One of the most common complaints I hear about the clean eating lifestyle is the amount of time it takes to meal prep. Why prep in advance? Because it is the key to success – especially if your day-to-day is anything like ours. Eric and I both work full time, have extracurricular commitments, toddler dance class, daycare, house keeping, doctors appointments, possibly some sleep…you get it. So planning is everything for us and it works for us. I am taking you on this journey with our family (more on why our family is going clean here) because I truly believe it is so good for all of us at the Perez household. We are eating well, and we are more organized, which leads to more time with each other and a happier, healthier mom and dad. We made it through the first couple weeks of this lifestyle change and everyone knows that if you can do something for at least a week that means it becomes a habit, right?! (Insert crack up emoji here). Seriously though, here’s how to eat clean everyday during a chaotic week.
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Tips to Get Through Your First Week of Clean Eating
Start with a Meal Plan
Staying organized is so beneficial if you’re looking to eat clean on a regular basis. It eliminates the scramble. If we don’t have a plan, it is too simple for us to opt in for what’s easiest, or what’s right in front of us, and nine times out of ten that’s not healthy. So, we start off with a meal plan. I actually like to plan two weeks in advance. I like this routine so I don’t feel like all I am spending all my time on getting organized. Two weeks between planning periods gives me more time to peruse my cookbooks (LOVE this part) or check out what my favorite healthy food bloggers have posted. I enjoy creating our meal plan, IF I make time to plan it.
When it’s time to decide on meals for the two week period, we make sure to create a list of recipes that give us a variety of foods. We enjoy food from different regions so we spread out Mexican, Italian, Asian…you name it, and we don’t bored. This style of eating has been around awhile, which means so many amazing food bloggers and recipe developers have made a clean versions of A TON of our favorite meals. My advice–take some time, do a little research and pick recipes that your family will enjoy. You will find that you will hardly notice you are eating healthier if you do.
Create the Grocery List and Stick to It
This has proven to be another perk of transitioning into clean eating. Not only are we all eating healthier, we are saving money at the grocery store as well. One of my New Years resolutions was try and eliminate food waste. If we stick to the grocery list, we actually consume nearly all the ingredients needed for our meal plan. Instead of emptying our refrigerator due to rotting food, we are emptying it throughout the week to cook. So refreshing.
Not that everyone has access to this at their local grocery store, but Eric and I have also started ordering our groceries online, and picking them up at our convenience – total time saver. Again, we have two little ones and a lot to juggle during the day, so this really helps us stick to our goals. We can hop on the computer whenever we have a spare second and order from our grocery list. Totally helpful!
One more note here. I said earlier I like to plan ahead for two weeks of meals. With that, I like to have my list created on or before the Friday we need to get groceries so that we can get our shopping done and start meal prepping on the weekends.
Meal Prep
I know, this is the part everyone dreads. No one loves the idea of spending a ton of time in the kitchen in their spare time. However, Eric and I team work it and to get things done. We will prep grab and go breakfast recipes that will last most of the week. Getting as far as we can when it comes to lunches and dinners is the goal. Obviously there will always be a little prep in the evenings for recipes that require fresh ingredients. When we don’t have anything prepped for dinner, I try and get things organized the morning before work or during my lunch break so that we can come home and throw things in the oven. If something can be frozen, those are always good options to fully cook on weekends and then store for later on.
Meal planning truly is the key to success if you want to clean eat. Like I mentioned above, it is too easy to stray from the plan if you feel overwhelmed, especially after a long day at work. Wrangling two kiddos is hard enough at night so when dinner is prepped we can keep it clean!
Other Tips for Staying on Point
Just a few other things we wanted to share. Mornings can be super chaotic trying to get all four of us out the door. Eric and I have found that simple things like planning and prepping our breakfast, lunch and snacks the night before a work day has been a complete life saver. We each have a lunch box / bag that we pack and empty everyday. All of the glass containers we use to separate out leftovers are so easy to empty and clean in the evenings, ensuring that we will always have containers available for food the next day.
These tips are extremely simple, and implementing them into our everyday to create a routine has made it easy to successfully stay on track. And staying on track is the only way to officially make this our new family lifestyle.
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