5 Ways to Increase Variety with Clean Eating

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Eating clean doesn't mean that you are locked into a lifestyle where you eat the same meals every day or even each week. (Of course, if you would prefer that, you are more than welcome to do so.) Adopting the clean eating lifestyle can provide as much variety as no dietary restrictions.

As soon as we start talking to people, a few will mention that they have a hard time sticking with clean eating because they got sick of eating the same thing week after week. If you are they type of person that enjoys trying new foods, why pigeon-hole yourself into a situation you won't WANT to stick with! There are countless possibilities for foods when eating clean - don't get in a rut!

How do we do it? We follow 5 rules when we plan our shopping lists and menus for the week.

5 Ways to Increase Variety with Clean Eating

1. Try at least three new recipes per week. Think breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, dessert, shakes, protein bars, etc. 
   
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2. Try one vegetable that you haven't tried each week. If you have tried them all, find a new way to cook a more "rare" vegetable.
3. Have a theme day, not just a theme night. This will force you to cook a certain food a particular way, including your breakfast, lunch, dinner and side dishes. Think Mexican, Italian, etc.
4. Let your spouse, children or a friend choose one of their favorite dishes for a weekly meal. It may be the same as last meal, but if others are excited about it, it will make eating it more appetizing.
5. Set a rule in your home for how many times you will repeat a meal (perhaps during food prep) per week. For example, if you make Salsa Chicken this week, you cannot make it again for 2 weeks. 

How do you increase variety week to week while still eating clean?

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.

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