It took me a while to accept the whole “clean eating” trend that is dominating social media. Why? Because I thought I wouldn’t be able to feel healthy and boost my self-esteem without restrictions, restrictions, restrictions. There are way too many problems with dieting, one of them being that it isn’t a realistc lifestyle.
So, maybe you tried a diet for a few months. You lost some pounds here and there and you thought you were on top of the world. Time to go off your diet, right? Well you go off that diet and the weight comes crawling back. With eating clean, you have more options and it is way easier to incorporate this lifestyle into day-to-day activities. By restricting your food intake on a diet your cravings and binging become more apparent, and this is something I do not like about dieting. After days of not eating those pretzels because “the diet” said you couldn’t, they’re the first things you reach for. Not only are you eating more junk food becuase of the restriction the diet placed on you but you’re actually restricting your body from the healthy nutrients it needs and wants.
For example, this past summer I decided to give the Atkins diet a try to lose weight and hopefully boost my self-confidence. The Atkins diet limits your carbodydrate intake to 40 net carbs. This is calculated from the number of carbs in a seving – dietary fiber – sugar alcohols. However, the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) recommends that between 45 and 65 percent of daily calories should come from carbs. This definately wasn’t the case for me, as I was eating less than 1,000 calories a day due to my carb restriction.
During this restriction period, I engaged in binge eating because the diet basically stripped me of any essential nutrient that my body needed (especially whole grains). After months of failed attempts due to too much food restriction, I caved and decided that I needed to think of a better way to eat that wasn’t dieting.
That’s when I decided to give the clean eating a go. Clean eating is hard to define because it’s different for everyone. But, for me, clean eating is a healthy eating lifestyle that focuses on eating nutrious and whole foods. Whole foods for me are foods that aren’t processed and foods you can feel good about. Some of my favorites are oatmeal, almonds, berries, chicken and eggs. What I absoultely love about clean eating is that there is no need to constantly weigh yourself like you would during a diet. Sure, it doesn’t hurt to step on the scale a few times during the week but it shouldn’t be an obsession.
Hopefully we’ll see clean eating replace popuar diets within the next few years and refocus our efforts on maintaing a healthy lifestyle, not unhealthy restriction.
Try giving clean eating a go! HCXO