking vegetables or proteins such as fish or poultry. I like to use a cast iron pan or a grill is excellent for larger items like chicken breasts.
A super super simple way to cook for clean eating is using an air fryer. I am a HUGE fan of my air fryer and it is the most convenient kitchen appliance I own. I don’t know what I did all these years without one to be honest. For example, I used to bake my sweet potato fries and it took like 45 minutes on the oven at 450. Additionally, you have to flip them halfway between! It’s a lot to do, and oftentimes they still came out kind of soggy.
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Consequently, I now use my air fryer which requires less oil (which means less calories) and I’m still able to get a crispier fry cooked to perfection with my air fryer.
I often get the question: “How do I eat clean on a budget?” You want to know the best news about eating clean? It’s less expensive than eating processed foods. More processing = more people, machinery, packaging, and resources to get the food into your hands. The more a food is processed, the more it costs to make, transport, package, and sell.
Consider the difference in regular brown rice and minute brown rice. Brown rice typically takes 45 minutes to an hour to cook, but how do they get Minute Rice to cook in a few minutes?
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All rice goes through a milling process that takes it from the seed down to the edible insides, with minute rice going through one additional level to break it down. Then minute rice is blanched, rinsed, then dehydrated until it contains very low moisture. During this process the grain cracks and forms holes in the kernel which allows it to rehydrate quickly then next time it cooks.
This process removes healthy fiber and nutrients along with it. And the worst part? It’s more expensive! You are essentially paying someone else to cook it for you and remove the nutrition along with it.
I smile when clients ask me about how to budget for clean eating. The truth is, it’s almost always less expensive than they’ve been eating in the past, especially with meal prepping.
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The absolute cheapest way to eat is growing and cooking your own food. If you have the space and interest in making a garden, I highly recommend it! Nothing better than locally grown organic produce from your backyard.
What do you drink during the day? Juice, gatorade, soda, brisk, Frappuccinos, iced coffee double pump of vanilla. All of these types of drinks have “hidden” sugars, preservatives, or chemical compounds that come from mass producing a shelf stable item.
Water is your best friend and perfect accompaniment to all your meals. But I know it can be hard to drink just plain old water if you aren’t used to that.
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A few tips I have for drinking clean is to find ways to make your water more appealing to you by adding herbs or fruit steeped for a couple hours.
But even I don’t only drink water.
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