I was speaking at the 8th Annual Women’s Health Conference sponsored by the Women and Family Life Center(WFLC) in Guilford, Ct. This awesome nonprofit provides amazing programming for women and families including this annual event.  We had a great time on Sunday morning as I presented my favorite topic, “5 Simple Steps to Eat Clean and Lose Weight Without Going on a Diet.”

The great news is that I not only had a chance to present at the conference and go to other sessions, but it was a fun weekend away with my mom. We enjoyed some “girl time”, saw old friends on Saturday night for dinner, and really relaxed. 

But being away for the weekend can also present clean eating challenges for me when I return home if I don’t have a plan.  For me, nothing is more anxiety producing than enjoying a weekend away only to come home and have no plan for what we’ll be eating during the week or have made a prior plan to get to the store and pick up some clean eating foods.

This past week, however, anticipating my busy weekend schedule, I planned ahead to ensure that this week would be full of clean eating foods without the anxiety of trying to play catch up.  Here’s what I did last week to make this week a breeze:

• Last Friday morning I planned out this week’s meals. It didn’t take long, but having that vision made all the difference in knowing what we’d be eating
• I changed my schedule around to make sure I could get to the store on Friday and get the ingredients I needed. In my case this included going to two different stores – the health food store and the big grocery store.
• Friday night I made a pot of my favorite stew — quinoa southwestern stew — it’s quick, easy and delicious and this week we’re eating it for lunch for the first few days
• Saturday morning I roasted sweet potatoes that we had with Sunday night dinner
• Sunday afternoon as I was driving back from the conference, Bruce was roasting a chicken that we had for dinner. When I got home I simply finished the sweet potatoes and roasted some Brussels sprouts. We had a healthy and delicious dinner that we also enjoyed last night
• I got the ingredients to make a simple stir fry that we’re having tonight and can finish tomorrow for dinner.  Throw on a pot of brown rice and we’ll be good to go.
• I’m also anticipating making one of my favorite soups that has kidney beans, kasha (a whole grain) and kale.  I’ll cook the  kasha tonight and then make the soup in about 30 minutes tomorrow night. This will provide a healthy lunch for us the rest of the week along with a salad.

For me, the combination of clean eating food and meal planning can’t be beat. When I have a vision for the week and know how good I feel when I’m following the clean eating lifestyle (like no PMS symptoms!), I happily make the time and find a way to plan, shop and prep.  My simple efforts last week are already paying off in feeling less anxiety, feeling energized by healthy food and still having plenty of time for exercise.  Now that’s the way to create a clean eating lifestyle even when you’re traveling and gone for the weekend.

What do you do to ensure you have a plan for clean eating meals when you arrive home from a weekend away? What are you favorite tips to keep your sights on clean eating after you’re back?

This week, yours truly, The Clean Eating Coach, is on clean eating fire, having planned, shopped, prepped and cooked my way to delicious healthy food that my husband and I can enjoy all week.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to think that every week is perfect and I always have my ducks in a row. Far from it in fact.

This past weekend I was wrapped up with my niece visiting, and doing a photo and video shoot for my new clean eating website.  In between leaving the studio and going to see “Annie” with my niece and mom, I squeezed in some quality time at Whole Foods, both eating lunch and doing some shopping.  I honestly hadn’t had sufficient time to plan out the meals, so I brought my meal planning gear (planning forms, recipes and cookbooks) with me and literally hatched my clean eating meal plan while eating lunch in Whole Foods.  Then I quickly navigated the aisles getting the items I needed.

Here’s a look at what I’ve whipped up so far and plan to eat the rest of the week:

• Asian style salmon baked in parchment paper. This is one of my favorites. We had this for dinner on Sunday night and it was delicious.  Watch the video I created to see how easy it is.  I substituted the salmon for flounder. It works well with most fish.
• Steamed broccoli with a touch of toasted sesame oil, kosher salt and pepper. I bought some beautiful broccoli and made enough for leftovers on Monday night.
• Quinoa tabouli. I love this side dish, so super easy and delicious, and quinoa is a whole grain high in protein.  Check out the recipe and video. We’ll be enjoying this for the next several days.
• White bean and kale soup. I’m a big fan of eating soup for lunch, especially during cooler months.  This soup is so easy and delicious and you can whip it up in no time. Plus, getting more greens in is simple when you put them in soup.
• Turkey meatloaf w/kale and spinach.  I love the clean eating recipe I found in Tosca Rena’s Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook.  It’s super simple and delicious. I made it on Sunday even though we didn’t have it until dinner on Monday. We’ll be enjoying this for the next several days so there will be minimal cooking, allowing time to get our workouts in at the gym.
• Roasted asparagus w/shallots and lemon zest.  I love asparagus and it’s so easy to roast.  A bunch will last us a couple of meals.  I’ll be whipping that up tonight.
• A stir fry is in the plans for Thursday night.  I’ll thaw out a couple of chicken breasts on Wednesday and prep the veggies so cooking will be simple and quick on Thursday.  I’m sure there will be enough for either lunch or dinner on Friday.

