Hey Team! We don’t need to tell you that this winter has been a doozey, but hopefully by the end of this month we’ll have May flowers to look forward to. 

This month’s issue we walk to go over ways that you can “spring clean” your diet in time for summer. When the weather is cold and gray, we have a tendency to settle for meals that make us feel good, and not necessarily good for us. 

Here are 5 tips to spring clean your fridge and pantry to get ready for summer:

Donate unhealthy/non-perishable food to a food shelf.

Go through your pantry and get rid of all those chips, salt snacks, and boxed processed food out of your pantry. Donate it to a food shelf so you don’t have to totally throw it away. You don’t want to eat anything that has an expiration date of 2 years – it’s not really food if it can stay edible for that long.

Get rid of any anything that may has expired.

Sometimes we have things like ketchup and mustard that sit in the fridge for heavens knows how long. Sometimes there’s that leftover spaghetti and meatballs that ends up turning into a science project at the back of the fridge.

Clean out your freezer.

Many people are big fans of freezing a lot of things for easy meals. Now is the time to go through your freezer and get rid of any meats or boxed items that may have expired. You may think, how can frozen food go bad? Freezing food for extended periods of time (over a year) can cause freezer burn and degrade the quality of the food. If it’s expired or been in there for over a year, toss it.

Start shopping on the outside of the grocery store.

That means add more veggies and leafy greens to your diet. Make sure you have more veggies than fruit in your shopping cart. Fruit is good for you, but it still has sugar in it. Make a commitment to eating at least 1 salad a day, whether it’s for lunch or for dinner. 1 salad a day will keep the boating away!

No more boxed or frozen meals!

Stop being lazy and buying pre-packaged microwavable meals. These are highly processed, high in sodium, and just plain bad for you. Make a commitment to yourself and your family to make fresh meals with REAL ingredients. You don’t have to always buy organic, but buy food that will actually go bad. If that means going to the store twice a week so be it. Don’t have time? Make time. You should always have time when it comes to your health and well being. 

Eating well is the first step to getting in shape and staying in shape. You’ve heard us tell you before, working out a lot isn’t enough to stay fit. You have to feed your body the right nutrients to maintain your energy and muscle growth. 

Have more questions about eating well? Don’t hesitate to talk to your coach. We are here to be a resource to you whether it’s on or off the mat.