Clean Eating – It doesn’t have to be boring.

What is clean eating? The short answer is: clean eating means one refrains from eating processed foods.  If you can't pronounce the ingredient, or it didn't come from God's green earth, it's out.  The details of this can vary slightly from individual to individual; but in the long run, it's a healthy take on what you put in your mouth.

Clean eating has been a priority of mine for the last 4-5 years or so.  I used to have the WORST diet! Fast food, processed, prepackaged, gimmicky diet.  I loved going out to eat, ESPECIALLY during my lunch break.  Talk about calories and $$$$ down the drain. I packed on the pounds FAST.  I was not eating to fuel my body.  Even when I started to lose weight by tracking my calories, I still wasn’t properly fueling my body.  Granted my bank account was healthier, but the Lean Cuisines I took to work were far from nutritious.  I was still eating packaged junk.  BUT, it was a start.  Baby steps to begin making the right choices I needed to take my body to optimal health.  
 
Depending on where you’re starting, it can be overwhelming to think about making a change when you picture where you want to be.  Which can lead to lack of motivation and success.  That’s why it’s important to start with just one thing.  Get that down, then add on another component.   Once I had the portion and tracking in place, it was easy to start incorporating other changes throughout the months.
 
So, I have a lot of people asking me about my recipes.  I'm going to start documenting them, not only so I don’t forget what I put in something the next time I’m craving it, but also so people can make their own version.  I’ll set up a quick link on my page that goes straight to recipe posts.  Easy peasy!  Sometimes I just come up with something on my own, and other times I get inspiration from Pinterest or Google, and then modify the heck out of it.  Hey, being in the service industry for so long made me become a major recipe modifier offender.  It got boring eating the exact. same. menu. item. every. single. day.
 
I’ll start with the recipe for this super summery, light shrimp pasta.  I completely made this up off the top of my head, so I’ll try to get the measurements right.
 
LEMON AND GOAT CHEESE SHRIMP PASTA

Ingredients:
1 tbs. butter
1 head broccoli
12 shrimp
3 cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup (uncooked) Red and White Quinoa Macaroni (get it HERE)
¼ cup shredded parmesan
2 tbs. goat cheese
 
Instructions:

1. Heat a pot of water to boil.
2. Heat a large sauté pan on medium heat and add butter.
3. Add the broccoli and sauté for 3 minutes.
4. While broccoli cooks, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook per the package instructions.
5. Add the garlic and shrimp to the sauté pan and cook for 2-3 minutes flipping the shrimp halfway (shrimp cook fast!).  Cook until the shrimp turn pink.
6. Turn the heat to low and add the lemon juice.  Stir to deglaze the pan.
7. Drain the pasta and add to the sauté pan with parmesan and goat cheese.  Toss and enjoy!

 
Note:

• I said this made 2 servings. One of us in my house eats larger servings than the other, so I had about 1/3 and the other had 2/3.  Depending on your family size, this could easily be 3 servings especially if paired with a salad.
• I plugged this into MyFitnessPal and it says the calories are 660 per serving, but don't hold me to that.

 
I don’t think we ever get to a point of perfect, healthy living.  Do I eat clean every meal of every day of every week?  Heck no!  But, I don’t beat myself up about it, and I pick back up when I stumble.  Tracking what I eat is a really eye opening experience.  If you’ve never kept a journal of what you eat throughout the day, I challenge you to give it a try.  If only for a week.  I use MyFitnessPal to help me keep track of my meals.  Once you start doing this, you’ll be amazed at how many calories there really are in that sandwich, or “healthy salad” or side of ranch dressing.  These things start adding up.  It really takes a mental shift in how we perceive food for a lifestyle change to happen.  And that’s when you’ll start seeing results.
 
Let me know if you have any tricks, or helpful apps in keeping your diet on track.  Anything that makes it easier and convenient will help us remove the excuses that keep us from sticking with it.