Eating Clean

I am truly enjoying this program.  However, I think I am sabotaging my efforts with my eating habits.  December was pretty much terrible, I got back on track for the first two weeks in Jan, and I just spent a four day weekend out of town and went nuts again.

Is anyone else having trouble?  I would like to suggest a mini goal of eating clean for the next three weeks.  We can try to hold each other accountable.  We can post our progress here every few days or so.  If we are not doing well, we can try to encourage each other.  If we are sticking to our individual plans, whatever they may be, we can congratulate each other.  Sound good?  We don't have to post what we are eating, or how many calories, (unless you want to) just how we are doing overall.  If there is an issue you want to bring up - like - I'm trying to keep carbs to 40% and I went crazy today!!!  - that would be fine.

Doing this, along with posting our measurements in one of the other threads I just saw, might help us stick to our goals.  Any one interested?

I'll start.  I just did workout 1A in Stage 5 today.  I just finished lunch and am on track for the day.  Hopefully I can report that I staid on track in a day or so.  Good luck.  Looking Forward to hearing from you all.

Ok ckfyamaha, you will just have to do the best that you can.  Luckily, I live close enough to work that I can come home for lunch.  I want to get my diet in line too, because they say that it is the most important.  I know we are all working out hard with this program.  So, let's eat the best we can and see how things go from here.  Plus we will have to go on over and post our measurements in the other thread.

Just wanted to let y'all know that I got some herbal teas at the store this evening.  I am planning on trying them in the morning.  I sure hope they don't taste bad!  Lol.

Youch! This challenge gets me right where it hurts! I did really well with the quality of food when I began NROLFW and I did notice a signficant loss in inches. And then I started allowing a little of this, a little of that until I'm pretty much back to old eating habits.

I'll have to think about how I can take on this challenge and set  myself up to be successful. I'll be lurking around this post until I'm ready to commit. Arghh...

Oh - I third the move to grandfather (or grandmother?) in the Kashi Crunch!

Great Challenge, Laura...you're putting me through the paces, which is great!

This sounds awesome, I used to eat "super clean" when I lived in America, as in nothing processed, all organic, all grass fed meats, free range grass fed eggs etc.  Here in Africa, well I take what I can get.  The only thing I "need" to eat out of a can is beans and tomatos (the beans here are soooo old that I can't afford to cook them on the stove, they take like three hours to get soft, and it costs too much in gas).  I personally am having a really hard time getting the right amount of carbs/fats/protein.  Cutting down on the carbs has been a challenge enough, but there are very few lean protein sources here (they don't have lean cuts of meat, and I have never seen a chicken breast, so we have to use thighs and debone/deskin them ourselves...plus we have lots of fatty fish, which are really great for you but still it skews the fat to protein ratio) so I feel like I"m eating too much fat and not enough protein. 

Artificial sweeteners - don't rule out Stevia!!  It's a natural alternative to sugar and once you get used to it you may never go back!

I might just have to take you up on the Stevia.  These herb teas are going to take some getting used to.  How do you just get over wanting that sweet taste in your tea?  I like the warmth of it, though.  It is cold again today.  But I hear we might see 59 degrees tomorrow!

Dovelette, I am sorry that you are having to eat old beans :( But you are doing a great thing by helping others.  Way to go!

Count me in for the clean eating too.  The holidays did me in food-wise.  I didn't really gain according to the scale, but I'm feeling sluggish and, for lack of a better word, "fluffier" than I did before Thanksgiving. 

My version of clean-eating is probably not the same as other people's, but having a support group and being held accountable sounds great!  Thanks guys!

Welcome everyone.  The idea of being accountable to this group helped me with the munchies last night.  One clean day accomplished!  Let's see how tonight goes. And it doesn't matter what your individual goals are - if you can come here and say you met them for the day, that's a victory.

So far things are going well! This is my hardest part of the day right when I get home from work. I am always exhausted so I sit down on the couch, and then I just want to eat stuff that tastes good! So..I'm going to force myself to get up, and go do my workout rather than eating! So far so good! Keep it up everyone!!! WE CAN DO THIS!

With Stevia, different brands taste differently, so don't give up if you don't like the first one you try.  I remember I had one I really liked back at home and one that my friend had that I thought was bitter.  I'm a huge tea freak, I personally love green teas and drink a ton of iced tea as well.  Yummmm. 

I made my own pickles the other day, I guess those would be considered "clean" too since it's just vinegar, dill, garlic, cucumbers and some hot pepper flakes.  I also made my own veggie burgers last night which were great, and some garlic roasted cauliflower, the first time I've ever seen cauliflower in Cape Verde!  Making your own "burgers" is super tasty and are not only better for you than store bought, they usually taste better too!

Update - I ate well yesterday BUT really had to push myself to do my workout.  It was the last stage 5B workout - thank goodness!  I have been doing the 4 sets and it takes soooo long even with supersetting the ab stuff.  Each part seemed like I said to myself ok - you can just do 3 sets on the next stuff.... or do only 2 120 second prone cobras... or don't do the HIIT.... or only do 2 intervals.  All in all - I finished everything because I made myself every step of the way.  I am really glad to be moving on to stage 6! 

(I think I didn't get enough sleep the night before)

Good for you for muscling through it.  I did 5B for the first time today and I had a hard time keeping the flow going.  I don't feel like I worked hard enough.  I had no clue how to do a back extension and was too shy to ask some one.  I am going to look it up on-line tonight and will be prepared next time.  I pushed the HIIT really hard though.  I've got two and half days of clean eating under my belt too.  Well, I did put splenda in my tea today, and is a 50 cal square of organic dark chocolate considered clean?  Hope so.  :) 

How did everyone do over the weekend?  I didn't have a very good Sunday.  Weekends are tough.  Wed thru Sat were on target.  Starting again today. 

