What exactly does eating clean mean? Clean eating is not just a diet; it’s a lifestyle. The commitment to this type of eating is full time. It’s not about denying yourself or going hungry. It’s about eating with thought and planning. Athletes rely on superior nutrition to keep their bodies tight and lean. Now you may not want to look like they do since muscularity is an acquired taste (I know I sure would though!), but everyone wants to have more definition and tone and less fat. By adopting a clean eating lifestyle your body will have a chance at looking its all-time best.
Clean eating is a way of nourishing yourself. The backbone of clean eating nutrition depends heavily on an assortment of fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, and lean protein, eaten at regular intervals over the course of a day. Clean eating is NOT a diet you follow for a few painful months, denying yourself certain foods. It’s a lifestyle, not a fad diet. Think about it--if you usually eat protein, carbs, and fat as you should, and then you remove one of those food groups from your eating plan, you’ll lose weight. But only while on the plan. Once you reintroduce foods you haven’t been eating during your dieting phase, BAM! You gain weight all over again and usually a great deal more than you lost in the first place. This is the phenomenon known as yo-yo dieting.
Are you one of those people who exercises like crazy but never sees results? You scratch your head in dismay when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, confused as to why the exercise makes so little difference. Want to know what the problem is??? It’s your nutrition!!! NO amount of exercise will reshape your body without appropriate nutrition! You can’t out-train a bad diet!
Clean eating involves several principles of eating. You will have to eat more but make better food choices, eat regularly so you do not go hungry, throw out the junk in your trunk, and get ready for the new improved you. Start by discarding the notion that you must eat only three meals a day and the biggest meal should be dinner. Eating clean means eating several smaller meals throughout the day. By doing so you don’t go hungry and your metabolism burns steadily all day. If you do it right, you won’t experience those “hit the wall” feelings that leave you reaching for a coffee or chocolate. Dinner won’t be the biggest meal of your day as it probably is now. Think about it--does it make sense to fill yourself up with calories you won’t burn off after dinner? Instead consume foods like breads and starches at the beginning of the day when you are more likely to be the busiest and have a better chance of burning the calories away.
You may experience the feeling of lethargy that arrives around mid-morning or mid-afternoon, or sometimes at both of those times. That horrible “hit the wall” feeling is due to falling blood sugar and unstable insulin levels. You can solve this problem by eating a combination of complex carbs and lean proteins. Together they offset unstable blood and insulin levels by prolonging digestion and slowing the release of sugar into the bloodstream. As a result, insulin and blood sugar levels remain steady and you feel better. By eating protein with your complex carbohydrates, you’ll slow the carb-to-fat conversion process even more. This is why you should never eat complex carbs alone. Always pair carbs with protein.
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