I only recently got into the idea of "clean eating" and what it means for my lifestyle. I got to a point in my life where I was fed up with feeling like shit all the time, being tired all the time and most importantly - being a fatass.
I bit the bullet and tucked my fears about public embarrassment into my pocket and made an appointment with a nutritionist. She was great right from the start. Giving me helpful tips about how to load up on green veggies to help keep my energy levels up, how to effectively give up pop and caffeine without murder death killing anyone and the most important piece of information she gave me was - how to read and really understand the labels of the food I'm putting into my body and what that means for clean eating.
Let's get one thing straight here first and foremost though - I'm 32 and overweight by a lot. I spent most of my adult life abusing refined sugar and not giving a shit about my health. Even after going through a cancer scare and being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease didn't snap me into shape. I just didn't care.
I can't tell you exactly what turned my thinking around. Whether it was just the idea of being fat for the rest of my life (which would likely be cut short due to my growing list of health concerns). Or if it was my new friendships with people who made changes in their lives perviously and I saw first hand how capable I could be if I just told myself to shut the fuck up and get on a treadmill once and awhile.
So in came the nutritionist and in came the understanding that processed foods are not only killing ME, but they're killing you too.
After coming home from my appointment I did a lot of important research about this "clean eating" - and by important research I mean I went on google and read pretty much every single opinion I could about it.
I came the conclusion that it would probably suck for the first little while. Detoxing from sugar is NOT pleasant. I've done it before and just went right back to it. The old on again off again bullshit.
But this time I was determined. I'm STILL determined, to fix my lifestyle, to fix my body and to love myself enough to really care about living.
Clean eating is a really simple concept. Don't put anything into your body that you can't pronounce, nothing processed or refined. Organic when possible and tons and tons and TONS of veggies. I mean tons. I can blow through like a full pound of kale in two days.
If you do buy things that are processed, like frozen veggies or chicken stock etc etc, just be mindful of the label. Reading the label on things is the single most important thing you can do when purchasing food. It literally tells you what you're about to consume. I bet you'll be incredibly surprised (as I was) when you realize how many canned things have tons of sugar in them. Even unassuming things like canned peas = full of sugar. Or how much salt is in things like chicken stock or taco seasoning mix. And then, once that surprise wears off you can spend an ungodly amount of time googling how to make your own mixes and stocks, so you can really really control what goes into your body and how.
The basis of this blog is to kind of track my journey through things. I'll be making another post soon about how I've had to really focus on my meals and the timing of them since being diagnosed with a super lazy thyroid. I'm hoping that in the long run that I can control most of my health concerns through diet alone. But until then - I'm taking everything one day at a time. I'm aware of everything I put in my body. I drink a ton of water. I eat balanced clean meals. I get at least an hour of solid excerise in a day (cardio/weight trianing/strength and flexibility training) and I'm Extremely diligent about keeping a food diary - Which I will also be creating a post about later on.
being accountable to everything you consume sounds like the biggest pile of shit ever, but it's changed my life. It's changed how I look at things and honestly how I function on a day to day basis.
I can honestly say that this is the best I've ever felt. Including how I felt in my teens and twenties. So even though it sounds like a pile of shit - it actually isn't. It's actually going to save me.
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