THE FIRST STEPS IN EATING CLEAN

At least 80% of how we look is what we eat.  For those people who spend thousands of dollars a year on a personal trainer, this may be one of the single most depressing realities EVER.  It's not unusual for a client or customer to tell me that they've been working out, but they can't seem to stay on track with their nutrition, and therefore, they see absolutely no changes in their body.

I myself have been one of those people.  No matter how many push-ups, pull-ups, or crunches you do, if you eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's at end of the day, you're not going to lose a single pound.  In my own journey, I started with a set Nutrition Guide that accompanied my P90X program.  This was the catalyst for learning how to manage my macro-nutrients in the right proportions, and also introduced me to health foods that I could eat on a regular basis that didn't taste like cardboard.

That was all great, and menu plans can be AWESOME, but at some point, we progress beyond them, and have to learn how to eat healthy on our own.  So, where does one start???

The first step in learning what to eat, is to EDUCATE YOURSELF about food.  Scare tactics work fantastically.  Find out where your food comes from, how it's cooked, and what it does to your body.

3 of my favorites:

In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto by Michael Pollan
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser

Even if you only skim these reads, which is not what I'm suggesting, you will learn enough about today's food, that you'll at least probably never eat at McDonald's again.  This should be your starting point, and this is where you will learn about all your food basics.

NOW that you know what's happening to your food before it gets to you, learn what it does for you by learning what foods actually help your body. I suggest the book series by Dr. Steven Pratt:

SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life
The Superfoods Rx Diet: Lose Weight with the Power of SuperNutrients
SuperHealth: 6 Simple Steps, 6 Easy Weeks, 1 Longer, Healthier Life
SuperFoods HealthStyle: Proven Strategies for Lifelong Health

After you've read these four books, you'll know what foods are best for your diet, hopefully have incorporated them into your day to day life, and know how to put together a meal plan.  These books not only teach you about Super Foods, but how to put your food together from week to week.

So here you are, full of knowledge about what not to eat, what to eat the most of, and how to organize your food on a daily basis. But, there are only so many recipes in those books, so where do you find new recipes?

I'm a HUGE Tosca Reno fan, however I do find the Eat Clean Diet can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming when it comes to the seemingly obscure ingredients that some of the recipes have.  For that reason, I always direct people to The Best of Clean Eating 1, 2, and 3.  All three of these recipe books have easy to make recipes, and the ingredient lists tend to be pretty general and familiar.  You'll find yourself excited to try new foods in new ways, and you will be able to finish your meal without feeling guilty about the choices that you've made.

There is a wealth of information out now about how to "diet" and lose weight.  The most common problem that I see is people wanting to get a quick fix and lose weight easy, and fast.  Well, I'm here to tell you the same thing that you've read one thousand times, in dozens of different magazines:  there is no quick fix to being healthy and looking fit.  If you eat right, and workout hard, you'll lose weight...PERIOD.