Clean Eating

Good Luck in your new journey, only you have the power to change you!

Good luck as you get started. I am trying to eat a diet that is more based on vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains as well. (I'm vegetarian to start with, so meat isn't an issue). The two main things I'm eating less of are foods with added refined sugars and cheese. I have found that when I eat foods that are higher in fiber and nutrient dense, I feel full longer and am not tempted by the high calorie unhealthy processed foods that were causing me to overeat in the past.

I have two thoughts for the people here who are so down on you for suggesting your plan is to eat "clean": 1) If weight loss is all about calories in/calories out, then you are doing yourself an enormous service when you eliminate "empty" calories -- high calorie foods with no nutritional value. This will make it so much easier for you to hit your calorie goals; and 2) health is about more than just weigh loss, and there is no doubt that eating whole foods and eating fewer processed foods will improve your health.

I hope you have a great and inspiring week as you get started!

Hi everyone!
I just heard about this amazing site and am starting my weight loss journey tomorrow.

Welcome, misskelly! As others have said, this is a supportive place, but you unintentionally jumped into a hot button issue and ongoing debate, and that may have led to some inaccurate assumptions.

People have different ideas about the best way to cut calories. For some it's easier to just work with their existing diet and reduce portions or the frequency of dessert. This counters the not uncommon diet message that one must eat bland, fat-free food or follow some dull repetitive plan. (You see a lot of people come here with those assumptions.) For others it's easier and more motivating--more positive seeming--to change their eating in a more fundamental way--to stop eating mostly packaged stuff and get back to cooking, to add in fruits and vegetables. I think both of these work depending on personality, and actually for me the second method (the one you seem to be drawn to) fits my personality better too. I never did eat much packaged stuff (it's a pet peeve that some assume that's how everyone gets fat, but I digress), but I definitely had deviated from my preferred way of eating (based on cooking whole foods, lots of vegetables) and was doing lots of take out from laziness and eating out a lot and not exercising any judgment about portion control when I did). So realizing that I could reduce calories easily by just cooking more (and also not eating outside of meals, not misusing food for emotional stuff) felt like a fundamental positive change that would make me more healthy even if I didn't lose weight, which for me makes it more sustainable, not restricting.

What gets questioned more is what newmeadow mentioned. It's totally great to approach this like a lifestyle change, as about getting healthy, but people worry (especially when "clean eating" gets used) that that goes too far into demonizing perfectly good foods that fit into a healthy diet, especially occasionally. That can make a diet boring and hard to sustain (and also can make new converts kind of annoying, although that's not really our problem). For example, I put a priority on eating a healthy diet, and certainly don't think I eat "dirty" (though I'd never use the "clean" term), but I also happily made burgers last night for Memorial Day and even had store-bought gelato as dessert. The idea that this would no longer fit into my diet because it's somehow not "clean" is the kind of overkill that I think may be counterproductive.

Beyond that, there are simply debates about what "clean eating" even means that aren't worth getting into, like is yogurt (obviously packaged) bad? Seems like even most of the "clean eaters" eat it, but what's the logical distinction? Or I personally am picky about meat for non-diet reasons and buy most of mine from a local farm. Wouldn't it be obnoxious--and also have nothing to do with weight loss--for me to start referring to other meat as non-clean? So on. Anyway, not at all suggesting that you are meaning to engage in such a debate but explaining that there are issues that were raised unintentionally by the post.

Going back to the essence of what you said, however, I think it's smart to figure out what about your food habits may have been making you feel bad and to make this a broader healthy change. But one tip from me (who went a bit overboard at the beginning myself with no real harm) is that there's probably nothing to gain by deciding you can never have something you really love. On the other hand, if you were eating stuff that you weren't even that into (more common than a lot of people acknowledge), best of luck replacing it with tastier and healthier choices!

try cauliflower rice instead of conventional rice I am doing the 5.2 diet which is brilliant!

I try hard to by organic, healthy and unprocessed foods. Not as easy as it sounds when I have two preteen daughters! I found reading up about the Paleo diet especially in Cross Fit forums is really informative. It is about eating as natural and clean as possible. I've incorporated it into my diet and I feel much better. I hope this helps.

I haven't read all the above - hate negative comments, uneducated answers and being disrespectful to the original poster who asked for tips!! BUT I have been eating clean for the last year, top tip - aim for clean 80% of the time - 100% clean can be extremely daunting, I did do 100% for the first 4 months and lost 1.5stone (obviously combined with exercise too!), but clean eating is essentially eating what nature provides, if its made in a factory, has ingredients that you can't pronounce or don't know what they are - don't eat it There are some awesome recipes out there, plus using herbs and spices is the key I think to adding flavour etc to your food - rather than the fats/sugars that processed food uses.
Anyway, I've rambled enough, but wish you luck with it - oh and just for those stating the obvious - 'calories out need to be more than calories in' - duh! yeah! But with clean eating you're also focusing on nutrition - 500 cals of good nutrition will help your body work more efficiently to burn fat and get rid of toxins, plus help you feel amazing! - 500cals of processed food/additives/chemicals.... think how hard your body has to work to get rid of all this? Think of how busy your liver is going to be dealing with the toxins - when what you really want it to do is burn fat! Just saying
Good luck again, keep chatting and friending people - theres lots of advice on here and welcome xx :flowerforyou:

Hi everyone!
I just heard about this amazing site and am starting my weight loss journey tomorrow. I have just thrown away all of my terrible packaged preservative filled foods, and have done research on clean eating. I was wondering if anyone has any tips or suggestions for me? Thank you!
Can't wait for the healthy new me!

Welcome to MFP... I'll start there oh and Good luck to you. Question one.. why start tomorrow?

Now you threw out food that you could have donated or eaten in moderation the wastefulness of that bothers me when there are food pantries or somewhere else if you decided you didn't want it that would have been more than happy to have accepted it.

Question 2: The other part what is so terrible of packaged food? I eat a wide variety of food my health is better than it's been in 10 years.

Whenever I make any change in regards to my health and fitness, I ask myself "Am I willing to do this forever?" if the answer is yes, than it is probably a good change, if the answer is no, then I probably need to think about why I am making the change.

But since you already think the very helpful posts before me were negative I'll leave with that...

:flowerforyou:

I started this thread because I heard that this was a supportive place. I guess when you are about to embark on a new journey you hope there is a place to go to make it a little easier and a little better.

I haven't read through the whole thread so if someone already said this, forgive me for the repeat. This is a supportive place if you use it wisely. It is best in most instances, imo, to stick to having these discussion on your wall with your friends.

The term 'clean eating' is like putting a bull eye on your forehead in the open forum. Eat well and less of it, go slow and don't beat yourself up if you backslide once in a while.

Losing weight doesn't have to suck or be difficult or restrictive. Stick around MFP, try a few things and change them if they don't work but don't give up. Having said that; I'd stay away from Nutrisystem, Herbalife and other expensive MLM scams or anything Dr. Oz recommends. Pay attention to the "mean" people, you'll find out they aren't mean after all. Buy a digital food scale and weigh everything!

Looking forward to my "dirty" tacos, chips and Coke at Tijuana Flats today like I do every Tuesday. 1/2 my daily calories in one shot and losing weight doing it.