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There is one thing I have learned about having treats in the kitchen: if they are there, then I will eat them! I know my tendencies; when I get stressed, tired, bored, or upset, I turn to foods that hinder my weight loss efforts in order to cope.

As a result of identifying these tendencies, I have learned to trick myself by following one simple rule: If it isn’t in my kitchen, then I can’t eat it….and most of the time I will not make a trip to the grocery store just to satisfy my need to binge.

Our goal this week is to get rid of as many low-quality foods as possible. I try my best to rely the most on foods that perish within one week. This way, when I feel the need to binge, I am stuck with the options of poultry, eggs, veggies, and fruits. I usually get bored of eating these foods and just go to bed. When I do binge-out on them before bed, I rarely feel bloated or guilty the next day.

Get your trash bags ready and begin your spring cleaning by follow these simple tips:

1) Limit your surplus of canned foods to no more than 10 cans.

These items are packed full of preservatives and most items can be purchased fresh. Canned soups contain more sodium than you need in an entire week and consumption most often results in bloating and excess water storage.

Recommendations:

Replace canned veggies with fresh ones and learn to prepare your own beans
Tomato sauces are easy to make from scratch using fresh tomatoes and herbs
2) Limit your surplus of salad dressings to 1 bottle and make sure it is low-fat or fat-free.

Recommendation:

Make your own dressings whenever possible using simple online recipes
3) Ditch the “packaged” snacks.

Granola bars, microwavable popcorn, and fruit roll-ups are not going to help you lose weight.

Recommendations:

load your pantry with a variety of unsalted nuts, low-sodium jerky, protein powders, oats, rice, and quinoa.
Load your fridge with plain low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese and yogurt (Greek is best)
Load your fridge with fresh veggies that taste good raw or cooked: broccoli, zucchini, Brussels, eggplant, asparagus, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc
Purchase one or two low-fat dips for your veggies to make snacking easier. I love dipping raw veggies in hummus or Trader Joe’s Guilt-Free Spinach and Kale Greek Yogurt Dip!
4) Check the ingredients of packaged foods and toss anything containing trans-fats or artificial sugars.

Recommendations:

Replace sweet foods with fresh fruits (I suggest buying 2 servings of fruit for each day of the week)
use Truvia instead of sugar or fake sweeteners for coffee and tea
5) Throw out any microwavable foods from your freezer.

Recommendations:

Try to limit freezer items to meats and frozen fruits
Don’t be afraid to cook something fresh!
Stay fit, stay healthy, stay happy, and stay LEAN!

XOXO

Lauren