 Welcome to my channel and welcome if you're new here. I have a video today that is highly requested. So many of you have been asking me how the heck do I transition over to clean eating? What are the steps I should take? How do I take baby steps and not majorly impact me financially? How do I even use up the foods I have on hand before I buy more whole clean foods? So I'm here today to share with you some tips, some recipe ideas and just some overall suggestions on what you can do to take those baby steps to transition over to a cleaner approach to WW. Now you guys know I am not 100% clean eating. I say I follow about a 90-10 approach to the clean eating. 90% of what I eat is real whole clean food and 10% are the things that maybe aren't like my built bars or maybe some crackers or something like that or the sweet treats that I really enjoy. Now they may have clean ingredients but they're not really considered clean food. So we're gonna talk a little bit about what is considered a clean food? What is the definition of that? And then I'm gonna share with you some tips and tricks on how to transition to a cleaner approach to the WW program. What the heck is clean eating? There really isn't a definition of clean eating. Essentially what it is, is it's not a diet. It's kind of an approach to eating. So you focus on process or very minimally processed foods. You eat a lot of foods in their natural state. So if it's grown, if it swims, if it runs on land, it's considered clean eating. So you focus on healthy fruits and vegetables, meats, grains, that type of thing. You don't eat a lot of processed food. You don't eat any sugar-free, fat-free. You focus on whole fat dairy where all of the nutrients are. That's basically what clean eating is. It's an approach to the way that you eat food. It's not a lifestyle, it's not a diet, it's an approach and a way of eating. So the first tip that I have for you is focus on fruits and vegetables. That is the foundation, the key to clean eating or a clean approach to WW is eating a lot of fruits and vegetables. We went over the Clean 15 and the Dirty Dozen in a previous video, so I'll link that down below for you guys, but that's a guide on what fruits and vegetables are suggested that you purchase organic versus conventional or non-organic. Now I purchase most of my fruits and vegetables organic. That's just my personal decision, but I absolutely always purchase the Dirty Dozen organic without hesitation. So really focus on fruits and vegetables, whether you choose to go the organic route or not, is of course your personal decision, but the foundation of clean eating is lots of fruits and veggies, at least one to two servings per meal. What if you don't like to cut up fruits and vegetables? You don't wanna spend your days, your nights cutting up your fruits and vegetables. Certainly buy them pre-cut, pre-washed. You can buy onions, bell peppers, fruit that's already pre-cut, that's a great option. Now of course it's going to cost you a little bit more money than doing the manual labor yourself, but it's definitely a huge time saver and absolutely acceptable to buy pre-cut fruits and vegetables. Frozen fruits and vegetables are another fantastic option. They're generally picked at their peak of freshness and when they are frozen, they retain the nutritional benefits of a fresh fruit or vegetable. And you can have these on hand all the time, whether those fruits and veggies are in season or not. It's always good to try and avoid canned produce, such as canned vegetables. A lot of times there's added sugar, salt and preservatives. Just be really careful, watch your ingredient label and if you can, make sure that you're buying the organic canned produce that's in a BPA free can. So you're not getting the chemicals found in BPA cans. My number two suggestion is incorporate whole grains into your diet. This does not mean white grains. So no white flour, white bread, processed grains. These are whole grains, preferably sprouted grains. You guys know that I love the Trader Joe's sprouted sourdough bread. I love the Ezekiel bread in English muffins. This is your best option for whole grains because they're sprouted. They're generally found in the freezer section of your grocery store, not in your bread aisle. But if you're not into sprouted grains or maybe you can't access those in your local area, make sure that what you are buying is whole grain, not processed white ingredients. So essentially eliminate white bread, white pasta, flour and rice from your diet and just replace those with a whole grain option. So brown rice or whole wheat bread or whole grain pasta. That's a simple switch that you can make and you're getting a lot more nutrients and it's going to keep you full longer because it has added fiber. Some other great sources of whole grains are barley, quinoa, amaranth and oats. Make sure whatever oats you're buying are definitely organic because they're heavily sprayed with glycosate, which is the active ingredient in Roundup. No thanks. Opt for 100% whole wheat bagels, breads and other baked goods. Again, you're just getting more nutritional value. They're full of fiber so they're gonna keep you satisfied and much fuller for much longer. Number three is add lean protein to your diet. Make sure you're getting two to three servings of protein every day and if at all possible, make sure you're adding a protein to every meal. So for example, if you're having a snack, some great options, some things that I absolutely love is I'll take a brown rice cake and top it with some nut butter and maybe some raisins and I have that salty sweet snack. I also love cottage cheese, full fat, delicious