Wanting to start eating clean....help!

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First thing I would recommend is to log all your food each day. Either you're skipping meals or you're not logging them. Both are bad if you're trying to lose weight.

To start out, just cut out fast food, candy and junk food almost entirely. Once a week is okay if you fit it into your calories, but no more than that. Eat plain greek yogurt with fresh fruit instead of the sugary stuff.

Eat lean protein, chicken, fish, turkey and whole grains with low fat dairy products and healthy fats like nuts and avocados.

Trash the processed foods like corn dogs, and eat mostly whole foods, not things out of a package or a box.

Your attitude is fantastic first of all! Props to you on knowing you should change your food choices and giving it the ol' college try to learn how lol.

Check out this book by Tosca Reno "The Eat Clean Diet". There are a couple different versions , but they all explain pretty well about eating clean and pairing of protein, healthy fat and complex carbs for every meal. Portions and even what your better options are to choose if you must eat out. There are also some starter very delicious recipes in the back of it. Lots of things will come along with time as you learn through experience and what works for you but this book was eye opening and reccommended to me by my fitness instructor.

Eating clean does tend to cost a little bit more, but really if you plan and don't get lazy it doesnt have to be. Check out local farmers markets or the smaller scale meat shops for fresh produce. If you have a crock pot and a freezer there are a million options available for no fuss make ahead meals that don't cost a lot and are great for you. Google them.

Feel free to friend me if you like. I'm not 100% clean, but I do pretty good if I do say so myself. Your going to feel great and look great JUST from changing your foods if you give it your all. Welcome to healthy living

Processed foods will have a lot of ingredients listed that you can't pronounce. Foods that are clean will generally include just a few ingredients and you'll usually recognize all of them.

I'm in college too and struggle with the same issues regarding time and money. I try to set aside one evening to prepare a nutritious meal that I can have nearly all week: chicken & veggies, or a stir fry. These hold up well during the week. Then I'll just supplement the remainder meals with sandwiches or salads for lunch, eggs and veggie sausage for breakfast. I find snacks to be difficult because I'm on campus all day, so it's difficult to find snacks that I can throw in my bag and eat 6 hours later. I've found that hummus holds up pretty well, couple with baby carrots--it's delicious. I will also do an almond/raisin mix of my own making: 15 almonds with 2 TB raisins. For some reason, that combo is fantastic. Also, if I need a breakfast on the go, I'll grab a Lara Bar. There are only a few ingredients in there, so I feel decent about eating it (the only drawback being it's not high in protein and a bit too much sugar for my liking, but it works in a pinch).

Oh--also, I recently discovered Pop Chips. Those are really good, and relatively clean.

For clean eating recipes, I would definitely recommend the magazine Clean Eating. There are some great tips and information in there. It's kind of spendy, but I'm sure your local library probably carries it.

Hope that helps!

I love muffin-topless.com. She has a grocery list, recipes, and lots of motivation!

I am new to eating clean and so far I've noticed a huge difference in my energy level. Tosca Reno Eating Clean books, eating clean magazine and a website I recently found that finds ways to make fave foods clean and it also has alot of info regarding eating clean is thegraciouspantry.com. Hope this helps.

Here are some books.
https://www.eatcleandiet.com/shop.aspx

Add my friend, SuperAmie ....she's really good with clean eating. Also add Jawheb . Both those chicks are inspirations to me, I love looking at their diaries! Good luck

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My favorite site is thegraciouspantry.com. I think there are so many clean eating resources out there. Just try to stick to food in its most natural state, and if you must eat processed foods, just make smarter choices. Try whole-wheat tortillas instead of white flour tortillas, whole grain bread, and foods without added sugar/fake sugar(like high-fructose corn syrup).

For me it was a slow progression to eating clean - just started with more veggies and phased out sugars. I love clean eating!

I ignore the damn food pyramid. It is wrong for a huge chunk of the population. But the gubmint just finds it easier to force a single solution for any perceived problem. The food pyramid of just one example. It is not mere coincidence that obesity began to rise after this POS was introduced.
Clean is what ever works for you. Home made meatloaf is better than store bought. Homemade anything is better than prepackaged.
I make pancakes and waffles for my kids from scratch. Take only a couple minutes longer than from a mix and it doesn't have the junk in them.