The first steps to clean eating like most new habits will take time, practice, and patience. As a health and wellness coach, the two questions I get asked most often are: 

As a health and wellness coach, the two questions I get asked most often are: 

1. How to start eating clean? 
2. What does clean eating mean?

Clean eating is not about perfection so much as it is progress and persistence. Remember to be kind and gentle with yourself during this process, because it is just that, a process. 

Hold yourself lightly when you have a setback because more than likely you will. And that is completely fine and actually a part of the process. 

Learning how to listen to your body is key. If you are craving that candy bar or chips don’t feel guilty. It is your body trying to tell you something. 

Clean eating is not about depriving yourself of little indulgences.  

Let’s talk about what does clean eating mean in the first place, shall we? 

There are slight variations of what clean eating means however, the consensus is that “clean eating is an approach to eating where one tries to avoid highly processed and refined foods that have artificial ingredients, additives, and preservatives. Instead, the goal is to eat more whole and natural foods.”

A big trend lately has been on a plant-based diet. Some might argue that this is a fad diet like keto, paleo, Atkins, and many others out there. 

When it comes to answering the two questions of:

What does clean eating mean?

What is clean eating?

There is no quick fix or short answer. Clean eating and what it means is truly based on you and your individual needs likes, and dislikes. Clean eating is not a one-size-fits-all and will change over time based on your needs. 

What I mean by this is that you are uniquely you and that is amazing. Therefore the steps to clean eating for you may be different for say your husband, wife, friend, mom, etc. 

Ever wonder why maybe someone you know does fabulous on Adkins and sees the results they want however when you try it, it is a complete flop? 

That in part maybe because what works for someone else doesn’t necessarily work for you and vise versa. 

Go with me here for a moment. One of the steps to clean eating is to figure out what goal you have in mind. Is it to lose some unwanted pounds, to get healthier, to feel better, and so on. 

Clean eating is best if looked at as a lifestyle and not a quick fix. 

However, look at it any way you choose. I am going to list 5 steps to clean eating as a guide for you. 

Please keep in mind that this is just that a guide so it can and should be tweaked for what works for you. After all, this is for you and the goal is for you to get the most of it. Part of being successful in all this is to figure out what way of clean eating works for you. 

By the end of this read, you should have a better idea of how to start eating clean for you and your needs and or wants. 

5 Steps to Clean Eating:

1. Start by identifying your “why” or reason for wanting to eat clean as well as any goals you may have. 

For example, perhaps you want to just feel better, have more energy or you want to improve your overall health. Those might be some examples of your why. 

Some examples of goals are maybe you want to drop some extra weight by a certain date. Or have a goal of running a certain distance.

Having a strong why will help you stay focused and on track especially in the beginning.

 Like any new habit when you first start it may seem like a bit of an uphill battle but once you get the hang of it you are more than likely to start enjoying it and how you feel.  

2. Set Goals, more importantly, attainable goals. 

What I mean by this is that be honest and realistic with your goals. For example, if you are new to running it might not be realistic to run a marathon in a month. 

However, a more realistic and attainable goal might look like this. “I am new to running and want to run a marathon. Therefore let me start by running 5 miles a week and work my way up.” 

The reason it helps to be honest and set attainable goals is so that you don’t get discouraged if you don’t hit a goal that may not be realistic. 

Yet by setting achievable goals allows for better success. And let’s face it when we hit our goals it feels pretty darn great and makes you want to keep going. 

3. Evaluate your current eating habits

Are your eating habits in alignment with your goals? What type of foods are you eating? Does your diet consist of mainly highly processed and refined foods? 

You may want to make want to put pen to paper and write down what foods are currently in your diet that may not be “healthy” and then write down the foods in your diet that are “healthy.” 

As a health coach, I have found that having my clients do this exercise helps them to see where they can make a shift in their diets towards healthier food choices. 

Sometimes they are not even aware of how “healthy” or “unhealthy” their current diets are. 

This is not to blame or shame your current food choices rather to get you to see where you are at in the choices you are making around foods.

4. Meal Plan- now this is different from meal prep which is a very important step in how to start eating clean

A great way to meal-plan is to pick a day and time of the week where you can sit down for about 30-45min and plan out your meals for the week. 

Consistency is great, that is why making it a habit to try to meal plan on the same day and time is so wonderful and helpful. 

Meal planning will also save you time. 

By spending some time to meal-plan you get it done and don’t have to worry about it later. This also ensures that it does get done and not get put by the waist side. 

5. Grocery Shopping-Stick to your healthy grocery shopping list that you created when you were meal planning. 

This will help prevent you from going for those unnecessary items that might not be in a line with your goals or why. 

Some examples of clean eating foods are:

1. Whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, barley, oatmeal.
2. Legumes such as lentils, black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans. 
3. Veggies like kale, spinach, arugula, broccoli, cabbage, green beans.
4. Fruits such as blueberries, strawberries, papaya, pineapple. 

6. Meal Prep-this is a key step in how to start eating clean

Meal prepping is where you make your meal or meals ahead of time. This will save you time, money and help keep you on track. 

Meal planning in combination with having your groceries needed to prepare your meals are the first two steps in meal prepping. 

After you have done those two things it is now time to roll up your sleeves and make some meals. 

By spending a little extra time 1-2 days a week on meal prep will save on time by not having to worry about creating your meals daily. 

Sometimes when you have to make your meals daily you can get caught up with other “to-do’s” and making your healthy meal can turn to grab whatever is convenient at the moment. 

This can lead to the temptation of grabbing unhealthy fast food, which was created for convenience’s sake. All of which we want to try to avoid. 

When you meal prep you can:

1. Visually plan your meals and use any leftovers to repurpose them on creating another healthy meal. This can cut out waste and save you money.   
2. Help make conscientious food choices that serve your goals.
3. Give yourself time to focus on how to start eating clean and set yourself up to succeed. 

Helpful Tip:

By adding more fruits and veggies to your plate you will naturally have less room for those “unhealthy” foods.