Hey there.
This is Lacey Baier with A Sweet Pea Chef, and today, I'd like to talk to you about clean
eating.
Chances are that you've probably heard of clean eating at least once or twice before.
Maybe you brushed it off as some fad, or maybe it interested you.
Eating clean gives you control over food, because you don't get sucked into craving
all of those bad sugars, salts, and fats that your body just doesn't need.
Instead, you choose what you put into your body, and that gives you a sense of accomplishment,
power, and health.
Eating clean gets easier and easier too, once you start to understand the basic concepts.
What is clean eating?
The major key to understand about eating clean for beginners is that it's more of a lifestyle
than a diet.
By that, I mean that clean eating isn't really a "get skinny quick" kind of a thing.
Instead, it's a way to approach how you eat and what you put into your body.
Clean eating involves choosing whole foods, avoiding processed foods, and creating a healthy,
conscientious approach to what foods you eat.
Making the choice to eat clean is to remove unnecessary fats, sugars, and carbs from your
diet.
It's about making better, more nutritious choices for your body.
And it's also about refusing to continue to put junk into your body.
And junk in this context includes processed foods, artificial flavors, and sugars, foods
with a lot of salt and high in saturated fats, refined foods, and other foods that just don't
provide you with any nutritional value.
This also means embracing vegetables, whole foods, unrefined grains, lean proteins, and
healthy fats.
The focus is on the quality of the food being consumed and the benefits these foods offer
your overall health.
One meal at a time, you'll find clean eating will make you a healthier, happier person.
You'll find that you'll crave sweets less, and that the foods high in saturated fat really
aren't that satisfying to you anymore.
Keep in mind that there remains a decent amount of diversity among the clean eating community
in relation to what clean eating actually entails.
So, while there are a lot of people on all parts of the spectrum, I'm sharing my interpretation
of clean eating, how I follow it, and how I follow the guidelines and what I feel are
the most realistic, most beneficial and healthy aspects of a clean eating lifestyle.
I wanted to share this video today to help explain how to eat clean for beginners who
are interested in eating healthy and following the clean eating guidelines.
So, let's go over those main guidelines for eating clean, shall we?
Number one, cook your own food.
The easiest way to control what goes into your food is to be the one who's preparing
your food.
That way you can control the salt, sugar, flavors, and fats that go in, and you can
also work to keep all those levels as low as possible.
Number two, read the nutrition labels.
When eating clean for beginners, you need to get pretty familiar with the nutrition
labels because they will tell you everything you need to know about the foods you're considering
to eat.
Look for labels with relatively few ingredients, and consider each ingredient in terms of,
"Is this ingredient something I would cook in my kitchen?"
If not, pass.
Pay attention to and avoid words with labels that include words like, "hydrolyzed," "modified,"
or "hydrogenated," as those indicate added processing, and words that end in "-ose,"
like o-s-e, mean sugars like fructose, glucose.
Look for labels with whole grains and whole wheat in the ingredients instead.
If the food is high in calories, make sure the saturated fat and the sugar levels are
low, and that the calories are coming from the fiber and the lean proteins instead.
Also, keep sodium levels as low as possible because your body only needs 250 milligrams
each day to function, but a typical diet contains ways more than that.
Number three, eat whole foods.
Whole foods are foods that haven't been modified or tampered with in a lab or a manufacturing
plant.
Since whole foods haven't been processed or refined, there's no added sugars, preservatives,
dyes, or fats, including hydrogenated fats, or even salts that have been added to the
product to add extra flavor, enhance the shelf life or appearance.
Whole foods include fresh fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, unsalted raw seeds and nuts,
whole grains, low-fat dairy products, and dried beans.
In addition to escaping the added and unnecessary junk from being processed, the unrefined foods
also carry more nutrients and fiber, which is essential for your body to function.
Make the foods you're eating do more for you.
Number four, avoid processed foods.
Processed foods are easy to identify, since they often come in a box or a jar.
The problem with processed foods is that they are high in added sugars and salt, low in
fiber and whole grains, and high in fat, including the awful trans and hydrogenated fats, and
saturated fats.
Processed foods include snack foods like fruit snacks and chips, candy, cookies, frozen dinners,
bottled salad dressing, breakfast cereal, canned soups, bacon, granola bars, instant
ramen, and flavored nuts.
