If there’s one thing that burns my toast, it’s listening to people complain about how much more expensive it is to eat healthier. I mean, I get it. When you’re used to buying cheap food that you can eat a ton of and still not be full, it’s hard to get used to buying food with a little cost to it that you can eat less of and be full much quicker.

It’s hard to accept that cheap food has consequences. It’s also sometimes hard to accept that cheap food is cheap because, to save the companies from passing the cost onto you, the good stuff has been stripped out. Good stuff. You know, the vitamins, minerals, nutrients… the stuff that keeps you thriving.

All that aside, it’s hard to jump head first into clean eating. All you really know is “no boxes, no bags, no cans, no bottled water, bon appetit!” Before you know it, you’ve spent $200 on fruits and vegetables that began to rot before you could even taste them all, and you start longing for the days when you could buy food with an expiration date of… next year.

Below, I have five guesses as to why you may be spending too much on learning how to eat clean. I know these are true… because they are exactly how I screwed up in the beginning.

1. You’re indulging too often. If you’ve made the attempt to swap out your doritos for chocolate covered cashews, and that means that you eat your chocolate covered cashews just as often as you ate your doritos – which means… you’re eating them every day – then yes, you’re overdoing it and you’re going to feel it in your wallet. The point of an indulgence is to treat yourself. It is a highly American principle (read: result of marketing) that it makes sense to “treat yourself every day”… especially with food. If you’re going to treat yourself every day, let it be with a nice hot bubble bath, a longer walk than normal or sitting out to watch the sun set. I know the last one is corny, but my daughter and I walk and watch the sun setting together like there’s fireworks out there. We appreciate simple. Simple is also free.

We really appreciate free.

My indulgence? Vegan organic dark chocolate truffles. $5 for a box of two, and worth every chocolatey bite. Know how often I get them? Once a week (if that.) My indulgence expenses for the week? Five dollars. Certainly not $3.50 every two days like it might be for those chocolate covered cashews.

Please note that people who suffer from this problem also often complain about “doing everything right and still not losing weight.”

2. You’re buying out of season. In the fall, I can buy sweet potatoes for $0.29 per pound. That’s right. I can get three pounds of sweet potatoes for under a dollar. Right now, they’re $1.29 a pound. Knowing how much they cost when they’re in season… why would I buy them now? In the winter, strawberries are $5 for a one pound container. Right now, they’re 2 for $3. Again… knowing this, why on Earth would I buy them in the winter? Each season has its own fruits and vegetables that can grow inexpensively, and therefore should be less expensive at your store. If you stick closely to what can be grown in that particular season (which means briefly familiarizing yourself with best options for the current season before you hit the store), you won’t over spend. Yeah, you may want your cherries in the winter… but please believe you will be paying a premium for it.

People who suffer from this problem often wind up not even wanting the fruit they bought – winding up buying it on a whim simply because they’re “surprised to see those in the grocery store this time of year.”

3. You think that as long as it’s marked “organic,” it’s OK to dig in. Not so. Let me explain before I get angry e-mails. Yes, organic is the ideal purchase for those who want to enjoy their food grown properly, without pesticides or other problems(although, if you want to avoid pesticides without purchasing organics, you can always just cling to this list), but just because a food is organic doesn’t mean that the calorie count is automatically decreased to zero! Organic foods, much like anything else, have calories. Sometimes, lots of them. And they affect your body in the same way as inorganics… so you must still be careful.

4. You’re buying too much at one time. Fruits and vegetables have expiration dates… and they don’t keep for years like your typical canned vegetable. If you buy too much at once, something is going to rot. It’s that simple. Spend a little time planning out your week’s worth of food and snacks – keeping in mind what food items you can use, re-use (using apple slices instead of whole apples means you have lots of slices to use in other dishes), and what will keep longer than a week (a bag of flour, for example) – and that’s the fastest way to save your dough.

5. You’re not exercising proper portion control. I see you over there… giant bowl of organic whole wheat pasta with raw milk alfredo and a giant slab of butter from the farmer’s market. You can’t do that! Not only is that crazy for your figure, but your wallet. Raw milk is almost $6! Why waste so much of it in such a way that doesn’t even affect the taste of your dish? Beyond a certain point, using “a whole bunch” of something simply doesn’t add to the taste of your dish. I flavor my dishes with herbs and spices, which allows me to use far less in the form of creams and cheeses and sauces. I don’t cut them out completely, but I use much less (case in point).

Once I figured out these five tips, my grocery budget decreased like you would not believe. At this point in time, it’s actually FAR more expensive for me to buy processed foods, simply because I can’t make use of them in the same way as I would my fruits and veggies. Besides… I’m a darn good cook – I don’t want anyone else cooking for me.

A fresh pitcher of green tea with honey and orange slices. Yummy.

This was the question that I got e-mailed a bajillion times, and I gave everyone the same answer: sit tight until Friday. Not because I wanted to build suspense or anything, but because my response is so long… I would’ve spent a lifetime trying to say all of this over and over again, and I think because so many had the same questions that it’d be easier to have all the questions on one page for everyone to reference.

The only time I use granulated sugar is when I’m baking for a large event. Other than that? I’ve got some other kind of solution. I just know that too much sugar breeds a habit, for me, that I simply cannot control. So for me, I can – and sometimes do – go a day or so without sugar.

One thing I had to learn about my lifestyle was that my body wasn’t meant to have sugar as often as I was having it, and certainly not in the quantities in which I ate it. 51 teaspoons of sugar each day? NO body is meant to handle that much. So for me, I had to realize that I’d simply have to give up my pop/soda/whatever-you-call-it fetish.

The second thing I had to realize was that I had allowed my pop addiction to change my perception of taste. As sweet as soda pop is, there’s actually a gang of salt in it. Why? Because salt makes you thirsty. Think about it – salt makes you thirsty, sweet makes you crave. They compel you to drink more of what you’re already drinking.

But that combination of salt and sugar changed my perception of how food was supposed to taste! I was looking for that “tart and tangy bite” in everything I ate. In my chicken (hello, American Chinese food), in my pizza (pizza sauce is sweet, crust is bitter?), and anything else…. I was looking for sugary and salty. Not herbs, not appreciating the taste of whatever vegetables (if there were any) were in my dish, not even enjoying the different components of what I was putting on my plate. I just wanted sweet… and salty. Boooooo.

Leaving sugar behind has allowed me to get my darn tongue back! I can taste the difference between garlic salt and onion salt again (before, all I could taste was the salt.) Shoot, I can taste the difference between fresh garlic and canned garlic. At this point, I can tell you if two pieces of garlic were grown in the same garden. I mean, not relying on sugar and salt to bring me my flavors has truly set me free to enjoy the other flavors and tastes that are out there.

The one thing I had to learn, if I was going to give up excessive and unnecessary sugar, was how to still enjoy  “sweet” things. If the problem with sugar was that there was no fiber and no nutrients, how could I still enjoy the occasional sweet and rectify this?

For starters, I limit the amount of “sweet” I enjoy in a capacity where there’s nothing else to soften the blow, like fiber. So sweet drinks are usually out for me. It’s a very rare (and special) occasion where I enjoy a sweet drink.

