Hi Everyone!

I've heard the term 'Clean Eating' and am wondering exactly what this entails? Lately I've been consuming more salty snacks than I'd like and would really like to try this way of eating for a week to see if it has any effect on the scale. I know that things are going to move a lot slower since I'm close to goal but I want to try to eat in a natural way if that makes any sense.

Lately I've been consuming way more salty snacks than I normally do, not really sure why but I think it has something to do with the crunchiness of a particular food. Usually if I want something with that texture, I slice up a couple Light Flatouts and bake them or I'll eat an ounce of almonds.

Clean eating means sticking to plan with whole and/or necessary foods. No sugar, no junk, no processed food, excess sodium, refined carbs or bad fats. Instead, eat good lean protein, with fruit and veg cooked in a healthy manner. It started out as a term popular in weight lifting roughly being whole foods with a good balance of protein and fat, but now is used by many other communities. Kinda like when you quit drinking or another vice and you say you're 'clean' - clean eating is basically staying on track with quality foods.

Clean eating to me means eating whole grains, fresh meat and produce and little to no processed or refined products. Keeping additives, preservatives and "chemicals" to a minimum.

That's my problem lately, I can't seem to stay away from salty snacks! I figured if I started eating clean, my cravings would go away. This week I've felt myself slipping back into my old ways of binge eating and I really need to stop the cycle not before it gets out of hand. I've managed to workout everyday for the past 3 weeks, I burn between 1000/2000 calories per run and I'm not getting anywhere because of the food I'm eating. I manage to get my GHG's in everyday but use my AP's for junk instead of a piece of fruit or something a bit healthier than Weight Watchers Ice Cream or a 100 calorie snack pack.

I'm going to try eating clean for a week and see what happens!

check out eatclean.com for some tips and recipes. I love her cookbooks and magazine for clean and healthy meals.

You can still have salt - as far as I know, it doesn't hinder weight loss other than 'initially'. I don't think your body will retain any more water than it is already - if you drop the salt, you'll just lose water weight and not fat, so if it were me, I'd focus on other things besides the salt unless you have other issues like blood pressure. If you can find something healthy to eat that is salty, then I'd consider that a success! Do you like salted tomatoes, or salted apples? Yum - two of my favorite things to salt!

(In other words, if eating something salty that is otherwise healthy, and it keeps you on track, I would just roll with it!)

I had a few issues of Clean Eating right next to my desk, here are a couple of random days from a meal plan from an issue last year just to get an idea of the sort of stuff they lay out there. I've just been in WW a few weeks but the meetings seem to gently point towards a lot of these kind of choices anyway.

I think Eating Clean's website used to also give a 14 day sample meal plan, not sure if they still do, but that might give you some more ideas of what kinds of meals and snacks to plan. Now that I'm flipping through these, I kind of want to renew my subscription - some of the recipes are good.

One sample day:
B: 1 cup Kashi GoLean cereal with 1/2 cup low-fat milk and 1 sliced banana
S1: 22 almonds
L: 1 black bean burger, 1 oz slice part-skim mozzarella, 1 slice tomato, 1 Boston lettuce leaf, 1 whole-wheat bun; 1 orange; 1 oz Garden of Eatin' Baked Blue Tortilla Chips
S2: 1 low-fat string cheese with 2 rye crispbreads
D: 1 serving Salmon & Artichoke Quesadilla (recipe) with 1/4 cup low-sodium salsa; 1 cup chopped cantaloupe

Different day:
B: 1 1/2 Tbsp all-natural sunflower seed butter or other natural nut butter and 1 sliced banana in a whole wheat wrap
S1: 1 cup chopped pineapple and 15 walnuts
L: Ham & Avocado Sandwich (3 oz sliced uncured low-sodium lean ham, 1 large tomato slice, 2 red leaf lettuce leaves and 1/4 sliced avocado between 2 slices rye toast), 1 kiwi, 5 sticks each carrot and celery
S2: 1 hardboiled egg, 1 orange
D: 5 oz top sirloin (visible fat removed), 1 chopped roasted red bell pepper, 1 cup steamed wild rice

Sounds like "eating clean" means eating foods that are closest to their natural state...?

Fortunately I don't have any issues with blood pressure! I think my cravings for salt come from the kettle cooked potato chips I used to binge on. When I eat something crunchy and salty it reminds me of them and I go overboard with my carbs.

I've never tried salted apples but that sounds awesome! Definately going to try it today

I think what I really need to worry about is the frequent urges I get to binge. That really worries me because sometimes I feel myself slipping back to my old ways and I swore I'd NEVER go back. I would like to try eating a little cleaner and getting rid of the garbage in my system. This morning I threw away a half eaten bag of potato chips and a bag of doritos. I didn't eat the doritos but I did dig into the potato chips and for a moment there, I actually felt bad for tossing them into the trash. Then I came here, took a look at my ticker and remember why throwing them away was the best thing I could have ever done.

Thankyou so much for posting this! For some reason I thought 'Clean Eating' meant buying ALL organic or vegan.

This menu sounds delicious and I may go buy the items listed and try it out for a couple days. My goal with this is to feel better overall and get the garbage out of my system. I know I can't be perfect 100% of the time and I usually give myself one cheat day per week which is why I think I've been so successful.

Thankyou again for posting, this really helped!!

I noticed a big difference when I started eating clean. I was introduced to the idea from a friend who is a Personal Trainer. She suggests it to all her clients. Not only did I notice a success at the scales, but due to the amount of processed food I ate I noticed an immediete impact on my stamina and energy. I no longer feel lethargic and have energy in the evenings for my workouts. I also noticed an instant difference in how my clothes fit. Its crazy how much processed food makes you feel bloated. I highly recommend it. Check out any of the Clean Eating books by Tosca Reno. She really pioneered the idea.

Agreed. As soon as I switched to mostly clean eating, I was able to really get control over my weight. What you would want to do is cook almost everything you typically buy. It is the easiest and cheapest way to eat clean. If you do buy certain products, you want to check the ingredients. If you don't recognize them and/or they are chemical based, you don't want it.
My daughter is three and was mostly raised on clean foods - my ex husband gives her a lot of processed foods, but it's not so often that it concerns me.

Just curious, how much/long do you run to burn that many calories? I run too and never burn that many

Kimberly, have you tried making kale chips?
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/baked-...ps/Detail.aspx


And here is one of my fav clean recipes. It travels well and can be eaten warm when just prepared or cold. I use natural locally sourced flavored oils and vinegars for the salad and put in lots of fresh herbs.

http://www.20minutesupperclub.com/re...rranean-salad/

I'm totally making that salad- it looks awesome!