Last updated on March 18th, 2019 at 06:35 am
Switch things up and challenge yourself to eat healthy this week! No cheat meals, no slip ups for just one week. I’ve also included a sample clean eating meal plan and a food list in case you want to use these.
Last Saturday I had my third time within a week having pizza. AAAAND lasagna for lunch. And we’re not talking sad lasagna, we’re talking cheesy fat lasagna.
It’s not a secret that pizza is the best thing that has happened to humanity and the world. Science can back this up, there are studies. Okay, there aren’t any, but we all know this. Just like we know that celery juice can heal anything (I’m sarcastic and it makes me sad that I have to say it, but what are you going to do).
So pizza + lasagna three times within a week. You know how that happens – it’s someone’s birthday, then you’ve got something else to celebrate and you don’t like wine or bear or vodka. And cake, well you will have cake as well.
Crappy food has made its way into my life since January and is now sitting there confidently, never moving its butt. “I’m not going anywhere” And I want to take it out.
Clean Eating Challenge Goal
So this week will be to get back on track and here’s the deal: I want to keep doing it every month. It will be a reminder in the first week of the month, that you need to take care of your health, no matter what is going on.
We’ll start cooking more, we’ll cut all the crap, the fluff in your diet and we’ll focus on what you actually need to have energy and feel great: nutrient-dense foods.
This challenge is great if you’re a beginner and just figuring out how to start eating healthy or if you want to lose weight and need a little push.
Best case scenario: you keep eating healthy after this week. But if you don’t and decide to have pizza or cookies – your body would at least have adapted to good food. This way, hopefully, you wouldn’t want to keep eating pizza or cookies every time.
What To Eat On A Clean Diet?
Listen, when it comes to eating clean you want to focus on getting as many nutrients as you can from your food without overeating. So you need to eat a variety of good, natural foods.
You can download the grocery list for the sample meal plan here.
The majority of your diet should be, without a doubt, vegetables. Then come nuts, seeds, fruit, legumes. And then there are fatty fish, whole grains, lean protein, coconut oil and olive oil. And I’ve included some cheese, which you can totally leave out if you’re not eating dairy.
I like to keep at least 1-2 days plant-based or vegetarian. But that’s just a personal preference and you don’t need to do it if you don’t want to.
What Not To Eat?
Anything that has a lot of calories, but no nutrients or is just evil (like diet coke). No soda, no refined grains, unfortunately no pizza, no fruit juices, nothing with sugar, nothing processed. Between a turkey and turkey bacon, you take the turkey.
Sometimes processed foods don’t have more calories than unprocessed foods, but have added ingredients that are super harmful and you wouldn’t even want to touch with gloves. Got it? Go as unprocessed and unpackaged as possible.
7-DayClean Eating Meal Plan
So this is a meal plan, which pretty much describes how I want to be eating during the next week, but to be honest I won’t be strict with it as I want to experiment with new recipes. No eating out and a lot of cooking, but I find it stress-relieving, so that’s ok.
You don’t need to follow this meal plan exactly, pick the meals you like, add other healthy meals you’ve already tried and experiment! Try something new.
To make this easier you might want to meal prep some parts of your meals or your entire meals before you start. I like to cook my quinoa, make tzatziki and hummus upfront, saves me a lot of time. That said: you can also buy the last two pre-made. Everything else I like to prepare fresh: salads, even fish or chicken – I just like the taste better and that’s the only way I can stick to eating healthy – when I eat food I enjoy.
It’s also helpful to make lunches and breakfast the night before (if possible – see notes in recipes how to do that).
You can download the grocery list for this meal plan here.
Now let’s get to the recipes:
Day 1 (Plant-Based/ Vegetarian Day)
Breakfast: Overnight Oats For Healthy Skin (make the night before)
Lunch: Mediterranean Bowl (make hummus, tzatziki and quinoa the day before, follow meal prep instructions in the recipe).
Dinner: Tomato & Basil Quinoa Risotto (double it for lunch next day) and Tomato, Avocado & Arugula Salad
Day 2
Breakfast: Yogurt with Berries And Nuts
Lunch: Tomato & Basil Quinoa Risotto
Dinner: Avocado Chicken Salad (follow meal prep instructions and double for next day)
Day 3
Breakfast: Overnight Oats For Healthy Skin (make the night before)
Lunch: Avocado Chicken Salad
Dinner: Mediterranean Bowl (make more for lunch next day, follow meal prep instructions in the recipe)
Day 4:
Breakfast: Yogurt with Berries And Nuts
Lunch: Mediterranean Bowl
Dinner: Salmon Lettuce Wraps (recipe is for 2)
Day 5: (Vegetarian Day)
Breakfast: Overnight Oats For Healthy Skin (make the night before)
Lunch: Tomato chickpea salad (make 1/2, if only for one)
Dinner: Vegetable Fried Millet (use cooked quinoa instead of millet)
Day 6:
Breakfast: Banana Almond Breakfast Smoothie
Lunch: Vegetable Fried Millet (use leftovers from day before)
Dinner:Salmon with Asparagus (or other Vegetables)
Day 7:
Breakfast: Healthy Strawberry Banana Pancakes
Lunch: Tomato Chickpea Salad (make 1/2, if only for one)
Dinner: Salmon Lettuce Wraps (recipe is for 2)
I hope you enjoy this clean eating challenge, I for sure need it and am very excited about it! See you on Thursday with a kinda different type of post…
