Clean Eating Challenge: Step 3 -- Replace Your Snacks

Are you still eating your breakfast every morning?  And what about water, are you still drinking more than you ever thought you could? 

This week we're going to focus on your snacks.  I don't know what you usually eat for snacks... potato chips, candy bars, cookies, crackers, ice cream, microwave popcorn, candy, etc.  That's just a very short list of the 'foods' that used to be part of my days as snacks. 

What ever happened to good ol' fruits and veggies?  Do people even know what they are anymore?  And no, fruit snacks don't count as fruit, and corn chips don't count as veggies.  So sorry! 

So for this week, along with drinking plenty of water and eating a good, healthy breakfast, you now need to replace your snacks with fruits and vegetables.  Don't worry about your lunch and dinner at this point.  Eat them, obviously but don't fret about the contents yet.  We'll be getting to that soon... VERY soon.  For now just focus on your snacks and eat what you normally would for lunches and dinners.  

This week's step is easier said than done.  It may not sound hard but if you have a sweet tooth like me, or a junk-food-in-general tooth (also like me), this week could prove to be pretty challenging.  

Ideally, you will consume more vegetables than fruits but replacing your junk food snacks with either one is better than not changing them at all.  So, if you would normally eat a salty snack, replace it with a vegetable.  If you would normally eat a sweet snack, grab a fruit.  

Here's the trick, try and remember to pair these new snacks with a protein.  Don't overindulge here.  A snack is a snack, after all.  Not a full course meal.  

I happen to like celery as a carb with peanut butter as my protein, and healthy source of fat as well (a brand that contains ONLY peanuts--possibly salt... ~look at the ingredients~ we like Adam's brand).  Another great pairing is an apple with peanut butter. 

You could also use string cheese, a small handful of almonds (or other nuts), plain yogurt (sweetened with honey if needed), or cottage cheese as a protein.  Some will argue that string cheese is not clean.  Like I've said before, there are some instances in which you have to be the judge about whether something is clean or not.  And there are tons of other options as well. 

There are many combinations you could use here.  Or even a green smoothie is a great choice.  I'm telling you, they are good and soooo filling!  Throw in some flax seed or chia seeds for a healthy source of fat and some yogurt for protein.  That is truly the only way I get enough vegetable servings in a day.  Not all at once of course but helps me get there. 

The 'recipe' I've linked you to makes a large batch.  Hopefully you have people willing to help you out with that amount or you can just scale it down quite a bit for a personal serving.  I'm always making it for my whole family of seven.  Well, only six drink it but soon it will be seven.  B just takes sips of mine at this point. 

I don't really care what fruits or vegetables you eat.  Just eat them.  I hope this week is a great one for you.  I'm sure you're doing great.  Keep it up! 

In case you missed it, here's Week One and Week Two.
And here's the Intro.