5 Healthy Meal Swaps To Eat Cleaner Everyday

Every once in awhile, our body and our overworked organs need a little something to take the pressure off them. Clean eating comes easily only to a few people especially when you have hectic schedules and long working hours. A lot of us plan to start dieting “tomorrow” , the rest of us do plunge in to eat clean but fall back into our lackadaisical meal plans in like, three days.

Understandably, you can’t eat salad for the rest of your lives for every meal. But our bodies need only a little tweaking, a slight change here and there, to function better in the long run. It starts with swapping ingredients, meal choices or even portion sizes for that matter – making the right choice with every meal can make a HUGE difference to your health and your skin. How about starting today ?

Swap – Regular vegetable oil for olive oil : 

Everybody knows that olive oil is wonderful for the skin and body, it’s also great for your heart and is rich in Omega -3 ! Olive oil comes in variants like Extra-virgin, pomace and the like. The purest and cold-pressed version ie. extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO from now) is not recommended to be used as a cooking oil but you can use it generously in your salads and dips or as a dressing.

The other grades of olive oil can be used for cooking and frying, they also add excellent flavor, ask the italians if in doubt !

Swap – Three meals a day for five smaller meals a day :

A fast metabolism is a pretty good indicator that your gut is working well; eating smaller portions many times a day not only satisfies the hunger pangs and lets you eat lesser without er.. hogging , it also speeds up your metabolic rate helping you digest faster and burn more calories as well. This is great if you’re looking to knock off some extra pounds!

Swap – Refined foods for whole grains :

This one is the most important but pretty easy once you get into the flow of it. Switch your usual rice with brown rice, swap white bread with brown bread, pasta with whole wheat pasta and the like. Carbs are important for you, just ensure that you’re eating more of complex carbs than simple carbs.

Swap – Red Meat/ Lamb Meat for Fish and Lean Chicken :

Lamb meat and red meat are absolutely delicious 🙂 They’re also incredibly fatty (I’m thinking artery-clogging material here folks) so you should really cut down on this unless you work up quite a sweat, enough to burn all that trans-fat off!

For the rest of my fellow lazies, fish and chicken are your best friends. They taste delicious, cook faster and are light on the arteries and the pocket (see what I did there ? 😛 )

Swap – Fried snacks with fresh seasonal fruit :

Yes, this doesn’t sound easy but once you get the hang of snacking on fresh fruit, there really is no going back :

1. Your skin starts to GLOW like never before
2. You actually feel more active and less guilty

I know it’s hard to swap those cheese fries for boring fruit but then again, this is all about choices and moderation.

You can still eat a good biryani once a week or have your Saturday night burger and fries so long as you’re switching to healthier alternatives the rest of the week. All of us need time out and that’s why we have weekends, it’s pretty much the same for our bodies – give your guts, liver and kidneys a cleanse for a change by eating healthier.

As the years go on, I’ve learnt that there’s no excuse for being unhealthy and no alternative to good health. When you invest in your body, it will always have your back. Make good choices and switch to healthier eating options, your body will thank you for it in the long run.