Nutrition

I am not a nutritionist nor do I claim to be.  I am simply a girl that likes to read what others have researched and to come to my own conclusions.  I have tried many, many diets over the years.  Some that worked and many that didn’t.  Some that were healthy and many that were not.  I’ve come from the fringes of an eating disorder to being overweight.  I’m in a healthy place right now, both mentally and certainly physically, and I attribute a lot of it to a concept called clean eating.  You will see me reference clean eating quite frequently in my blog posts.  In my opinion it is nutrition as simple as it gets- eating foods as natural as they come.

As Americans we eat far too much processed and preservative laden food.  Clean eating bypasses all of that garbage.  It really is possible to be a healthy weight with a healthy heart and body simply by eating proper portion sizes and clean, natural food.

Better yet, it is so easy to do.  Avoid the middle aisles of the supermarket because that is where most of the processed food lives.  Buy whole or frozen fruits and veggies for meals.  If possible, go to your farmers market and purchase your produce and meats from a local farmer.

The hardest part of the whole caboodle is this: cut that sugar.  It amazes me on a daily basis just how much sugar you can put in your body and not even realize it.  Even in the popular fat-free light yogurt the third ingredient in the list is high fructose corn syrup.  Try to avoid foods that have sugar or a sugar name (sucrose, dextrose, etc.) in the first 5 ingredients.

Here are some sources that I go to when I need information, recipes, and the motivation to keep going.  Read up!  It’s great stuff.

Michael Pollan.  Pollan has written many fabulous books including Food Rules: An Eaters Manual and In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto.  I would recommend both.  He is really the reason I turned to clean eating.  His words are very thought-provoking.

Clean Eating Magazine.  Great recipes and info!

The Eat-Clean Diet.  The books that explain this concept are awesome.  I have the cookbook and it is brilliant.