I will tell you that I did spend quite some time in the kitchen on Sunday afternoon prepping and cooking, so unfortunately, it didn’t magically appear already made, but the effort was worth it.  We now have delicious, healthy food that’s supporting our health.

What clean eating meals are on your menu for this week? What are you inspired to make? Do tell!

And yes, we’ve all been there before, myself included.  I can’t even count how many times I said, “but this time things will really be different,” only to retreat to my old, admittedly comfortable ways.

Creating a clean eating lifestyle, however, is something that we all endeavor to do for good, not just for a month.  And that takes a different set of skills to make happen consistently.  First and foremost it’s about shifting your mindset and determining that keeping yourself healthy, preventing disease and/or losing weight can be fun and is meaningful in your life.

Yep, I said it, FUN.  Doesn’t whipping up delicious, healthy meals that are totally appealing sound good?  Eating clean and feeling your best is only drudgery if you decide it is.  This is really about your mindset and the choices you make about your health.

For me, finding my clean eating groove meant thinking differently about the experience of being in the kitchen and preparing meals.  Instead of, “I have a ton of other things to do and I can’t wait to get out of here,” I began to see the possibility to relax and enjoy myself instead of rushing through on my way to completing a mile long list of tasks.  Needless to say, this was no easy task, and has evolved over time.

I like to do lots of prep and cooking on Sundays and I’ve created it into a meditative experience.  Sometimes I quietly chop and slice, enjoying the silence of being in the kitchen by myself, getting in touch with body and letting my mind rest.  Other times I put on one of my favorite jazz musicians like Pat Metheny or Joshua Redman and soak up the music as I work.  And for those days when I need a boost of energy, it may be the Black Eyed Peas or my favorite old schools jams from the 80s that get me dancing around the kitchen, totally in that joyous moment.

Truth be told, what I’m doing is hardly rocket science, I’m simply taking easy steps to make clean eating fun. When I’m relaxed, not racing against the clock and am feeling inspired in the kitchen, I have so much more fun and tune into the joy of creating healthy and delicious meals.  Not to mention that I swear the food tastes even better when I’ve got positive energy flowing through it.  Even better, I have the chance to reflect on the bigger reasons I’m doing this and how it’s supporting my long term health, not just in the moment for the day or week.

What do you need to do to find your own kitchen groove? What will help you get you inspired to keep coming back to the kitchen to create clean eating meals?

Take it from me, Wendy Battles, the Clean Eating Coach, if I can find my kitchen groove and feel inspired to make clean eating meals, I know you can too!

What did I love most? Simply put, the simplicity of the food and its preparation. Clean eating is all about taking fresh, whole foods, adding minimal ingredients, and creating something healthy and delicious.  And my gosh, that food was awesome.

I loved that I had a plan that was easy to follow.  Meal planning and creating a vision makes all the difference in the finished product.  By getting clear early on about what I was making, there were no last minute emergencies.

I loved that nothing was elaborate. I made fresh, healthy and delicious cranberry sauce in 15 minutes. I loved that my healthy dessert, spiced pumpkin mousse, took all of about 15 minutes to make as well (and man is it tasty, yum!). 

It felt easy, it felt doable and there wasn’t even a hint of feeling overwhelmed by all the tasks.  In fact, I was in a clean eating cooking groove, thoroughly enjoying the process of being in the kitchen and feeling inspired by listening to my favorite music (Pat Metheny).

I will say that part of the reason that it felt doable is that I happily followed the advice of Clean Eating Magazine in planning the meal out in advance.  I read through the suggestions of making things 1, 2 or even 3 days in advance.  Frankly, the days in advance thing didn’t happen, despite my best intentions, given some other priorities, but I did shop early (for me that was Sunday, a vast improvement over the day before Thanksgiving).  I started cooking on Wednesday afternoon, but after a solid 3 hours under my belt, I declared myself in excellent shape — cranberry sauce and pumpkin mousse made, sweet potatoes prepared and ready for roasting the next day and the green beans prepared through the first step — blanching.  We roasted our locally grown turkey in our rotisserie which made that part of the meal super easy.

I seriously don’t remember preparing a Thanksgiving dinner that seemed so fun and full of joy.  Part of it was definitely the anticipation of having friends and family join us and partake in the bounty of healthy food.  The fact that Bruce and I were debuting our new dining room table that has a much larger capacity added to the fun too — I loved creating a beautiful and seasonal centerpiece that created a lovely ambiance (see above).