Mangos, oranges, lemon and kiwi. Yummy.

But how do I make sweet drinks? I use fruits. Lots. I squeeze oranges in my tea, drop a little homemade raspberry jam in there and stir it up. I go out of my way to enjoy different flavors without having to go in on the sugar.That way, I can appreciate flavor over “sweetness.”

I use locally-collected honey. That’s not necessarily an “elitist” principle, it’s a health one. While honey is problematic for some, locally collected honey contains the local pollen, and helps me with my sensitivity to pollen. So, on the rare occasion that I need that kind of sweet (sometimes in a honey stick), I use honey.

I use maple syrup. Not “pancake syrup.” Real genuine maple syrup (I use grade B.) It doesn’t have the same digestion issues as regular sugar, so it doesn’t pack the one-two punch to your blood sugar that regular sugars pack. If I have a giant pitcher of tea or lemonade that I’m making, I’ll use a little maple syrup to add a touch of sweet (and rich) to the batch.

I know that there are plenty of people who are interested in Stevia, and I hear y’all. I see the pretty green boxes with the “healthy-looking” design on the boxes in the grocery, too. The reality of stevia, really, is this – if you can’t get it in its leaf form, you might want to bypass it. Like all things, white powdery stevia is mixed with chemicals to create that “sugar-like” appearance, has more of its medicinal properties removed, and even sometimes has other “sweeteners” added to the mix to make it just as effective as sugar. Stevia is fawned over because it supposedly doesn’t have the same effect on the body’s ability to produce insulin properly (read: doesn’t cause type 2 diabetes,) and is apparently a common herb in Asia and South America. Some turn it away because it has a licorice-ish aftertaste.

If it sounds like I don’t know a lot about Stevia, it should. I don’t. Then again, no one really knows. They just know that it works for them after trying it and listening to their bodies. That’s what I’d do, as well.

There are tons of alternatives for drinks that use real sugar and not chemicals, and I make the decision that works best for me. But I also know that the problem with “sweet” is “sweet without fiber,” so if the context in which I’m enjoying my “sweet” means that there’s no “fiber” – read: coffees, teas, soft drinks, etc – then perhaps I should be having water instead.

The real reality is… sodapop has truly spoiled us. We’ve allowed it to define “sweet,” we’ve allowed it to let us think that we should always have something “sweet,” and it has enabled an addiction to a truly problematic chemical. Once I learned to give that up, I was truly liberated… and hopefully others can step back and do the same.

Note: Those of you who ask about agave nectar, I can’t tell you much about it because I have no experience with it… and here’s why.

Calorie counting helped me see... that this one pot pie is two servings. Yes. TWO.

I get so annoyed by people who say things like, “Oh, I don’t believe in calorie counting.” or “Calorie counting is silly.” I always ask them, “Well, why?” It’s almost always some dumb answer like, “Well, I don’t want to know how many calories my favorite foods are.” or “I’m not going to prevent myself from enjoying my favorite foods because of a few calories,” or even “I just think it’s stupid.”

Um, so that’s supposed to be enough to convince me – ME – to give up what I’m doing? Because you don’t like it?

Let me explain to you the reason why calorie counting is a practice that I believe in. I can sum it up in one word.

Awareness.

When I first started my journey, I believed that my eating habits were wholly unrelated to my exercise. I was told “Exercise, and the weight will come off.” I wasn’t told “Exercise and consciously limit your intake to reasonable levels appropriate for what your body needs, and the weight will come off.” I got incomplete advice, and that was to my detriment.

It wasn’t until months later that I realized that regardless of my exercise habits, if I wasn’t putting crap in my mouth on such a regular basis, my body couldn’t possibly keep putting on the weight that I was as quickly as I was. If I wasn’t eating as poorly as I was, I wouldn’t be overeating in search of that “belly full” feeling. If I wasn’t clinging to such poorly made foods, I couldn’t possibly overeat the way I was, and consume the amount of calries I was consuming.

That’s not the message you get every day.

And I’m not gonna lie – there are some people who don’t come from that kind of meager understanding of food. There might be people out there who understand that concept of “It’s ok to indulge, but you do it moderately.” There might be people who understand that the “true” definition of “moderately” means “a couple of bites, then push it away.” Someone like me, who had never understood the concept of “moderately” or never really embraced the concept of “limiting myself,” “clean eating” or even “conscious eating”… don’t take away the one thing I cling to – calorie counting – because you think it “sounds silly.”

Calorie counting empowered me. It taught me the true understanding of what each plate, each dish, each serving and each bite did to my body – this body, this temple that, although over the years has collected a few piercings and a tattoo or two, I have grown to love and appreciate and admire. It taught me that a handful of my favorite snack food was the calorie equivalent of a hearty lunch. It taught me that my favorite juice drink had the caloric equivalent of what I eat for breakfast. It taught me that it’s probably not a good idea to get a giant jug of said favorite juice drink and drink it throughout the day.

Calorie counting taught me to understand the relationship between how much I eat in a day, and how much my body burns in that day.

Calorie counting taught me the patterns for identifying “harmful” dishes (dishes harmful to my daily calorie count) when I have to dine out.

Calorie counting taught me, in a roundabout way, that the fastest way to fill myself without slaughtering my calorie count was to indulge on vegetables. Calorie counting taught me to come up with creative ways to cook those vegetables, lest I be bored to death by my 365th serving of broccoli.

Calorie counting gave me a basic foundation that I could use to develop my own understanding of food… a foundation that I could build from and one day not need to cling to calorie counting anymore.

There are people in this world who have healthy relationships with food. There are people who were born into families who helped teach them that. Considering the number of Americans who are currently overweight, and the number of us who have eating disorders on either extreme of the continuum… I’m not sure there are more people with healthier relationships than there are people without.

So, as this challenge draws to a close, I say this:

If you truly participated in the challenge, I hope you re-read this post, take the numbers you collected and really evaluate your eating habits and start trying to identify your patterns. If you started, became discouraged and stopped… I implore you to start again, because it may be you who needs to develop this kind of understanding more than anything. If you chose to not participate at all, and find the things I’ve written even remotely intriguing, perhaps giving it a shot for a few days may get you what you desire.

The awareness that I received from calorie counting is invaluable. It’s not about nitpicky numbers – it’s about the ability to know and identify. It’s about an awakening and understanding that I never had before. And someone who doesn’t understand that or just has that “naturally healthy” understanding of food will never get that. But I know my needs, and I know my weaknesses. Calorie counting helped me cure that, and I hope it could do the same for you.

With any luck, you’ve decided to participate in the BGG2WL calorie counting challenge. You’re reading your nutrition labels. You’re measuring your portions. We’re not changing our habits, we’re just trying to get a good idea of what our current habits are doing for our goals.

Look at that ingredients list... good grief.

This is awesome. But now, I have to address something a little less than awesome. The FDA.

For those of us who are calorie counting, this is of interest to us. I, really, have no words for this just yet. But trust me.. they’re coming.

