Firstly, lets establish what clean eating means. We hear these words more and more as most of us are getting conscious about what we eat. Clean eating refers to eating unrefined foods that are as natural and least processed as possible. 

This sounds really good, but realistically, it's difficult to stick to clean eating 100%, at least I know that's true for me. So the first point I would like to make is DON'T BE TOO STRICT WITH YOURSELF. 

80% clean, 20% whatever you want

I try to stick to eating as natural as possible 80% of the time. I love sweets too much to be able to bake my desserts from scratch. And who has the time to bake this all the time if you're going to work or school? If you do want to go 100% clean, I would still suggest starting out with 80% - 20% as it helps build up. 

Make a Plan

This is probably one of the most important points that will help you stick to clean eating, especially if you're just starting. I found that if I don't plan my meals for the week in advance, I end up buying more processed foods like pizza, ready meals, and so on. If you make a good and varied food plan, you will be able to cook in bulk and save time during the week as well.

Cook Multiple Meals at a Time

I recently started cooking several meals that share similar ingredients, which makes my life a lot easier as I don't have the time and energy to cook every evening. You can buy a few storage food boxes and store the food for the week in the fridge. 

Sweets

I know I said I don't bake my sweets, I'm trying to, and will start slowly. BUT, there are sooo many options to satisfy your sweet tooth: peanut butter (yummy), fruits (watch out for fruits of the season), dark chocolate (really good for the cardiovascular system), you can even make your own banana ice cream. I'm planning to post some healthy dessert recipes soon :) 

CARBS

I LOVE carbs and they're a great source of energy, but we must know the kind of carbs to eat. The best option are wholegrains, and avoid white bread, white flour, white rice, and so on. Wholegrain foods contain the best nutrients, because these contain naturally-occurring nutrients of the entire grain seed. White bread and white rice, for example, are stripped off most of these nutrients, leaving only the sugars. 

Learn to Love it

Eating healthily makes you feel great! More energetic, better skin, better mood, because you're feeding your body the right stuff. It's a bit difficult in the beginning, it definitely was for me, because my body was craving all the sugar from those processed foods. It's normal, and after a few days, it gets a lot better :)

I hope you found this post useful, there are many such posts out there, and I wanted to share my tips as well! 

If you have more advice on this I'd really like to hear it! 

Have an amazing day

Ioana