Eat Clean

Remember my last post where I was sure I found the best diet ever?  Yeah, scratch that.  What was I thinking? I am not a calorie counter. Never was. Probably never will be.  I felt scared and nervous and anxiety-ridden the whole time.  It didn't mesh. It didn't feel right.

That's why I was super excited when I got an email from my local library that the book I had requested was on hold and waiting for me.  On a previous post, I received a lot of great feedback about a book called The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno.  The book itself was really nice to read with nice glossy pages and lots of color. (Is it sad that i don't read diet books or cookbooks with dull pages and no pictures?)  It's pretty short too.  It includes a 2 week sample menu and some recipes.  But most importantly, it included a lot of info that made me say, "Yes! That is SO true."  Eating clean is the way to go. 

There is no fluff to it.  No gimmicky promises.  This is a long haul, long term, long lasting way of eating.  It's all about giving your body what it needs to perform at its best.  There is no calorie counting, but makes you aware of calories.  You eat 5-6 times a day and each meal ends up being around 300 calories.  You build your meals with 1 complex carb, 1 lean protein and veggies.  A serving of protein is the size of your palm and a serving of carbs is the size of your fist.  Easy. Then of course there is the obvious emphasis on exercise (including 3-4 weight lifting sessions) and drinking at least 64 oz of water. 

There were certain things that just stood out as TRUE...

• All calories are NOT created equal. 

• Getting enough sleep is just as important as getting enough exercise.

• Weight training is a MUST.

• Crap food tastes great because it is MANUFACTURED to taste great.  Clean food will not give you the same "party in your mouth" experience.  But after a while you will enjoy it more and not crave the crap as much.

• The biggest meals should be at the beginning of the day and the lightest at the end.

I started my day this morning with weights (upper body). All my food is packed in my cooler.

Breakfast:  Smoothie (pineapple, unsweetened coconut milk, chia seeds, rolled oats, plain greek yogurt) and a hard boiled egg. 
Snack1:  Apple with 1 T natural peanut butter 
Lunch:  Salad (chicken breast, baby spinach, artichoke hearts, asparagus, cukes, carrots, 1 t olive oil, 1 T apple cider vinegar)
Snack2:  Tuna in a mini whole wheat pita with green beans on the side.
Dinner: Salmon with 1/2 sweet potato and steamed broccoli
Snack 3: orange with 1/2 c unsweetened kefir


My exercise plan is to do weights 3 days a week and 45 minutes of cardio 3 days a week.  I feel so good about this.  I am not expecting huge numbers to be falling off the scale.  But this is something I can do long term.  I'm done losing 10 pounds fast and then gaining it back just as quick. Let's do this RIGHT. 

Weigh-In:  242 lb
Waist: 45 inches