I don’t mean to sound overly dramatic, but it’s no word of a lie when I say clean eating changed my life. It not only got me healthy after many years of struggling with health issues, it set me on the path to a career change as a Nutrition and Wellness Consultant, which now enables me to positively affect the health and lives of other people and families, through my practice, on a weekly basis.
Clean eating will not only change your life, it can save your life, too. It’s absolutely the healthiest way to eat, cook, and live.
Once you adopt a clean eating lifestyle, you will be blown away about how much better you’ll fee – how much more energy you have, how much better you look, and how noticeably healthier you feel.
And other people will take notice too.
After I started to eat clean, people started telling me that I was “literally glowing”, that I looked “ten years younger”, and they complimented me on my weight loss and slimmer figure. Let me tell you, I loved every word of it and ate it all up!
Not only that, at forty-five years of age, I was noticing admiring glances from gentlemen of all ages – it was like I was in my twenties again. Clearly clean eating has been very kind to me!
Did I miss any of the crap I used to eat (and was, frankly, somewhat addicted to)? Not one bit. None of those old foods I used to eat tastes as good as looking good feels!
The awesome thing is that simply by eating clean, extra pounds just started to melt off of me, without ever having to starve myself or punish myself by eating unappealing foods. It was as close to effortless as weight loss can be. My husband was so inspired – especially when he saw, smelled, and tasted the clean eating foods I was eating – that he decided to join me in my new clean eating lifestyle as well. And he lost weight effortlessly, too.
When I first started eating clean, I was motivated by wanting to lose weight and get fit. I had been medically unwell for quite a number of years, to the point of eventually becoming bedridden. I was suffering from an undiagnosed pituitary tumor, and an untreated adrenal gland disorder. These two medical conditions wrecked havoc on my health and on my body, grinding my metabolism to a halt, and causing inexplicable weight gain and a complete inability to lose weight despite any manner of diet and exercise.
Finally having received a diagnosis and treatment, and having learned how to manage my condition, I’d been on the road to recovery for a number of years, but the one residual effect I still struggled with was that frustrating inability to lose weight, despite dedicated effort. I had tried so many approaches to weight loss – dieting, exercising, weight loss supplements and diet pills, and expensive programs that sold me their pricey pre-packaged food – all to no avail.
When I turned forty, I literally gave up, mentally and emotionally, on ever being able to lose weight. I’d heard how a woman’s metabolism slows right down, making weight loss much harder once she hits forty. I figured that if I hadn’t been able to lose weight in my 20s and 30s, it certainly wasn’t going to get any better in my 40s.
A few years later I started to learn the concepts of clean eating. I didn’t even know it had a name at the time, hadn’t heard the term “clean eating”. But the idea of eating clean (free of additives, preservatives or chemicals), unprocessed wholesome food for better health and well being suddenly just sounded so right to me, and inspired me to want to try. I’d always tried to incorporate healthy eating principles into my diet (or so I thought), but by no means had I been eating clean. I had no idea that all those convenient packages of pre-seasoned rice mix, chicken coating (I used it on skinless chicken breast, so thought it was healthy), canned soup and whole grain crackers were bad; no idea that they were filled with unhealthy ingredients that were sabotaging my weight loss attempts and wrecking other forms of havoc on my body.
When I started to learn the principles of clean eating, something made me feel very inspired to give eating clean a try.
When I first learned about clean eating, I told my husband I was going on a “diet”, because at the time my motivation to eat clean was all driven by a desire to lose weight – something I had struggled with quite unsuccessfully with for a long time.
I cheerfully told him I’d still cook his regular meals for him, and I’d cook my “diet” food separately for myself so he could still eat the foods he enjoyed while I “dieted”.
Well, a very funny thing happened… He got a whiff and a look at what I was cooking for myself and eating, and he said, “Damn that looks and smells good! Do you have enough of that for me to try?”
I was thrilled (and flattered) by his interest in my new way of eating, and, of course, shared what I had cooked with him – and he was instantly hooked. He jumped right on board my clean eating program with me, because the food really is good.
Trust me, this is a man who enjoys fried chicken, pizza, chicken wings, lasagna, deli meats, hot dogs, and the occasional bag of potato chips just as much as the next guy. But one taste of one of my clean eating lunches and he was all in. And when I served our “clean eating” dinner that evening he raved that it was “so gourmet”.
