Why I Chose Clean Eating

    Clean eating is basically whole, natural foods like fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and complex carbohydrates. It means staying away from the typical Standard American Diet of 'junk', such as man-made sugar, bad fats, preservatives and white bread. The easiest way to describe it is, if it's man-made, stay away from it. I know, it sounds restricting, but trust me, there are clean eating alternatives to everything that you enjoy on the Standard American Diet.

Clean eating is not actually a 'diet', it is a lifestyle. Diets cause your weight and health to yo-yo, which causes more harm to your body than never going on them at all. When you yo-yo diet, you are losing muscle and gaining back fat in return.

    You cannot achieve your fitness and health goals without first cleaning up your diet. That doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the occasional treat, but moderation is the key. You can exercise your behind off and still not lose the weight that you want, all because your body is not releasing the build up of junk that it's holding on to. When you start to eat clean, you will watch the weight drop off.

    It is difficult to break the habit of our 'traditional' cooking, especially if your were raised on Southern and Cajun cooking, like I was:) I love food just as much as the next person! It took a while for me to completely change the way that I had been cooking for so long, but over time it became easier and easier. In fact, it would be strange for me to try to cook the way I used to now.

   The key to clean eating and sticking to it, is planning and preparation. And, also enjoying the occasional treat:)

    I will be blogging more about each type of food that we should stay away from individually and what kind of harm they actually cause in our body. Also, the alternative healthier substitutes we can use in their place.

  You might think that you will have to give up something when you eat healthy, but I want to show you that does not have to be the case. In fact, the only thing you will be giving up is a life plagued by the common diseases caused by the foods we eat (i.e. diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc.), aches and pains, and just plain lack of energy.

   With a little practice and determination, you can clean up your diet, while still enjoying food!