I’m always trying to improve different aspects of my lifestyle whether it be my diet, fitness, habits, learning, etc. Eating happens to be one of my favorite things to do (Who’s with me?). If you read my ’10 Thing You Don’t Know About Me’ you would know that if I could, I would have fries every single day.
However, I make the conscious decision NOT to eat fries every day because, well, I don’t want to die early from a heart attack. Moving on, I tried the Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge and wanted to summarize my experience for you guys.
What is the Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge?
Basically an extensive pre-planned two-week diet that will expose you to more vegetables than you may have had in the past month with very minimal sugar, salt, carbs, and fats. They plan every meal for you for the next two weeks and the idea is to follow it strictly (I didn’t). It’s meant to also work as a sort of detox for your body.
Some Things I Did Differently
- I didn’t eat the “night snacks” because I usually don’t eat sweets/dessert so I felt that was an unnecessary component of the challenge for me.
- I didn’t buy all of the groceries that were suggested because my budget didn’t allow for it. I skimmed all the recipes before going grocery shopping to see what basics I would need. (i.e, I didn’t buy things like almond butter I actually made my own, vanilla extract, dates because they didn’t seem too important. Although, they probably would have made certain dishes taste a lot better)
Here’s a quick snap of what a week in the challenge looks like
What I Learned
- I am not a clean eater but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I need to immediately switch my diet, it’s definitely a process and this challenge will help you. But if you try it and are discouraged, don’t worry, it’s hard for EVERYBODY simply because of the foods we are exposed to on a daily basis.
- I love variety in my meals but want them to be easy to prepare, delicious, and quick. Some of these dishes took a lot of preparation time that I wasn’t used to.
- I hate cauliflower rice (okay, it’s not that bad. But, it definitely takes some getting used to)
- A crockpot is a miracle worker and if you don’t have one, you must get one. (Get my favorite one: here)
- The best part was getting exposure to new recipes that were entirely clean and delicious! (My favorites: Slow cooker chicken, shrimp stir fry, shaved carrot salad)
- A clean eating detox was much needed!
What I Changed About My Eating Habits As A Result & How You Can Change Yours
- I’ve taken to drinking a green smoothie every morning for breakfast. Why? It’s easy to prepare and requires very little time to get ready (Leave a comment if you’d like my favorite green smoothie recipes, they are delicious!). If I get tired of that, I go for overnight oats or a variety of baked egg dishes with vegetables.
- I’m working on finding a balance in slowly weaning out the more “unclean” foods in my diet & incorporating more clean easy recipes. How I’m doing this? Working a balance of two “clean” meals into my day and one meal where I can cook with items I’m used to (i.e, butter, flour, pre-made sauces).
- I’m using the app Fooducate to log in every. single. thing. I eat. Fooducate is wonderful because it allows you to input recipes and will tell you the grade of the items you use. For example, cauliflower rice is an A. But white rice is listed as B+. It helps me make better decisions on what foods to include in my diet and to look for substitutes that will give me a grade of A! There’s a statistic that says people who logged their food intake lost twice as much weight.
- I’ve made an attempt to eat the colors of the rainbow every day. This infographic helps a lot and gives you great suggestions on how to get your colors. You can also follow my Food Pinterest Board for more infographics & relatively healthy and easy recipes that you can try out.
- When baking calls for butter, I’ll try substituting it with coconut oil or an avocado. Replace salad dressing with vinaigrette (there are amazing ones you can make with some olive oil, lime juice, mustard & vinegar). Roast vegetables, it’s absolutely delicious. This past week, I opted out of getting butter, it’s a sacrifice but I know I can cook without it!
- I’m still doing “cheat meals” which is a meal where I can eat whatever I want at least once a week. And indulging in my favorite things (aka hot chocolate seen below, especially in this season). But, I’m just opting for things like fat-free whip cream. As I said, it’s a process and you should definitely be able to enjoy what you eat while also taking care of your body!
Have you tried any interesting “diet” challenges? I’d love to hear about them. If you have any more questions about this challenge for me, please feel free to contact me with them!
If you’d like to see how I meal plan, check out the post here.
