Clean Eating Club - Thursday 11/20

cherapple

What is clean eating?

"In a nutshell, eating clean is the practice of eating whole, natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and complex carbohydrates. It also means staying away from the junk that typically makes up the Standard American Diet (S.A.D) These types of food include man-made sugar, bad fats (hydrogenated, trans-fat), preservatives, white bread, and any other ingredients that are unnecessary. An easy way to remember if a food is clean is: “If man made it, don’t eat it.”

A person who eats clean generally practices the following:

* Eliminates refined sugar
* Cooks healthy meals
* Packs healthy meals
* Makes healthy choices when dining out
* Drinks a lot of water
* Eats 5-6 small meals per day
* Combines healthy proteins with complex carbohydrates at every meal, which provides a feeling of fullness.
* Eliminates alcoholic beverages (or significantly limits them)
* Always eats breakfast."

~From http://www.eatingcleanworks.com

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This "club" is for anyone who wants to eat more natural, "cleaner" foods. Anyone is welcome to join, and anyone can start the thread each day. Just copy and past this first message into a "new topic." You don't have to follow the diet perfectly. I know it's not easy! Let's support each other in the quest to eat whole and natural foods. Join us!

cherapple

What is clean eating?

"In a nutshell, eating clean is the practice of eating whole, natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and complex carbohydrates. It also means staying away from the junk that typically makes up the Standard American Diet (S.A.D) These types of food include man-made sugar, bad fats (hydrogenated, trans-fat), preservatives, white bread, and any other ingredients that are unnecessary. An easy way to remember if a food is clean is: “If man made it, don’t eat it.”

A person who eats clean generally practices the following:

* Eliminates refined sugar
* Cooks healthy meals
* Packs healthy meals
* Makes healthy choices when dining out
* Drinks a lot of water
* Eats 5-6 small meals per day
* Combines healthy proteins with complex carbohydrates at every meal, which provides a feeling of fullness.
* Eliminates alcoholic beverages (or significantly limits them)
* Always eats breakfast."

~From http://www.eatingcleanworks.com

____
This "club" is for anyone who wants to eat more natural, "cleaner" foods. Anyone is welcome to join, and anyone can start the thread each day. Just copy and past this first message into a "new topic." You don't have to follow the diet perfectly. I know it's not easy! Let's support each other in the quest to eat whole and natural foods. Join us!

cherapple

I tried yogurt with peanut butter this morning, for a little pre-workout snack, Jess. Yum, so smooth and creamy! I didn't add the banana because I just wanted a little something so I wouldn't be strength training on an empty stomach. (I did Cathe's Body Max 2 Double Upper.) I'll save the banana for later. So today I've had:

Snack:
1/3 cup plain lowfat yogurt with 1 tsp. peanut butter

Breakfast, combined:
1/2 cup (uncooked) oatmeal, cooked
Sliced apple
1/2 Tbs. peanut butter
1/3 cup milk

Also, some more of my daughter's fruit icee.

I got this great kind of peanut butter at the farmer's market this past weekend -- Butter Blizzard White Chocolate natural peanut butter, made with powdered milk and no added sugars. Peanut butter can be added to just about anything, I'm learning! And with my struggle to eat all my calories, it's a good way to get more in.

Cheryl

jessmomof3

Thanks for starting the thread, Cheryl! Maybe we'll get some more people to join us!!

My food so far...

4 mile run (5AM)

Breakfast: (6:15AM)
3/4 c. Quaker Multi grain hot cereal cooked w/ 1/2 c. whole cranberries
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 T. flax, 1 T. wheat germ
1 T. NM PB
1/2 c. cottage cheese
Banana

Going out to lunch w/ some friends today at a local place (no website to check the cals), so it will be hard to know my exact cals. I hope they have a grilled chicken salad or something similar!!

jessmomof3

I tried yogurt with peanut butter this morning, for a little pre-workout snack, Jess. Yum, so smooth and creamy! I didn't add the banana because I just wanted a little something so I wouldn't be strength training on an empty stomach. (I did Cathe's Body Max 2 Double Upper.) I'll save the banana for later. So today I've had:
I got this great kind of peanut butter at the farmer's market this past weekend -- Butter Blizzard White Chocolate natural peanut butter, made with powdered milk and no added sugars. Peanut butter can be added to just about anything, I'm learning! And with my struggle to eat all my calories, it's a good way to get more in.

Cheryl

I love my Naturally More Peanut Butter (http://www.peanutsnack.com) It's my FAV!! I can only find it at Super Wal*mart so I always stock up! Glad you liked the yogurt & PB mixture, it sounds weird but PB is good in anything!! :laugh:

Oh wow, that white choc. PB sounds wonderful! Oh, and I love BM2, haven't done that one in a while!

Keep it clean! :flowerforyou:

Jess

jessmomof3

Crazy day! I'm finally sitting down again to input my meals!!

Lunch out w/ friends:
I got the Low-carb plate which was a delicious grilled chicken breast (really juicy, not dry),
a small cup of cottage cheese,
boiled egg (I just ate the white),
and small cup of fruit.
I also got a plain baked sweet potato. Delicious!!

Snack:
Broccoli & cauliflower
A few cantaloupe chunks
Fage Total yogurt + 1 T. NM PB

Off to eat dinner, then swimming lessons for my dd's and I will swim laps!

Jess

carolinamzd

This Clean Eating Club is actually a great idea! I have started eating clean again this week after falling off the wagon for a couple of months. I eat mostly organic so that works for me.

I eat 5-6 meals per day.

Breakfast:

Natrual steel cut oatmeal with raw honey and slivered almonds.
One whole organic omelet egg with sprinkles of cheese.
1 cup of mixed organic teas (white, black, oolong)

Early snack:

1/2 cup fat free milk (Organic Valley)
Organic baby carrots
organic peanut butter

Lunch:

Half pita bread
small slice of avocado (packed with good fats!)
2 oz. chicken breast
tomato
grounded flax seeds
red onion
cayenne pepper

Mid afternoon snack:
I skipped the snack and drank a post workout protein shake
15g natural vanilla protein shake
1/2 cup milk
1/2 water
1/2 tbsp organic maple syrup
3/4 frozen banana

Blended using a single serving blender

Dinner:
Same as lunch

Snack:
Kippered herrings with whole grain cracker.

I am supposed to eat a minimum of 1,200 calories but since I started training, I can safely eat a little more. One day out of the week I can over eat by 800 calories to trick my body into thinking that I am not going on starvation mode and still lose fat and gain muscles. I truly look forward to over eating days.

I also avoid sodas, anything that has high fructose corn syrup, trans fats... etc

cherapple

What a crazy day here, too! I need to learn to pack foods. I went a little over my calories because I let myself get too hungry, and then I ate too much, and it wasn't all clean. I ate my first sugar in five days because my daughter thought there was something wrong with her yogurt, and I tasted it for her, and then of course ended up eating the whole thing because I was so hungry that I was ready to eat anything. It was organic sugar, but still. I did succeed at saying "no thanks" to the dark chocolate that the girls bought for me! All in all, it was a pretty good day. No major falling off the wagon.

Do you guys take a cooler of healthy food with you when you leave the house? What kinds of things do you pack?

Jess, I've never seen Naturally More peanut butter. Do they have it with the rest of the PB at Walmart?

Welcome, carolinamzd! Thanks for posting your foods. I'm learning a lot by seeing what others are eating.

Here's to a clean tomorrow!
Cheryl

jessmomof3

Do you guys take a cooler of healthy food with you when you leave the house? What kinds of things do you pack?

Jess, I've never seen Naturally More peanut butter. Do they have it with the rest of the PB at Walmart?

I don't normally take a cooler w/ me, but I try to plan ahead. Like today while I was out running errands, I planned on getting my snack at Meijer. They have pre-cut veggies and fruits there, so that's where I got the broccoli, cauliflower, melon cubes, and I picked up a Fage yogurt. Much better snack than driving through somewhere. Sometimes I'll grab and apple & some nuts to keep in the car if I know I'll be gone for a while.

