Clean Eating Club - Tuesday 12/2

cherapple

This "club" is for anyone who wants to eat five or six times per day and eat natural, healthy, "clean" foods. Let's support each other in the quest to eat well, feel satisfied all the time, eliminate cravings, and melt off body fat. Anyone is welcome to join, and anyone can start the thread each day. Just copy and paste this first message into a new topic. You don't have to follow the diet perfectly, but it's easier than you might think!

Feel free to add your own tip or recipe for the day. Ask questions. Tell us what you're eating and how your clean food journey is going. How is it helping you or changing your life?
________
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:

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

~Adapted from http://www.eatingcleanworks.com

cherapple

This "club" is for anyone who wants to eat five or six times per day and eat natural, healthy, "clean" foods. Let's support each other in the quest to eat well, feel satisfied all the time, eliminate cravings, and melt off body fat. Anyone is welcome to join, and anyone can start the thread each day. Just copy and paste this first message into a new topic. You don't have to follow the diet perfectly, but it's easier than you might think!

Feel free to add your own tip or recipe for the day. Ask questions. Tell us what you're eating and how your clean food journey is going. How is it helping you or changing your life?
________
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:

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

~Adapted from http://www.eatingcleanworks.com

cherapple

Alf wrote in yesterday's thread:

I want to do this but find it very difficult to achieve most of the time. Can you give me an example of what you eat? What your entire day's menu would be? How many calories do you eat? I notice that when I try to eat clean the calorie amount is low and I find it hard to reach my calorie allowance at the end of the day. Thank you in advance!!! :flowerforyou:

Hi, alf! I'm glad to see you here!

Reaching my calorie goal while clean eating has been a problem for me, too. My base goal is 1200 (I'm still trying to find out whether that's too low for me) and today I worked out on the elliptical and, according to the machines (I use two), I burned 525 calories, so I need to eat 1725 calories. So far today I've eaten (I do not plan in advance, although that would probably be helpful):

1/2 cup oatmeal (before cooking)
1 large apple
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup liquid egg whites
1 Tbs. milled flax seed
Calories: 326

I try to eat around 300 calories every two to three hours. I will try to be more diligent about posting what I eat today, and hopefully someone else will come by and post their foods, too. I'm still learning and working on tweeking my calories, protein, fat, and carbs. My main focus right now is making sure that I eat a complex carb source along with a lean protein source and have about 300 calories at each meal.

One good way to add more calories to your meals is to up your protein and your fat. Hence today I added the flax seed, which I haven't done in the past. I find that I usually don't reach my fat goal each day, so that's a good place for me to start adding a few calories.

How do you feel when you eat clean? I feel better than I've ever felt in my life, so for me it's worth the struggle to get it "right"! Going back to eating processed foods and sugars quickly increases the calories, but it makes me feel horrible and adds pounds within days. Of course, this is water weight because I couldn't gain fat that fast, but I am amazed at all the people out there trying to lose weight and thinking that calories are all that matters. The truth is, two people of equal size can eat the same amount of calories and the one who eats the cleaner foods will be leaner.

Well, that's my soapbox message for the day! :bigsmile:

MissGorgeous

for the most part i eat clean
i find it hard to hit 1200 calories a day but i TRY too
and if and when i do go over its not a big deal its all healthy food
this is what i have planned for today

breakfest i had
1 container soy organic yougart
5 strawberries and 10blueberries

Lunch ill have
BLEND
1/2 bananna
2 table spoons cooked organic oats (oatmeal)
1 tablespoon organic crunchy peanutbutter
1tablespoon organic brown sugar
1/2 cup organic soy rice milk
1/2 cup goats milk

Snacks For During The Day
apple (sometime before lunch)
pecan halfs (sometime after lunch but before dinner)

Dinner ill have
a nice green salad yummmm
dressing im not sure what kind ill put on yet

alf1163

What other foods you would eat? Do you eat meat? My breakfast is usually the cleanest of the day :laugh: It is what I eat most mornings unless I eat some eggs and whole wheat bread. I ate:
1/3c old fashioned oatmeal
1/2c skim milk
1 oz blueberries
.5 oz walnuts
1 small banana
decaf
coffemate gingerbread (I know, processed)

For snacks: I usually have a whole grain english muffin with natural peanut butter and some jelly, or a piece of fruit with a cheese stick, or yogurt with almonds

Lunch I usually have some tuna, whole wheat bread, or a salad and lean meat, a piece of fruit...

Dinner is the hardest meal for me since I eat it with my family and my husband can be picky, not into health foods, fitness, etc like me. I control my portions of whatever we are eating but there's usually things like potato salad or baked potato, some kind of meat, salad, or baked beans, etc.

I definitely feel better mentally and physically when I eat clean. I feel proud of myself and I know my body is thanking me for nourishing it the way it needs to be. Yes, I like and do eat "junk" foods but I usually feel guilty and bloated, etc after I eat it so why do I eat it? Usually, peer pressure, because everyone else around me is doing it...I do much better when I am by myself at home and at work...

