My Top 5 Tips For Eating Cleaner And Healthier

Making the switch from the hugely popular processed and packaged convenience foods that are all over our grocery stores these days can be so difficult! We have become accustomed to the ease of all the ready-to-eat meals and snacks and the thought of changing that up can be a bit daunting. I've been there, so I totally get it!

But you' know what I've learned over the past 5 years of trying to create a cleaner, healthier life for my family and I? It doesn't have to be difficult or time consuming or more expensive to eat healthier. So here are my top tips for cleaning up the foods and drinks you consume. These are the first steps that created what has now become habit when it comes to feeding my family.

1. Keep it simple

The less ingredients in a food product the better. I look for short ingredient lists, and ideally lists that include ingredients I can pronounce or could potentially have as ingredients in my cupboards. If you have two cracker options in front of you and one has 15 ingredients and one has 5, definitely go with the shorter list! 

Another way to simplify the process is to just tackle one ingredient at a time. What I mean by this is to choose one questionable ingredient that you will begin avoiding when you're out shopping. This makes it easier to read ingredient labels because you don't have a long list of things you're wanting to steer clear of that you have to try and remember. 

Some examples of easy-to-find ingredients you may want to avoid, one at a time, would be high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, artificial colors or dyes, hydrogenated oils/fats. Once you've nixed those from your foods, you can dig deeper and begin avoiding things like inflammatory oils (soybean, canola, peanut, vegetable, sunflower, safflower, etc.) or preservatives (things like BHA/BHT, nitrates and nitrites, benzoates, sorbates, sulfites, propionates and EDTA). Again, do this one at a time and don't try to focus on all of it all at once!

2. Incorporate more fruits and veggies

It's hard to go wrong with fresh fruits and veggies! They are nutrient-dense, whole, real foods and most of them are simple to eat and don't require a lot of preparation. Another bonus with fresh fruits and veggies is they are super affordable, especially if you purchase varieties that are in season. Just to give one example, a bag of apples is generally cheaper and provides about the same number of servings as a box of granola bars, and you're consuming one whole, vitamin-and-mineral-rich food rather than 5 or 10 different ingredients, some of which may not be ideal. 

3. Make your current favorites healthier

This is a super fun activity for me, although I realize not everyone enjoys being in the kitchen! But even if you're someone who despises cooking, it doesn't have to be difficult or time consuming to make your current favorites a touch healthier. Here are a few examples of how you can accomplish this:

• When cooking with oil, use healthy fat options like olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, real butter or ghee instead of vegetable or canola oil, shortening or margarine.
• If baking, use coconut sugar, honey or maple syrup in place of refined white or brown sugars.
• Use organic ingredients whenever possible (which I'll cover more in #4!)

4. Switch to organic when possible

I will be the first person to tell you that switching to an all organic diet simply isn't feasible. For one, not everything is available in organic versions. And two, it really isn't necessary to purchase everything in organic form. The EWG has come up with the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists that are updated every year. The foods on the Dirty Dozen list are fruits and veggies that you should try to get organic when possible because they have been tested and found to be highly contaminated with pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals. However, the Clean 15 are produce that had very low levels found and, therefore, it's generally safe to purchase non-organic versions of these in order to save money. Here is a link to my recent Instagram post with the 2024 Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists. Be sure to save it to refer back to when you're out shopping! 

In addition to the produce covered by the EWG lists, there is also a list of non-produce items that I try to purchase organic whenever possible. This list includes any form of wheat or corn, oats/oatmeal and almonds. These are highly sprayed crops that usually contain high levels of chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides. Again, it isn't always possible to get organic, but if it's available, and if I can afford it, I opt for the organic version of anything that contains those 4 things.

5. Slowly begin doing a pantry overhaul

The key word here is slowly! Don't open your cupboard, throw everything away and run to the store to replace it all. That is a surefire way to spend way too much money and get completely overwhelmed! As you run out of an item, choose better options to replace them with. ONE. AT. A. TIME. Try to replace as many of the packaged, processed junk foods with more nutrient-dense, whole food options when you can. Keep in mind that if the junk food isn't available in the cupboard, you'll have no choice but to go with a healthier option that you DO have available, so keep your kitchen stocked with better-choice items as much as possible.

I've created a tool that makes this process simple and easy and it also keeps you organized and on track with what you've already replaced and what you still need to work on. It's called the Pantry Overhaul Checklist and Stocked Pantry Shopping List. You can get a free copy of it by clicking here!

BONUS TIP - Give yourself grace!

This is probably THE MOST IMPORTANT tip out of all of them. Give yourself grace when you don't have the perfect items in your kitchen. Perfection should never be your goal. There are going to be some less-than-ideal foods that you and your family eat - either because you can't afford a better option or a better option isn't easily available to you or you just may simply enjoy a particular food, despite the fact that it isn't the greatest thing for you. AND THAT'S ALL OKAY!

As long as you are becoming aware of what you're consuming and are making better choices when you can, you are on the winning path and that is a victory worth celebrating in my books. You don't have to have THE BEST products for EVERYTHING you consume. If you simply have BETTER products for SOME of what you consume, you're rocking the cleaner life and I'm sending you a virtual high five!

And just in case it makes you feel a little better, YES, I do have less-than-ideal foods in my kitchen and I don't intend on changing them up at this point. To give you an example, we are a Hellman's mayonnaise family. I've tried all the better options out there and none of them live up to my expectations. But you know what, that's okay! I am going to continue using Hellman's despite the fact that it is 99% inflammatory oils because I try to avoid these oils in other foods when I can, so I am at aware of them and reducing my use of them in other ways, and I've also cut back on the frequency that I use Hellman's, but I'm still going to slather the Hellman's on my BLT this summer without any guilt because I know I'm doing my best!

I hope that you're able to take one or two of these tips to get started with eating cleaner and healthier. Don't feel like you have to do them all at once. Just start with one...and make it a simple one, one that's easy for you! And always, always, always keep my bonus tip in mind with everything you encounter on your cleaner, healthier journey. It's okay to not live up to the standards of some of the "healthy influencers" you see on Instagram and Facebook. You need to live your life for YOU because the stress of not living up to those people's unrealistic expectations is worse for you than eating a diet completely full of processed, packaged junk foods!

Hang in there, friends! You got this...slowly and incrementally...you CAN do it! And if you'd like a cleaner BFF to come alongside you on the journey, use the form below to shoot me a message! I'd love to join you 😊