Eating Clean Means Consuming Calories!

We are going to assume that since you are here you want a healthy, lean body.  In order to achieve that you must EAT!  Knowing that we eat 5-6 times per day you have probably realized that we eat a lot of food! For some reason our society thinks that you need to restrict calories.  You NEED to eat.  You NEED calories.  Don't obsess over the number of calories - pay attention to the quality of the food!  It's true...you might lose weight initially by restricting your calories but you will wreak havoc on your metabolism and that is a long road to recovery!

It is okay that you don't know everything about nutrition (neither do we!) - unfortunately it is not a widely taught subject.  We mentioned in our previous post "Clean Eating: How Much Should You Eat?", that we do not count calories or macros on a normal basis (only when preparing for a special event).  There are a few reasons for this and they are that counting everything can become very time consuming and obsessive plus we tend to eat the same things so there really isn't a need to count the same foods each day!

What is a calorie?

CALORIE (according to Merriam-Webster)

cal·o·rie (noun) : a unit of heat used to indicate the amount of energy that foods will produce in the human body

Most clean diets consist of a balance of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. If you eat the correct proportions of each you will be on your way to a healthy lifestyle and you will probably notice you have a ton of energy (and I bet your cravings will go away!).

The chart below shows you how many calories are in a gram of each "source".

If you are new to the clean eating lifestyle, check out our "Start Here" page and read our "Getting Started with Clean Eating" post as it will give you more information on the overall lifestyle.  We also have eBooks on Getting Started with Clean Eating and Food Prep to get you started or to continue your journey.  If you are looking for a workout plan to get you headed in the right direction you can get started with our She Sweats 12-Week Transformation and then once you are ready move onto the She Sweats Extreme 4-Week Shred.

- The Gang

Clean Eating: How Much Should You Eat?

You've decided that you want to start eating clean and living a fit and healthy lifestyle but now what...How do you do that?  What do you cook?  How much do you cook?  Where do you shop?  What workouts do you do?  We've answered most of these in previous posts but want to address the question of "How much do I eat?" in this post.

Clean Eating: How Much Should You Eat?

We don't count calories or obsess over macros. Having a healthy relationship with food is very important and having to count every "point", calorie, or macro that goes into your body can be very stressful mentally. We understand that for certain events, such as competitions or photo shoots, it may become necessary to monitor your intake, but for day-to-day life you shouldn't have to.

Eating healthy meals and watching your portions is where you should start.  Basically, we eat 5-6 meals per day (every 2-3 hours) with a balance of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats and a lot of vegetables.

Since you will most likely be prepping your food in advance when eating clean you'll need a starting point for how much food to make!  We wanted to give you some guidelines to get started. Please keep in mind that changing your lifestyle is a marathon and not a sprint and all of us have been eating clean and lifting weights for years so we know our bodies. There is a lot of trial and error involved in finding out what works for you but below are some general daily recommendations:

• Protein – 1.0 gram {for weight-loss}-1.5 grams {for maintenance} per pound of body weight
• Carbohydrates – around 1.0 gram per pound of body weight
• Sugar – under 30 grams per day (keep your sugar derived mostly from fruit)
• Fat – around 0.5 gram per pound of body weight

Remember, do not obsess over the numbers but use this as a starting point.  Once you get used to this lifestyle you will be able to eyeball approximate portions and it will be second nature to you.  We do encourage journaling your food but that is not the same as counting everything you eat.  Journaling your food would mean writing down everything that you eat - this helps when you are trying to pin point something that might be giving you problems such as gluten or other allergies.  It also helps to see where you might be over or under eating.

If you are new to the clean eating lifestyle, check out our "Start Here" page and read our "Getting Started with Clean Eating" post as it will give you more information on the overall lifestyle.  We also have eBooks on Getting Started with Clean Eating and Food Prep to get you started or to continue your journey.  If you are looking for a workout plan to get you headed in the right direction you can get started with our She Sweats 12-Week Transformation and then once you are ready move onto the She Sweats Extreme 4-Week Shred.

Need coaching? View our options here.

Canned or Dry Beans? What You Should Know...

Ever been in the grocery store and looked at the bottom (less attractive) racks of the dry, bagged beans only to turn around and pick up the convenient cans?  You may rethink your decisions once you read this post! Here's to why you may want to plan ahead and buy dry beans vs. canned beans.

Canned or Dry Beans? What You Should Know...

Canned Beans

Advantages:

• Simple and Quick: Open, Rinse and Go!
• Canning processes really do not degrade nutritional factors. Beans do not lose much of their nutritional value when canned unlike their vegetable and fruit counterparts. 

Disadvantages:

• Almost all canned beans include ingredients beside the bean itself, including sugar! (Yep - table sugar!) Be sure to check the labels before you put them in your cart.
• Many of the cans used to contain the beans actually have BPA, an epoxy resin that is thought to have an effect on the brain and behavior of fetuses, infants and children.
• Higher cost per serving than dry beans.

Dry Beans

Advantages:

• Totally clean! You control how you cook the beans and what ingredients you use.
• You choose how long you soak them - if you want to sprout them, you can soak longer and amp up the nutritional value. 
• VERY low cost per serving (Two cans is typically the cost for one pound, which is equal to about three or four cans.)

Disadvantages:

• You have to plan ahead in order to use dry beans - they must be soaked and cooked. 
• It may take your family a little getting used to the taste of the dry beans if they are used to the taste of traditional canned beans, depending on your spices when you cook them.

It was a no-brainer to me when I discovered that many of my canned beans that I just plucked off the shelves contained added salt and sugar, as well as, were packaged in cans with BPA. Although the dry beans may be a little more time consuming on the front end, you can't beat the cost savings and the nutritional value. Plus, you can freeze the beans after you cook them!

Do you use dry beans? Why did you make the switch?