For those of you who may not be able to watch the video, the transcript (provided by The Today Show website) is pasted below. Just… wowzers.

Matt Lauer: This morning on TODAY INVESTIGATES, exposing the truth behind diet food labels. Can you really believe those fat and calorie numbers? NBC’s Jeff Rossen went to find out. And I have a feeling this is bad news, Jeff. Good morning.

JEFF ROSSEN reporting: No. And we brought them out to show you.

LAUER: All right.

ROSSEN: You know, a lot of us are on diets, including one of us on the couch right now. We’ll let you guess which one. And that’s why we buy these frozen meals. They make the hard sell right on the front. I’m sure you’ve seen it, with the low-calorie and the low-fat numbers. So we took them to a lab and did some testing of our own. This morning, we separate the fat from the fiction. IN the battle of the bulge these companies say they have the secret weapon.

ROSSEN: They brag about low fat and calories, knowing consumers eat this stuff up. How important are these numbers to you?

Unidentified Woman #1: They’re important.

Unidentified Man: And that’s all I look at. First thing, even before price.

Unidentified Woman #2: People don’t buy it because it tastes good. They buy it because the calories are there. And that’s what they’re looking for. And they’re like…

ROSSEN: So if the calories and the fat are off?

Woman #2: Yeah, then it’s what’s the point?

ROSSEN: Exactly. So we bought meals from the top diet brands: Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers’ Smart Ones and Healthy Choice. We took the meals out of the packaging and put them into specially marked baggies, then sent them here to ESL, a top food laboratory. Scientists tested each sample for fat and calories. Would the numbers really match the labels? We found it was all over the map. Some were actually lower. Healthy Choice Roasted Beef Merlot, 17 percent less fat compared to the label. Lean Cuisine’s Grilled Chicken Primavera, 19 percent fewer calories than the label. And the rosemary Chicken, 60 percent less fat. But don’t start binging yet. Our tests showed many meals were packaged with higher numbers. Smart Ones Shrimp Marinara had ten percent more calories than the label. Healthy Choice Lobster Cheese Ravioli, 17 percent more fat than the label. And that Lean Cuisine Chicken Primavera? Twenty percent more fat. But the biggest gut busted of all? Smart Ones Sweet and Sour Chicken. It advertises 210 calories and two grams of fat. We found it really had 11 percent more calories and the whopping 350 percent more fat. While the company was “skeptical” at our results, they’ve now launched an internal audit.

Ms. SUSAN ROBERTS, PHD (Tufts University): It’s enough to make you cry. I mean, these – this is disgraceful.

ROSSEN: Susan Roberts should know. As a leading food scientist, she did similar testing in her lab and, like us, found lying labels.

Ms. ROBERTS: We hear all the time that people are not losing weight. They’re plateauing. They can’t understand why they’re eating almost nothing and not losing weight. Here’s one explanation.

ROSSEN: You may be outraged by this, but the government isn’t. In many cases, under the law it’s perfectly OK. Believe it or not, FDA regulations allow food companies to be as much as 20 percent off on their labels.

Unidentified Woman #3: That’s unfortunate, and especially at the same time when they’re preaching to us about obesity.

ROSSEN: The government allows these companies to be 20 percent off on their label.

Unidentified Woman #3: Why?

ROSSEN: Good question. The FDA declined our request for an interview, so we went to the group representing the food companies. Isn’t this deceptive?

Mr. ROBERT BRACKETT (Grocery Manufacturers Association): No, it’s not at all deceptive. It may be something that the consumers don’t necessarily understand. And this is a great to explain them.

ROSSEN: He says these labels are merely an average. Companies come up with the numbers by testing a dozen or so meals then taking the average. Portions vary so they say no one meal can be exact. Why not be more transparent on the label and say this isn’t necessarily 230 calories, it’s an average? It’s 230-ish calories.

Mr. BRACKETT: Well, you could but it really wouldn’t help consumers. The idea here is that if you see 230 calories, that that’s a food that you normally eat, some are going to be more and some are going to be less.

ROSSEN: So you’re saying it’s OK for one particular sample to be three times higher than it says, another sample to be three times lower, as long as it averages out?

Mr. BRACKETT: Well, it’s — a better way to say this is not it’s OK, is that it’s a fact of nature. It’s a matter of being practical.

ROSSEN: Tell that to the poor customer who ends up with our Sweet and Sour Chicken, packed with three and a half times more fat than the label claims.

Woman #2: That’s scary, actually, because I eat those a lot, like very often, and now I’m wondering maybe that’s why I am — my weight hasn’t budged.

ROSSEN: No, she still looks good. In fact, scientists say these variations could cause you to gain weight over time. We shared our results with the food companies. They told us their labels and their testing procedures follow all FDA regulations. And, Matt, the big question is if these are made on a production line, why can’t they be more exact? The food companies say we’re dealing with real food here…

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) offered up the “Xtreme Eating Awards,” where they shine a white-hot light on the dishes in our favorite restaurants with the most absurd offerings in terms of calories or… basic common sense.

Take my favorite example – at Friday’s, you’ve got the “Three-For-All.” For Applebee’s, it’s the “Sampler.” Olive Garden offers the “Tour of Italy.” All for the eater who “can’t choose what they want, so let ‘em eat ‘em all!”

CSPI also talks about the ridiculous appetizers and add-ons offered at most restaurants that are little more than slightly smaller versions of full-course entrees. Adding half a rack of ribs to your dish for $6.99,

Taken from the press release:

Keep in mind that most people should limit themselves to about 2,000 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat, and 1,500 mg of sodium per day. And the envelopes please…

• Red Lobster Ultimate Fondue: This retro item is also making comebacks at Olive Garden, Uno Chicago Grill, and at a chain that sells nothing but fondues, The Melting Pot. Red Lobster’s Ultimate version, “shrimp and crabmeat in a creamy lobster cheese sauce served in a warm crispy sourdough bowl,” is crammed with 1,490 calories, 40 grams of saturated fat, and 3,580 mg of sodium. That’s two days’ worth of both artery-clogging fat and blood-pressure-spiking sodium.
• Applebee’s Quesadilla Burger: Here Applebee’s inserts a bacon cheeseburger into a quesadilla. Two flour tortillas, two kinds of meat, two kinds of cheese, pico de gallo, lettuce, and a previously unknown condiment called Mexi-ranch sauce, plus fries, gives this monstrous marriage 1,820 calories, 46 grams of saturated fat, and 4,410 mg of sodium. Bonus heart-stopper: Applebee’s actually invites customers to top the fries with chili and still more cheese.
• Chili’s Big Mouth Bites: This is four mini-bacon-cheeseburgers served on a plate with fries, onion strings, and jalapeno ranch dipping sauce. (“Mini” is relative: each one is like a Quarter Pounder.) Like the “sliders” available at other chains, Chili’s Big Mouth Bites can be an appetizer or an entrée (these numbers are for the latter). 2,350 calories, 38 grams of saturated fat, and 3,940 milligrams of sodium.
• The Cheesecake Factory Chicken and Biscuits: Nutrition Action calls it “discomfort food.” If you wouldn’t eat an entire 8-piece bucket of KFC Original Recipe plus 5 biscuits, you shouldn’t order this. But unless you live in a city with menu labeling, you wouldn’t know that this dish has 2,500 calories. The rest of the winning—or rather, losing—appetizers, entrées, and desserts are in the June issue of Nutrition Action.

