Because early recovery generally requires and entails that we formulate new behaviors and perspectives that we serve as guideposts for healthy living, we can turn our attention to a facet that is often important to the newly sober individual, learning to eat clean in order to reach desired goals. Part of early sobriety is the opportunity we have to create an entirely new lifestyle and oftentimes in this lifestyle change, recovering addicts have a desire to better understand their eating habits so that they can begin to not only start feeling better, but also looking better as a means to increase levels of self-esteem and confidence.

We will briefly discuss some of the fundamental concepts of diet in order to lay out a framework for a diet that will yield whatever physical results we are seeking after. The first concept we can demystify is that of cutting out fats in order to lose weight. Before discussing weight loss, we need to be able to understand that moderation within the realms of fats and carbohydrates is going to be important. That being said, if we are going to cut down on any one group if weight loss is the ultimate objective, we ought to begin with cutting carbohydrate intake. Depending on weight and size this can vary but keeping our carb intake below 200 grams per day is a good marker to start with. We also should begin to try and increase protein intake, especially if we are involved in weight training as protein will help to repair broken down muscle as well as rebuild muscle. In line with decreasing our carb and sugar intake (for the purposes of this article, carbs and sugars are one in the same), another easy way to begin eating cleaner is to commit to drinking more water. If possible, we can supplant all drinks with water but if that is not realistically feasible we can limit ourselves to one or two drinks per day that contain sugars.

Although not a comprehensive dietary plan, sticking to some basic rules that we have already covered with increase muscle, decrease body fat, and improve our mental health as well. Let’s revisit, one more time, these crucial dietary axioms to adopt which are as follows: 1) Maintain carb intake to <200 grams 3) increase protein intake to ½ of your body weight (i.e. if you weigh 150lbs you would shoot for 75 grams of protein