3 Steps to Clean Eating: How to Start Clean Eating for Beginners
Want to get started with clean eating? Here’s the beginner’s guide to clean eating, with three first steps you can take to improve your diet and your health.
Hello! Today we’re welcoming guest writer Paula of Whole Intentions! Paula’s blog is a great mix of faith, healthy living, and real food recipes. Pay her site a visit!
Guest post by Paula of Whole Intentions
Food.
Water.
Isn’t it strange how these two seemingly simple aspects of life can become our worst enemy? It doesn’t happen to everyone, just like becoming addicted to nicotine doesn’t happen to everyone, but there are some of us who think about food far more than others. . .
Food, cravings, and declining health
We think about food. We worry about the fat content. We worry about the carb content. We pick our food apart. We avoid it. We crave it. We binge on it. We plan our day around it. We plan our events around it. We celebrate with it. We mourn with it. We . . . could go on and on.
Not only do we think about it, it’s shoved in our face. Commercials claim that Snickers will satisfy us. Pringles challenges us with, “once you pop, you just can’t stop.” And we’ve never seen more idealistically happy people than the ones standing in their backyard around the grill, the kids clean, and the picket-fenced yard keeping the neighbor’s dogs at bay.
Psst. Guess what. They’re COMMERCIALS.
Of course they’re going to try to sell us something. They’re not going to show us the obese woman who can eat a single can of Pringles through one sitcom. They aren’t going to show us the person in the checkout who fidgets, looks away, and then finally grabs the candy bar–or two–and throws them on the conveyor belt. They’re not going to show us the chemistry behind their inventions that was created specifically to make our body CRAVE that perfect salty, crunchy snack. (source)
They’re just glad we buy it. For them that’s the end of the story.
But with the rate of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes climbing higher, and our health declining each year, it makes sense to stop the mindless eating we so often do. . .and start feeding our bodies the nutrient-dense foods it NEEDS.
Clean eating done right
“Today, more than 95% of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise.” ~ Mike Adams, The Health Ranger
When we finally take a good, long look at the kinds of foods we’re encouraged to eat–you know, the “quick and convenient” foods that make life soooo much easier–we realize that in the end, they’re not making life easier if they cause health problems down the road.
God gave us one body. There is no reset button.
So how do we start changing bad eating habits into good ones? With baby steps. We don’t have to jump into clean-eating cold turkey, but instead make small choices consistently and slowly add on to it.
1. First, stop buying foods that come in boxes and packages. Instead of Uncle Ben’s or Rice-A-Roni, buy a bag of rice and add to your collection of herbs and seasonings to create a simple, seasoned rice dish.
2. Up your intake of fresh veggies. Wash and cut them up right away when you get home. Having them prepared will make it much easier to grab a few carrot sticks then a bag of chips when the munchies hit.
3. Start baking at home, and look for recipes that contain healthy, raw sweeteners like honey or maple syrup and other healthy ingredients like this Honey Muffin recipe.
It takes a few steps, and it takes some time, but if you continue to tweak and make better choices, you’ll find that you feel better, you look better, and you learn a new desire and craving for delicious and healthy foods.
Paula wears a lot of hats. Child of God, wife of 18 years, mother of five, reluctant cook, full-time teacher, chocolate-snatcher, and fitness & nutrition coach.
Various family health issues including Lyme disease and candida has created a passion for understanding how our God-created bodies thrive or deteriorate based on what we put in it.
She blogs about whole food, whole living, and whole faith at. . .where else, but Whole Intentions.
Great advice anyone can start applying today. I love Paula from Whole Intentions. She is so wise and an awesome role model for other moms who want to live and eat more intentionally.
You are so right about taking small, baby steps rather than jumping into clean eating cold turkey.
By taking small, intentional, and manageable steps, the new habits one creates are more likely to help transition into a healthy lifestyle than a fad that is too hard to stick with.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Clean eating does take a little more thought and effort, but the results are certainly worth it.
Blessings.