Because of all this, I was asked if I thought these kinds of offerings should be deemed illegal. And I’ve got to admit, I’m kinda torn about this.

No… actually, I’m not.

There’s no denying the fact that these numbers are bananas, and these dishes are disgusting looking. Having said that, the only question I have left to ask is…

…so what?

I mean, let’s look at CSPI’s findings for what they are. I’m a firm believer in the idea that if these restaurants are going to serve these gut-busting atrocities and pass them off as meals, then they should also be forced to make the nutritional information for those dishes available to the public… just like the processed food manufacturers. Not as an obscure link on a website. As a part of their menu. To me, it just makes sense – if the FDA says that food manufacturers have to put the nutritional info on the side of the box, then restaurants should be forced to have the information equally readily available. Kudos to CSPI for helping bring to the forefront the issue of hidden calorie counts.

However, to say that because CSPI uncovered these heart-stopping (literally) findings means that we should all campaign to have the dishes banned by law? I think that’s quite a reach. I mean, complaining about high-calorie appetizers that are supposed to, by definition, whet the appetite… you’d probably do better to talk to the person who orders the appetizer as their meal and remind them that “this dish is intended to serve 4… not one.”

I look at it like this – the reality of it all is that for the past 50 or so years, we’ve had someone assume the “responsibility” of leading the American diet. Not the various cultures from which we came (regardless of how connected some of us were allowed to be to our cultures), not the traditions of our respective nations… but… the government. The charge has always been led by someone who could develop/has developed ulterior motives or a fundamental incapability to properly rule on these most serious of matters. (Would you trust the entity responsible for protecting the longevity of an industry to tell the public how to safely enjoy said industry? Have you met the USDA?)

Do I have a problem with the dishes? You know I do. I find them disgusting, especially since I could probably duplicate that 2,500 calorie pasta dish in my own kitchen for mayyyybe 600 calories. But to tell people that they shouldn’t be allowed to order them is excessive. I’ve simply had enough of people trying to assume the responsibility of telling us what to eat. They either get it wrong – repeatedly – or they start getting drunk on their own power and abuse their privilege… trading in our health for their own personal favors. Unacceptable.

In reality, I’m a much larger proponent of forcing restaurants to post calorie counts of their food items than I am anything else. That would compel those who care to make better, more knowledgeable choices and force franchises who want that money to create healthier dishes and compete for those dollars fairly. The hypothetical question of banning certain foods is just excessive, I think.

The point of all this, really, is to underscore the fact that the responsibility for my eating habits should solely rely upon me. No one is going to look out for me and my health the way I can… especially when there is money to be made off of me. Don’t rely on others to make these kinds of decisions for you, leaving yourself open to poor health. Take charge! Some things, we can’t rely on a magic button, pill, garment, organization or law to do for us. Some things are important enough for us to take charge of ourselves, and that includes our health.

Your thoughts? Let’s hear ‘em!

So, I guess people are wondering what a clean grocery bill looks like, right?

Well, I’ll do my best to share what grocery shopping with me looks like, and how my little one and I are able to manage.

First, I hit up the frozen veggie section. Here, I pick up frozen onions, pepper blends, green beans, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli and mushrooms. At a dollar a piece, they total $7.

Then, I pick up some whole wheat tortillas. $3.64. Don’t worry.. I cringed a little.

I head on over to the deli, and pick up some Havarti cheese. I don’t get much – I don’t eat much of it, and only use it on the occasional lunch sandwich – and it costs me $2.29.

I’ll then grab some sliced chicken breast for sandwiches, and to sprinkle on some of my salads. Costs me $4.99.

I also grab some chicken cuts on sale, $4.21.

The giant box of Cheerios? $4.09.

Simply Lemonade, $2.85.

A head of cabbage, at $0.59/lb runs me $1.75.

The organic apples are on sale, $2.49 a bag. I grab one, ’cause I can make apple butter, applesauce and give the baby her daily apple to snack on.

One red bell pepper is $1.99, so I grab one. I’ll cut it up into thin strips, store it in a ziploc bag and when I want ‘em on salads I’ll grab a few strips, cut it up into chunks, and toss ‘em right in. Remember, I bought frozen peppers for a dollar. As I couldn’t use those in my salads, it makes sense to me to buy one regular pepper for quick eating and use the frozen ones for cooking.

The pasilla (basically, chilies) were $3/lb, so I only got a handful. I wanted to make a bottle of hot sauce, so my chilies cost me $0.78.

My green beans, that I only bought because they were on sale, cost me $0.95 at $0.50/lb.

Two pounds of red potatoes at $0.99/lb, cost me $1.90.

Avocado season, thank goodness, brought the price of avocados down to a dollar a piece, so I got four. I use them for salad dressing and the occasional guacamole, so for $4, that’s a deal.

Two bushels of green onions, at $0.54 a piece, cost $1.08.

Radishes? Why not. They’re $1.29.

Cucumbers, two cost me $1.58.

A handful of yellow chilies – again for my hot sauce – $0.31.

A head of romaine lettuce cost me $2.49.

I’m sick and tired of cutting my fingers off dealing with artichokes, so I bought a jar of ‘em for $2.98. Since ONE artichoke runs me about $3 right now, this works out.

Also bought a jar of roasted red peppers, because I want to make another jar of salad dressing. (Obviously, I have a giant bottle of olive oil and another bottle of vinegar at home.) $2.65.

A loaf of wheat bread, $1.89.

And lastly, strawberries were on sale for $2.50 a piece, so I bought two: $5. This means strawberry pancakes, strawberry jam, strawberry spread, and frozen strawberry jam to store away for the winter. (Yes, winter. Gotta stay prepared!)

This is enough to cover three meals a day for a toddler and five meals a day for myself, seven days a week… only one of us bringing in any income (that is, unless I can figure out how to get the 3 year old to start bringing in the turkey bacon.) We only eat at restaurants once every six or so weeks. Altogether, it was about 35 items and cost me $62.20. For me, that’s a little high, but I want to start stocking up on strawberries now and felt like havarti that day. Sue me.

Next week, it may not be Cheerios, it might be my rices – that I buy in bulk – for $2/lb. It won’t be chilies, green onions, artichokes, red peppers or those same frozen veggies. It might just be oatmeal, black beans, cashews, tomatoes and more avocados. Either way, I’ve never spent more than $70 in one week on groceries, and I’d like to keep it that way!

How much are you spending on groceries? What tricks do you use to save a little money here or there?

Yesterday, I was told that a certain monolith-sized coffee shop chain sells oatmeal, now. At minimum, two dollars a serving.

At my regular trip to the grocery store, I just paid two dollars for a pound and a half worth of oats to make my own oatmeal. That’s gonna last me… about three weeks. I can make oatmeal, granola, cereal, cookies and cupcakes. All with two dollars worth of oatmeal.

