Clean Eating
Peace.
For all my attempts at maintaining a healthy lifestyle that keeps drug and disease free and increases my longevity, I have yet to try “Clean Eating.” I know it can be helpful, because everyone that gives it a shot swears by it. My carpooler says that his mother started eating cleaner and she lost a significant amount of weight. And she is old! She summed it up as, “If it’s white, it ain’t right.”
I had a patient who is a body builder come into the office singing the praises of clean eating. Now it’s not like she had ever been on a true diet before. She was naturally thin. But she wanted to get cut for competitions. So she started to eat clean. What weirded me out was that she was eating more in a day than I eat in 2 (non-PMS) days. But all her food was “clean.” I could do that.
“There are many people simply looking to remove the chemicals from their diets and bodies, and therefore eat clean. Their focus is NOT on losing weight, but on general health. They avoid processed foods of all kinds, yet eat only when the need arises or three times per day.”
Okay. I sort of already do this.
“Clean eating is a diet program based on the idea that the best way to eat is to abundantly enjoy whole foods -- that is, foods as close to their natural state and you can get them. This means eating fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins instead of pre-packaged, processed foods or fast food. Clean eating is also committed to replacing saturated fats with healthy fats. Many on the plan don't count calories, but instead trust in good quality, healthy food.”
This is where it becomes dicey for me…..
The question is how is clean eating different from what I do already? I already eat a lot of veggies and fruits. I know in season produce is better than out of season produce. I would like to eat more on demand and not just when I’m scheduled to eat, but that is pretty hard when you are not your own boss. My boss has control of my stomach from 7:30-5:30. And I’m down for the count by 9:30. And up at 5:30. You see? I suppose I can make this a priority if I was so inclined, but do I NEED to.
So now what? I will add a few things here and there. I don’t really feel good eating fast food. I suppose I’ll back off of that as much as I can. I’ll strive to bring lunch to work every single day. I’ll be better with meal planning. But the most important 1st step I will add on is I want to only eat 3 meals a day. NO SNACKS. Snacking is getting me in trouble. I have begun the process but I don’t like it. The hunger is palpable. And I love Coca Cola. But I will go to diet Coke or DP. I know soda is of the devil, but I’m hooked and I can’t deal with giving everything up.
I have never seen a big difference with me and water intake. Whether I drink it or not, I generally don’t see a difference. So I’m a leave it where it is right now. And I exercised hard and consistently this year for 6 solid months and saw no changes. I won’t be fooled. Whenever I dieted in the past, I never really exercised much and saw more results than I did this year. Either I have irrevocably damaged my metabolism or I’m pregnant and don’t know it.
So this is my plan…. (1) Whole grains. (2) Cook more from scratch. (3) Reduce outside food intake. (4) 3 meals a day. (5) plan those 3 meals. (6) Work on portions.
****Sigh*****
Peace
For all my attempts at maintaining a healthy lifestyle that keeps drug and disease free and increases my longevity, I have yet to try “Clean Eating.” I know it can be helpful, because everyone that gives it a shot swears by it. My carpooler says that his mother started eating cleaner and she lost a significant amount of weight. And she is old! She summed it up as, “If it’s white, it ain’t right.”
I had a patient who is a body builder come into the office singing the praises of clean eating. Now it’s not like she had ever been on a true diet before. She was naturally thin. But she wanted to get cut for competitions. So she started to eat clean. What weirded me out was that she was eating more in a day than I eat in 2 (non-PMS) days. But all her food was “clean.” I could do that.
“There are many people simply looking to remove the chemicals from their diets and bodies, and therefore eat clean. Their focus is NOT on losing weight, but on general health. They avoid processed foods of all kinds, yet eat only when the need arises or three times per day.”
Okay. I sort of already do this.
“Clean eating is a diet program based on the idea that the best way to eat is to abundantly enjoy whole foods -- that is, foods as close to their natural state and you can get them. This means eating fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins instead of pre-packaged, processed foods or fast food. Clean eating is also committed to replacing saturated fats with healthy fats. Many on the plan don't count calories, but instead trust in good quality, healthy food.”
This is where it becomes dicey for me…..
The question is how is clean eating different from what I do already? I already eat a lot of veggies and fruits. I know in season produce is better than out of season produce. I would like to eat more on demand and not just when I’m scheduled to eat, but that is pretty hard when you are not your own boss. My boss has control of my stomach from 7:30-5:30. And I’m down for the count by 9:30. And up at 5:30. You see? I suppose I can make this a priority if I was so inclined, but do I NEED to.
So now what? I will add a few things here and there. I don’t really feel good eating fast food. I suppose I’ll back off of that as much as I can. I’ll strive to bring lunch to work every single day. I’ll be better with meal planning. But the most important 1st step I will add on is I want to only eat 3 meals a day. NO SNACKS. Snacking is getting me in trouble. I have begun the process but I don’t like it. The hunger is palpable. And I love Coca Cola. But I will go to diet Coke or DP. I know soda is of the devil, but I’m hooked and I can’t deal with giving everything up.
I have never seen a big difference with me and water intake. Whether I drink it or not, I generally don’t see a difference. So I’m a leave it where it is right now. And I exercised hard and consistently this year for 6 solid months and saw no changes. I won’t be fooled. Whenever I dieted in the past, I never really exercised much and saw more results than I did this year. Either I have irrevocably damaged my metabolism or I’m pregnant and don’t know it.
So this is my plan…. (1) Whole grains. (2) Cook more from scratch. (3) Reduce outside food intake. (4) 3 meals a day. (5) plan those 3 meals. (6) Work on portions.
****Sigh*****
Peace
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