Clean Eating - Typical Weekday!

Happy Thursday All!

So some friends asked me to post what a typical day looks like for me so I am going to post some! When trying to lose weight, you basically have to try and avoid sugar at all costs and a lot of natural foods have sugar. Try and stick with lean proteins and vegetables and complex carbs and eat every 3 hours. What you look like is 80% nutrition, 20% exercise. Once I realized this and started practicing clean eating, I started seeing REAL results - better than I ever have before.

To find out how many calories you should be eating, find out your BMR which is how much you burn just being ALIVE - not including exercising and start there. NEVER, EVER eat below your BMR. If you slow down your metabolism, you can even GAIN weight eating 1,000 calories a day because your body holds onto everything! You do yourself no favors starving yourself.  Never, even if you are 4 feet tall, eat under 1,000 calories.

I usually eat my last meal right before bedtime around 10:00pm. If you are eating clean all day, you should not gain weight by eating at night. If I don't have a meal before bed, I wake up ravishing in the middle of the night and I can't sleep.

Try to get a lot of protein and ditch crappy carbs like chips, french fries, and white bread. Avoid fast food as much as possible, and skip sugary soda. I eat lunch everyday in the office.

My nutritionist uses and recommended Full Strength Brand shakes.They are awesome and keep me FULL. They have 40 grams of protein and are a complete meal. I have half in the blender in the morning with unsweetened almond milk and ice and save the other half for a mid morning snack or afternoon. On the weekends, I will do Greek Yogurt and Berries and Fiber One cereal or I love to make a large egg white omelet with chopped veggies and salsa.

Throughout the day, I have 4-6 ounce portions of lean protein and veggies. I keep it pretty simple but I enjoy it. Here are some snapshots of my desk at work and what I had. Lean cooked meat travels well, too!

 Sometimes I have egg salad made with celery and plain Greek yogurt on rice cakes.

 I LOVE spaghetti squash. Low in carbs and delish!

 Quest bars I buy by the CASE. They are amazing, loaded with protein and fiber and SO GOOD!

 You have to get fat, and eaten correctly, fat doesn't make you fat and I love avocado as my fat so I have a half to a whole one a day depending on how much I worked out. Here is a chicken and spinach burger over salad with avocado. YUM! You can also get fats with nut butters but I overeat them.

Sometimes we do lean steak!

When cooking for the rest of your family, just feed them what you make but make rice or bread or something on the side for them if you are trying to lean out. Tacos with lettuce cups instead of tortillas are so yummy - or fajitas. I made that a lot, especially for company.

Eating out, if there is NOTHING healthy, just ask for what you want. The other day, I was at a bar with friends for a birthday party. I didn't even look at the menu. I just asked for two grilled chicken breasts and steamed broccoli and they brought it and it was delicious! I use mustard or salsa to dip if I feel like it. 

Other staples are Greek Yogurt with Stevia and blueberries, meatloaf muffins, hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese, and cucumbers make great dippers for egg and chicken salad!

Hopefully this gives you some ideas to get you started! I will post more favorite recipes and food finds!

Have a great Thursday :)

Rachel