How To Eat Clean

Clean eating is basically eating the healthiest food available to us by choosing fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and hormone free cuts of meat over chemical laden, processed and junk foods. To eat clean, you will need some rules to follow.

Drink at least 8 cups of water a day

Eat a small meal every two to three hours to keep blood sugar level and prevent hunger

Combine proteins and complex carbs at every meal

Do not eat processed foods like sugar, white flour, white rice, etc.

Don't eat saturated and trans fat, eat healthy fats like almonds and flax seed oil, your body will love you for it.

Don't drink soda - soda is so bad for your body! It contains artificial flavors, sweeteners and other chemicals that are harmful!

Avoid high-calorie, zero nutrient foods (i.e., junk food)

Eating proper portion sizes

Eat Organic fruit and vegetables, raw (no salt added) nuts, hormone and chemical free meats and fish.

Back in the early 90's I was pushing 200 pounds and not feeling good about myself at all. I am 5'3" and weigh a healthy weight now, and have a small frame. I am what today's standards call petite. But, I wasn't always petite as I mentioned.

The way I would eat before was what I called it "eating recklessly". And, that is what it was! I didn't pay any attention to the calories, sugar, salt or preservatives in the food I ate. I just bought what I liked and stocked up my refrigerator with everything from Corn dogs to my favorite Ben and Jerry's Ice cream "Chubby Hubby" (LOL! The name say's it all, except I wasn't a Hubby.

I would sometimes eat 2 dinners. I would eat dinner on my way home from work (like Taco Bell or McDonald's) and then when I got home I would make dinner for everyone else and eat again. I didn't care at all how much or what was in the food.

Eventually I gained a lot of weight and looked and felt horrible. I tried dieting, and would lose some weight, but I couldn't figure out why I kept putting it on again and again. I counted calories and ate fat free packaged food (which I learned later was a big mistake) I had many problems like heartburn, allergies, heart palpitations, digestion problems, high triglycerides, and many other problems.

I tried several diets, Weight Watchers (which is still a good program), Jenny Craig, Diet pills and many other diets. Nothing really worked to solve my problem.

Then a major life changing decision that I made changed my whole outlook on my body. I said, this is the new me! I am going to focus on me this whole year! I am going to change the way I look and I did it! I started cutting back on certain foods, eating smaller portions, not drinking as much soda, cutting down on salt, eating more vegetables and fruit, you get the picture. And, a big one was I added walking to my life. I lived in an area that had lots of hills. So, I starting walking every day after I got home from work. I walked for a very short time to start but, then got to about 45 min of walking.

The weight started to come off! Wow! I thought. This really works for me, and I love it! I am outside and I can enjoy the outdoors while I am getting in shape. It was slow but it happened. I lost 45 pounds this way.

So, the years went on and things happened. I had gained some of the weight back and then lost it again. This went on for a few years. I was still eating pre-packaged foods and adding sweetener substitutes to my coffee and other foods.

I didn't realize that these additives and preservatives that I had been eating where so toxic to my body and that this is what was causing my weight to go up and down at the time.

When, I met my boyfriend who is all about eating natural whole foods. He mentioned that the additives and preservatives that are in the foods I eat, could be causing me to get toxic and cause me to bloat and gain unnecessary weight. I kind of just took it lightly at first. But, then I started researching this on the web. I found lots of information on how bad these additives and preservatives where for your body, and it is being sold to us everyday. Of course Fast food is obvious but, in our supermarkets? Bad for us? No way. Well, yes way!

The food that you buy at the regular supermarket is packed with chemicals and hormones. This is so bad for us, but they just keep selling it to us with the latest gimmick or whatever they can think up to sell us more food.

That is when I chose to eat clean. I said, no more chemicals. I started out slowly introducing myself to whole foods. I stopped using sweetener substitutes first, then I cut down on sugar, soda, and dairy.

I started shopping at stores like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and now I do the bulk of my shopping at these stores and just pick up a few things at the regular market. but, I really read the labels now.