cottage cheese and I dip a great whole grain cracker like Mary's Gone crackers or simple mills into that. So I'm getting that crunchy but I'm also getting that protein out of the cottage cheese. Cheese sticks wrapped with lunch meat are great options. Just make sure that you're watching your lunch meat. Make sure it's organic and there's nothing in it except for meat and maybe a little bit of salt. So some options for your meals to get in that protein. Maybe with breakfast, serve it with some Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt has a lot of protein for yogurt. Lots of great nutritional benefit, especially if you're eating a full fat version. Maybe with lunch, you break out a can of tuna and you make it into a sandwich or top your salad with it and dinner, you can always add some lean protein like a lean ground beef or a lean breast of chicken and there you have it. Two to three servings of protein and we haven't even gotten into snacks. That's just protein with your main meals. Some great lean meat options of course are chicken breast, most of your seafood, your scallops, your shrimp, your cod, your halibut, tuna fish is a great option. You can even have a lean cut of steak or red meat, pork and of course lean cuts of ground beef are great ways to get in your protein. Some great non-meat options for protein, tofu, tempa, nuts and seeds, those are some great options to get in your protein that aren't meats, especially beans. Beans are full of fiber and protein and a super well-rounded source that isn't meat. Number four is super important and this is to include healthy fats but in moderation. Fat and protein and fiber keep us full. All of these processed carbs and junk that we're eating, the sugar-free fat free, it's not going to keep us full. It's healthy fats and lean cuts of meat that help keep us full. So make sure that you're incorporating some healthy fats throughout your day. You guys know I love avocado oil, olive oil, any expeller pressed other oil is an option. My top favorites of course are avocado oil, olive oil and coconut oil. Try to limit your healthy oils to no more than three servings per day and again some great options are your oils that we mentioned, nuts and seeds and nut butter are also great options of healthy fats and of course the star of the show, avocado. And avocado believe it or not is not too bad in smart points. I tend to eat a lot of avocado, it keeps you full and it's an excellent source of healthy fat. Number five is drink water as your main source of liquid. We all know how many benefits water has for our body. It also helps keep us full and satisfied. And if you feel snacky, you're probably not hungry and you probably just need some water. So add water to your diet. You can jazz it up with things such as lemon in line. You can infuse water with fruits, cucumbers. It makes your water taste really good. It's all natural. So you're not putting in any water enhancers that have artificial flavors or ingredients. Some of those water enhancers you gotta be really, really careful of. I generally just have my water with lemon. You guys know I love Meyer lemon, lemon slimes in my water. You can put oranges and again even cucumbers and you have a really delicious, clean, healthy version of water and it helps you drink a little bit more throughout the day. Now the rule of thumb or maybe you've heard of this is to drink half of your body weight in water per day. I think that's a great goal to shoot for. Some tips to do that are bring a water bottle with you wherever you go. You will never see me without water. Whether it's in a water bottle, even a to go type of water bottle that you buy at the grocery store, the gas station. I have water with me everywhere. I even have a bottle of water on my nightstand at all times. That way, no matter what you're doing, subconsciously, not subconsciously, you can make sure that you're drinking your water. Again, by adding those lemons, those limes, it really helps you drink it a little bit more, adds a little bit of flavor. For me, makes it much more enjoyable. You can even include things such as coffee or tea or sparkling beverages to help get your fluid intake throughout the day. Be really careful with sparkling water. Make sure that you're choosing one that does not have natural flavors. Natural flavors are artificial flavors. The only one that I have found on the market is Spindrift. You can pick this up at your local grocery store, Trader Joe's and Costco has the big box for a really, really affordable price. But any type of liquid that doesn't have calories or artificial ingredients in it is a great option to help get your daily intake of fluid. Now let's get into what habits can you form other than the basics to transition over to clean eating. Number one with lights and stars around it is learn to read your ingredient labels. This is where a clean eating, clean approach to WW begins and this is in your nutritional label. When you flip over an item that you're purchasing, you wanna be able to pronounce first of all the ingredients in the item that you're eating. And there are certain things that you wanna steer clear of that fall in the absolute not clean eating ingredient label list. Some of those items are any of your hydrogenated oils, your palm oil, sunflowers, soybean. You wanna steer clear of those. Even canola oil and vegetable oil. I did an entire video where I walked through oils. I'll link that down below for you guys. Also be careful what non-stick cooking sprays you're buying. Make sure that you're buying ones that are not using a propellant. So some great options are the chosen foods, avocado oil, non-stick