4 STEPS TO CLEAN UP YOUR DIET

Ready to clean up your lifestyle, and not sure where to start? A clean eating plan can do wonders for your physical and mental health. Here is my simple guide for cleaning up your diet in 4 steps:

STEP 1: What to buy?

We all start out by having an issue with what to buy. Here is an easy rule of thumb to follow, stick to the outside of the grocery store. All of the fresh food is kept on the outside of the store and not in the aisles. So stick to the outside and buy fresh food.

EAT THIS: Lean Turkey, Top Sirloin, Fish, Grilled Chicken. Leafy Green Vegetables like Spinach and Kale, Broccoli, Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts, and Zucchini. Sweet Potatoes, Red Potatoes, Squash, Sprouted Grains, Rice, Black Bean Spaghetti, Steel Cut Oats, and Quinoa.

STEP 2: Avoid Fillers

This kind of goes back to the stuff in the middle of the isles. Unfortunately, the way our country harvests wheat is for financial gain and not for nutritional value. Harvesting grains before they are fully sprouted makes them difficult for our systems to digest. Wheat as filler is a gut buster for many.

Corn and corn by-products. It would blow your mind how much corn is used in everyday foods. So stay away from corn by-products, because all of it just essentially comes down to it turning into sugar.

Soy is full phytoestrogens, a compound that mimics the female hormone estrogen, which causes swelling and increases breast tissue growth And while many studies say that it is inconclusive that soy will give you man boobs, too much estrogen, as well as phytoestrogens from supplements and soy foods, may increase your risk of breast cancer.

All of our nation’s food is now full of wheat products, soy, and corn to make the product cheaper to produce. I could go into a million reasons why that effects our health. I’ll let you go down the rabbit hole on your own. If you’re interested in learning more about cheap fillers in food, I included a few links in the description of my video above. I’m just going to say they are these fillers will not get you to your goals. Stick to eating fresh food. Nutrient DENSE food is how to eat clean.

STEP 3: Sugar

Sugar is evil! No matter what your goals are sugar is bad. The effect of what it does to the human brain is amazing and thus rivals the effect that cocaine has on the brain. Start looking into what you are eating and see how much sugar you consume in a day, it will probably shock you. It tricks our dopamine receptors in our brain to make us feel good but essentially you are being hooked on a drug that will lead to a host of issues and simply make you fat. Sodas, Juices, and Morning Starbucks is FULL of sugar. Eliminate drinking your sugars and increase your water intake.

STEP 4: Having A Plan

Plan your meals!! This will save you from that last minute decision to go through the drive-through at your favorite heart attack shack. Get some containers and on the weekend plan out your lunches for the week. If you just started with prepping 5 meals for the week, that would be a huge improvement!

I also recommend using myfitpal app to help track your food. Just do it for 3 days and don’t change anything so you have a baseline of what you HAVE been doing. Then switch things up and go from there.

Never Quit, Never Surrender, Always Forward!

-Nick