If I decide to venture down a grocery store aisle, I’ll find a bag with little packages of raisins inside for about two dollars. If I decide to buy them in bulk, I can get a pound of raisins for $3. A POUND? That’ll last me almost all summer.

When I buy my garlic powder – the actual garlic powder, not the stuff that has trans fat in it and not garlic salt – it’s something like two dollars for a two ounce container. If I buy it in bulk, I’m paying $0.39 per ounce.

In my grocery store of choice, the quinoa is $1.39/lb. In the same store, the packaged quinoa? $2.29 for one pound. No, grocery store, you cannot have my $0.90. It’s mine. It might be couch change, but it’s my couch change.

Why is buying in bulk so cheap?

When you pay for a name brand product, you’re paying for the following:

1. Gas to get it from the factory to its location
2. Packaging – Yes, dear consumer, you’re paying your hard earned money for that box and that plastic, that Styrofoam and that foil wrapper. Eat up!
3. Branding – Oh, you’re going to pay a premium for that brand name. This is America. We’ll pay for a brand name.
4. Marketing and advertisement – brands need to be hyped up. So it becomes your responsibility, dear consumer, to pay for it.

As you can see, if the branding and marketing of a product hits on all the right notes at the same time, it strikes the perfect chord: it tells the consumer that you’re paying this high of a price because you are paying for quality. I can name about five brands off the top of my head that would quickly highlight how this is not always the case.

When you buy your product in bulk, you’re not buying marketing. There’s no brand for which you have to pay a premium. There’s also no additional pollution in the form of pretty boxes, cans or wrapping to deal with. It saves the planet – a big point in clean eating – and saves your pennies. Sure, $0.90 might seem like a little, but if I buy my beans, lentils, quinoa, raisins, cashews, pretzels, brown rice, basmati rice, jasmine rice, pastry flour, sunflower seeds, carob chips, pretzels, oatmeal, garlic powder, onion chips, bay leaves, basil, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, spearmint and peanut butter in bulk? I’m easily saving $30 by the end of my trip.

So, how do you find grocery stores with a “bulk shopping” setup?

A few grocery store chains may have a bulk shopping aisle – might be used mainly for candy, but don’t be afraid to regularly call and harass your grocer about adding healthier stuff to the bulk section. It’s cheaper not only for you, but for them, too. Once they see there’s a demand for it and that they could make money off of it, they’re sure to expand. The healthier grocery stores will more than likely have ‘em, so don’t be afraid to drop in and stop by. I’m almost certain that the bulk shopping section is a staple of Whole Foods.

You also have the option of shopping online! If you are already familiar with what spices you desire, you can check out Penzey’s. For beans, grains and nuts? You might be better off trying to find a local store, and only visiting once a month. The online joints – though you can find good bulk deals there – often don’t allow you the same kind of options to choose the weight of your purchase, and can give you a little bit of a sticker shock. Good luck!

There’s nothing worse than knowing that once that winter frost hits, tomatoes are going to go through the roof. I mean, I love the bright sun, the warm days and the late nights that come with the summertime, but I’ma keep it real. The best thing that summer can do for me is bring the price of tomatoes down to $1.29 per pound.

I get so used to enjoying a tomato every day, that I tend to shed a tear when the price goes up. Just one.

Let’s look at produce practically. In short, someone has to grow it.

Certain fruits and vegetables can only be grown in certain climates… that’s why certain locations are “known” for certain types of produce – Florida Oranges, Georgia Peaches… some places just do what they do relatively well. You won’t find Minnesota bragging about their winter strawberries.

Let’s say that you live in… some place that gets snow. Snowville, USA. Provided you don’t have some awesome locavore or CSA network that you’re affiliated with (more on those later), you’re probably getting your produce from a grocery. That grocery knows that its patrons complain when they can’t have their beloved strawberries in the winter, so what does the grocery store do? They call up their folks in Florida, and ask them to ship some strawberries up north!

Florida then puts on its cape and tights, and says “I’m on my way!” Before you know it, a giant truck is on it’s way from Florida to Snowville to make sure that this grocery store has its strawberries for their patrons to enjoy. Remember, we’re Capitalists – the grocery store doesn’t want you to go elsewhere to get your strawberries, because they know that out of convenience, you’ll just keep shopping at your strawberry place for everything else.

When you pay for strawberries out of season, you’re paying for labor – it takes effort to get strawberries from Florida to Snowville – as well as the fuel used to drive them to you. Yes, you’re paying for the gas. That cost has to be passed on to someone, and why not the customer who insists on having strawberries out of season?

Remember the great gas hike of 2008? Remember how the news kept saying that it affected food prices, but no one understood why? We were paying for the extra cost of the food being shipped to the store. The grocery store for darn sure wasn’t going to pay for that. Interestingly enough, those people who were buying their produce locally and in-season were relatively unaffected by the hike. They weren’t paying for produce shipped a thousand miles away from where it was grown… or the gas bill that comes with it.

Buying in season means that the spring time brings you lots of lemons, spinach, turnips, strawberries, kale, lettuce, celery, peppers, peas and onions. The summer gives us artichokes, broccoli, cherries, peaches, sweet corn, cucumbers, honeydew melons, raspberries, tomatoes and watermelon. We can look forward to the fall for pears, plums, pumpkins, garlic, carrots, apples, squash and zucchini. The winter might not offer too much, but as for new veggies? I’ve grown to appreciate my collard greens, brussel sprouts, radishes and cabbage.

Buying your produce while it’s in season means that you’re most likely to purchase the product when it’s plentiful in your area.. which means sales! I mean, let’s keep it real – nothing made me happier today than to see this beautiful sight below:

Fifty cents a pound for green beans? Please believe the family will be having green beans in stir fry, breaded green beans as a side, baked green beans, whatever. I’ll get two pounds, freeze 75% of them and store them away… bringing them out when I feel like green beans for dinner. I won’t even tell you what I did when sweet potatoes got down to $0.29 per pound. Yes. Twenty-nine cents per pound. Yum.

To help you on your journey toward in-season shopping, I’ve pasted a relatively exhaustive list of what you should be able to find during each month of the year for cheaper. Good luck, and gimme a dollar! You should have plenty left over.

