Friday, January 8, 2010

Clean Eating 101




  • I think most of you know how I feel about "New Year Resolutions." My feelings are mixed, on the one hand I'm excited, pumped, & jazzed about people making a decision to put health first in their lives. On the other hand, child please....you don't need to wait until January 1st to gain control of a healthy lifestyle and most times people stop by March because it gets too difficult. (rolling eyes) With all that being said, I've been asked a lot about what my advice is on "diets, nutrition, and how to lose weight."

Clean Eating!

  • In the past I've talked about clean eating and what a huge fan I am. I wanted to touch base on my blog about the subject of clean eating. This is not necessarily a "diet" but more a healthy way to eat and lose weight at the same time. The simple and easiest way to explain clean eating is eating natural foods (God's food), nothing processed, combining complex carbohydrates and proteins at every meal and the food is broken up into 5-6 mini meals a day.

Breakfast-Snack-Lunch-Snack-Dinner-Snack

Example: 1800 Calorie Diet

Breakfast-400

Mid Morning Snack-200

Lunch-400

Late Afternoon Snack-200

Dinner-400

After Dinner Snack-200


  • The key is to keep the body from "starving" until the next meal. This keeps the metabolism (your body's engine) charged, blood sugar levels regulated, and helps with overall health & clarity of mind, body, and spirit.

In the trainers library:





  • The bottom line is I think people think they have to suffer, starve, and make themselves miserable to lose weight. This unfortunately develops a cycle of starve, lose weight, burn out, gain weight, starve, lose weight, burn out, gain weight....

  • You have to eat to lose weight and keep the body charged throughout the day!
  • I would never recommend something I didn't try out myself. This changed my perspective in healthy eating and helped me to be in the best shape of my life. :)
  • In the next few weeks, I'm gonna offer more information about clean eating and how you can make in a part of your life very easily.

19 comments:

teacherwoman said...

Thanks for sharing, Shannon! I look forward to reading more!

In addition to the 5-6 small meals, I thought it was recommended to have breakfast be your largest meal, then lunch, with dinner your smallest... I am curious of our thoughts on this...

JayRo said...

awesome tips! I can't wait to learn more! I'm throwing my Hamburger Helper away now....

RunToTheFinish said...

yeahh I will be reading along. I love the concept but Tosca's book started to get too complicated with recipes so I've been just making things up...sometimes it's nice to have a recipe though

ONEHOURIRONMAN said...

You are really making me feel bad about the Little Debbie brownie I bought on the way into work today....really!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

All you needed was that picture of pizza and I am sold on clean eating!!!!!!

Gotta Run..... said...

You can workout like a mad crazed person BUT until you clean up the diet you are just... well... not do one of the most important parts.

Simple: We are what we eat.
Junk in is junk out

LOVE IT!!! Looking forward to you sharing with us!

Mike Russell said...

I am excited to see what you suggest in the next couple of weeks. I think my diet is pretty solid, but I want to get down to 10% body fat so I need to take it to the next level...

Wes said...

I second the clean eating. I got my smoothie recipe out of The Biggest Loser Swaps book. A cup of frozen fruit, half a cup of 1% milk (or almond milk or whatever), a cup of whey protein, and a packet of tivia. Good stuff! I want to get some of those clean eating books and magazines. Shhhhh.... Dee Dee-licious will probably kill me if another Amazon box shows up any time soon.

Wes said...

sorry, not a cup of whey protein, but one scoop ;-) That would be gross...

Amanda said...

Great info! Eating clean is defintely the way to go! I love Tosca Reno's book and am a huge fan of following the Eat-Clean Diet. In order to lose/maintain weight, it's 80% about your nutrition so eating clean is SOOO important!
Also love the Clean Eating mags, I'm excited to get mine every month!

Kevin said...

I really like her books and magazine. I just need to stick to it better. Her last cookbook was especially good.

Alt O'Cocker said...

If I eat clean, will I no longer need to sit on my 'roid pillow?

Jo Lynn said...

I am so naive about clean eating. To me, it seems like all you would be able to eat is fruits and vegetables then. :-/
I'll have to pay attention to your future posts. ;)

Tricia said...

Thanks for sharing!

XTB-XAVI said...

Thanks for sharing your are completely right!

"XTB" from Hong Kong.

Anonymous Fat Girl said...

Girl, you are so right. This is the same stuff my trainer has been pounding into my brain for the last few months.

I subscribed to Clean Eating magazine last month, can't wait until I get my first issue! :)

X-Country2 said...

All great points. Although now I want a smoothie.

Chris said...

Amen Sister! Clean eating pays off HUGE! Ask me how I know! :-)

Outstanding post !!

ShirleyPerly said...

My husband just started a "crazy" diet that sounds much like this clean eating thing. It's crazy to me because he's having to give up pretty much everything he likes and he's someone seeks solace in food when stressed out, which is often working 60-80 hrs/wk and being on travel nearly every week. BUT, I'm wiling to help him at least eat better than he does. Look forward to hearing more about this!