10 Rules of Clean Eating

"Clean Eating" can be confusing at first glance. It doesn't refer to washing the apple you bought on clearance at the fruit stand—though you should do that, too. It is taking the time to know WHAT your food is made of, and choosing to eat it in its most natural state.
While clean eating certainly can help you accomplish fitness or weight goals, it's really about making choices that promote optimum long-term health for your body.
Here are 10 solid rules to keep in mind while you consider the change.

1. Approach Your Meals As A Lifestyle

  
I have eliminated the word "diet" from my vocabulary and replaced it with a "lifestyle". If you are serious about "eating clean", make this a lifestyle choice and not about "eliminating" or "restricting".
You are allowed to enjoy food. It doesn't have to be "hard". It's learning new techniques, habits and educating yourself about food. Take control of your life, because once you fall off your clean-eating plan, you'll revert back to feeling low in energy, hungry, and irritable multiple times every day.

2. Load Up On Fresh Produce

Fresh is the best! The more fresh produce you can include in your day the better. Vegetables specifically make every dietary system better and healthier. They are loaded with vitamins and nutrients to keep you feeling good. You can't get all that from a greens supplement!
I head to Sam's Club for the best in bulk fresh produce. Costco is another great resource as well.
During the summer it's much easier to find these at a local farmers market. (which keeps money local!)

3. Shop The Perimeter Of The Grocery Store

This can vary in stores but it's a pretty good rule of thumb that the perimeters hold vegetables and fruits, meats and whole grain goods. You'll probably have to venture into the interior for some staples like olive oil, but keep your blinders on. Hy-Vee offers an EXCELLENT natural foods section that contains great natural and organic products from spices to snacks.

4. Eliminate Added Sugars

Eating right is less about avoiding certain things and more about choosing simple unrefined things. Sugar may "sweeten" the taste of things but it can do more damage than it's worth. This can be a tough rule to master for some people—probably the toughest—but the day will come when the cravings don't come any more. After that day, a candy bar will taste like what it is: A painfully sweet and unsatisfying pile of mystery ingredients. Try one, and you'll find your energy level crashing and hunger level soaring, just like in the old days.

5. Drink More Water 

You hear it all the time. "Drink 8-10 glasses of water each day". But the truth is, the benefits are real! Hydrated muscles grow and perform at a higher level.

If the clear stuff just doesn't cut it all the time for you, get creative. Drinking herbal teas or green tea can help you naturally cleanse, aside from many other benefits. Try flavoring water with lemon, or mixing in sugar-free options.
Black coffee has its place, but there's a point where it crashes into "clean eating," like a speeding cement truck full of sugar and cream.

6. Sit Down

Sitting allows your conscious brain to focus. By dishing up your meal and sitting down to enjoy it you get all the benefits of a meal and avoid "overlooking" serving sizes by snacking. You'll also find that it helps you to actually get excited about what you're cooking or serving.
Even if you're not sharing your table with anyone in particular, try to clear out a dedicated space in your schedule—and in your stuff—for eating, particularly breakfast and dinner. These are important rituals that you'll be doing for the rest of your life, so the better you are at them, the more you'll enjoy them.

7. Balance Your Diet

MODERATION IS KEY and so is balance. Don't all together avoid carbs or dietary fats but adjust the portion size to fit your particular goals. There's nothing like sitting down to a plate with a protein, a vegetable, and a carb source all arrayed on the plate.
When it comes down to it, the key is to be mindful of your food and what it's made of. If you don't know, that's a problem. You're putting this stuff in your body, after all!

8. Use Smart Flour Substitutes

Baked goods can be clean. The big secret here is to look beyond what is in most recipes, the refined white flour.
Almond flour, coconut flour, brown rice flour, and oat flour are all excellent ways to reduce the simple carbs of any recipe and still create delicious treats.

9. Don't Eat Foods With Ingredients You Can't Pronounce

After a while, clean eating gets easier and you start noticing all sorts of things about foods around you.
Look at the label of a box of cookies, a children's lunch pack, or even a bottle of "natural" juice. You'd need a chemistry degree to read it, and even then, you couldn't say what those substances are doing to you in the long run. A good general rule: If you can't state the name of a particular ingredient in the food you're about to dine on, then consider passing.

10. Focus On Nutrients, Not Just Calories

Many "diets" focus on caloric intake alone. Yes, this plays a part in your overall success in maintaining or loosing weight but don't get caught up in the numbers game.  It's important to know you are getting the proper nutrients. Both ways have a place in your life. One approach leaves you feeling grumpy, ravenous, and guilty about simple pleasures. The other leads you to more energy, stable blood sugar, and a world of new foods you never considered in the past. The choice is easy.