I don’t know about you, but I love when seasons change, particularly winter into spring and summer into Fall.  My allergies might disagree, but Spring for me is a time to bring in freshness, tidiness and renewed energy.  The weather gets warmer and bikini season is right around the corner!  I thought I’d take some time this week to revisit some ideas on how to bring about freshness and “clean”-liness into your nutrition!  It’s time to shed that winter coat and get ready for Summer!

I get asked all the time by acquaintances, gymgoers, strangers, you name it, ways that they can clean up their diet and lose weight.  I’ve said it a million times—weight loss starts with nutrition!  You simply can’t out train a bad diet.  No matter how much you work out or what you’re doing in the gym, what you’re eating will make or break your progress.  You don’t have to be a bodybuilding competitor or professional athlete to take steps in the right direction towards better nutrition and health.  With Spring here, I encourage you to challenge yourself to really take inventory of what you’re eating.  How much are you eating?  How healthy are the foods you are eating?  Are you making food choices that will help you meet your overall weightloss goals?  So many of us have events (a graduation, reunion or wedding, perhaps?) or vacations, or special things coming up over the next few months—why not challenge yourself to take the next 30 or 60 days to make your health and fitness a priority so you can look and feel your best?

Here are some easy tips I thought I’d share on how you can CLEAN-UP your nutrition and diet!

• Have a goal! But make it realistic. Maybe it’s to fit into that dress you haven’t been able to wear in a while.  Maybe it’s to feel better in a swimsuit before your cruise, or to look better in pictures with loved ones, or drop the 5 pounds you gained over the holidays.  Regardless, set a goal for yourself!
• Make it measurable. When I first started working out and eating clean, I tried to keep track of how many times a week I stuck to my workouts.  It helped that I had paid for them ahead of time and was less likely to skip out, but I also liked seeing exactly how many times I could log a workout in my calendar over a period of time.  It’s pretty motivating!  I also logged my food in My Fitness Pal, and could see when I was within my calorie goal.  If your goal is to lose weight, keep in mind that a healthy weight to lose for most people is 1-2 pounds per week.  Anything drastic where you’re on a liquid diet, or cleanse, or quick fixes like that where you’re losing more than that are not only aren’t very healthy, but they won’t lead to LONG TERM results.
• Don’t focus on what you CAN’T eat—a core principle of clean eating is essentially cutting out anything that’s not plant based or animal based, staying away from processed foods and sugars. Instead of moaning and groaning about the wine or cookies or cheese you “can’t” have, focus on all of the fresh, healthy options you have in front of you.  The more you think about what you’re cutting out, the more likely you’ll be to succumb to cravings.  You can still have the wine and cookies and cheese, just in MODERATION.  More on that in a later post.
• Keep it easy. Plan to eat 5 small meals a day- Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, and a mid-afternoon and mid-morning snack.
• Go grocery shopping! Pro-tip: If you don’t bring crap home, you won’t eat crap.  That means that the cookies, chips, candy, and junk don’t make it home with you!  Stick to the perimeter of the store, take a shopping list with you, and stock up on healthy options!
• Log your food. Research has shown that if you hold yourself accountable to log exactly what you’re eating that it can really help motivate you keep you consistent.  Check out the My Fitness Pal app, or the Fitbook (available on Amazon).
• Try not to eat out as much. This one is difficult. You can still have a social life and not eat out all the time!!  See if you can keep restaurant visits or takeout to once on the weekend, and once during the week.
• Challenge yourself just to cut back on alcohol (having just 1-2 drinks per week), soda, and sugar, and to get just 3 30-minute workouts in a week. Do this for just 1 MONTH, and I promise you that you will see results!!!  These are all easy things you can do to help get your diet on the right track.

It’s not easy.  Even after years into it, I still struggle some days.  We all do.  If it were easy, everyone would be a lot “skinnier” and the obesity epidemic wouldn’t be as outrageously out of control as it is.  I can tell you that with CONSISTENCY and DEDICATION that you will finally get the results you’ve been looking for.

I’m not an expert, and I’m not a trainer, just a girl that loves nutrition and fitness and wants to help others as much as she can.  As always though, let me know if you have any questions!!

Till next time,

-Mere