If I am being completely honest then I should let you know upfront - Clean Eating/Paleo is hard to do. Every time I think about it I remind myself that "if this were easy then everyone would be doing it".
The difference between Clean Eating (ie lack of sugar and processed foods) and Paleo is that Paleo is simply a stricter form of eating clean.
Running through somewhere to grab lunch while you are out is much much harder and eating out in general is more complicated than a 16 year olds relationship status.
So, if eating out is almost - not quite - out of the question then how do you manage on a busy week?
Prep.
This past Sunday I prepped almost all my meals for the entire week. In total I probably spent 3 hours from start to dishwasher door closing to get all my food prepped.
In a matter of a few hours after church I was able to put together
- 5 spaghetti squash dinners (from one large squash) with meat sauce
- Taco meat for salads/taco night (lettuce shells)
- 10 hard boiled eggs (salads and snacks)
- Crock-pot Chicken Tortilla(less) soup
- Diced broccoli and squash for roasted veggies
Its butternut squash - though I wish it was cheese ;)
Outside of prepping your food you have to make sure you have snacks that are easy to eat, tasty, and portable. We are all busy and are 90% of the time somewhere between point A and B.
Now that vending machines, snack closets, and drive through's wont suffice you have to be able to pull a snack out of your bag that wont make a mess (see salad) and is tasty (come back to me chips)
My top snacks for work and the road would include
- Honeycrip Apples (the Paleo eaters candy bar)
- KIND bars (though they arent 100% Paleo)
- Trail mix (I get mine from the Sprouts bulk section)
- Cuties
-Fruit of all kind really...
- Almonds (though not my favorite)
- LARA bars (apple pie!)
Last tip- one that has been hammered home a million times - drink more water.
Seriously, though.
Water has been my key hunger kicker. I was telling a friend yesterday that since I returned to my paleo ways I can now tell the difference between my hunger. I know very well what is boredom induced hunger and what is true - give me food now - hungry.
When boredom hunger hits I always try to get a huge glass of water down before having a snack. Typically, my hangry attitude subsides. If not, I chow down on a snack (most likely fruit - hello more water)
Every night I refill this (see below) water jug (101 oz) and take it with me throughout the day. Around 8pm whatever is left gets chugged. On average, I only have about a glass left when I get home, which I drink with dinner, but I make sure to drink it all.
The best part of taking it with me is I know exactly how much water I have gotten down throughout the day.
All in all, eating healthy/clean/whole foods isn't easy, but the changes you will feel and see will be totally worth it!
Since you have made it this far here are my favorite recipe sites!
http://lexiscleankitchen.com/
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
http://cookeatpaleo.com/
http://paleomg.com/
Happy eating friends...!
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