5 ways to start off eating healthy in the New Years 2010 !

 Eating healthy is hard, especially after the holidays. Tell me about it, all the good stuff; cakes, cookies, fatty-foods by mom and grandparents. I have come up with 5 easy ways to start your eat-clean diet for the new years. These steps have helped me along the way!


1. Eat Breakfast, it is the most important meal of the day! 
Examples (Scrabbled eggs without the yoke, Shake, Oatmeal, Cereal or yogurt) Avoid eating fast-food versions of breakfast take-out. It looks healthy but its all in the appearance and not to mention the preparation methods are not always forthcoming.

2. Eliminate sugar and rich dairy products from your diet.
That means soft drinks i.e. Cola, white sugar (can be substituted with honey, brown sugar or fig sugar), no candy, chips and ice cream.
Dairy products: thick cream, 3% milk, yogurt brands with added sweeteners (can be substituted with skim milk, 1 to 2% milk, just keep it light) and read the ingredients. If you don't know what it is don't buy it!


3. Snack, have 3 to 5 meals a day
Have smaller meals more often, having 3 meals a day isn't enough for calorie count. Thats why you might be hungry late at night and have cravings. Please don't misunderstand me you can't just eat whatever you want. Your snacks should be light for example a granola bar, unsalted almonds or mixture of nuts, avocado with chicken (skinless and not fried) or if you are in a rush a power drink (avoid gaterade).

4. Make a Plan 
Plan your meals, figure out what you want to eat. If you don't have a recipe book you are in luck, the internet has many resources for healthy and clean eating.  Here some that I use: 101 Cookbooks by Heidi, Bodyrock.tv by Zuzanna and Frederick and Eating Clean by Zuzanna, they are all free with visual guides.


5. Eat more vegetables 10 to 12 servings a day! 
I know its hard, trust me I speak out of experience. Vegetables, Vegetables its not something you want to eat everyday, but you should. Lunch, Snack and Dinner are the best times of consumption, you can also eat them in the morning with an omelet.

 Don't have time to shop buy frozen vegetables, people say the nutritional value is lost, there have been test that the difference is very minimal.  So go shopping. Not sure which brand to trust read the labels and the ingredienta.  But if you do have time purchase local and or organic products do so.


It feels nice to know what you are buying!

Best,

Rachel