How difficult is it (really) to eat clean?
Eating has been something I have always loved. I am Italian, I grew up with Sunday pasta dinners and family nights where the entire clan got together. I would say my family ate generally well growing up. My mom normally cooked and we only went out maybe 1-2x a week and it was almost always on the weekend.
As I got older, I still ate generally healthy but there is always room for improvement. Although I may have eaten generally healthy, I ate a lot. All the time. I eat like a fat kid. I do. Because I like food.
My last meal, should I be dying someday, will be a cheeseburger with bacon and cheddar, mayo and mustard, all the fixings AND cheese fries with bacon scattered on them. Dipped in sour cream or ranch. I want this now. I actually ate like that, the cheeseburger and whatever I wanted for much of the beginning of my marriage. I gained a lot of weight and buckled down a couple of years later to loose it. Then it came back and now, I am loosing it again. But what is different this time?
I am notorious for trying literally EVERY diet fad out there. I have done everything from juice cleanses, to clean diets, to liquid diets to protein shake diets, The South Beach Diet, weight watchers, etc. You name it, I promise I have tried SOME version of it all. And it all worked. Mostly. It worked in my 20s when the pounds flew off. But the same things that worked in my 20s stopped working in my 30s. Now that I am in my 30s and I am struggling to get 20lbs off and it's been 4 1/2 months.
I decided to evaluate my eating as a whole and not as a temporary diet. I bought and read The Whole 30. It's a great concept. You eat REAL foods. The stuff you ate when you were a kid. Before they made (what I like to call) fake food. You eat protein (meats, fish, eggs, etc.), veggies (literally all kinds) and fruit. That's it. Simple right? No added sugars, no fake processed crap, no dairy. It's basically close to Paleo, but a bit stricter.
It's easy to pick up something from the store however, the things they have prepackaged at the store are full of so much preservatives and other things that shouldn't be in food. So I'll admit, it's not convenient to eat this way. But it's also not that difficult. It also compliments my training as most Crossfit athletes eat Paleo.
To eat real, whole foods, simply requires some pre-planning of your week and precooking. A typical Sunday for me includes cooking a lot of different types of protein from chicken to steak to salmon or whatever other protein I have. I also hard boil eggs for the week and make turkey breakfast sausage patties. I saute, grill, roast and steam all kinds of veggies from broccoli.
This salad to the left is a great example. I buy a BIG box of organic lettuce AND spinach. This happens to be the mixed lettuce. I bring a big zip lock bag of it, with an avocado, cherry tomatoes, a stick of celery, and a piece of cucumber. I chop everything at work and put it all together and flake salmon over the top with lemon and olive oil as dressing.
My point is, a little pre-planning and precooking of a few different items, gives you SO much variety for the week. When I get ready to head out the door in the morning, I simply grab my protein, my veggies and my fruit. If I want a salad, I put all the ingredients together and bring them to work to put it together at lunch time.
I should also mention that I don't even go home for dinner. Every single one of my meals are eaten away from home a lot days of the week. I work a second job a few days out of the week, after my regular job. Sometimes more than a few days. So planning is crucial. Which is what I mean when I say I don't even go home for dinner. I bring breakfast, lunch and dinner with me.
This is NOT rocket science. This is simply, easy, clean, real, food. That's it. It's not expensive, it doesn't get boring, it doesn't require daily cooking or meal prep. It requires SOME effort. But it's manageable. And doable. And it is the best option out there in my humble opinion.
As I got older, I still ate generally healthy but there is always room for improvement. Although I may have eaten generally healthy, I ate a lot. All the time. I eat like a fat kid. I do. Because I like food.
My last meal, should I be dying someday, will be a cheeseburger with bacon and cheddar, mayo and mustard, all the fixings AND cheese fries with bacon scattered on them. Dipped in sour cream or ranch. I want this now. I actually ate like that, the cheeseburger and whatever I wanted for much of the beginning of my marriage. I gained a lot of weight and buckled down a couple of years later to loose it. Then it came back and now, I am loosing it again. But what is different this time?
I am notorious for trying literally EVERY diet fad out there. I have done everything from juice cleanses, to clean diets, to liquid diets to protein shake diets, The South Beach Diet, weight watchers, etc. You name it, I promise I have tried SOME version of it all. And it all worked. Mostly. It worked in my 20s when the pounds flew off. But the same things that worked in my 20s stopped working in my 30s. Now that I am in my 30s and I am struggling to get 20lbs off and it's been 4 1/2 months.
I decided to evaluate my eating as a whole and not as a temporary diet. I bought and read The Whole 30. It's a great concept. You eat REAL foods. The stuff you ate when you were a kid. Before they made (what I like to call) fake food. You eat protein (meats, fish, eggs, etc.), veggies (literally all kinds) and fruit. That's it. Simple right? No added sugars, no fake processed crap, no dairy. It's basically close to Paleo, but a bit stricter.
It's easy to pick up something from the store however, the things they have prepackaged at the store are full of so much preservatives and other things that shouldn't be in food. So I'll admit, it's not convenient to eat this way. But it's also not that difficult. It also compliments my training as most Crossfit athletes eat Paleo.
To eat real, whole foods, simply requires some pre-planning of your week and precooking. A typical Sunday for me includes cooking a lot of different types of protein from chicken to steak to salmon or whatever other protein I have. I also hard boil eggs for the week and make turkey breakfast sausage patties. I saute, grill, roast and steam all kinds of veggies from broccoli.
This salad to the left is a great example. I buy a BIG box of organic lettuce AND spinach. This happens to be the mixed lettuce. I bring a big zip lock bag of it, with an avocado, cherry tomatoes, a stick of celery, and a piece of cucumber. I chop everything at work and put it all together and flake salmon over the top with lemon and olive oil as dressing.
My point is, a little pre-planning and precooking of a few different items, gives you SO much variety for the week. When I get ready to head out the door in the morning, I simply grab my protein, my veggies and my fruit. If I want a salad, I put all the ingredients together and bring them to work to put it together at lunch time.
I should also mention that I don't even go home for dinner. Every single one of my meals are eaten away from home a lot days of the week. I work a second job a few days out of the week, after my regular job. Sometimes more than a few days. So planning is crucial. Which is what I mean when I say I don't even go home for dinner. I bring breakfast, lunch and dinner with me.
This is NOT rocket science. This is simply, easy, clean, real, food. That's it. It's not expensive, it doesn't get boring, it doesn't require daily cooking or meal prep. It requires SOME effort. But it's manageable. And doable. And it is the best option out there in my humble opinion.
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