Spring

Apricots
Artichokes
Asparagus
Belgian Endive
Broccoli
Butter Lettuce
Chayote Squash
Cherimoya
Chives
Collard Greens
Corn
English Peas
Fava Beans
Fennel
Fiddlehead Ferns
Green Beans
Honeydew
Mango
Morel Mushrooms
Mustard Greens
Oranges
Limes
Lychee
Pea Pods
Pineapple
Ramps
Rhubarb
Snow Peas
Sorrel
Spinach
Spring Baby Lettuce
Strawberries
Sugar Snap Peas
Swiss Chard
Vidalia Onions
Watercress

Summer

Apricots
Beets
Bell Peppers
Blackberries
Blueberries
Boysenberries
Butter Lettuce
Cantaloupe
Casaba Melon
Chayote Squash
Cherries
Cherries, Sour
Corn
Crenshaw Melon
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Figs
Garlic
Grapefruit
Grapes
Green Beans
Honeydew Melons
Jalapeno Peppers
Lima Beans
Limes
Loganberries
Lychee
Nectarines
Olallieberries
Okra
Passion Fruit
Peaches
Peas
Persian Melons
Plums
Radishes
Raspberries
Strawberries
Summer Squash
Tomatillo
Tomatoes
Watermelon
Zucchini

Fall

Acorn Squash
Belgian Endive
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Butter Lettuce
Butternut Squash
Cape Gooseberries
Cauliflower
Celery Root
Chayote Squash
Cranberries
Diakon Radish
Garlic
Ginger
Grapes
Guava
Huckleberries
Jalapeno Peppers
Kohlrabi
Kumquats
Mushrooms
Passion Fruit
Pear
Persimmons
Pineapple
Pomegranate
Pumpkin
Quince
Sweet Potatoes
Swiss Chard
Turnips
Winter Squash

Winter

Belgian Endive
Brussels Sprouts
Cherimoya
Chestnuts
Collard Greens
Dates
Grapefruit
Kale
Kiwifruit
Leeks
Oranges
Passion Fruit
Pear
Persimmons
Pummelo
Radicchio
Red Currants
Sweet Potatoes
Tangerines
Turnips
Winter Squash

[source]

How often do you go grocery shopping? Do you tend to go every other day, picking up what you’re cooking for the night? Do you just grab something cooked from the store and eat it there? Or, do you go every two weeks when payday comes?

Regardless of which one you choose, they’re all wrong to me. Hey, I’m just keepin’ it real.

It’s hard enough to eat clean – buying mainly produce and deli – without breaking the bank. If you grocery shop for clean eating every other night, what are you leaving to rot and waste at home? (And for crying out loud, how much gas are you wasting?) If you’re buying cooked dinners from the deli in the grocery, how much money are you spending per plate per night? (And for goodness sake, how much trash are you accumulating?)

And if you’re going grocery shopping every two weeks, I’m almost certain that you’re buying an influx of processed foods. What else is going to keep that well for two weeks without eventually beginning to wilt? (And as I previously outlined, just how much money are you wasting buying pre-prepared foods, instead of ingredients to create your own good stuff?)

I’m sayin’. There has to be a sensible solution, right? Right?

Right! My answer is to pick one day – usually a nice, lazy, comfy Sunday – and go grocery shopping. Wake up that morning, spend a good 15 minutes thinking about what you’ll eat this week, what you’ll need, sketch out a list, scratch out the [processed foods and] stuff you’ve already got plenty of in your fridge already and get moving!

Why weekly?

For starters, it allows you to avoid your produce rotting. If you dedicate one day to grocery shopping and food prep, you can spend the rest of the week cooking from your fridge, your cabinets and your pantry. It allows you to “shop” from your own reserves. This way, you prevent wasting your money on stuff you “can’t eat” because it doesn’t look quite as fresh as it did when you got it.

Secondly, you have to make a list. How is it that we go grocery shopping, spend an arm/a leg/a first born and still… wind up staring at the fridge for five minutes repeating to ourselves, “I have nothing to cook.” Oh, no. Not only do you have plenty of ingredients and not pre-prepared foods that you may or may not have a taste for – for example, instead of buying garlic cheese bread in a box, why not pick up a baguette from the grocery bakery, some garlic powder, cheese and use your butter/oil? – but you have options. A pre-packaged box doesn’t give you options. At all. Ever. That same garlic powder, cheese and oil could be used on bread, macaroni, leafy greens and rice. Options.

Shopping this way forces you to think about exactly what you’re going to realistically eat in a week. For example – I know I’ll need a big container of oatmeal and various types of fruit for breakfast. I know I’ll need bread, peanut butter, apples, strawberries and bananas for lunch. I also know I’ll need lots of rice, veggies/veggie blends, leafy greens, herbs, spices and the like for dinner. In my head, when I do this planning, I’m sketching out my week. I’ll even have a few magazines or good recipe websites on hand to look at what I can accomplish with my potential ingredient list.

Lastly, it re-emphasizes portion control. If you know you’re only going through that whole ordeal one time and you’re adamant about not breaking your rule (and your rule is imposed by someone worth respecting – yourself), then you’ll exercise portion control to ensure that you don’t break your promise to yourself.

For those of you who only go grocery shopping 2x a month, why not split up what you usually purchase and put the other half “under the mattress?” If you’re afraid of that money “turning into shoe money,” then I can’t help ya. Exercise a little restraint. That’s grocery money… not “free money.”

Get into the habit of eating what’s in your house, and stop letting commercials and cravings run you. I’ll never forget the day my Sorority sister and I went grocery shopping together. With all those groceries in the car, I said to her, “You wanna go to Checkers/Rally’s? I’m starving.” She surely did look at me like I had a booger on my face and said, “Didn’t we just go to the grocery store? Any particular reason why you aren’t hungry for what you just bought?”

That’s not exactly what she said. I think I cleaned it up a little bit.

Not like it wasn’t bad enough that just the sight and smell of the fast food joint made me wanna levitate out of the car and into the Checkers’ drive-thru to inhale some fries, but I would’ve easily spent $6 there. $6 is a week and a half worth of frozen veggies! Y’all playin’!

My daughter and I get up early Sunday morning, have breakfast, then hit the grocery stores together. Aside from the occasional hand-swatting (“No, you better not reach for the Booberry… and unless you have a job, you can’t get it.“) and begging for samples, we make it fun. We get home, I do my prep work of chopping and sorting the veggies, and that’s it for the week. It’s literally like making my own “pre-prepared foods.” Give it a shot and see how it works for you!

If you’ve been following since the beginning, you’ll know that today is day 7 of our 7 Day Clean Eating Challenge.

Some might be jumping for joy, others might actually be kind of sad.

Don’t be.

This challenge serves lots of purposes and while some questioned why it was only a week long, I think that is the most important purpose of all.

Many of us don’t really know what “cleaner eating” looks like, let alone “clean eating.” If you are anything like I was, you were heating and eating everything from the microwave. Oven’s got cobwebs in it, skillets still shiny like they’ve never been used… ’cause they’ve… never been used! I went cold turkey from processed food living to raw veganism just because I needed the reality check. The limited amounts of sugar, fat and salt that were in my fruits and veggies were just enough to keep my mind and body just right. They were made specifically for that purpose by the Earth, so why not let them do their job?

Taking a week to try out a new lifestyle – as opposed to a month – teaches you a lot, hopefully. It teaches you that you have to prepare for the conversion. You have to prepare your options. You have to have recipes on deck – or at least recipe resources – to choose from. You have to allow yourself to slip up a little, and allow yourself the time to learn from your mistakes.

This is a big part of what I wrote about yesterday – this isn’t simply a temporary diet type thing. This was a test of a lifestyle change – trying to create something you could live with eternally, and be happy (and healthy) with for the rest of your life.

So tell me… how’d you do? Are you carrying it on? Did you notice a weight change? What challenges did you face? Need any advice? Tips? Let’s hear it!