You know what else? I was so organized that I even had a timetable of what needed to get done on Thursday which made for a relaxing day. No rushing around, just happily getting busy in the kitchen with some simple tasks.  We even had time for a visit with our friend Marjorie (pictured here), in the hospital before everyone started to arrive.

Clean, healthy Thanksgiving meal + family and close friends + tranquil and relaxed atmosphere =a day of joy and numerous reasons to be thankful.

What about you? How was your Thanksgiving? What clean eating dishes did you prepare? What was the highlight for you?

One of my favorite things to make is turkey chili. I love it because it’s so easy yet flavorful. I’ve been making the recipe here for several years and I still love it.  I think the red wine gives it a fantastic flavor.  Since my husband Bruce isn’t big on spicy foods, I tend to use a less spice than I would if just making it for myself. Either way, it’s delicious and all about clean eating with fresh ingredients and no processed foods.  Think low fat, high fiber and flavorful!

Southwestern Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped green pepper
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained (I loved Eden Organic brand, no-salt added variety)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes)
1 cup red wine
3 cups cooked turkey, diced
1 tbsp. chili powder
2 tbsp. fresh cilantro, minced
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan or soup pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Saute pepper, onion and garlic for about 5 minutes.

2. Add beans, tomatoes, wine, turkey, chili powder, cilantro, crushed red pepper and salt.

3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.

This recipe is so quick and as you can see, you can whip it up in no time! A simple way to practice clean eating, use up some of your leftovers and create a new dish with interesting flavors that family and friends can enjoy over the weekend.

What’s your favorite way to use up Thanksgiving leftovers? What exciting dishes do you have up your sleeve that you’re just itching to make?

I already have planned out a super simple turkey soup and I’m also making a delicious, super easy turkey chili that only requires a few ingredients. When I went to the store on Sunday, I picked up the things I’ll need to make my post-holiday dishes that are all focused on clean eating.

In fact, there are several compelling reasons to plan ahead for post-Thanksgiving treats.  Here are just a few:

1. When I have the ingredients already on hand, it makes meal preparation so much easier
2. It ensures I actually use the leftovers for other dishes and don’t waste any food
3. It gives turkey a fresh spin. There are only so many days I can eat leftover turkey in its original form.  Creating something new makes it so much more interesting
4. Planning ahead relieves the pressure of having to go out on Black Friday.  I’m usually content to stay home and avoid the crowds and when I have what I need, the pressure isn’t on to be out and about.
5. I have clean and healthy food for the next several days.  The great thing about cooking for Thanksgiving is that you have a bounty of food from which to make healthy leftovers that usually involve minimal steps. In about 30 minutes I can whip up a simple dish.
6. You save lots of money! Who needs to be eating out after you’ve just cooked up a storm? Plan a few meals with leftovers BEFORE Thanksgiving and your bank account will be thanking you for the money saved
7. It’s a great reason to invite friends and family over. Have a games night or watch some sports and have your friends help eat up the leftovers (so they don’t all end up on your waistline).

Most importantly, however, creating a day after Thanksgiving plan ensures that you will continue on the clean eating path. Ever have one of these holidays where you start overeating and indulging in almost everything in sight and next thing you know your pants are a bit tight and you can’t seem to help yourself? I sure have been there in years past but not anymore. But with an intention of creating a clean eating Thanksgiving meal, the leftovers are simply an extention of that initial effort.

To me, the beauty of the holidays is in spending time with family and friends. While food is a part of that equation, I never like it to supercede the powerful connections and fun with the people who are important in my life.  I love the idea of making some clean eating, post-holiday dishes that I can share with others.

What’s in your post-Thanksgiving meal plan? What can you plan ahead for now? Who will you invite over to help share in the bounty? What will you do to practice clean eating once the holiday is over? Do tell!

So I decided to give the online shopping list a try. As you know, I’m a big fan of shopping early for Thanksgiving dinner to beat the crowds. And today, I put that plan into action, knocking out my shopping without all the crowds, going both to the health food store as well as the big box grocery store.

In addition to the turkey, we’re making several dishes that don’t require a huge amount of effort. Several of them are things you can do in advance and part of my plan is to work on creating things tomorrow,  Tuesday and Wednesday.  I got my inspiration this year from the November/December Clean Eating magazine that had a scrumptious looking menu.  To keep it simple, other than the stuffing which my mom is making, I’m creating the entire menu — sweet potatoes, green beans, turkey and spiced pumpkin mousse. As you can imagine, all the recipes have a clean eating spin so they’re low in fat, use the highest quality ingredients and only use natural sweeteners like pure maple syrup.

Building the shopping list was easy.  Although the Thanksgiving recipes from Clean Eating aren’t available online to put into Springpad, I simply built my list from the recipes in the magazine and added them to my online shopping list. Easy! And you know what else, I don’t have to worry about not being able to read my writing, which sometimes happens.

