Welcome, new readers to Clean Eating Eve! Over then next week or so, I'm going to be bumping some older posts that will help you as you begin to eat a cleaner, more healthy diet. This post, from November of last year, discusses the CE direction on eating more than the 3 square meals a day. Eating snacks ( healthy ones! ) is important when eating cleanly!
Following a Clean Eating path, you are naturally cutting your caloric intake just by the guidelines you are following. Fruits, vegetables, lean meats - all are lower calorie than man made, processed foods. If you are CE for weight loss, it's a great thing. You are automatically doing the "Eat better" and "Eat less" of the old "Eat better / Eat less / Move more" weight loss adage. If you are already slim or CE for purely nutritional reasons, eating more of what is better for you becomes important as keeping weight becomes a necessity.
Regardless of your path, eating 4-6 smaller meals per day has been found to be a fundamental point for all clean eaters. It keeps your metabolism elevated and you burn fat more effectively. It keep cravings at bay by having a continually more satisfied feeling, it adds vital nutrition to your diet ( let's face it, bibb lettuce is all kinds of fun in a salad, but a bit lacking in the nutrition department ) and it keeps you mentally in a "I''m eating more than enough" state.
I recommend inserting a substantial snack between your breakfast and lunch like a solid protein like a meat along with a fruit or dairy. I sometimes will eat 2 boiled eggs and an apple for this mid-morning meal. In between lunch and dinner, have a handful of nuts with a piece of fruit, celery with organic peanut butter - something with a bit of a satisfying crunch.