The Reader Digests | Clean Eats

It seems like the minute I turned 33, my metabolism decided to punish me.  I used to enjoy eating pretty much whatever I wanted and saw small to moderate weight gains, but nothing too substantial. Apparently, at 33 - for me anyway - it's all over.  Which is really irritating, especially since my blog is all about food! 

So I sought out new diets and eating habits to try and find a good balance that would allow me to eat pancakes, pizza, sushi, and burgers every once in a while, still maintaining a healthy weight. I came across "clean eating."  This diet trend has received much attention in recent years, espoused by

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celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyonce.  It can go from very extreme liquid diets (juice fasting) to simply adopting an awareness about the content and purpose of the food we enjoy.  I chose the latter, because as is obvious from the title of this blog, I like to eat.  Plus, I work at a library and can't afford a $500 juice cleanse pack (Sorry Gwynnie, it's just not happening) and I hate cleaning my juicer. Also, the idea of detoxification hasn't been scientifically proven.  Mostly though, I really like to eat.  

So what is clean eating?  Here are some very basic principles, which I sometimes try to follow:

• Eat simply.  Stick to plants, meats, whole grains like rice and whole wheat.  Try not to eat things out of a box.
• Choose food with a manageable amount of ingredients. If you are eating something with 20 lines of strange ingredients that you cannot identify, that's not so good.
• Eat smaller meals more frequently.
• Remove chemicals and processed foods from your diet.

  

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• Limit saturated fats.
• Reduce alcohol (1 drink per day) or eliminate it if you can.
• Replace coffee with green tea (I don't do this!)
• Watch sugar intake.  Sometimes even seemingly healthy food like yogurt can contain mostly sugar.
• Some people supplement with probiotics and extra vitamins, but doctors should always be consulted before adopting a diet like this.

 If you want to learn more about "clean" eating, check out some of these books:
Clean eats : over 200 delicious recipes to reset your body's natural balance and discover what it means to be truly healthy / Junger, Alejandro.

 The quick & clean diet : lose the weight, feel great, and stay lean for life / Alexander, Dari.

Clean food : a seasonal guide to eating close to the source / Walters, Terry

 The Chefs Collaborative cookbook : local, sustainable, delicious recipes from America's great chefs / Jackson, Ellen

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Losing weight is painfully hard. The last time that I successfully lost some weight was for my brother's wedding and because, I went on the Atkins diet and killed myself at the gym.

So I was wondering if another wedding can force me to lose some weight again. I particularly want to lose my belly. 

The Atkins diet is pretty successful if you stick to it.  But I had to avoid all the foods that I really liked such as white bread, pasta, chocolate and of course sugar. 

While I was on Atkins, I ate so many hard boiled eggs that I would get nauseated at just the sight of them.

So I quit Atkins and unfortunately, slowly but surely, I have gained all of that weight back.

Eating is one of the most satisfying pleasures in life. Don't you agree?

A perfect day for me is the following:

A spotless house + A good book + A Chocolate cake/Cup cake + Chips + Coffee

I need a very big dose of self control. I keep hearing about the importance of replacing a bad habit with a good one. It is easy to say, but impossible for me to execute. Honestly, who wants to eat a celery stick instead of chocolate cake?

To help me add more self control to my crazy eating habits, I am listening to this free audio book that I have downloaded from our library Overdrive. It is called "Making habits, Breaking habits". It is giving me some clues as to why I eat the way I do.

As the author Dean Jeremy says" habit change is not a sprint, it is a marathon". It is ironic, I am a good sprinter but I can't run a mile to save my life.

Anyway...

If you have any realistic advice about how to lose weight and keep it off, please let me know.

For now, I am going back to gym again. I am just crossing my fingers that I can lose some weight without going back to Atkins again.

Just wish me luck.

Foodist : using real food and real science to lose weight without dieting  

Your food is fooling you

Thinner this year : a younger next year book  

 
Signing off until next Monday- Panteha