Sounds like alot of us have a tough time over the weekends!  Amayou posted it in another thread too.  Me too!  I am usually much better during the week than the weekend.  Sunday, I had pizza, pancakes with walnuts (fiber one - so not too bad)... but it seemed like I had not enough protein and way too many carbs. 

Back to behaving! 

I am hanging in there with the clean eating.  It is tough sometimes.  If you mess up, you just have to get right back at it.  Hang in there Laura!

Re: dark chocolate.  In the NROL book (the predecessor to NROLFW), in talking about nutrition, Shuler breaks foods into a few categories, A list, B list, C list.  More or less, in his sardonic way, you know.  Dark chocolate is on either B or C list because it does after all have antioxidant properties.  Since a couple of squares of DC isn't a lot of cals or even a lot of sugar, I think it's safe to say that it's not going to pull the clean percentage down much.

One could even say it's medicinal.  That's my justification anyway.

I'm in on the clean eating challenge! This is probably easier for me than most people because of 2 things: First off, I'm vegan. So most processed food I can't eat anyhow. Second, I live in a co-op household that purchases all of our food in bulk so we pretty much live off home made clean cooked meals and no processed food. The only thing that I am going to have a hard time with is Luna Bars. These have become a serious staple in my life because of the 10 grams of protein that is provided by each one. They have a ton of sugar in them though, so I know they aren't exactly good for me. I should probably start making my own protein bars but sometimes I just don't have the time for it.

As far as the chocolate goes, if a chocolate craving is getting you, keep this in mind: Unsweetened cocoa has no sugar in it and only about 15 cals per tablespoon. If you were to take a few TBSP of unsweetened cocoa(get the Ghiradelli kind, it's superb) and mix it with a bit of stevia powder and either hot water or low fat milks(or unsweetened soy milk) you have a hot chocolate that is sugar free and provides protein too.

On my days where I'm seriously craving sweets I make mugs of 15 cal hot chocolate by using water and it usually gets rid of the craving.

I finally made it to the store to buy Stevia yesterday.  I am quite impressed with how it sweetens my unsweet tea.  I think I like it even better than sweet n low! 

Welcome soy_vey, and thanks for the hot chocolate recipe. 

I have wanted to be more consciencious about what I eat for a while now.  Yes, I would like to do this.  So for you already educated clean eaters....what about Qauker instant oatmeal...I eat this for lunch with fruit. Another one is brown minute rice, I mix with a can of black beans and a can of diced seasoned tomatoes....this is three meals for me.  This may be more of a challenge then getting through one of the exercises.  I just started stage 2 and after doing exercises A I feel as though I am wearing a shirt of pain.  Tonight I struggle through B with the cardio....I am frightened. 

Original Post by puppykisses:

I have wanted to be more consciencious about what I eat for a while now.  Yes, I would like to do this.  So for you already educated clean eaters....what about Qauker instant oatmeal...I eat this for lunch with fruit. Another one is brown minute rice, I mix with a can of black beans and a can of diced seasoned tomatoes....this is three meals for me.  This may be more of a challenge then getting through one of the exercises.  I just started stage 2 and after doing exercises A I feel as though I am wearing a shirt of pain.  Tonight I struggle through B with the cardio....I am frightened. 

As far as Quaker instant oats- I don't count these as clean, if you mean the packets. If you don't have time to cook regular oatmeal in the morning you can still buy quick oats in the bulk food sections of most stores. But all in all you still can't beat old fashioned rolled oats, which cook up in about 5-10 minutes or less.

As far as the brown rice.. I've had these packets and to me they seem like a waste of money more than anything. If you were to buy brown rice in bulk and then just buy a rice cooker you would save money in the end. Put a big batch in the rice cooker on the weekend and hit the on button and it will cook it without you having to be there.  Then you have whole grains for the whole week. It works with other grains too.

The best way to get clean foods is to buy your grains in bulk and then cook up large batches of several kinds once a week or so. You save a ton of money this way and they last forever in the fridge. So if you have a free Sunday make a batch of brown rice and a batch of quionoa. If you think they are boring you can cook them with low sodium broth and put spices in while they cook (I like spice blends like italian blend or an all purpose blend like Spike or Ms. Dash). This adds a lot of flavor. Don't, however, just use a high sodium flavor mix or something else out of a packet because it all the sodium and extra crud isn't great for ya.

Original Post by puppykisses:

I have wanted to be more consciencious about what I eat for a while now.  Yes, I would like to do this.  So for you already educated clean eaters....what about Qauker instant oatmeal...I eat this for lunch with fruit. Another one is brown minute rice, I mix with a can of black beans and a can of diced seasoned tomatoes....this is three meals for me. 

 Eating clean involves eating food as close to its original state as possible. Technically speaking, canned foods don't count as clean because they have a ton of sodium added into them to preserve them- you can buy dried beans and soak them and boil them, you can buy fresh tomatoes and season them yourself, and you can find both brown rice and instant oatmeal in the bulk foods section of your grocery store. It's cheaper, healthier, and not as work-intensive as it sounds.

At the end of the day though, you should eat in a way that is healthy and sustainable to you, and that may involve choosing some clean foods and some that aren't clean.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for the information.  I have "ADD" when it comes to cooking.  I do like the idea of a rice cooker....I have seen some on sale.  I also will have to get back into canning tomatos.  I did this quite abit then a few years ago just stopped.  My MIL cans many types of veges I guess I will be spending time with her in the later part of the summer!!  I will finish off what I have in the pantry then take a trip to Costco and buy some bulk rice and oats.....I can do this!!! Plus I like the idea of saving money!!  Getting my hubby on board may also be a challenge but he will do it begrudgingly for our overall health.