Clean Eating: 1st week is in the books!

And the verdict is: I'm really liking it!

I kept a food journal for the entire week to record everything thing that I shoved in my mouth, and that keeps some level of accountability because I hate the thought of having to write down something unhealthy when the majority of what I have eaten is healthy. It's almost like a math equation. Healthy + Healthy=AMAZING. Healthy+Crap=CRAP.
Here's a little highlight of what I ate this week:

Salmon with a honey dijon glaze and lentils. Honey Dijon and salmon is one of the yummiest things EVER.

Homemade pico & kale chips!

"Summer" wraps: Chicken, apples, grapes, honey, and almond butter

I think I did pretty good! There was a few things I ate this week that aren't pictured here, but these are some of the highlights. I went shopping last Sunday and purchased all the items necessary for the entire week. It cost me around $50 for an entire week's worth of breakfast, lunch, and dinners. However, today when I went to the store it cost me $89 for this weeks food. I think that it's probabley because this time I paid a little bit more attention to the products I was buying.

The whole point of clean eating is to actually eat clean. This means eating things that have no preservatives, hormones, additives, ect. For things that are packaged, the rule is 5 or less ingredients on the box. I've been reading up on clean eating here and there, and that knowledge has made my shopping choices change just in the past week of reading. I purchased free range, organic chicken today as opposed to the regular chicken I usually purchase. The meat alone threw my bill way off today. In the two weeks that I've started shopping clean I've realized some things I want to work on.

• Write a meal plan for each week prior to starting the week (I'll do up my plan on Sundays)
• Write my shopping list down in an organized way by breaking it up by area: Dairy, Produce, ect
• CHECK INGREDIENTS!! Don't just believe that something is clean because it states it has no preservatives
• Read ads from different grocery stores to get the best deals 

I don't want to spend a lot of time planning, buying, and cooking my meals. I have a short attention span and I'm a busy girl with my job so I am determined to keep it that way. I'll tell you one thing: having done all the work on Sunday and reaping the benefits all week is SO awesome. 

I also did cardio five times this week and lifted three days. Next week I'm shooting for four to five cardio days, and four lift days.

I'm also constantly on the hunt for easy and delicious clean eating recipes. Shout it out if you got some or know of some good blogs that have 'em!

Thoughts for 2013

 Happy New Year!

I'm not one to make resolutions usually, but for some reason the resolution bug has hit me this year. I think the fact that KC won't be home until close to the middle of 2013 has something to do with it and I have always had the plan of keeping myself busy while he is away. A resolution to focus on is a good distraction. Also, I am now a year into my career, and that too has shown me where I'm at and what I want to improve. I've had a year to acclimate myself to being a big kid with a big kid job. Although I think my "resolutions" (I think goals is a better term) are nothing too major, and are few, they have a potential of making big results.

My first goal to work to this year is eat better! I tend to eat out a lot, and go eat whatever feels good at that moment. I'm lucky in the fact that this hasn't turned me into a huge, overweight gal. However, who knows how long til that changes?! With this goal I toyed with the idea of wondering what I defined as "eating better". I looked at possibly doing a Paleo diet, but then realized that is a little too extreme for me. I came across The Clean Eating Diet. I really like this idea. My skin has been a nightmare and a half lately and I'm sure it has something to do with my diet. I used to never ever (not even in high school!) get acne or breakouts. To start getting them when you're in your mid twenties is embarrassing. Clean eating seems like a good step towards a healthier me. Along with eating clean I have decided that for starters I will eat clean during the week and allow myself to have a little bit more lax of food choices on the weekends. Eventually I want to make it only 1 day a week to cheat. I came across the blog 100 Days of Real Food Blog . This blog has some great tips, tricks and recipes for those trying to eat clean. Check it out!

 Second on my list is exercising on a more consistent basis. I want to incorporate weight lifting into the schedule and not just cardio which is what I have mainly been doing. I've never been good at figuring out my own weight lifting workout, but while perusing pinterest one day I saw this pin of a girl who had a killer bod. She was featured on BodyBuilding.com as a female transformation story. Most of the time I see these girls talking about how they lost all this weight and I just don't relate to them. They're usually short and have had multiple babies and that's why they're overweight. Not this girl.

She is my same height and was around the same weight as me. Although I do think she looked chubbier than I do ha! When I began looking at her workout routine and meal choices I thought it looked very doable. So I'm going to try it out and see what happens.

 

   

      2013 Reading Challenge
   

       

         
       

     

        Sarah has
             read 1 book toward a goal of 24 books.
     

     

       

hide

     

     

        1 of 24 (4%)
     

       

          view books
       

 

   

My last resolution for 2013 is to read two books a month. When you're a college student you have no time to read, or energy to read books for pleasure because you're so tired from reading textbooks all day long. Now that college is a thing of my past I will read more. I love reading so why not give myself a challenge. I hooked up with GoodReads to track my progress. This is another great website you should check out. You can keep track of all your books ever read, what you want to read, take the 2013 challenge, see what your friends are reading, and write reviews. Plus, it feels pretty dang good to see the ticker on your challenge go up when you finish reading another book. Any good book suggestions are welcome. I'm still building up my 'To Read' shelf on the website for this years twenty four books needed to accomplish my goal.