People often think that in order to eat healthily, they need to spend hours in the kitchen cooking complicated meals or adhere to a restrictive diet. However, eating healthy doesn’t have to be time-consuming or difficult. In fact, one of the best ways to eat healthily is to practice clean eating.
What is Clean Eating?
Clean eating is all about consuming whole, unprocessed foods. This means eating fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, and healthy fats. Processed foods are generally high in unhealthy ingredients like added sugar, preservatives, and unhealthy fats. These ingredients can lead to weight gain, so it’s best to avoid them as much as possible.
How Can Clean Eating Help Me Lose Weight?
When you cut out processed foods and focus on consuming whole, unprocessed foods, you naturally reduce your calorie intake. This can help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. In addition, eating clean helps boost your metabolism and gives you more energy throughout the day. This increased energy can make it easier for you to be active and burn even more calories.
How Do I Incorporate Clean Eating Into My Diet?
The best way to incorporate clean eating into your diet is to start by gradually making small changes. For example, if you typically have cereal for breakfast, try switching to oatmeal or eggs. For lunch or dinner, try swapping out your usual side dish for a healthier option like roasted vegetables. As you get used to these changes, you can start making more drastic changes like cutting out processed snacks or cooking more meals at home from scratch.
Watch The Sweeteners
Clean eating cuts out all white sugar and artificial sweeteners. Natural sweeteners like honey, agave syrup, and maple syrup are usually allowed through. While they are fine to use in moderation, be careful about not going overboard. Replacing your sugary treats with “clean” versions that contain just as many natural sugars won’t help you lose weight and isn’t good for your blood sugar.
Careful With Carbs
One of the best ways to lose excess weight is to curb carbohydrate consumption. Fill your plate with low-carb, non-starchy vegetables, add a few berries and go easy on the potatoes and grains. If you have diabetes, you’ll want to talk to your doctor about the best way to monitor and regulate your blood sugar when following a clean eating diet.
Tracking carbohydrate consumption for a few days can help you get a feel for what clean foods are high in carbs and how lowering your carbohydrate intake makes you feel.
Plenty of Protein and Healthy Fat to Stay Full
With sugars and carbs out of the way, what should you eat? After all, a big salad will only satisfy you for so long. Make it up with plenty of lean protein and healthy fats. Both take a longer time to digest and will help you stay full.
Healthy fats like olive oil, nuts, and avocados are an important part of clean eating. Not only do they help your body absorb certain vitamins, but they also help you feel full after eating. This can be helpful when you’re trying to lose weight because it helps you eat less overall. Just be sure to consume healthy fats in moderation.
Include things like chicken, low-fat cottage cheese, Greek Yogurt, ground turkey, etc. with each meal or snack. Nuts are another great option full of healthy fats. Be careful of portion sizes though. The same holds true for healthy fats like cold-pressed olive oil or avocados.
Fiber for Digestion
Fiber is an important part of any diet, but it’s especially important when you’re trying to lose weight. Fiber helps your body digest food more slowly, which can help you feel full after eating and prevent overeating.
Good sources of fiber include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans. When you’re trying to lose weight, aim to get at least 25 grams of fiber per day.
Don’t Forget the Water
Often we think we’re hungry when we’re actually thirsty. Try drinking a glass of water first. Not only will it fill you up with zero calories, but staying well hydrated also makes it easier for your body to process body fat into energy your body can use. In other words, drink your water and melt that fat right off your body.
Move around More
Eating the right type of food in appropriate portions will make a huge difference when it comes to your weight. But so will moving around. We’re not talking about heading to the gym each day or going for a 5-mile run. While those are great options, even moving around just a little more can have a positive impact.
Go for a short walk after dinner, park a little further away at the mall, or dance around the kitchen to your favorite music. Not only will this burn extra calories, but it also puts you in a better mood and kicks your metabolism into high gear.
Conclusion
Eating healthy doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. In fact, one of the best ways to eat healthily is to practice clean eating. Clean eating is all about consuming whole, unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, and healthy fats. When you cut out processed foods and focus on consuming whole foods, you naturally reduce your calorie intake and give your body the nutrients it needs to function properly.
Incorporating clean eating into your diet can help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. The best way to start is by making small changes like swapping out processed snacks for healthier options or cooking more meals at home from scratch.
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