Instead of buying these items at the store for convenience, next time, try making them
from scratch and using whole ingredients.
Your body will thank you.
Number five, eat well-balanced meals.
Make sure the foods you're choosing contain the right amount of protein, carbs, and fats,
since all three are essential to bodily functioning anyway.
For example, broccoli is a carb, but it's also providing a lot of fiber, antioxidants,
and many other important nutrients, so it's a great choice when eating clean.
To that end, the fats you're eating should also come from unsaturated fats as much as
possible, avoiding saturated fats and trans fats, if at all possible.
This is the case with every meal you have, whether it's a snack, a lunch, or a dinner.
You want to be mindful of the breakdown of what you're eating so that you know what you're
putting into your body.
Number six, limit added fat, salt, and sugars.
Since clean eating has the intention of eating foods in its most natural whole state, it
makes a lot of sense that you would want to avoid unnecessary additives like fat, salt,
and sugar when choosing your food.
The more you follow the clean eating lifestyle, the foods you once loved like doughnuts, hamburgers,
fries, and more will taste overly sweet or salty.
This is because your body and taste buds will be so used to eating these whole foods in
your new lifestyle that that those additives will taste unneeded and even overdone.
Ideally, fresh fruit should be all the sugar you actually need once you're on a clean eating
track, but there are also several types of unrefined sugars like coconut sugar, honey,
and pure maple syrup that work well to sweeten foods.
Number seven, eat five to six meals per day.
Forget that concept about calorie counting.
That basic plan doesn't take into account the value each calorie has.
Instead, you want to make your calories count.
Make mindful decisions for everything you choose to eat, like lean protein, complex
carbs, as opposed to just simple sugars and fats.
Fresh fruits and vegetables six times a day in the right amounts.
The typical clean diet usually includes three small main meals, and two to three substantial
snacks every day.
Eating this way prevents you from over-eating, skipping meals, and feeling fatigued or jittery
from unstable blood sugar levels.
It also helps you lose weight.
Number eight, don't drink your calories.
While you're making mindful decisions about what foods to eat, you also need to be mindful
about how much water you're drinking.
Water will likely be the number one thing you're drinking all day, every day.
You'll find the more you drink, the thirstier you are for more, and more, and more.
Drinking your water will not only keep you hydrated and allow your body to function well,
it'll also help keep you from getting hungry.
One of the worst things to put in your body is actually soda.
Soda is full of high-fructose corn syrup or other refined sugars, and provides absolutely
no health benefit to you.
Fruit juices are also a poor choice when eating clean.
While they contain more nutrients than soda, they carry far more calories and sugar and
far less nutrients, like fiber and vitamins, than you would get from just eating one piece
of a real piece of fruit.
So, how to get started eating clean?
To start, take small steps.
Don't go straight from drinking five sodas a day to just drinking water.
That's just not going to work and you're going to fail.
Your body needs more of a gradual transition.
Replace one of those sodas with a glass of water to start.
Then tomorrow, replace two, and so on.
If you drink coffee every morning full of sweetened creamer and sugar, you will hate
your coffee if you try drinking it black.
Trust me, I've been there.
Try reducing the amount of sugar, then the amount of creamer that you use.
Over the course of a few days, you may find you don't even want coffee in a week or two,
which is what happened to me as well.
This is a new lifestyle, not an overnight fad, so treat it that way, and ease yourself
into it, and to fully embrace everything, and then, it will feel normal to eat clean.
Also consider healthy, clean replacements for the foods you're used to.
For example, eat an apple and a handful of unsalted almonds instead of a candy bar.
Add Greek yogurt instead of sour cream to your baked potato.
Choose whole grain breads instead of white breads for your sandwiches.
Every change you make towards eating clean is a positive change, and gradually, your
body will get more and more used to the clean lifestyle, and your body will love it, and
you will feel so awesome.
Thanks so much for watching.
I hope you've enjoyed this video and found it helpful.
To get even more information on how to start eating clean, click the link to grab my free
beginners guide to clean eating.
And make sure to subscribe so you never miss my new weekly recipe videos.
Thanks, I'll see you next time.