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Say Good-Bye to Counting Calories

Clean eating is not a restrictive diet, so there is no need to count
calories. It just makes sense that, since you’re not eating the empty
calories that processed foods deliver, you’ll be consuming the
proper amount of calories that whole foods inherently ofer. An
added bonus is that most clean foods simply aren’t high in calories.
Even the ones that are slightly higher in calories—such as avocados
and olive oil—contain “good” fat, so there is a benefit they confer.
When you start looking at the recipes in this book, you’ll notice
that they include nutritional information, including calorie counts.
If you’re used to counting calories, it might be comforting to have
this information, at least in the beginning, to be able to compare
what you get from clean foods versus diets you’ve tried previously.
As you start to feel better and better as a clean eater, the compulsion
to count calories will correspondingly decrease.
Clean eaters don’t have a free pass, however, to eat as much as
they’d like. Keeping portions appropriately sized is important. Each
day, you should eat roughly six to ten servings of complex carbohy-
drates, five to six servings of lean protein, and two to three servings
of heart-healthy fats. But what exactly is a “serving”?
1
ƒ ƒ1 serving of whole grains = your cupped palm ( ⁄ 2 cup)
ƒ ƒ1 serving of vegetables = your fist or both palms cupped together
(1 cup)
ƒ ƒ1 serving of lean protein = the flat palm of your hand (3 ounces)
ƒ ƒ1 serving of fat = the top half of your thumb (1 teaspoon)
ƒ ƒ1 serving of cheese = your thumb (1 ounce)
1
1
ƒ ƒ1 serving of nuts or seeds = ⁄ 2 of your cupped palm (% ⁄ 4 cup)
By eating the right foods in proper portions, your metabolism
will keep going and you won’t consume more than you should.
Remember to eat slowly, to savor every bite, and to eat until you’re
satisfied instead of eating until you’re “full.”

Cleaning Up Your Diet 23