Recommitting to Clean Eating

What gets you out of bed in the morning? For me, it’s looking forward to my 6am workout at Goals in Motion.

My alarm rings at 4:50am; I’d be exaggerating to say that I hit the floor running, but I do get up without hitting snooze and head to the kitchen for some breakfast. I’ve been dedicated to my 6am workouts for over a year now, but for the past few weeks I’ve had a little extra incentive to be sure I'm there and setting a good example. I started coaching at GIM on August 6^th, welcoming in the newest group of challengers to the program.

An awesome group of 6am challengers weighed in, did their push-up, sit-up and mile-run tests. Being involved with this new group of challengers has been a great energizer for me. I will admit that I had become somewhat complacent with some of my food choices over the summer. Seeing their dedication to food journaling and making good choices has lit a fire under me to do better as well.

As our challengers participate in week 3 of their program, the common theme I’m hearing among them is that they are getting bored with their food. It is normal for people who begin down a path of healthy eating, to think that chicken and salad are their only options. Although good options, yes, they are not the only ones.

Our fitness studio stresses clean eating for better health and weight loss. We don’t use gimmicks or pills or fake food. We tell our challengers that 80% of their success will be attributed to good, clean food choices. If you're stuck in the chicken and lettuce rut, I’d like to share with you an excellent resource for recipe ideas:

Clean Eating Magazine

The folks at Clean Eating Magazine do a stand-out job of presenting healthy meals that use “normal” foods and are easy to make. I recently picked up the July issue with a scrumptious looking pork and papaya dish on the front cover. In this issue there is an entire grilling section, a cheeseburger pizza recipe AND a blueberry ice cream recipe. Now who can say that is boring?! 

In addition to the magazine, they also have a website: http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/ and several recipe books.