cooking spray as well as Trader Joe's has an olive oil spray that is not propellant based. You don't wanna put propellants in your body so make sure you're choosing a non-propellant cooking oil. Some other things to watch for are xanthan gum, lecitin and again just ingredients that you can't pronounce. And the number one ingredient to avoid is natural flavors. We talked about this, natural flavors are artificial flavors. Basically these flavors are derived from something natural but chemically processed which makes them artificial. So for example, it may be derived from a vanilla bean but the actual natural flavor of vanilla in your yogurt or your almond milk is all chemical based and artificial. So steer clear of natural flavors. I want to caveat this with it's okay not to be perfect 100% of the time. There are some of my favorite foods that don't have the best ingredients such as Bilt Bar. I limit myself to Bilt Bar maybe once or twice a week or maybe a few times a month instead of having it be something I eat every single day. Maybe I want some cake or a cookie from my local bakery. Everything in moderation. Just make sure that 99% of what you're putting into your body is clean whole foods and that other 1% can be those foods that you don't love. So for me that's 90, 10. 90% of what I eat is clean whole food. 10% of what I eat may fall in the not clean category but again for me to be happy and live my life and enjoy some of the things that I really truly love they have to fall in that 10%. That's how I choose to work clean eating and my clean approach to WW. So on that nutrition label, watch for things with added sugar and salt. You want to avoid those things. You want your ingredient label to be very short, maybe less than five ingredients preferably and all ingredients you can pronounce and you want to not see a lot of added sugars. So when you look at an ingredient label you're going to see where it says sugars or total sugars and then below that you're going to see where it says added sugar. You wanna see added sugar as zero or very minimal. That means that they're adding sugar into your food that isn't naturally derived. So let's talk for example about coconut water. Now if you flip over the back of coconut water you are going to see that it has sugar but that sugar is naturally derived. You wanna make sure that your coconut water has zero added sugar. It already has sugar in it from the coconut itself. So that's kind of a rule of thumb is make sure there's no added sugar or salt. You also want to watch for added fat especially saturated fat. We know that that's taken into a smart points value on WW anyways. You wanna just watch your fat on your food labels. You don't want the majority of what you're eating to be with fat whether it's regular fat or saturated fat. So how much fat, salt, sugar should you be consuming in a day? The rule of thumb is no more than 30% of your total calories should come from fat. So for example if you eat 1500 calories a day no more than 450 calories should be derived from fat. That's the common rule of thumb. So you can use a macro calculator or a calorie counting app in addition to WW to track your macros. I don't do that because I have a pretty good sense of what I'm eating throughout the day and if I do plug that into like a macro calculator it comes out at about 30% fat. It's also best to limit your sodium intake to about 1500 milligrams a day. So that's where you have to really watch canned foods and foods with a lot of sodium soups, that type of thing. Try to stick to 1500 grams a day or less. And as far as sugar goes women should have no more than six teaspoons of added sugar per day and men should have no more than eight teaspoons of added sugar per day. Now my next tip is a big, big one as well to transition over to a cleaner approach to WW and that is to choose whole foods over processed foods. 90% of the foods that you're consuming every day should be whole real food and 10% or less should be processed food. Processed really in any way. Processed foods generally have fewer nutrients than whole foods and they usually have a lot of added things added coloring, added fat, salt and sugar. So what if you love processed foods? What if you are a processed food eater? Find alternatives to those processed foods. I wanna share just three quick alternatives for you. So if you are somebody that loves granola bars or maybe for breakfast you tend to have a granola bar, how about having a bowl of steel cut oats with some fruit nuts added? That's gonna give you that granola bar vibe but is going to be a whole food versus a processed food. If you're a fan of beef jerky, make sure that the jerky that you're choosing doesn't have anything added, added salt, added fat, added sugar. And what about fruit? What if you love fruit rollups, fruit snacks, a healthier alternative to that would be dried fruit. I count dried fruit as their points as you know but if I were to eat a fruit rollup, they have added sugar and are processed so they would definitely be smart points. So just make healthier options to your processed foods. My next tip is shop the outer perimeter of the grocery store. This is where you're generally going to find all of your real whole food. This is where your produce is, your fruits, your veggies, your dairies, most of your whole real clean food is the perimeter of the grocery store. Avoid those inner aisles unless you're specifically looking for things such as canned beans or vegetables or something that you have to enter the middle aisles for but the best rule of thumb is shop the perimeter. That's where your clean whole food is. You may have to go down those middle aisles