Have a great day!! :flowerforyou:

cherapple

for the most part i eat clean
i find it hard to hit 1200 calories a day but i TRY too
and if and when i do go over its not a big deal its all healthy food
this is what i have planned for today

Begorgeous, I think that's great that you're losing weight in such a healthy way! If you can't reach 1200 calories a day maybe you just need to eat more often? The apple and pecans could be one snack together, and then you still have room for one or two more. Also, add some protein to that dinner. :bigsmile:

My goal is ultimately not to have to count calories at all, but until I get used to eating this way and what my portion sizes should be, it helps to make me feel like I'm either under control, or out of control :laugh: , with my food.

cherapple

Foods eaten:

Snack:
3/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup liquid egg whites
1 Tbs. cocoa powder
Stevia

Lunch:
1/2 serving cheese ravioli (not clean)
1/2 serving cheese tortellini (not clean)
1/2 cup tomato sauce
Sprinkle of Parmesan

Snack:
1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt
1 Tbs. peanut butter
1/2 large banana
1/8 cup Grape Nuts
Stevia

I am at 1000 calories with 725 to go. It's been a busy, somewhat stressful day, with not much time for snacking or preparing foods. My main goal right now is to cut out the added sugars and simple carbs, and today that will be mostly a success (besides the white pasta for lunch). I'm getting low on clean foods, but I'll be shopping tonight!

cherapple

What other foods you would eat? Do you eat meat?

For snacks: I usually have a whole grain english muffin with natural peanut butter and some jelly, or a piece of fruit with a cheese stick, or yogurt with almonds

Lunch I usually have some tuna, whole wheat bread, or a salad and lean meat, a piece of fruit...

Dinner is the hardest meal for me since I eat it with my family and my husband can be picky, not into health foods, fitness, etc like me. I control my portions of whatever we are eating but there's usually things like potato salad or baked potato, some kind of meat, salad, or baked beans, etc.

I definitely feel better mentally and physically when I eat clean. I feel proud of myself and I know my body is thanking me for nourishing it the way it needs to be. Yes, I like and do eat "junk" foods but I usually feel guilty and bloated, etc after I eat it so why do I eat it? Usually, peer pressure, because everyone else around me is doing it...I do much better when I am by myself at home and at work...

Have a great day!! :flowerforyou:

I do eat meat, and I just started to, after being a vegetarian for five years. ... A diet that I'm learning did me no favors because I needed more protein, and the processed soy kind wasn't good enough. It may work for some people, but not for me. So I'm experiencing a learning curve in both clean eating and meat eating at the same time. I keep finding myself wanting to eat meat the way I used to eat it (sweet and sour Chinese chicken, for example), and forgetting that it isn't clean that way!

It is hard to eat clean when others in the house want to keep eating the way they always have. :ohwell: I just hope that when my husband and kids see how well I'm doing physically and emotionally, they'll want the same health for themselves!

I don't expect myself to be a perfect clean eater right away. Small improvements, a little at a time, are good! It looks to me like you're doing a pretty good job, Alf. :flowerforyou:

jessmomof3

Another crazy day here! Not enough food, dropped my kids off to school, went to the Y and straight to run errands!!

Pre-workout:
Melaleuca Chocolate Caramel Kruncher Access bar (fat burning bar)

4 mile interval run, 600 yd swim

Post-workout:
Apple
Fage 2% yogurt

Lunch;
1/2 c. Multi grain hot cereal
1/4 c. Fiber one
1/2 scoop choc. protein powder
1 T. NM PB
1/2 c. cottage cheese
A few berries & melon cubes

No afternoon snack, later lunch!

Dinner:
will be leftover spicy chicken chili (recipe posted by Tamtastic in the recipe section)
Veggies
Fruit

cherapple

Snack:
15 Triscuits
1 Tbs. PB

Dinner:
1/2 chicken breast
1 whole wheat tortilla
Few red pepper strips
Spinach leaves
Carrot sticks
1 cup skim milk

Total calories for the day: 1765
Goal: 1725

MissGorgeous

for the most part i eat clean
i find it hard to hit 1200 calories a day but i TRY too
and if and when i do go over its not a big deal its all healthy food
this is what i have planned for today

Begorgeous, I think that's great that you're losing weight in such a healthy way! If you can't reach 1200 calories a day maybe you just need to eat more often? The apple and pecans could be one snack together, and then you still have room for one or two more. Also, add some protein to that dinner. :bigsmile:

My goal is ultimately not to have to count calories at all, but until I get used to eating this way and what my portion sizes should be, it helps to make me feel like I'm either under control, or out of control :laugh: , with my food.

Yeah i dont coutn calories to much
i do some weeks just to see where im averaging
but for the most part i just eat and make it small and clean!
I dont eat meat and havent since i was about 6 or 7

jessmomof3

Dinner:
will be leftover spicy chicken chili (recipe posted by Tamtastic in the recipe section)
Veggies
Fruit

Ended up having a small bowl of the chicken chili
A few pieces of melon, a couple strawberries & blueberries

Snack:
3/4 c. cottage cheese + cinnamon + walnuts
Sugar- free hot cocoa w/ 4oz unsweetened soymilk, decaf coffee, & cocoa powder

Low in cals for the day, but I was a little over y'day. :laugh: