Interview with Tosca Reno

My apologies for the lack of posting this month! It's National Novel Writers Month and I've been trying to finish a book I started three years ago so all my writing time and writing energy has been poured into that.

I'll get back to regular blogging here in a few days (and I've got some great recipes coming to the blog!) but, until then, I wanted to share with you an interview I just came upon with my she-has-no-idea-who-I-am-but-I-call-her-this-anyway clean-eating mentor, Tosca Reno. 

The interview is from 2007, and while the best source of the latest info is in her latest book "The Eat Clean Diet Recharged!", this interview covers all the basics of eating clean and will probably answer most, if not all, of your initial questions about what it means to eat clean!

Enjoy!

http://www.thedietchannel.com/interview-tosca-reno

Break the Fast!

Sound like something you've heard before? No? Come on. Say it again. Out loud. Ready?

Break the Fast!  

Ok, a little faster. BreakTheFast! 

One more time, really fast, and take out the THE. Get it now?

BREAKFAST!

Breakfast comes after a full night of (hopefully) deep sleeping, which means you haven't fueled your body with anything in seven or eight hours. Therefore, when you get up, it's time to Break the Fast!

I hate breakfast. Correction....I hate having to decide what to have for breakfast every morning. And then taking time to actually make it and eat it. Take me out for breakfast and have someone else cook it for me and I'm golden (and usually undoing a notch or two on my belt!) I guess I just hate making the effort myself...which is odd because I love cooking and baking in general. I think it comes down to the fact that my brain isn't ready to make any decisions when I get up in the morning and so I used to always just wait for lunch. (Did you notice the keyword there? USED to?)

Are you tired? Can't focus? Feeling irritable? Craving sugar by 10am? Gorging yourself on an unhealthy lunch? You probably didn't eat breakfast this morning, did you? (Ask me how I know this about you!)

So here's the boring knowledge part:

In reality, eating a healthy breakfast gets your brain and body working after a full night of rest and repair. What you eat for breakfast sets the tone of the rest of your day. When you start your day off satisfied with a tummy full of nutrition, your body doesn't need to crave anything because you've fed it well. "The choice we make to eat breakfast or not has implications for our families and for ourselves throughout the day." - Tosca Reno

BUT, being the busy moms (and dads), wives (and husbands), employees, friends, leaders, teachers we are, breakfast is too much work! I hear you! No, really, I hear you saying this loud and clear. I'm just like you! Too lazy to make something worthwhile, I would just shrug my shoulders and skip it alogether! 

But, let me ask you this....If your life depended on taking a pill every day...if you were going to die if you didn't take this pill every single morning...would you make excuses, shrug your shoulders, and not take it? Or would you find a way to work taking that pill into your daily routine no matter what the consequences?

Well, guess what? Your life depends on breakfast in the same way. A little bit of our bodies and brains die each day we don't eat a healthy, nutritious, breakfast. Because when we don't fill it up with the protein and good carbs it needs, it goes elsewhere to find it! That growling your tummy is doing when you skip breakfast? It's your stomach filling with acids and gastric juices in anticipation of nutrients....but then the nutrients don't come....and so the stomach has nothing to use those juices on...except the stomach it's encased in...and it slowly destroys itself.

Motivated yet?

Now, here's the helpful practical piece:

The Clean Eating Principle, in a nutshell, is to always pair a lean protein with a complex carbohydrate. (I've got a whole post in the works about these principles, so bear with me for this post.) By far, the healthiest breakfast option is oatmeal. And I'm not talking the apples and cream packaged variety! Whole rolled oats is the ONLY oatmeal that counts. One cup packs a whopping 8g of fiber (a full third of the amount of fiber you should get each day!) Top it with some ground flaxseed and some fresh berries for an extra boost of some good carbs and then throw in a side of egg whites for your protein and...VOILA! Your body won't know what to do with itself it will be so amazed!

Here are just a few tips to make sure you stay consistent with breaking the fast...every day!

1. Keep a supply of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. 3-4 egg whites plus one yolk will round out any breakfast's protein requirement! Keeping a good supply of raw eggs as well for those times when you're in the mood for some scrambled egg white goodness. 
2. Once per week, make a large batch of clean-eating granola bars (recipe forthcoming) for a good combo of lean protein and complex carbs for those days when you are on the go!
3. Discover Ezekiel bread! You can find it in the freezer section and though it's a good bit more expensive than regular bread (there's a post coming about that, too!) It's worth the time and money it would take to make your own clean-eating bread so to me it's totally worth every penny. It's also gluten free, which is great news for gluten-sensitive clean-eaters!
4. Mix some muesli or granola into your favorite Greek yogurt and you've got another quick breakfast idea with your protein and complex carb in one (Yoplait and Dannon - among countless others -  are NOT acceptable yogurts for clean-eaters, by the way.)

As with all my posts, a lot of what I'm sharing comes from what I've learned by educating myself about clean eating. By far, the biggest resource for me has been The Eat Clean Diet. Recharged! by Tosca Reno (my clean-eating heroine.) She has a whole chapter dedicated to breaking the fast and the importance of breakfast. If you have questions, I'm happy to try to answer them. But if a new breakfast routine (or clean-eating in general) is of interest to you, I highly recommend getting this book!

So...off you go! Make a habit of breaking the fast wisely, every day, and be amazed at what happens!

A Formula For Health

Nutrition is far more responsible for what you see in the mirror than you think. For the person who hates to exercise (like me), this is great news! It means you can greatly change your appearance without getting up at 5am every day to work out. Yahoo!!!


According to The Eat-Clean Diet, Recharged! by Tosca Reno, the Body Beautiful/Body Healthy Formula is as follows:


10% Genetics + 10% Training + 80% Nutrition = Body Beautiful/Body Healthy!


Yep, you read that right. 80% Nutrition!


This was a HUGE eye-opener for me. It meant that by just changing the way I eat and the things I eat, I could change 80% of what I saw in the mirror. And, here's the good news. YOU CAN TOO! Realizing this, and making changes as a result, is the FIRST STEP in eating better...healthier...CLEANER!


Now, this doesn't mean you shouldn't get some sort of exercise a few times a week. Exercise plays a huge role in our overall health, and reduces your risk of disease and injury. Plus, muscles burn fat. So the more exercise you work into your life, the more muscles you create and the more fat you will get rid of! So get off the couch and do something! The key for me is making it fun. Family bike rides, power walks with a friend, or laps in a pool with my daughter cheering me on are definitely motivators for me. Plus, if I have a goal (like a triathlon I've already paid for!) I know I HAVE to do some training so I don't come in last or pass out trying. So find what works for you and get moving!

How I found Clean Eating.

I. Love. Food.


Most people do. But I really do. My mom swears my first word was "fwies?" I grew up in Upstate NY in the 70s where Carrols was THE place for french fries. Every time we would drive past a Carrols it was the same. "Fwies? Fwies mommy?"


But, if you asked my grandmother what my favorite food was growing up, her answer might surprise you.


Vegetables.


Yep, vegetables. Green Beans, especially. I couldn't get enough green beans! Or Broccoli. Or corn. Or....wait for it....brussels sprouts!


How can a girl whose first word was the same as one of the most nutrient-void foods in existence like brussels sprouts? I told you. I love food.


So....where did that girl go? Well, I assure you, she still loves a good fry! But she's learning that anything in moderation is okay. It's ok! But it should not be the everyday. Enter...clean eating.


What got me into eating clean, you ask?


In March of this year, I did my second-ever triathlon. It was a sprint, so it was considered fairly "easy" (ok, I thought I might die halfway through.) But I had done a mini-sprint a few months before and got hooked on the sport. I love it. (Almost as much as I love brussels sprouts.) I'm the type of person who - if I'm going to exercise - I've got to have something to work for. A goal (and a training buddy) gets me motivated to get my butt off the couch and move my body. If I don't have someone waiting for me to swim, bike, or run with them, I just won't get out and do it. So I tried it and now I'm hooked.


Well, just one week after that triathlon, and the same day I reached a major milestone on the treadmill, I injured my ankle hiking in Nevada. It really put a damper on my spring (and summer!) I couldn't swim (my favorite form of exercise.) I couldn't bike (my second favorite.) And I definitely couldn't run (the thing I despise the most so I was actually ok with that.)


I couldn't even walk for two weeks. All I could do was sit. Sit and watch my waistline expand. In a matter of four months, I weighed more than I did post-pregnancy with either of my children. Time for a change!


Since I couldn't exercise, I knew I had to watch what I ate very closely. That's when I discovered Clean Eating, and the amazing truth that 80% of our body shape is nutrition. Nope. Not exercise. Nutrition! As soon as I could, I went out and got Tosca Reno's book The Eat Clean Diet, Recharged! and started my journey of eating clean.


This blog is just part of that journey. And I hope you'll join me.