for your canned fruits and vegetables, your olive oil, your nuts, your seeds but just stay away from cookies, crackers and other processed foods. Next up is cook from home. There's no better way to control what is going into our food as far as ingredients go. Added salt, sugar and fat is to cook it at home. I know that sometimes finding recipes is hard. What if you find a family friendly recipe? How the heck do you turn it into a point friendly recipe? I'm here to help you. I have a website, I'll put that here on the screen for you where I put all of my recipes that I share in my videos, all of the ingredients, how to prepare them, the points, everything on my website. Also head over to my Facebook group, join us there. I do offer a meal plan service where I put together 20 dinner recipes for breakfast, for lunches and for snacks. I break them down into points and calories, give you substitutions to make them a little bit more point friendly and my recipes have whole real clean food. So find a resource where you can gain inspiration and recipes from. This is going to help you cook at home more and therefore you're controlling what's going in your food, the calories, the smart points, and overall you're gonna end up saving money versus going out to eat. So what if you're out to eat? How do you maintain a clean eating approach? It's very simple. You simply ask for substitutions when you're out to eat. Most restaurants will very, very easily substitute some of the high fat, high calorie food for you in their recipe. You can take things out, you can add things in, just ask your server or your restaurant for the substitutions that you need to maintain your clean approach to WW. Some easy ways to do that is asked for an oil-based salad dressing over a creamy dressing. Do oil and vinegar, see if they have a vinaigrette. That's a great way to save on fat, calories, you name it, and it's a much cleaner approach if you just add some oil and some vinaigrette and maybe some salt and pepper to your salad. Also, try requesting a lettuce wrap on your burger or your sandwich instead of a bun. Again, a great way to save calories and get rid of all of the processing of that bun and just eat it wrapped in lettuce. I promise you guys, it's delicious and chances are you're not even going to miss the bun. Choose grilled options over fried options. That's an easy way to have a clean approach on WW when you're eating out. You can even ask them not to grill in any type of oil. And last but certainly not least, when you're picking up your favorite coffee beverage, it's best to have your coffee plain, unsweetened, unflavored, but if you have to add something to your coffee, your best options are going to be choosing heavy whipping cream or full fat half and half, or you can even add in some sweeteners that are clean like whole earth or monk fruit if you need that little bit of sweetener. Avoid those sugar-free syrups, avoid regular sugar syrups, and avoid all of those really heavily processed ingredients that a lot of coffee shops have. Just stick with plain coffee or choose a clean item to add to your coffee for creaminess or sweetness. And lastly, I wanna share with you just some easy recipe ideas that you can take from process to more of a clean approach to the WW program. Very, very simple things that you can do to start clean eating, baby steps. Remember, we're taking baby steps. So these recipes are simple, low amount of ingredients, things you should have on hand or easily have access to at your local market. First is make an egg and veggie scramble for breakfast. Not only is this a great way to get in protein through the eggs, it's a great way to get in some veggies and a great way to add in some healthy oils. Cook your veggies in a teaspoon of avocado or olive oil. It's one smart point and it's a great way to get in that little dose of healthy oils. Scramble all that up. You can even top that with some cheese for some added fat and protein and it's a great way to be satisfied and super, super easy to put together. You can literally throw whatever veggies you have in your fridge into your scramble. Also, choose whole or dried fruits as snacks or desserts instead of your processed snacks or desserts. Have some dried fruit or some whole fruit or maybe add some whole fruit to some Greek yogurt or add some dried fruit to maybe a smoothie bowl. Focus on your sweetness coming from nature, from fruits whether they be dried or whole fresh fruits. Apples, have apple with some mixed nut butter. Oranges, bananas, papayas, one of my favorite things drizzle a little bit of fresh lime juice over a papaya and it's absolutely delicious. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, watermelon, honeydew melon, any type of fresh fruit. Focus on that for your desserts and for that little bit of sweetness when you're craving something sweet throughout the day. How about trying a veggie sandwich? Take a couple of slices of your favorite clean eating bread, maybe some sprouted bread from Trader Joe's or Ezekiel bread. Load it with vegetables and try using hummus for a condiment or avocado in place of processed condiments. You can even use chosen foods avocado mayo. If you have to have mayo on your sandwich that's a great option. But try having just a veggie sandwich. It's going to save you a ton of calories and points and it's also going to really elevate your veggie game for that day. Now if you wanted to add a little bit of protein to that veggie sandwich without adding meat add a slice of cheese. That's going to give you a little pump of protein and going to add that extra flavor component. So a veggie sandwich can be absolutely