The hubby and I have been talking about moving into more of a clean eating lifestyle. A winter of feel good, comfort food and no bike riding have left us both feeling kind of blech and ready for something lighter…something freer.

I’m sitting here feeling full from the mac and cheese I had for lunch…organic or not, I can’t wrap my head around how Aunt Annie can say that powdered cheese is good for you. Plus I ate a bunch of Girl Scout cookies. Wrong on so many levels but when that young girl showed up with her attentive dad selling cookies, I just couldn’t say no.

And then there’s my diet soda…my poison of choice. Yes, I know it’s horrible for me. And so is the voice in my head who reminds me regularly I really should be making better choices.  I’m working on loving that voice, as I shared in a recent blog post, because I know she just speaks up when my needs are not being met and that’s a good thing.

And I’ve got meatloaf in the crockpot. Maybe not horrible but not the best choice…I did make it myself with fresh veggies and fresh herbs.

Today, I’m surely not eating clean. I can feel my growing hunger for better choices…for better food…to nurture this body that does so much for me…why does it feel so hard to make these changes sometimes? I feel ready…I do.  For me this is about loving myself enough to make healthy choices, including ones around food.

So I’m reading about clean eating and what that means for others. It seems there are many definitions/variations..people seem to do what works best for them. What I read first was nothing that has a label would be allowed. That’s pretty restrictive! To start there, feels feels a bit overwhelming and it feels like it may be a challenge to become a lifestyle, rather than a short term change, which is important to me.

We are leaning towards choosing this lifestyle 5 days a week to start with…weekends would be more of an open choice which could be more clean eating or not. I’d like to go back to soda free.  I’d like to avoid heavier foods with dairy, much pasta, sugar, etc. I’d like to avoid foods that have labels with ingredients I can’t pronounce. So I guess that really means more fresh veggies, fruits, grilled or baked meats…that kind of thing. I love to grill..seriously love it so this is the perfect season to move towards something like this. I also like to play with spices and such so I’m on the lookout for great recipes that add flavor in ways other than just fat and sugar (if you have any resources, please share those in the comments – I will be forever indebted to you!!).

I’m excited to see where this journey will take us.  We’ll ease into it this week and officially start next week. That gives us time to get groceries and define what this means for us…what will work for us. Define it in a way we have some clear guidelines and feel we can follow them comfortably.

Have you ever made a big change like this? What techniques did you find helpful in making a lasting change?