So… it’s Friday. For those who’ve been following their hardest since Sunday, you’re probably feeling the pinch. You’re probably recognizing the way your life has changed – how much more time you devote to food; how different your food tastes; how differently your body feels after you eat; how, ahem… regular you are now from eating cleaner foods.

How does it feel? (I’d cue D’Angelo here, but I’m gonna respect the fellas who visit the site. For now.)

I’ve got to tell you… the closer to “the source” I eat, the better off I am. The better I feel. The more energetic I feel. I feel like I’m living… as opposed to grabbing a 900 calorie slice of cheesecake and shrugging it off with, “You only live once.” I live through living… not eating.

My first venture off into living cleaner actually started around this time in 2009. Recognizing that limiting the things in my life that seemed to control me, as opposed to me controlling it… it helped me feel free. Like I could live without spending my day floating from vice to vice. I wasn’t making lunch and thinking about dinner. I wasn’t making dinner and scoping out the freezer for dessert.

I spent months – months – trying to scope out a plan that worked best for me. I spent time as a raw vegan which, while I felt wonderful and very well may go back to that lifestyle, I wanted to know if my body was responding poorly to meat altogether or if it was something in the way I was cooking that was causing my body to pack on the pounds. So, I slowly started adding back dairy and meat to my diet. That’s when I realized… I was always stalled when I indulged in foods of the “manufactured” nature.

Running the challenge during this week is not only valuable because the challenge prep ran during Earth Week, but because it signifies the 1 year anniversary of when I learned how to eat like I had some sense. That was also well over 100 pounds ago. I learned that if I couldn’t afford the time needed to cook scalloped potatoes from scratch, I probably shouldn’t have them. If I couldn’t afford the well-kept and healthy beef, I probably shouldn’t have any… which is fine, because the last time I had red meat was a few years ago in high school. Life is simplified. I value and appreciate that, now.

As we make it through day 6, I hope that day 7 is that much easier for you: that your sugar cravings are lessened, your creativity in creating delish dishes has expanded, and your portion sizes reflect what you’re actually wanting to eat… not just what’s in the box or what was in the pan.

So, baby, let’s cruise…  – sorry, can’t help the D’Angelo references – into day 7 and enjoy another day living, loving, and eating clean! Tell me – how does it feel? Struggling? Coasting? Slippin’ up? Let’s hear it!

Yesterday, the 7 Day Challenge began. Women (and men) checking in from all over the place letting me know how they were faring on living their lives a little cleaner, a little leaner and a little greener. Now, it’s time to let everyone else know how you’re doing!

Did you hit a road block? Did you have an amazing epiphany? Did you have a moment where you felt like a hero?

What’d you eat? Did you try something new? Did you love it? Did you hate it?

What didn’t you eat? Did someone else cook in your house, and throw you off track? Did you turn down your favorite food?

Are you an experienced clean eater, wanting to offer advice?

I want to hear about your struggles, your successes, your moments of defeat and your moments of victory! More importantly, other challengers want to hear! So spill it!

Today… is Earth Day. A day where we all try to do a little something to help preserve the planet where we live. It’s an opportunity to bring awareness to the fact that we give to the Earth as well as take from it… so put forth an effort to give as harmlessly as possible and take only what we need. That means a minimal amount of trash, a little less wasting of water, and maybe planting a few flowers in your yard (or in a flower pot. Yes, those help, too!)

NASA Celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day

I know this is a pretty idealistic concept, and we all might like to give lip service to living eco-friendly lives… but who has time for all that? It’s hard enough for most-if-not-all of us to get this healthy eating thing down pat. Now, we’ve got to protect the Earth, too?

It doesn’t take much effort. In fact, being eco-friendly and clean eating go hand in hand and both can be managed by the busy lifestyler. Here are a few ways to live a little cleaner, a little greener, without costing you a ton of time each day.

"Processed cheese product"... in a jar. How.. innovative?

Ditching the Processed Products

Obviously, this is the largest factor in clean eating. Pardon me for getting a little preachy, but I see it like this – our connection to the Earth is symbiotic. We cultivate the Earth with our activity, and in return it promotes the growth of humanity. So… we have to be mindful of what we put out there. Ditching the boxed and canned foods, essentially, means less trash… going to less landfills… less air and land pollution.

But if I give up foods, how do I replace them?

Buy fresh veggies. Only buy what you believe you will cook that week. This way, you not only spend much less, but you don’t leave anything sitting and risk your food rotting. You can learn to cook the same veggie three different ways, and get more creative with your cooking style. You also don’t run into the problem of additional preservatives or salts used to preserve the shelf life of your food.

I buy things like onions and peppers knowing that I don’t want red peppers or onions every day… so I’ll take them, chop them up in the ways that I know I usually eat them, and freeze them that way. So I’ll have a bag of onions chopped in rings, a bag diced in squares and a bag cut in strips. I’ll have a bag of red peppers chopped in strips and another bag diced in chunks. I do the same with mushrooms, cucumbers, celery, carrots, spinach (the spinach I use to cook, not the ones I use for salad) and bean sprouts. I cannot tell you how much time this saves me, and it takes me a half hour. Tops.

My carrots, squash, broccoli and corn/okra/pepper blend, preparing for the freezer.

Buy frozen. Generic store-brand frozen veggies are a dollar a bag (rarely more than $2.50) and can last forever. Carrots, broccoli, string beans, onions, peppers, different veggie blends (I bought a 5lb bag of carrot/broccoli/cauliflower for $3… lasted forever) all at your fingertips, and only requiring a little steaming, baking, boiling or sauteeing.

I keep a combination of both in my fridge. I keep fresh broccoli in the fridge for salads, and frozen in the freezer for cooking.. and I never intermingle the two. I don’t cook with my fresh, and I don’t thaw my frozen for salads.

Try to find a local butcher. No plastic-wrapped chicken, no pre-packaged beef patties. You get an awesome guy (or girl) with a vast knowledge of meat, who can offer you suggestions and steps on how to prepare and preserve your meats. A wonderful butcher will never be reluctant to offer you suggestions. He wants your business.

Make your own junk food. That’s right – no matter how many green velvet cupcakes you make, I promise you the calorie count wouldn’t scrape the surface of what it is when you buy boxed cupcake mix. Seriously.

Practicing what I preach... there's my wild rice, right there!

Make your freezer your best friend. Things like wild rice, brown rice… stuff that takes forever to cook? I cook it all in one giant pot, divvy it up into individual servings, put them in ziploc bags (which I reuse), and freeze them. That way, I have my own microwaveable rice bags without all the extra salt and preservatives… and I’m saving money.

Get Your Sugar From The Earth

Meaning.. if you need sugar, go for a fruit - something that came directly from the Earth. Skip the soft drinks, fruit juices and candies. I write enough about this for folks to know how I feel about these, since all three contain high fructose corn syrup. Aside from the fact that the stuff expands your waistline like nobody’s business, it’s a direct factor in causing and inflaming type 2 diabetes. If you drink a soda, there is nothing in that but sugar, salt and carbonation. Fruits have vitamins, minerals – the stuff of life – and, well, sugar. You can’t eat fruits, in their sugary splendor, in abundance because those nutrients in them will fill you up faster than a coke can. You’re not taking in empty calories. Even though you should be moderate in your fruit consumption, you’d do better to have an orange than a coke.