delicious. Toss up a salad for lunch or dinner. Avoid frozen meals or pastas or potatoes and throw together a salad. This is one of my favorite things to do. I love salads. I love putting even warm ingredients like roasted vegetables on there. You can pop open a can of tuna or salmon. You can put some chicken breast on there. You can even put some bacon on there to give it the protein. So not only are you getting protein, tons of vegetables, you can add cheese for that little bit of protein. Throw on some avocado or some nuts or seeds for some extra healthy fats and top it with a clean eating dressing. Speaking of dressings, I will be doing a video all about clean eating dressings and share with you some really easy recipes for clean dressings. But in the meantime, you could do your avocado, oil and vinegar and a little salt and pepper. You can also do oil, balsamic vinegar and mustard, mix that together. It's delicious. And Trader Joe's has an excellent green goddess clean eating. You can have like eight million tablespoons for one smart point of this dressing. Great options for you. There's also some great primal kitchen and tesame dressings out there as well. But stay tuned for the dressing video, but definitely adding lots of good proteins and healthy fats to salads is a great way to get in all those veggies, keep you satiated and full throughout the day. You can also make a stir fry with some brown rice and some chicken or lean protein and veggies. It's a great way to get in whole grains, protein, veggies and healthy fats because you can fry that up in some healthy oil and it's super filling, super low smart points. Most of stir fry ingredients are zero points on the blue and purple plant and super low points on the green plant. So having a stir fry is always a great option. You can even add some whole grain noodles to that instead of rice if you want. You can even take the rice out and put in cauliflower rice or just stir fry up some of your favorite vegetables and lean protein. Top it with some coconut aminos or some light soy sauce. Really a ton of options when it comes to stir fry and again, super low points and a great way to pack in those veggies, lean proteins and whole grains. And the last thing I wanna talk about is baby steps and using up what you have on hand. Now I don't think you should go throw away all your fat-free, sugar-free items. Use those up, use them sparingly, but use them up. Then when you're out of what you have on hand, that's when you can start incorporating some less processed, clean whole foods in placement of those processed, sugar-free, fat-free foods. But certainly use up what you have on hand and if those items are still in their whole form, so maybe whole packages of pasta or rice, errone or whole cans of vegetables or fruits that maybe have added sugar or added salt, you can always donate those to a friend in need or your local food bank if you don't wanna consume them yourselves. But anything that you have on hand, you should either donate or consume before you're picking up those new clean eating foods. Also, you can eat clean on a budget. I did a video all about clean eating on a budget. I'll link that down below for you guys. You're gonna get some other great tips and tricks about clean eating in that video, but how to start clean eating is very, very simple. Out with the processed foods, in with the whole real food. That's really all you have to remember. Eat as much whole real clean food as you can and minimal processed foods, simple as that. Take those baby steps. Of course, ask your questions down in the comments. Do your own research. See what is clean eating that's accessible to you in your area. Try to choose organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed meat, pasture-raised organic eggs. Those are the best of the best, but if you have to pick regular eggs or regular ground beef, that is completely fine. Do whatever your budget allows and whatever your preference is. That's the beauty of WW is we can work this program however it fits into our life. So definitely do what works for you but just choose whole real food in place of processed foods. And voila, you have a clean approach to WW. I hope you enjoyed today's how to start clean eating video. I gave you tons of tips and tricks, even some recipe ideas. It's very, very simple. Just focus on whole foods and not on processed foods and you can easily baby step your way into clean eating. If you're new to my channel, make sure you're checking out all those videos down in the description box. My website is there as well as the link to head on over and join my Facebook group and the links to all of my favorite things and discounts that I can give you on my favorite WW and clean eating food, supplies, kitchen gadgets, you name it. Make sure you're subscribed and your bell notification is turned on so you don't miss a single video. We do all things WW, cleaning around here so you don't wanna miss a single video. Give this one a thumbs up if you can take away some great clean eating and how to start tips and tricks and leave your comments down below. I wanna hear if you have any other tips and tricks to how to begin clean eating that we could benefit from and what you thought of today's video. If you made it all the way through today's video because it's gonna be a long one, I'm sure. Go ahead and leave a clean eating staple, the avocado in the comment section and I'll know that you made it all the way through today's video. Thank you so much for watching. I hope I helped you start your clean eating approach or maybe get a little bit more into the clean eating approach on WW and I'll see you next time. Bye guys.