Cleaning out the junk

This is a post I did recently for another blog. It is not Whole30 specific but will be helpful to start you on your journey - enjoy!

What are you thinking? Seriously. Do you think about what you put in your mouth? Do you realized what you eat goes into your body and becomes a part of you? Seriously. What you ingest gets digested and becomes a part of you at the cellular level. Yet, you still throw things into your mouth like your body is a garbage can. I don’t plan on living forever. But, I would like to be healthy while I am here. So, I don’t eat things that resemble food but do not offer nutrition. Author Michael Pollan would refer to those foods as “food like substances”.

The best way to avoid eating crap that you know you should not be eating but just can’t help yourself – DO NOT KEEP JUNK FOOD IN YOUR HOME. Seriously. Do not buy food that is not nutritious. Do not buy food that has any of the following ingredients; high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), hydronated oils, food colorings, anything that sounds like it is part of a science experiment. Really, most of what you eat should have one ingredient. Like, carrots, steak, chicken, mushrooms, sweet potato.
First thing to do is clean out your kitchen. Get a bag or a box. Put anything bad for you in that bag or box and take it out of your house. Anything unopened, sure, give it to a food pantry. Anything opened, well, maybe you have a friend or a neighbor you can give it to. But, don’t finish that last bag of Doritos and that last six pack of Coke simply because you paid for it. You bought something faulty. It is broken and toxic. Do not eat it.
Start with the frig. Throw out most of your condiments. Yeah, I see the HFCS, and nasty oils in there. You know what a great condiment is? Fresh salsa. Or homemade mayo. Oh, you don’t like keeping those because they go bad? Your food should go bad if not eaten. Food should not last for weeks on end. Food should be living – it is what you are using to keep you alive. Now some foods take on special powers through fermenting and those may last for a bit longer. Ok, what is in your butter tray? If the answer isn’t butter (ok, maybe ghee), then throw it out. That fat-free butter like substance has no heath benefit. Fat will not make you fat. Buy some good butter. Butter make from the milk of pastured animals has some great health benefits. And, you know what is amazing? Butter!! Personally, I like Kerrygold. Now, look at your eggs. What? No eggs? Come on. Good eggs will be expensive compared to the mass produced eggs from sickly chickens. But, eggs from pastured, free range chickens are really inexpensive sources of protein. The yolks are fluffy and an amazing golden, almost orange color. Now, for the tough one. Your milk. Are you so excited when you find the carton of milk with the expiration date that is two months away? Yeah, that is not food. The nutrition in that food has been killed by the high temperature pasteurization. So they add some vitamins back. Oh, but you like skim milk? Well those vitamins they added back are fat soluble. Without fat in the milk, you are not getting benefit from those vitamins and minerals. Buy a smaller container of milk. And, find some non-homogenized milk. If you can find low temp pasteurized or raw, even better.
Next go to your freezer. Oh, you thought you thought you could keep those Hot Pockets? You have got to be kidding me. Your freezer should be used for ice, frozen meat, frozen fruit, frozen veggies, frozen homemade stock, and well, maybe a good vodka. Keep going. You are already determined/whiney.
The pantry/cupboard. Yeah, most of that should be tossed. It has food colorings that are not allowed in most countries. There are oils that are awful for you. What oils do I have in my pantry? Coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, a lighter olive oil. In my refrigerator, I always have butter, a jar of chicken fat, a jar of bacon fat, and a bottle of sesame oil. When I cook, I grab either the coconut oil, butter, or animal fat. The EVOO is for drizzling on anything. And, the light olive oil is for making mayo.
Eating better requires planning. We have gotten lazy about food. Convenience has become more important than flavor or nutrition. Good food takes time. It takes planning. This will mean different things for different people. Some people will need to sit down and plan each meal. I cook pretty simply. So, I make sure I have enough meat & veggies on hand and every morning I figure out lunch and dinner as I stand in front of the frig/freezer.
The tough one besides meals is snacks. Unless you are growing, you don’t need snacks. But, sometimes your meal timing is off or you just need a little something extra. Do not eat crap. Have a hard cooked egg, some nuts, some cut up veggies, a piece of fruit. Chips are not a snack.
Another one that is tough in my home is drinks. The rule in my house is soda is only to be used as a mixer with alcohol. Too young to drink alcohol? Yeah, too young for soda. Growing bodies do not need that sugar nor those chemicals. So, we drink water. Lots of water. I buy good water. I also keep different waters on hand. Sweet spring water. Mineral water for after working out. Fruit juice is allowed to be used in water. It is NOT a beverage. Milk is allowed whenever growing bodies want it. It is full fat and raw when I can get raw milk. The grown ups in my home drink iced tea. For the guy who insists it be sweetened, he uses local, raw, unfiltered honey.
Eating clean is not a diet. Yeah, you might lose weight; you might not. You will definitely feel better. You will sleep better. You will also be able to figure out if you eat too much (then eat less) or eat too little (eat more). When I cleaned up my diet, I figured out I did not eat enough. This made no sense to me as I was chubby. But, I have learned that “fat-free” way of life had me so worried about calories that I would starve and then indulge.
Put down those pizza bites and go grill a steak, Mom