A few months ago, I decided to participate in my first ever food challenge. My Crossfit gym takes part in Lurong challenges, which focuses on both nutrition and fitness. The nutritional part is a complete clean eating diet. No added sugars, no dairy, and no preservatives (if you can help it). The no preservatives part is what initially got me interested in this style of eating. The second thing that caught my interested was the fact that I was still hanging on to some baby weight that I just couldn’t get rid of.

After hearing about all of the inches people lost during the last challenge, I signed up. I lost an inch around both of my arms, an inch and a half around both of my legs and………..four and half inches from my waste! The time frame was five weeks, and honestly the most challenging part was meal prepping. Oh and being limited to one beer or glass of wine a night.

I was sold. For the amount of effort I put in, I was extremely happy with my results. There was no working out harder or longer – I just changed what I was putting into my body. I had more energy, my flab was literally melting off, and I felt good. I was ready to make this an official lifestyle change, and then summer hit. Vacations, beer drinking, bad food and lack of resistance took over. Luckily, another Lurong challenge is coming up in September and both my husband and I plan to sign up – this time for seven weeks. Our number one goal this time? Actually make this a lifestyle change. We want to continue this way of eating for our overall health and so that we can pass these eating habits onto our daughter.

In preparation for our clean eating journey I have gathered a list of cookbooks as a reference. Some of these I own and the others might be on there way to my mailbox. If there is one thing I learned the first go around of clean eating, it’s to mix things up. Don’t eat the same things over and over! These cookbooks are full of amazing recipes and so many of them can be modified if you are missing something from your pantry – another key to successful clean eating.

10 Clean Eating Cookbooks You Need on Your Shelf