Yep, it's with the regular PB, but on the very top shelf usually. It has a bright yellow lid. I am seriously addicted to it.

jessmomof3

This Clean Eating Club is actually a great idea! I have started eating clean again this week after falling off the wagon for a couple of months. I eat mostly organic so that works for me.
I am supposed to eat a minimum of 1,200 calories but since I started training, I can safely eat a little more. One day out of the week I can over eat by 800 calories to trick my body into thinking that I am not going on starvation mode and still lose fat and gain muscles. I truly look forward to over eating days.

I also avoid sodas, anything that has high fructose corn syrup, trans fats... etc

Welcome to the CEC! Your diet looks great! I have to eat more than 1,200 cals, I fluctuate depending on my workout but hardly ever eat less than 1,800 cals. I run and lift weights and am an active person so I have to keep myself fueled! I avoid sodas, HFCS, and trans fats, MSG, and other additives also.

jessmomof3

Dinner:
1/2 c. Quaker multi grain hot cereal
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/2 c. whole cranberries
1 T. NM PB
1/2 c. cottage cheese
1/2 banana

Took my kids to swimming lessons and swam around 1,000 yds.

Snack:
Apple
SF hot cocoa

Good day for me, higher in cals (around 2,100) but w/ 4 mile run and a swim tonight I'm still below my recommended. :huh:

carolinamzd

Ladies, thanks for welcoming me CEC I am on week two trying my best to eat clean.

I have had a long day today and wasn't on track as I would have normally do. I am just starting out until I get used to eating cleaner. Been out with other church members giving out boxes of foods for the needy.

I actually carry two small cooler if that is how you call it but I need to get myself a big cooler so I can have everything in one place.

Breakfast:
1 whole egg
little bit of sprinkled cheese
onion
mushroom
tomato
apple
1 c. tea with raw honey

Snack:
1 oz. organic raisins
1 oz. organic sunflower seeds

Lunch:
2 oz chicken breast
tomato
onion
romaine lettuce
1/2 wheat wrap

(Here is where I didn't eat clean. I was hanging out with the church members at Dunkin Donuts. I felt bad that two of our youth weren't getting something and I told them that if they order something. I will also eat something. I picked out what I thought was the "healthiest choice" a reduced calorie blueberry muffin. I would have gone for the double chocolate donut.)

Snack:
1/2 cup organic cottage cheese
1/4 coconut milk
chunks of pineapples

Dinner:
Organic mixed veggies
sprinkles of grounded flax seeds
sprinkles of cheddar cheese
2 oz of white turkey patty

Water:
I didn't drink as much water as I should have.

I didn't work out today. I have started out with 4 times per week but next week I am hoping that I will increase my workout session as my muscles soreness gradually fade.

Keep it up Jess and Cheryl!!

God bless,

Carolina

cherapple

(Here is where I didn't eat clean. I was hanging out with the church members at Dunkin Donuts. I felt bad that two of our youth weren't getting something and I told them that if they order something. I will also eat something. I picked out what I thought was the "healthiest choice" a reduced calorie blueberry muffin. I would have gone for the double chocolate donut.)

...

I didn't work out today. I have started out with 4 times per week but next week I am hoping that I will increase my workout session as my muscles soreness gradually fade.

Carolina

I remember being sore ALL THE TIME when I first started seriously exercising over two years ago. It was a little discouraging when I grew tired of being in pain, but I stuck with it and eventually my body got used to working out. Today I'm sore because I just started using the machines at the gym, to give myself another workout option, and I did a lower body workout yesterday. For some reason -- the extra stability, I guess -- I don't feel like I'm working as hard on the machines as I do using free weights, so I may have overdone it a little.

When I need to eat out, I like the egg white flatbread sandwiches a Dunkin Donuts. I never eat the muffins or donuts. I don't really like donuts, but muffins and cake of any kind are a challenge to say no too! Not so much now that I'm beginning to see sugar as "poison," however, since I feel so much healthier when I eat clean.

I start week two of clean eating today, too. It already feels like a healthy habit! I'm loving it.

Cheryl