Since I often like to write notes on my list, I printed it out and brought it with me instead of looking it up on my Blackberry (when I tried to access the site, it didn’t work anyway).  But simply having it with me to use was fabulous. And because it was comprehensive and included a fair amount of forethought, I didn’t have lots of items I added on at the last minute.  I generally buy exactly what I’ve put on the list and only that, and this was no different.

All in all, I have to say it was a helpful tool in making my Thanksgiving shopping a smooth process. That combined with shopping early, makes this Thanksgiving seem so much less stressful than in past years.

What do you do to minimize your time in the grocery store in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner. What tools help make shopping easier?

Ever notice that it’s so easy to overeat during this time of year when there’s a  bounty of food in front of us? I sure have been guilty of that in the past, but with a little pacing and some clean eating cooking tips and ideas, any of us can turn out a delicious meal that doesn’t have to pack on the pounds.

During the radio show, yours truly, the Clean Eating Coach, will be sharing tips on healthier versions of traditional Thanksgiving meals, the importance of clean eating, the best cooking techniques to reduce risk of weight gain, and suggestions on creating healthy leftovers after Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s going to be great fun and you can even call in live and ask questions! Join us and get your Thanksgiving, healthy meal plan in gear, before it’s too late.

You can check out more details here about Feel and Look Fabulous with Irina including the call in number for the show:  http://budurl.com/kdac

In fact, there’s a way to plan a beautiful and delicious Thanksgiving meal that’s all about high quality ingredients and manageable portion sizes that won’t have you struggling to button your pants!

With an idea to keeping our Thanksgiving dinner all about clean eating, I’ve already mapped things out.  For inspiration, I’ve turned to the November/December issue of Clean Eating Magazine, my mini-bible. They have the most sumptuous menu planned but with healthier versions of some of your favorite meals:

• coconut cardamom sweet potatoes instead of sweet potatoes covered in marshmallows
• Spiced pumpkin mousse instead of calorie and sugar-rich pumpkin pie
• garlicky Green beans with roasted chestnuts instead of green beans cooked with ham
• Mushroom and leek stuffing with whole grain bread instead of white

This is just a sampling of a few clean dishes that you can create. I encourage you to pick up the most recent issue to get the full scoop.  They even include ideas to help you plan in advance and figure out what dishes can be prepped before Thanksgiving arrives.

And there are lots of other great resources to create a healthy Thanksgiving meal using clean foods. I’m also a big fan of realsimple.com and they’ve got loads of ideas for a healthy Thanksgiving meal. To me, the focus should be on planning ahead.  It’s hard to keep things healthy if you’re only starting to make your list the day before.  If you get in gear now, you’ll avoid big crowds at the store, can determine what things you can prep in advance and you’ll save money too — no last minute purchases!

What’s your plan to create a clean eating, healthy Thanksgiving meal? How are you pre-planning to avoid last minute stress? What will you do to avoid holiday weight gain?

Speaking of avoiding holiday weight gain, be sure to join me on Tuesday, November 17 at 8 pm ET for my free call, Clean Eating During the Holidays: Outwit Holiday Overeating. Click here to sign up! http://bit.ly/109omL

Clean eating inspiration for fall starts with a quick spin around your local farmers’ market where you can see plentiful amounts of beautiful winter squash – butternut, acorn and pumpkin. Not to mention potatoes and sweet potatoes and lots of greens. For me, it’s the perfect opportunity to turn my sights and creative energy to making healthy fall creations.

The key here to is eat what’s in season, focus on clean eating that shuns processed foods full of sugar, salt and fat and to have some fun with it.  A little meal planning on a Saturday morning can yield a week’s worth of healthy, seasonal clean eating meals that won’t have to keep you in the kitchen for hours. Just today, I’ve cooked up a healthy soup with collard greens, beans and sweet potatoes, fresh tuna burgers and some delicious Jamaican style oatmeal.  All clean meals full of nutrients and flavor.

How are you doing with creating clean eating, seasonal meal plans that maximize nutrition and flavor? If you’re stumped for how to keep it simple, you have to join me, The Clean Eating Coach, for my upcoming teleclass on Wednesday, October 21, Fabulous Fall Seasonal Eating & Meal Planning. I’ll be sharing all my secrets and strategies for creating healthy, fall meals and why eating seasonally is so important. And I’ll be sharing a host of simple, quick and healthy recipes that won’t have you in the kitchen for hours or break the bank. 

Come on over and join in the fun! You can check out all the details here including a short video to learn more.  The cost is only $19 and you’ll leave with motivation and inspiration to get into action.  Learn more here: http://budurl.com/falleating.