5 Fears About Eating Clean

The other day I was in line grocery shopping after my workout and I was quite the sight.  My hair was in a sweaty mom bun, I had my Arnold Classic tank top and capris on and you know how you get that sense that someone is watching you?  Well I turned around to find a woman staring at the contents of my shopping cart and while she wasn’t exactly scowling, she had one of those, “Great.  I’m behind a health food nut” looks.

The same look I would have given someone five years ago, when I was overweight and the only things in my kitchen were pre-packaged foods.  And apples.  They were the only health food I was ok with.

The foods I eat now are decidedly different and wholly foreign to me when I started my weight loss journey.  Things like bison, kale, sweet potatoes, cod, egg whites, asparagus, quinoa, almond butter, Stevia and (for a treat) Quest Bars.

My former me would have been like, “Do you want to add leaves, twigs and dirt to your order as well?”  (My former me wasn’t always nice.)

I had a lot of fears going into this whole healthy lifestyle things.  They included, but were not limited to:

• Health food has no flavor.  It tastes like paper.
• I’ll be hungry.
• What the hell is quinoa?  And how do you say it?
• Why is this shit so expensive?
• This cooking thing is going to be a giant time suck.  Microwave pizza takes 30 seconds.

Here’s what I found:

• Healthy food does have flavor and can taste great once you get some good clean eating recipes.  And ask yourself this:  When was the last time you honestly got excited eating a frozen dinner?
• Healthy food actually keeps you fuller longer because it takes longer to digest.  The only time I get really hungry is when I stay up late for work and eat something outside my norm, like a bowl of cereal.  20 minutes later I seem to be hungry again and almost always feel more satiated if I instead have 8-12 almonds.
• Quinoa (KEEN-whah), also called the “gold of the Incas” is a seed from the Andes Mountains.  It has more protein than any other grain or seed and has a nice nutty flavor.  It goes well with chicken, especially when you need a break from brown rice.

  

• I’m not gonna lie, healthy food is more expensive than Ramen Noodles, especially when you start eating grass-fed bison and the like.  But it’s cheaper to cook healthy food at home than to eat unhealthy food in restaurants where you have no idea how they cook it and have to pay tax and tip and find a parking spot.  Also, eating healthy will save you money for medical bills, since so many illnesses stem from or become amplified by obesity.
• Cooking is a time suck compared to take-out or frozen food.  But if you meal prep once or twice a week and store the meals in Tupperware you have ready made meals for you and your family that take about 30 seconds to heat up.  To fill my fridge with 4-5 days of meals takes me about 3 hours start to finish on a Sunday.  Then I don’t have to think about it again for most of the week and it saves me from eating higher calorie foods.

  

You won’t know how you feel about healthy food until you try it.  None of my friends would have ever thought I’d be a health nut.  My nickname in high school was Soda Queen and I didn’t learn how to cook until I was 38.  Seriously.  Ask my husband.

But if I can do it, and maintain this lifestyle for five years now, you can do it too if you want.  Join me on the Dark Side at the grocery store!

Lisa 🙂

If you’re serious about getting healthy, but need help getting started, try my S.L.I. Method on my website ShesLosingIt.com.  Only YOU can do the work, but I can give you the tools that I’ve learned over the past five years about nutrition, exercise and overcoming excuses.

Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two….and Original Cast Member of AMERICAN GRIT, starring John Cena, on FOX!!!

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