What does it mean to "Eat Clean" anyway?

So, last year I came across an article in a fitness magazine about The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno. She has a book by the same name (& several subsequent recipe books). The article was interesting. I liked what she had to say, so I bought the book and actually read it cover to cover.

I learned about sugar intake, sodium, good fats & bad fats (i.e. trans fats) and I learned how to really read labels (I never really knew what to look for before). What an eye-opener!

I found out that eating clean is more about simplifying the way we eat/what we eat; and cutting out the "processed" foods (think lunch meats, snack crackers, salad dressings, sweeteners, frozen prepared meals, etc., etc.) and getting back to the whole, fresh foods of the past.

Eating clean is not about counting calories. In fact, she doesn't pay too much attention to calories, but about minimizing processed foods and cutting refined sugars and reducing sodium intake. Did you know that when something says "light" or "reduced fat/calorie" or "diet" it will often times have extra sodium in it?

Now, I am nowhere near being as clean-eating as she is; and I don't even know if I want to aspire to be that dedicated to it, but I did take the information she gave and gleaned what I could from it and applied what made sense to me to my lifestyle. Every little bit of knowledge helps and pretty soon, a year later, I look back and can see that I've incorporated quite a bit from her books into my life and it was pretty painless. I took small steps as I learned and little by little, recipe by recipe, small changes happened here and there.

Also, I love her recipes because they are simple. They have a handful of ingredients and just a few steps. I like to cook, but I don't like complicated recipes with extensive ingredients lists and hours in the kitchen.

Take a look at her book. It has helped me so much in my fitness journey. My husband read somewhere that "you can't out train a bad diet" and trying to eat clean has really helped in that department.