In homes full of growing kids or teens who can afford more calories while whining for kid-friendly dishes, or in homes with a hungry, man sitting across the table from you, “bulk up” your dinners sometime with extra sides that you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. Seriously.
Make your dinner a lean protein entrée, along with a choice of whole-grain carb, rice, pasta or potato side, and tons of vegetables. Then you know that you have provided a nutritional meal. If they want to chomp down extra sides or inhale a loaf of unappetizing white bread, have at it!
One of my best secrets merely takes 15 minutes once a week. Typically I do it on the weekends while listening to favorite music or a football game blaring in the background. Intrigued?
I take 5 minutes to chop up a large batch of fresh vegetables and saute it in olive oil in a pan for 10 minutes. Use everything leftover in the refrigerator so nothing is ever wasted. Allow to cool and place in a large storage container in the refrigerator.
Then, when creating omelets for breakfast, whole-wheat wraps for lunch, or large salads for dinner, I take several big handfuls of colorful cooked vegetables to really PLUMP up and volumize my meals.
Staying on the nutritious skinny track is all about the VOLUME! My meals are huge, but it’s with low calorie, high quality extras that are filling and great tasting. Wraps are spilling over, omelets look gigantic, sandwiches and pitas are overstuffed, and my salads look like tall buildings.
More importantly, it adds an incredible extra pop of a sautéed, sweet olive oil flavor to any meal. It’s my decorative skinny icing on the nutrition cake!
Try it this week. You won’t regret those 15 fleeting minutes for the rest of the week.
I did some of this prepping the night before so I was not rushing the morning. Everyone loved these even my 4 year daughter. Excellent.
Ingredients
Directions
Would you be surprised to hear that there really aren’t any fitness goals you can achieve without it?
The above question my seem extreme, but the simple truth is, you just cannot get healthy without eating healthy. You can exercise from the time the rooster crows until the cows come home, but if you make a run through your local drive-through afterwards, you just are not going to get anywhere fast.
Food is the big ticket to good health. If you eat garbage, your body will show it. If you eat whole, healthy and fresh foods, your body, skin and soul will glow with health that gives you endless energy.
THREE METHODS FOR EATING CLEAN
METHOD 1
There are many people simply looking to remove the chemicals from their diets and bodies, and therefore eat clean. Their focus is NOT on losing weight, but on general health.They avoid processed foods of all kinds, yet eat only when the need arises or three times per day.
METHOD 2
(I believe this is the most common/popular method at the moment)
METHOD 3
There is also another method of eating 3 regular meals and squeezing in 1 snack for a total of 4 meals. You eat every four hours instead of every 2-3. This concept is from Jillian Michaels and the theory behind it is that if you eat every 2-3 hours, your insulin stays continuously spiked and you end up with a higher chance of diabetes.
I have no idea if this is actually the case. I’m simply supplying information for you to consider. Do what feels right for you.
IN CONCLUSION
Clean eating may feel a bit overwhelming at first, especially if you have a lot of changes to make. My advice is to take baby steps. Make little changes every day and don’t beat yourself up if you make mistakes. We all do. Just realize that it’s what you do the majority of them time that counts.
SIDE NOTE: Many folks who are very accustomed to processed foods have a difficult time with the natural flavors of real food. They claim they don’t like vegetables or anything much that is healthy.
If you are one of these people, I’m here to tell you that over time, your taste buds WILL change. If you start eating this way regularly, you’ll see that eventually, the stuff you used to love just doesn’t taste the same any longer. I’ve even found this to be true with organic foods. There are certain foods I ALWAYS buy organic. On occasion, when these foods become available to my dinner plate in a non-organic version, I can definitely taste the difference! It’s amazing how “numb” our taste buds have become to real foods. Give it time. You’ll learn to love your spinach!
