My first resolution for 2014 was “clean” – and that refers to everything.  One of the biggest things I wanted to clean up was our eating habits.

About 2 years ago, we stopped eating meat.  It was part of my 30 before 30 list to go vegetarian for 30 days.  Turns out, I didn’t miss meat at all and my body just felt better.  Over time, we worked fish back into our diets mostly because it made life a little easier at restaurants – we don’t ever eat it at home.  You can read more about it here.

The biggest problem left with eating was processed foods.  There are a million studies in the world that tell you a million different things, but with common sense, I have figured out that if you don’t know what the ingredients are – it’s probably not your best option.  But saying you’ll cut out processed foods is not as easy as it sounds.

read article about most unhealthy processed foods

We still eat processed food often, but we’ve definitely cut back on the amount of things entering our bodies that we don’t understand.  We will continue to make little changes and keep improving.  Here are some tips I’ll give you from what I’ve learned in our last three months:

1.  Research is your friend and sometimes your enemy.  I say enemy because sometimes you don’t want to know.  We have watched almost every documentary on food that is available on Netflix and Forks Over Knives is still definitely our favorite.  Learn about farming and where your food is coming from.

2.  Try something new and change things up a little bit.  Try Meatless Mondays or take a week off from meat.  Check into the Whole 30 that Kym @ Travel Babbles is doing.  I totally get that some people can’t make total lifestyle changes.  I can only speak for my experience, but I can safely say that “trying out vegetarianism” was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, but there are so many options out there to help you get introduced to new foods that are super good for you.
3.  Invest in a juicer.  I know they are a bit spendy, but we have definitely gotten our money’s worth out of ours in the last 3 months.  This is such a good way to take in fruits & vegetables especially if you like a smoothie for breakfast.  I am currently drinking my favorite juice which is 4 carrots, 1 apple, 1 orange and 1 inch of ginger.  Let me know if you’re looking for more juice recipes, we have a couple that are super tasty.
4.  Meal plan.  I always saw other people talk about planning their meals and I was jealous that they had the time and organization to do that.  Finally about 3 weeks ago, I sat down to make a plan.  I was such an idiot for not doing it sooner.  Not only did it take only a few minutes, I spent WAY less money at the grocery store, tried 3 new recipes and saved tons of time by prepping things on Sunday. Say goodbye to takeout 3 nights a week because everything was easy after work.  The queen of meal planning is Steph @ Life According to Steph and she has tons of awesome recipes.
We definitely have ice cream in our freezer along with a few Morningstar breakfast sandwiches for the mornings that we oversleep.  We have a candy stash and everything in it is filled with high fructose corn syrup.  There are a lot of mornings that I use the coffee creamer that pretty much is made of plastic.  We are on a first name basis with our pizza delivery guy still (and will always be.)  We will try just about any meat free food up and down the east coast and there’s no stopping me with donuts.
BUT, I am proud of the changes we’ve made and I know that we are healthier and feel better because of them.  We have cut a ton of crap out of our diets.  We love so many foods that we didn’t even know existed – most of them are new fruits & vegetables.  
What are your thoughts?  What changes have you made to your diet?