Good morning!
Are you ready for this week’s challenge? Here it is!
Eat clean. It sounds simple enough, right? Well, it’s probably one of the toughest challenges for me””and maybe you too!
As you know, I love dessert and eat it everyday. Of course, this is totally fine if you do it in moderation, but I’ve recently found myself overdoing it a little too often. Gluten-Free Almond Brownies, Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies, Creamy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Balls, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels”¦ you know what I’m talking about, right?
And when I frequently indulge in these kind of treats, I don’t typically consume a lot of nutritious foods, so when it comes to Baby Haupert, I’m not doing the greatest job with my diet. It’s not like I’m going crazy with the junk, but I feel like I am getting a little lazy with my food choices””grabbing a handful of pita chips instead of making some guacamole and eating it with baby carrots””and, basically, not making the best decisions that I can. That said, this week is all about cleaning up our diets!
I’d go 100% clean with my eats this week, but I know it’s not realistic for me. I’m pregnant with crazy hormones and, honestly, I just love dessert so much not having it in my diet just kind of blows! Ha! But, seriously, I’m aiming for 90% clean eating this week. Feel free to set an individual number for yourself this week too. If you can go 100% clean, do it! If you really love desserts/salty snacks and know you’ll be miserable all week not having them, go with 90% or even 80%. Make your goal a challenge so you clean up your diet, but make it realistic too!
So, what is “clean” eating? I think the definition and practice really depends on the individual, but, for me, it involves these principles below:
- Choosing whole, natural, real foods and eliminating processed and refined foods from my diet.
- Making fresh, colorful produce the center of my meals and snacks.
- Including some protein, carbs, and fat with every meal and snack that I eat.
- Limiting excess sugar, (bad) fat, salt, alcohol, and other not-so-healthy foods from my diet.
- Planning well-rounded meals and making conscious choices about what I put into my body.
- Drinking lots of water.
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As I mentioned above, I’m leaving a little wiggle room for fun foods this week, so I’ll likely allow myself one treat per day, but not go overboard with it. Maybe something in 100-200 calorie range? I think that’s do-able, and it will allow me to fill up my diet with other nutritious foods while not making me crazy either.
Here are some posts that you might find helpful this week:
- How I Beat My Sugar Addiction
- 4 Ways to Stop Slacking Off on Your Diet
- 5 Ways to Stick to Your Diet and Still Keep Your Sweet Tooth
- 6 Ways to Keep the Weekend From Wrecking Your Diet
- The Husband Diet: 4 Ways to Keep Your Marriage From Making You Fat
- Tips to Avoid Late-Night Snacking
And a few products that might be useful:
- Drink more water with this Flavor Infuser Water Bottle.
- Eat more veggies with these reusable (and adorable) LunchSkin sandwich bags.
- Keep treats portion-friendly with this set of patterned ramekins.
Questions of the Day
What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to clean eating?
What’s clean eating mean to you?