Clean Eating

WTF! It's already JANUARY 8th! This is insane to me. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate. With celebrations...generally comes yummy high calorie/carb foods! It did for me anyway. December 23rd is my birthday and the 24th my family has a party and of course Christmas Day...lots of food and fun.

Watching your weight takes a lot of thought and energy. Planning healthy meals and eating them takes thought. Most the time, it's totally worth it and I enjoy it but there are certain times in life where you can't think about it and if you do obsess about food and what you are or are not going to eat...you miss out on what the celebration is actually about which is spending time with loved ones. If I was worrying about what yummy things I wasn't going to eat the week of my birthday and Christmas and New Years Eve, I would be putting a lot of energy into those thoughts and it's just not worth it. It's liberating to just not worry sometimes.

Some of my friends made it out staying the same or gaining a half pound and that is so awesome! Good job! I gained 5 lbs. I am not freaking out though because I know EXACTLY what I did to gain it. I am not sitting here wondering and even better, I know what I need to do to get it off.

In September of last year, I started clean eating after hiring a nutritionist and I am so glad I did. Have you heard of "clean" foods? Basically, it is anything that comes from nature and not processed. The first three weeks, I didn't stray and ate clean 100% and lost about 15 pounds...eating WAY more than I was before when I was trying to lose weight and failing again and again. It was the type of food I was eating. I have been told about this from different people over the years but didn't believe it until I saw a fancy eating doctor but it was worth it anyway. I also started taking good vitamins and amino acids. Now I totally believe in it. I wish I could have just done this and used the money for a Louis Vuitton but that's OK. #firstworldproblems

One part that sucks is that Taco Bell isn't clean. Neither is Velveeta. Neither are cookies. Or most things not on the outer rim of the grocery store. There are a lot of clean things though. Pretty much anything existing in nature which is a freakton of foods when you think about it. I make clean recipes and eat them throughout the week and they are yummy! You probably saw my post Sunday about clean turkey muffins.

He and She Eat Clean  has a lot of recipes to give you ideas and their story is awesome. Their grovery shopping list is all you need for clean eating!

Some things I snack on during the week:
raw veggies
rotisserie chicken breast 
hard boiled eggs
100 calorie packs of almonds (I can't be trusted with whole bags)
Greek Yogurt (I use stevia or truvia to sweeten- I tried the whole plain yogurt by itself and it makes me gag) 
QUEST PROTEIN BARS!!! (The only decent bar on the market and they taste amazing.)
Berries (I limit fruit when trying to peel off pounds)

I keep it pretty simple. If you have questions about it, please email me! Doing this has been the most effective weight loss I have ever done and the only thing that really has made sense for me.

I am going to be updating some of my favorite recipes soon!

XO,
Rachel