If you are considering improving your eating habits and adopting a healthier lifestyle to create an ageless body, incorporating these tips for eating clean will be a big step in the right direction.
I understand that not everyone is ready to ditch meat so I’ve included clean eating tips for meat eaters from Clean Eating Online below mine.
Almost 30 years ago when I stopped eating meat there weren’t many vegetarian and vegan restaurants and convenience foods. Now you have so many healthy choices there’s no reason to not clean up your diet.
I’ve found Pinterest to be the easiest place to find great recipes and my Pinterest boards are the easiest way of categorizing them. That way if I’m at the store and want to check the ingredients of a recipe, I can quickly pull it up on my phone.
Here are 6 tips for clean eating from me
1. My first suggestion would be to not buy any processed foods. Just stay out of those middle aisles of the grocery store.
2. Only buy canned beans or tomatoes for an emergency. Now with the Instant Pot, you can have beans done in minutes instead of hours.
3. Try to finish eating by 7 PM. It’s better for your health.
4. Stop drinking diet anything. Don’t use any artificial sweeteners. They are poison!
5. Add 1 new fruit or veggie to every meal.
6. Drink water all day long, more if you are sweating.
Ideas for breakfast:
You can find any kind of healthy breakfast you want on my Pinterest board
Fruit salad with fresh coconut, hemp hearts, and nuts
Oatmeal made with raw oats or steel cut oats and nut milk
Healthy whole food energy bars and balls
Ideas for lunch:
Ideas for dinner:
I eat a lot of soup and salads for dinner so check out those Pinterest boards because I’ve got enough recipes to keep you busy for the next year.
I also have boards for healthy Mexican, Italian and Indian food.
To make your meals even more flavorful, make sure to add spices, chilis, and herbs to your recipes. Don’t be afraid of experimenting with new flavors!
Kitchen Appliances that Make Your Life Easy
There are certain appliances I use almost daily. Those are a blender for making green smoothies, a food processor for all kinds of cooking and baking, an Instant Pot (this will change your life), and a mandolin.
The ones shown here are good quality best-sellers on Amazon that will serve you well without breaking the bank.
6 Tips for Clean Eating for My Meat-Eating Friends
If you’d like to start with the foods you are eating now, check out these tips from CleanEatingOnline. And if you have already stopped eating meat, chances are you’ll know the substitutions to make in the menu suggestions. The one point I would disagree with here is the need for snacks. I am a small person and any one of those snacks would be a meal for me. I also have never been a snacker. So look at your own body and do what works for you.
This is the question I get asked all the time. I think people assume it’s really difficult and time-consuming. It’s really just a matter of planning all meals and snacks ahead of time.
Here are some basic principles of clean eating that you’ll need to keep in mind:
- Eat primarily non-processed foods. If it comes out of a box, don’t eat it. If it comes from the earth, eat it
- Eat six times a day. This is to keep your metabolism fired up and it keeps you from getting too hungry
- No alcohol or sodas. Drink lots of water and/or herbal unsweetened tea
- Never miss a meal
- Combine lean protein and complex carbs at every meal
- Avoid all trans fats
- Eat fresh fruits and vegetables
Ideas for breakfast would be:
- Steel cut oatmeal (not flakes) with berries and 1 Tbsp. chopped walnuts
- 4-5 scrambled egg whites with 4 oz. potatoes mixed with red peppers and onions
- 1 c. yogurt with 1 c. fresh berries, 1 slice whole wheat toast
- Whole wheat pancakes (see recipe section) with fruit
- Banana chocolate smoothie (see breakfast recipe section)
NEVER, EVER skip breakfast!!!! Think about it. You’ve just been sleeping for 7-8 hrs. (hopefully). Your body needs some fuel after not eating for that length of time. Your mother was right. It IS the most important meal of the day!
Lunch:
Okay, here’s where things get a bit more challenging. Most people are home at breakfast time. Not so for lunch. My suggestion would be to pack a small cooler the night before and just grab it when you leave for work in the morning. (This is where the planning comes in.) Anyway, here are some lunch ideas:
- 4 oz. chicken on whole wheat bread with mustard and avocado slice; green salad with olive oil and vinegar
- 4 oz. chicken, 1/2 c. brown rice, 1 c. low sodium lentil soup
- 1 c. whole wheat pasta, 1/2 c. low sodium marinara sauce, 4 oz. grilled chicken breast, 1/2 c. broccoli
- Mexican Chicken Wrap (see recipe section)
- Easy Chicken Salad (see recipe section)
Dinner:
- 4 oz. salmon, 1 medium baked sweet potato, and 2 tsp. olive oil
- 1 turkey burger patty, 1 baked potato cubed and roasted with 2 tsp. olive oil and 2 tsp. chopped rosemary
- pizza made with 1 whole grain English muffin, 1/4 c. part skim mozzarella cheese; a salad made with 1/4 c. chickpeas, 2 tsp. cilantro, 2 tsp. minced garlic and 1 Tbsp. honey-mustard vinaigrette
Snacks:
Snacks are NOT optional!!! You will need to eat 3 snacks a day, one after breakfast, one after lunch, and one after dinner. In the beginning, you’re going to feel like you’re eating ALL THE TIME but soon you will get used to eating this way. Believe me, it beats walking around hungry all day. Here are some tasty snack ideas. All snacks should be around 200 calories.
- Larabars
- 1 English muffin with 1 Tbsp. peanut butter
- 6 whole wheat crackers and 1 oz. cheese
- 1 c. plain nonfat yogurt with 1 c. berries
- 1 small baked sweet potato mixed with 1 c. plain nonfat yogurt
Eating clean is simply an amazing way to live your life. But how do you begin?
Here are 6 things you can do today to start eating clean:
1. Start making your own salad dressing. There are way too many yucky ingredients in prepared salad dressings, including high fructose corn syrup. Here’s a delicious recipe for easy vinaigrette dressing that I make all the time.
2. Stop drinking sodas and diet sodas and start drinking water and herbal tea.
3. Avoid modern vegetable oils like corn oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil and canola oil. Instead, use coconut oil (read about the awesome benefits of coconut oil here) and extra virgin olive oil.
4. Cook your own meals instead of eating fast food. Not sure how to start preparing healthy, clean meals for yourself and your family? Here are some awesome menu plans to get you started!
5. Replace food you eat from a box or a bag of fruits and fresh vegetables. Remember, if it was made in a factory you probably shouldn’t be eating it. If it came from nature then that’s what you should be eating.
6. If you eat beef, it’s best to consume grass-fed beef instead of conventional beef. Read here why this can greatly impact your health.
There you have it, 6 tips for clean eating plus menu suggestions for each meal of the day. Now you’re ready to change your eating habits to healthier cleaner eating and be on your way to an ageless lifestyle after 50.
Health and nutrition are a big passion of mine because, without your health, all the success you can achieve is meaningless. In 1981 I started seriously studying health, nutrition, and the mind/body connection. I stopped eating meat in 1990 for health reasons and compassion for animals. In 1999 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2005, the day after Christmas, I lost my mother at the age of 69 to lung cancer. Since then, helping others to regain their health by making simple changes has become a driving force in my life.
Until next time, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just comment on this post here or on Facebook.
If you would like private mentoring, go to the contact page above and tell me what you would like help with. As your mentor, whether for your health, your lifestyle or your business, I hold a bigger vision for you than you hold for yourself. When you have faith and a team that believes in you, it gives you courage. When you don’t have to do it all yourself, all things are possible for you. Commit today to go for your dream 100%.
With over 40 years in sales and marketing, along with 45 years studying human behavior, Lynn Pierce, “The Voice of Women Empowered to Create an Ageless Body, Mind & Soul After 50” mentors soul-based entrepreneurs to reach your own personal version of success and an ageless lifestyle. Tell Lynn what the life of your dreams looks like, and she’ll create the blueprints to get you there, along with the sales system to fund it. Author of, “Breakthrough to Success; 19 Keys to Mastering Every Area of Your Life”, Lynn Pierce’s personal growth and business acceleration systems help her clients get three times the results in half the time with one-tenth of the effort. Claim your free special report, “What Do You Stand For” here
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