VEGVACIOUS: The Low Down on Clean Eating & Some "Pinning" Love

Hi there! Happy Thursday to you! It's been a quiet week at my office because there are tons of people on summer vacation. I thought the week would drag by since so many people were out having fun, but it's actually been a quiet and productive work week. It's amazing what you can accomplish when the boss isn't around to bug ya!! :-)

I've been getting a lot of questions about clean eating and what it's all about and what you do eat vs what you don't eat, so I thought I'd talk to you a little about that and then share some awesome clean recipes that I have recently found during my escapades on Pinterest.

At first, I did a little searching around online before I answered the question "What is clean eating?" There are several different interpretations out there, so here's my simple answer:

CLEAN EATING is a lifestyle that focuses on eating whole, natural foods.

Clean eating, in my opinion, is the way to go so that you are fuelling your body with the best food and nutrition for optimal functioning. THIS IS NOT A DIET, although you will look and feel great! Basically, you want to eat foods that have been processed the least. This means you limit processed foods, foods sweetened artificially, bad fats, refined foods such as white flour, white bread or white rice and alcohol (this one is toughest for me!). When you start eating clean, you need to look at labels and become aware of ingredients --- if there are few ingredients and you know what each ingredient is (and it's a whole nutritious food), then it's probably a good choice! Organic is good too because we don't want to eat foods that have been chemically-treated. Clean eating is not just for vegetarians and vegans; if you're a meat eater, you can do this too! When it comes to animal products, I look for local stuff with labels of grass-fed, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, etc.

So....what to eat, what to eat? Once you get started, it's really not that difficult to eat clean, but it does take a little more planning because you can no longer reach for your favourite frozen convenience meal. Here are a few really great sites that I find helpful for meal inspiration:

The Eat-Clean Diet (Tosca Reno's site)

The Gracious Pantry

Oh She Glows

The Clean Eating Mama

I've also been stalking Pinterest searching out some mouth-watering clean meal ideas. Here are some of the most drool-worthy that I've found so far: