Clean Eating Day #4 December 1, 2011

Today was a lovely day at home. I don’t get many days where I have nothing to do outside of the house so I really appreciate a whole day at home like today. This also meant that I got to think about my food today, or at least that is what I thought.

Days at home often fly by as they are filled with housework, emails, phone calls with friends, and oh yes, taking care of little Jackson. I enjoyed having my friend Laura over for lunch today and she was on board with my choice for the meal.

I had a family member email today about blender recommendations. Such a great question! I am a huge fan of the Magic Bullet. I have had one for a long time and I have found this to be the best blender for smoothies. It is also affordable at about $50. Another stupendous option, which I do not know from experience but have heard, is the Vitamix. I would love love love one of these mega mixers. It seems that you can throw anything into it and it will pulse it up. It is not cheap though.

So here is today’s day of eating. I will confess that my husband asked me to make cookies for his 7th period class tomorrow and I have definitely had one or two cookies. =) Interestingly, my tummy is not real happy right now.

Breakfast: The usual smoothie and egg on toast

Lunch: I made what I call “Quinoa confetti salad”. It had quinoa, 3 bean trio, chopped spinach, chopped tomatoes, chopped onion, chopped bell pepper, fresh cilantro and parsley, evoo, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and craisins. I basically grabbed whatever was in the fridge and it was delicious. I also had some cranberry sauce from last night.

Snack: walnuts and chocolate chips, green tea

Dinner: Black beans and brown rice with veggies, cheese and sour cream. A few cookies.

A Week of Clean Eating – Who’s with me? November 28, 2011

My hubby and I have decided to have a week of “clean eating.” I say it with “” because it seems to be a somewhat self-defined term. Here’s how we are interpreting it: Limiting our consumption of all processed foods and choosing whole foods with high nutritional value. We also decided in this case to limit our intake of meat.

Why are we doing this? Well, we both want to feel a littler lighter on our feet. I see clean eating as an internal scrub-down and a mental refocussing on healthy eating. And what a great time of year to do this – not on January 1st, but the first week of the Christmas holiday. We, the Braddocks, will not be weighed down by the holidays this year! Who’s with us???!!!

To help you, and me, accomplish this task, I will post what we are eating during the day. Sometimes it’s hard to interpret our healthy eating desires into a practical plan. I assure that there will NOT be any eating perfection achieved here, but rather a good, honest attempt of cleaning up our food choices.

So consider starting your holiday off with a clean sweep. Here’s how we are doing it. Post how you are going to eat clean this week. Maybe it’s one small change that makes a big difference.

Clean Eating Braddock Style

General Principles:

1. Limit processed foods as thoroughly as possible. (This means stuff from a bag or box with more than one or two ingredients.)
2. No soda (an issue for some Braddocks). Drink a little coffee and lots of water and hot tea.
3. Eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible. Yesterday I cut up a tons of veggies and put them in baggies in the fridge. This makes it super easy to grab the good stuff when you are hungry.
4. Limit meat to once during the week and try to eat fish once.

Jenna’s Day of Eating

Breakfast: My usual smoothie consisting of a banana, frozen berries, carrot juice, kefir milk and spinach. A Black Hog Farm egg on whole wheat toast.

Lunch: (I ate a late breakfast so usually I have a morning snack.) Greek yogurt with 2 tbsp of granola. 3/4 cup yellow cherry tomatoes. 1 red bell pepper. 1 tangerine

Afternoon Snacks: 1/2 cup of raw walnuts and dark chocolate chips. 1 cup raw carrots and broccoli with 1/4 cup hummus. 1 oz Midnight Moon cheese. 3 cups of decaf green tea.

Dinner: 1 cup black beans simmered in beer, garlic, pinch of salt, and tomato paste. Avocado, spring mix, and low fat sour cream on top.

Total Veggie Count: 6

Total Fruit Count: 3