If you are brand new and thinking about transitioning to a clean eating lifestyle, the following tips will help. They can help you properly plan to eat clean and figure out how to properly transition into the lifestyle full time.
Track Your Current Food Intake
Before you begin to transition to a clean eating lifestyle, it can be really helpful to take stock of what you currently eat. Remember when eating clean, you want to stay away from all refined or boxed food and foods with preservatives. Try and keep your menu items to fresh vegetables and fruit, whole grains and organic, grass fed meats or wild fish.
Go through your menu to determine what you typically eat in a day and figure out what foods you currently eat that are “clean” (allowed), or “dirty” (not allowed), and what areas you struggle with the most. For example, if you find you eat a specific “dirty” food at every meal, that food should be the last to go.
To set yourself up for success in the beginning and to make the transition easier, start off with switching just one meal or snack at a time until eventually you eat all your meals cleanly. If you already eat a good amount of clean foods, you can probably transition to the clean eating lifestyle a bit faster.
Begin Gathering Recipes
Once you know what you can and can’t eat cleanly, you may want to start compiling recipes. You can check online sites, buy cookbooks to keep at home, or get digital copies for your tablet and smartphone. When you check recipe sites, it may be helpful to pay attention to their titles and tags, to let you know if it has been approved by a clean eating diet or not. Another good place to find clean recipes is to check out blogs specifically dedicated to clean eating. Keep in mind that, although there are some differences, Keto and Paleo recipes would also work great.
Start Replacing White Refined Carbs
This is a good way to begin making the transition to a clean lifestyle. It might only be a small change, but it could make a drastic difference. When eating clean, you want to try and reduce your refined carbs as much as possible. You can do this by beginning to replace all your white flours with brown, wild or whole wheat. Good choices are sprouted grain breads, wild rice, quinoa and vegetable or brown rice pastas.
