Nutrition Advice

Hello all and Happy New Year! I am not new to this but have been on a three month long "break." I guess the holidays have gotten the best of me. Anyway...my question is about nutrition. I need help figuring out a plan of action. I want to eat clean, but have no idea how to go about it. 

I'm a 24 yr old female. I'm 5'9 and about 140 lbs. I am looking to get rid of some of the extra flab and turn it into lean muscle. I guess you could call me a skinny fat girl right now because I appear thin but don't have nearly as much muscle definition as I would like. I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post in....so feel free to send me in the right direction if it isn't.

Thanks for your help in advance!!

At the top of the page is a link for New and Improved Calorie count diet. 

It has all the information you need and I highly recommend it.  I think the advice contained is even better than that found in my university nutrition class.

Eating 'clean' is pretty simple.... but you have to enjoy cooking.   Basically, you steer well away from most convenience foods, ready-made foods and other things that have been through a factory.  Clean foods are 'whole' or 'real' foods.  There's a good book around called 'In Defence of Food' by Michael Pollan which is an interesting and often hilarious read and he has some really good rules of thumb on how to tell if you're eating 'food' or 'edible food-like substances'.  I'm paraphrasing....

• It's probably not food if your great grandmother wouldn't recognise it as food... e.g. non-dairy creamer, cheese strings...
• It's probably not food if it has more than 5 ingredients or if the ingredients include words you don't recognise or can't pronounce
• It's probably not food if it is making a health claim e.g. 'diet', 'low-carb', 'sugar-free' etc.

The things to go mad on are vegetables in all their forms, pulses (legumes), fresh fruit, wholegrain foods, moderate amounts of lean meat/fish, eggs & dairy products, olive oil, herbs, spices ....   And then get out the cooking pots and the knives and turn them into lovely meals. Good luck!

 

• It's probably not food if your great grandmother wouldn't recognise it as food... e.g. non-dairy creamer, cheese strings... 

 My grandmother once told me she didn't trust her cleaner because "she was always eating weird modern food, well I've never heard of a kiwi, have you?" Haha!

I am massive on clean eating. I love my fresh ingredients and my freezer is barely used. I will try anything as long as it is one ingredient. I was in canada once and looked at the packet of a doughnut my boyfriend was eating and it contained.... THIRTY FOUR ingredients!

Thank you all for your advice! That book sounds hilarious! It definitely makes sense. And as far as not eating food my great grandmother won't recognize...I will make sure to use good judgement and not have any prejudice against kiwis or other "foreign" fruits or veggies! 

I just bought a book on amazon...The Eat Clean Diet Book and The Eat Clean Diet Cook Book. Both were under $20 in total and hopefully helpful. 

Thanks so much everyone for your help! I'm going food shopping this morning...wish me luck!

Even a Victorian great-grandmother would be able to look at a kiwi and guess that is was some kind of fruit... even if she'd never actually tried one.  But a yoghurt that you squeeze out of a tube?   Or cream in a spray can? ... less certain that she'd know where to start.   I think that's what he was talking about.  "Regard non-traditional foods with scepticism"

'Clean eating' is a bit of a craze at the moment and there are various versions at varying levels of craziness.  Some would have you convert to raw veganism and eat nothing that isn't strictly certified organic.  Others are a little more practical and real-worldly. 

Some more of Michael Pollan's pearls of wisdom

• pay more, eat less
• don't get your fuel from the same place your car does