I Thought I Knew How to Eat {Clean Eating}

I have so many things to share with you people. I like that this blog is documentation for myself. I know the going will get hard, I will slip back into old habits, and I will need my own writing to come back to. I have a list of about 20 topics on my phone that are all ready to turn into posts.  I think I need to start with the concept of clean eating and what that is. If you are like me, you have no idea what that really means.  It just sounds like you probably eat healthy.

I've lost weight before. Like I said: the scale has been bouncing around for 5 years. I could figure out a way to lose 5-10 pounds if needed. I thought I knew how to do it. I just needed to be more disciplined. More committed.  However, FitOrbit's meal plans led me down a road to a great realization: there was a lot that I didn't know.

Losing weight is about caloric intake vs. caloric outtake, right? Yes, but no. People who are making a lifestyle change do more than just temporary fixes like a low calorie snack bar with a small portion of mac and cheese. Just count the calories and make sure you stay below 300 per meal, right? Nope. It's about eating clean. Here we go...

On FitOrbit's meal plans, I noticed that I was eating all natural ingredients. For example, I would go to the store and my cart would be full of produce and meats. Also, I noticed that I was instructed to eat my oatmeal PLAIN. My yogurt PLAIN. The question is WHY? There are so many no-calorie sweeteners that help a sister out so that we don't have to eat that shit plain!  So, I began my quest to figure out why no sweeteners/flavorings.

That was back in January, so the details are fuzzy, but I think I got the concept of "Clean Eating" from Pinterest. I remember seeing pins and recipes under the "Health & Fitness" category that had the description of being "clean." I remember thinking so what does that mean exactly, for a recipe to be "clean"? There are a couple of blogs/websites that I really browsed hard and became educated about clean eating.

The Gracious Pantry
The Healthy Apple -This girl is gluten free, but talks a lot about clean eating.
Eating Clean Getting Lean -This girl does fitness competitions.

Source Unknown. Via Pinterest

And there are many more. Tosca Reno is apparently the first woman to champion clean eating. She has tons of books.  I remember finding out about Tosca Reno around late February which led me to Barnes and Noble for some book searching. I found clean eating cook books. The trouble was, I didn't want to take a million recipes and have to meal plan myself. That's when the most amazing thing happened. I saw a magazine with big bold letters on top CLEAN EATING.  Not only does it have very informational articles and recipes that stand alone, but I turned those beautiful pages and saw two full-page spreads dedicated to weekly meal plans WITH weekly grocery lists!!! THIS IS EXACTLY LIKE FITORBIT!!!!  {{This meant that I have a plan after FitOrbit. The healthful eating can continue!!!}} I glanced down at the bottom row of the meal chart and I saw that the calorie counts for the day were around 1600. Which means these plans are not about weight loss; these plans are about health and daily normalcy.  Yessss!

So, I will be posting about more specific food switches and issues revolving around the concept of clean eating, but for now here is a basic snapshot of what clean eating is:

Clean Eating 101 (Clean Eating Magazine)

Keep in mind that clean eating is not a diet at all. It is a life change. It's a perspective change. I've been calling it my "nutrition plan" instead of a "diet" because the word "diet" now has a negative connotation. A connotation of temporality.  You can eat clean to gain weight. You can eat clean to chisel yourself for a fitness competition. You can eat clean to maintain weight (like I am doing now). It is not a diet; it is a lifestyle.  Losing weight can be about caloric intake vs. caloric outtake.  However, it's pretty common knowledge now that your intake of sugar affects your physical and mental reaction to food. If you are consuming foods with white sugar, you are craving, binging, you are tired you are unsatisfied.  Diet drinks are a nightmare. Eating 3 square meals a day does you no good. I could go on and on. The thing is, until I read up on it, I didn't know.