Food. Food. Food.

Food. Food. Food.

These were so many questions I was faced with over the past few months when people starting noticing changes in my physique, as well as changes in my energy levels and strength and fitness.

What do you mean by clean eating? Do you eat much? What/when/how/why? Don’t you get sick of the same thing? Prep?!?!

When it comes to health and fitness goals, I would have to say the #1 most important habit for me is to create is CONSISTENCY - in exercise, in diet and in recovery… In order to see results, you MUST be consistent. PERIOD.

As I have mentioned previously, I have always been fairly healthy and aware of what I was/wasn’t eating and the exercise I was doing. However, I wasn’t CONSISTENT in WHEN I was eating and HOW MUCH I was eating.

Throughout my comp prep the biggest change/lesson for me came from ‘cleaning up’ my diet and becoming educated on the what, when & why’s of all things Nutrition+Health+Fitness.

Many of us would have heard advice on eating 5 smaller meals per day…? Well, how many of you actually do??? Would you be surprised if I was to then say, this is just the MINIMAL amount of times that I eat! Your body needs fuel (just like a car) to keep running and by eating smaller meals every 2-3 hours throughout the day, you are providing your body with that energy to run efficiently.

BUT. Feed it crap, no matter how often, and it definitely wont’ run as efficielnty as it could!

Of course, there are lots of different theories on this, so I am just reflecting on what worked for me!

Clean Eating… ‘Oh you mean by washing your food before you cook it?!’…. ummm, no. Not quite! 

As little processing or chemicals as possible. 

No packages, pre-cooked, baked, seasoned, sauced, processed crap.

Besides my meats, eggs, fruit, vegetables, nuts and proteins – these are the extras I had sitting on my bench to cook with or add to foods, daily.

• -       rock salt
• -       cracked peper
• -       caynenne pepper
• -       paprika
• -       nutmeg
• -       cinnamon
• -       garlic
• -       ginger
• -       coconut oil

As simple as it sounds, (and many people try to complicate it) but clean eating really is just cutting out the bad stuff and going back to food in it’s basic form.

There are a lot of great E-books on clean eating and great fresh food recipes out there! People are posting on Facebook all the time… Really, there is always a ‘healthy/clean/ option you may just need to search it out. No excuses.

Cheat meals… Again, there are differing opinions on cheat or treat meals… But, for me it was about balance and knowing if I was controlled and consistent most of the time (I said 90%, some say 80%) then I could let me self enjoy a good cheat meal (NOTE – meal… NOT – day!). For me this was a Korean meal, some pasta, sushi, icecream or of course – chocolate! However, as it came closer to comp day cheats became less frequent/non-existent…

How do you prep?

That is a simple question - but one which I was asked every time after I posted ‘prep’ photos.

The simple answer....

1. Shop routinely – I shopped every Sunday.

2. Dedicate an afternoon to prepping for the week.

3. Buy many containers, electric scales, snap lock bags and play some loud/fun music.

I have a meal plan – I know what to eat every meal and how much carb/protein/fats .

So,

4. Weigh, chop and cook veggies and meats then put into containers for each meal.

I am a little too organized at times – tending to label every meal – meal 1 -6/7 so I know what to grab the next day! 

I also count out my almonds on the weekend and wrap them so during the week it’s a grab and go situation. No thinking!!!

This not even scrapping the surface with diet/food/nutrition.... But just a little insight into what Clean Eating and living has started to become for me...

If you have any questions that I haven't touched on please feel free to comment or send me a Facebook message or email - sharna@calmahealth.com.au

Choc Protein/Oats Pancakes with Organic Peanut Butter Drizzle

Pancakes:

- 5 egg whites

- 1 scoop of protein powder ( I used chocolate)

- 2 tbsp almond milk, skim milk or water

- 1tsp cinnamon

- splash of vanilla extract

- mix together and cook on fry pan

Peanut Butter Drizzle:

- 1tbsp of organic peanut butter (melted down in microwave or saucepan)

- 1tspn of agavae

- 1 tspn of water

- mix together and drizzle over pancakes with chopped up banana

* This is a similar recipe from a fitness friend - John Carter. I played around with it to suit my tastes. You can check out his Facebook page at  -http://www.facebook.com/JohnCarterFitness