Clean eating seems to be a trend right now, and it’s something I’m trying to be better at, so I thought I’d talk about it here. About two years ago I went on one of those calorie counting diets as a way to lose weight. I lost six or seven pounds in the first two weeks, then plateaued the next two. I couldn’t figure out how this drastic change wasn’t helping me lose weight! Then I watched this little video about how everything that is “low-fat,” “sugar-free,” “low calorie,” etc is full of additives that replace those natural sugars/things that taste good. Obviously this is stuff I already knew, but they way they explained it to me really made things click. Your body trying to break down those things is like when you have to work too jobs: if you are overworked by the first one you can’t function properly for the second. It takes so much work breaking those additives down that your body can’t break down natural fats/sugars/calories. This is when I decided to stop dieting and start eating healthy. For a couple months I literally checked every label when I went grocery shopping, which seemed to seriously piss off my best friend and roommate at the time (she hates grocery shopping to begin with).
So for those of you who already knew all of those things, sorry to bore you by telling my own discovery. That wasn’t the original plan for this blog. What I wanted to talk about was ways in which you can try to eat “cleaner.” There are a lot of copy-cat and from scratch recipes out there, but it can be hard to find time for those types of things when busy with class and work. I think one of my favorites is a recipe for homemade taco seasoning. I’m not sure what all is in the Taco Bell brand one at the store, but I have a feeling most of it isn’t good. Here is a link to the one I used tonight:
http://www.5dollardinners.com/homemade-taco-seasoning/
I think the best thing about this is that it takes absolutely no time to make. I browned the meat (I use ground turkey) and added the seasoning. It literally took less than ten minutes, and I have tons of extra taco meat left over. Organic corn tortillas contributed to the “clean eating” factors. The ground turkey and shredded cheese weren’t organic, but they were as natural as I could get. Not to mention I don’t want to shock my body by going completely organic. I’m not sure if it’s actually bad for you, but I have heard that it’s better to ease yourself into it.
As far as budget goes, it is technically cheaper to just buy the spices instead of packets of taco seasoning. It feels more expensive the first time you buy them all if you don’t have spices like cumin or chili powder, but those bottles last forever. Depending on how much you like tacos you could potentially save a lot of money.
Anyway, not a particularly insightful blog tonight, but I want to make sure I post more frequently, and this is what was on my mind tonight. I’ll try to come up with something more exciting for the next one.
Getting Fit in Grad School 