It’s cheaper, too.

Drink water.

And no, I don’t mean Fiji, Aquafina, or whatever. Get yourself a nice, attractive reusable container to carry with you throughout the day, and keep refilling it. Skip the water bottles that go… in a landfill, buried where trees – or people – could live, instead. If you’re having a hard time with the taste of water, squeeze a lemon/lime/orange/strawberry or whatever in it. Freeze some grapes, use ‘em as ice cubes at home. Buy some frozen blueberries, use those. Slice up a cucumber, drop it in there. I mean, outside of being super cute and attractive looking at a table, the stuff actually adds a nice little refreshing taste to water.

Purchase a 2.5gal jug – if you must – from your local grocery. Way less plastic than the 24pk of bottles, much less trash than the regular gallon jugs, and can fit in your fridge and last a while. I drink a little over a gallon of water a day (which means yes, I don’t drink much else besides water and my evening tea) because it keeps my skin looking a lovely healthy shade of chocolatey brown.

Reduce Your Portion Sizes

Measuring cups may not be so necessary after all!

Slow down. This means that you can’t eat standing up anymore. No, you can’t eat out of the pan anymore. No, you can’t eat in front of the TV. No, you can’t sit all the food on the table and you just pass around the pans. Relax. Take the time to enjoy your dinner companions, be they friends, family, whomever. Don’t put food in between you. Leave the food in the kitchen. Eat slower. Talk to one another. You’ll find that you not only eat less and still feel full, but you will have actually enjoyed your time together at the table. That is what it means to enjoy food. Not the feeling you get from the food, but from the company you’ve kept while you ate.

Pack your lunch. Not only do you save money… not only do you create less waste… but you save calories as well. Buy yourself an attractive (I keep wanting to say cute, but I know several fellas who are taking the challenge, too) lunch pail and stock it with your favorite snacks. Your body will thank you for it.

These things all help you save time as well as money, and benefit the Earth. The goal is to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible, and each of these tips gets us one step closer. It takes planning and preparation, but that’s why we’re discussing the challenge the week before we begin! Spend a little time today – Earth Day – and take at least one of these suggestions to heart. Every single step and every little effort counts. I promise!

Have any additional ideas? Let’s hear ‘em!

That’s right. Beginning April 25th and ending May 2nd, we will begin the 7 Day Clean Eating Challenge. But before I dive into the details, let’s talk a little bit about what clean eating is and how it benefits us.

What is Clean Eating?

Clean eating is eating as close to the source as possible. What is the source, you ask? The source is Mother Earth, of course. Sure, it sounds like hippie stuff, but think about it – look in your pantry or cabinets, then look in your refridgerator. If the vast majority of the foods you own reside outside of your refridgerator, and you consider yourself overweight? Chances are, that pantry or those cabinets are why.

Basically, living a life of clean eating is living a life of simplicity. You’re probably not going to overindulge on the breads – or eat much bread at all -while eating clean. No refined white rice. No deep fried goods. No processed foods. I mean, don’t get me wrong — I can acknowledge and appreciate the fact that our little friends in the box or plastic wrapper have allowed us to do a lot in a short amount of time (I can get scalloped potatoes with only a little milk and a microwave? I’m in there like swimwear!), but it is certainly not clean eating. If you’re going to embrace the challenge then the boxed goods, canned goods and plastic shrink wrapped packages… have got to go.

Clean eating, with all the “Mother Earth” talk, might sound like hippie speak (I am a self-proclaimed hippie and all), but it isn’t. It’s making sure that we use and respect the Earth for what it is supposed to give to us while, in turn, giving it what it needs. I don’t have to tell anyone that after we’ve enjoyed our boxed and plastic-wrapped goods, that that trash has to go somewhere…and it’s usually buried in a forest…er…landfill somewhere. Clean eating, because you’re using items that rarely come with wrappers, are less harmful to the environment.

Okay, no more hippie moments. For now.

What are the basic tenets of clean eating?

Avoid processed foods. Outside of my usual spiel about why you should avoid foods laden with chemicals we don’t understand, there is actually a multi-layer reason for why this is important.

For starters, processed foods usually come with an excessive amount of sugar. I mean, let’s face it – sugar tastes good. The companies who make our favorite foods know that sugar makes their food so irresistible, so they’re good for putting it in, well, everything. Avoiding unnecessary and unnatural sugars is a key part of clean eating, and you can’t do that in a lifestyle that includes processed foods.

Should you insist on indulging in foods that come wrapped in a package, check the ingredient label – if it contains an ingredient that you wouldn’t keep in your own kitchen (monosodium glutamate? what? – (changed for clarity)) then try to find something a little more chemical-free, or pass on the item altogether.

If you avoid processed foods, you’ll also be avoiding unnatural fats (like trans fats) and unnecessary carbs. All carbs aren’t bad, but the processed foods that tend to contain the highest amount of carbs and fats usually have the least nutritional value… and that gets in your way when it comes to achieving the next target of clean eating.

Get the most out of your food choices. Usually, this means going for the fruits and veggies over the chips and dip. And remember, we’re eating as close to the source as possible… so get the regular peach and skip the fruit cups.

When you choose to eat something, aside from “make sure it tastes great” and “make sure there’s no [insert food allergy] in it,” add “make sure that it’s chock full of vitamins and minerals” and “make sure this is the most nutrient-filled choice I can make” to your list. So no, the white bread isn’t going to give you as much as the whole grain bread might. And if you don’t know whether or not your favorite sub spot offers whole grain bread? Call ahead of time and ask.

Practice portion control. I’ve written on this before, but this is one part nutrition, one part eco-friendly. There’s no reason to take more than you need. Your body will only suffer through trying to churn through all this extra food, and it’s excess and unnecessary calories to burn. And you all know I love counting a calorie or two…hundred.

Drink at least 8 cups of water per day. That’s right.. I said 8. That should keep you sooo busy, that you can’t drink your pepsis or your coca colas or your hawaiian punches or your capri suns. Outside of the fact that water has the ability to help you feel full (more on that later this week) and flush your body of impurities, it has zero calories.

Say it with me. Zero. Calories.

Those are the basics, but we’ll be counting down to the start of the challenge by digging deeper into the principles of clean eating. This week will have one post each day about clean eating – everything from drinking (and enjoying) water to eco-friendly organic living to shopping lists to preparation for a healthy lifestyle (check out “Fitting Clean Eating Into A Busy Lifestyle“)… and topping it all off with a Q&A Wednesday centered all around the challenge (posted here).

You now have… 6 days. Tomorrow comes the sample shopping list (said sample shopping list is now posted here). Get your questions in this week, so you’re prepared for the next. Tell your Mama, tell your friends, tell everybody… build your support system and we all can connect and do this together!

Who’s with me?