After just a week, he and I had both dropped unwanted weight effortlessly and easily, eating delicious meals all throughout the day and never feeling hungry. We were both feeling good, looking good, and we knew we had just made what would become a permanent lifestyle change.
It was just too good, and made too much sense, to ever give up.
Now that doesn’t mean we don’t allow ourselves a little non-clean eating cheating once in a while. But the key really is to keep those cheats to a minimum if you feel the need to do it at all. Do it as a rare treat, get it out of your system, and then get right back to eating clean.
You will find that once you start to eat clean, your taste in food actually really start to change.
Suddenly you’ll notice you don’t have the same enjoyment of foods that are high in sugar, high in salt, or high in fat. You’ll find that once you cut back on carbs, you really don’t miss them (after the first day or so).
Foods you really used to think you enjoyed will actually seem much less palatable to you. That’s because your taste palette and your body have gotten smart after eating clean for a little while. Your body now knows to recognize foods that aren’t good for you as soon as you put them in your mouth, and you’ll actually feel a little put off by them.
When you hit that point – and it doesn’t take long – you’ll know that you are officially part of the clean eating club!
You’re no longer eating clean just because you should, you’re eating clean because it is what you and your body actually prefer.
Some people are under the misconception that it costs more to eat clean. They think eating clean is expensive. This is not necessarily the case. Junk food, fast food, and convenience foods are hardly what I would call cheap. Eating clean may cost you little more than what you are currently spending on food and groceries. In fact, depending on your current eating habits, you may even end up spending less on food once you understand how to eat clean and adopt a clean eating lifestyle.
Keep in mind that clean eating is not necessarily the same thing as eating organic, which can get costly. I’m all for eating organic, you certainly won’t go wrong by doing so. But you don’t have to buy organic if your budget won’t allow for that. You can still absolutely eat clean without having to buy organic. I personally have been eating clean since late 2012, but my grocery budget just doesn’t allow me to buy organic. Around the time I embarked on my clean eating lifestyle, I was hit by two major crisis that affected my financial situation – my business of 15 years took a sudden and very unanticipated hit, drastically reducing my income. And my beloved mother was very suddenly and unexpected hit by a very severe and rapidly professing form of dementia – I was thrust into the role of her caregiver, and she suddenly became my financial dependent. Talk about some serious financial hits happening all at once. With these significant changes in my financial situation, I didn’t (and don’t) have the luxury of buying organic.
But I still reap all the rewards and benefits of a clean eating lifestyle – looking better, feeling better, knowing I’m healthier. And as long as I stick with the program and keep on eating clean, weight issues are a thing of the past, and my overall health and state of physical wellness is much better.
As my mom always used to remind me when I was growing up, you are what you eat.
I never fully understood how that true that was until I discovered what it meant to eat clean.
Clean eating equals a clean body. Eat junk or garbage, and you’ll have a body made of junk and garbage. Yuck. That’s really a revolting thought when you consider it. (So remember that the next time you’re tempted to reach for something that’s off limits on the clean eating regime).
A body that is clean both inside and out feels so much better than a body that is made from garbage.
Clean eating equals a clean body. Eat junk or garbage, and you’ll have a body made of junk and garbage
I’m thrilled that you’ve decided you’re ready to learn how to eat clean, and I’m excited, as well as honored, that you’re giving me this opportunity to show you how to adopt a clean eating lifestyle.
I’m passionate about sharing the benefits of clean eating with others and I genuinely want to help you discover a new way of eating and living that will change your life for the better, and that you’ll be excited by.
Trust me, if I can do this and love it (and I do!), anyone can.
Junk food was once a staple in my house, as was pre-packaged convenience foods packed with additives, preservatives and other artificial ingredients. Now I don’t miss any of that one bit.
And when I do crave a potato chip or some other “cheat” now and then, my body is very forgiving (as long as I limit the cheat and then get right back on the program and continue eating clean), because clean eating has completely re-calibrated my metabolism.
Eating clean has been such a life-changing blessing for me, in so many ways, just as it can be for you. I‘m here to take you by the hand and lead you step-by-step in learning how to eat clean.
Are you ready? Are you in? Let’s do it!
Linda Christophe
Nutrition & Wellness Consultant
Founder of OnlyEatClean.com
