Hi I am Lita. I struggle constantly with clean eating because everything bad for you tastes soo good. I try but I live alone and I believe I have started junk eating out of boredom. All support is welcome to regain my life.

Hi, my name is Dale. Like a large majority of people on MFP I am trying to lose weight and excercise. Becoming a healthier person is certainly a personal goal. I bigger and more important goal for me is to learn how to feed my family better foods.

I am the primary cook in the house and so our nutrional intake kinda falls to me. I have two teenage daughters and I really want them to know how to eat clean healthy foods when they eventually go out on there own. My wife needs to eat gluten-free foods so eating cleaner and simpler foods certainly would be better for her also.

Hopefully this group attacts an active and engaged membership because learning to eat clean healthier foods is just as important to me as losing weight.

Hi everyone, my name is BJ. I'm currently training for Sprint Triathlons (swim 750 meters, bike 12 miles, run 3.1 miles) with the goal of graduating to Olympic distance triathlons next year. My wife is (mostly) gluten free and I have an intolerance to dairy that I listen to sometimes, and we've been relatively clean eaters for a couple of years with increased focus this year. I eat very well during the weeks where I can regiment my meals and intake easier and then end up giving it all back over the weekend when I'm doing projects or going to meet family... A cycle I'm sure many can relate to. I'll be sure to contribute meal plans or recipes along with everyone else!

I do great keeping up with exercise and even though I'm a night person have become someone who works out in the morning. Where I struggle is nutrition. I do try, but sometimes I just want those chips or fries or cookie or whatever. I do enjoy fresh "clean eating" type foods, but it's not always what I want or what's available.

I could have written this!

Hi all, I'm Jamie. I know a lot of folks say that your fitness program starts with a good diet, but for me, my diet starts with a good fitness program. For some reason, it's always easier for me to make better food choices when I have some sort of regular exercise program I'm doing. I've really struggled the past couple of weeks with food and exercise due to some life stuff that came up. However, I'm ready to get back to work now and lose the 7 pounds I gained back.

Over the past couple months, I've been trying to eat a little cleaner, but I'm having trouble staying with it. Hopefully being in a group will help. I've found some recipes on Pinterest and have gotten better and shopping around the perimeter of the grocery store, so we'll see what happens!

I look forward to working with you all!

Hi! My name is Maria also.
I just can't seem to get my act together this time around. I still have the "baby" weight but my baby is 5 years old. I find I really hate weighing, measuring, and tracking my food. I just want to be able to eat. But obviously that's not getting me where I want to be. I would say I'm new to the tile of "clean eating" but I do eat lots of clean foods already. We try to avoid as much processed food as seems reasonable and I like to cook at home. Exercise is so much easier for me than eating.
My goals for the next ten days are...to log everything I eat and to eat a fruit or vegetable with every meal.

Thanks for starting this group!

Hi everyone,
I'm marri. I'm currently recovering from cancer surgery and am really trying to focus on my health. I'm also a mum of four and a nurse.. So I have a large, busy household. I love to cook and normally cook from scratch anyway, so I am looking forward to sharing ideas and fine tuning my cooking. While we tend to eat mostly unprocessed food in our house (ready made for six people in Australia is expensive!) my kids and my husband would probably start a mutiny if I took away everything so for us it's a balance of about 80% clean with 20% treats like bake at home chips, store bought bread and the occasional ice cream/dessert. Looking forward to getting to know everyone.

Hi I am Maria also (:
Welll I am 19 with twin girls I currently weight 150 goal is 125
I have trouble eating clean I love chips and soda they are my downfalliwant to
Start learning to eat cleaner and make delicious recipes for me and my family

Hi all, I'm Trish and Im from Ireland. I started clean eating about a month ago, when I was told to avoid yeast and dairy due to various symptoms of intolerance. I am finding it a challenge but doable most of the time. I am a teacher and off work for Summer hols so plenty of time to prepare clean meals etc. I love running and go to bootcamp classes so I find the exercise part easy. The most difficult part is when I go out for a coffee/dinner etc. I find it difficult to resist 'nice things'. Hopefully we can support and encourage each other

Hello, my name is Danyell. I am 36 years old, and a mother of a wonderful 13-year-old. I know this sounds like an excuse but between working full-time and going to school that at night I have trouble finding time to exercise. Correction I have trouble finding the energy to exercise. My friends call me the skinny fat girl because I do have a small frame but I have fat that covers it ????. I am 5'2 and I'm weighing in about 140 pounds now. I join the group to hopefully get some motivation. Good luck everyone!

I have no friends but feel free to add me hopefully we can motivate each other!

Hi, I'm Katrina. I've been getting into clean eating over the past several months, with varying degrees of success. Still trying to work out what is realistic for us - my fiancé is tolerant of most of the changes I make but he still wants hotdogs and salty snacks and other processed food. I do the shopping and it's especially hard for me because I want to "treat" him to his favorite potato chips, but I can't help feeling like I'm giving him poison instead.
My moto right now is "don't let perfect be the enemy of good" -- I tend to let one little hiccup ruin the rest of the day/week. Like Jenni, I've had some false starts breaking up with sugar. Right now I'm stepping down my sugars.
My goals are to increase veggies to 5+ per day, get to the farmers market once a week, cut out the sugar, and to find a happy balance during the many celebrations coming up (we're getting married in August so there will be lots of indulgent food and drink around)

I am Carla, new to clean eating but I believe this is the lifestyle I am meant to live. I weight train twice a week and run/walk on the other days.

Goal for the next ten days is to go grocery shopping and get some good things in my fridge/pantry!

Hi, I'm Jo. I'm 33 and mama to 3 kids (old enough that I can't call my extra lbs "baby weight" anymore). I highly suspect I have a thyroid issue (others in the family do, have had tests done, but feeling I should do them again). I too feel I have to work twice as hard to lose half as much. It can be SO discouraging. I'd be flamed to a crisp on the main boards for even suggesting this, but it doesn't seem to be as simple as calories in vs calories out for me. I only see success when I eat CLEAN.

Clean for me is mainly about cutting out ALL added sugars and ALL flours. After that, there really isn't much boxed/bagged/canned food to choose from, so my diet is much more natural and from whole foods.

Cooking and exercising are both.....not my favorite things. I really struggle with both. My goals for the next 10 days are to....

- clear the pantry & fridge of my temptations
- figure out a system to prepare food ahead of time
- make a menu (or just a list of easy snacks & meals) and have ingredients ON HAND
- work on reaching my goals for sleep & water intake

After I get some of these goals met I will start a more intense exercise routine (so far, I'm just trying to get 20-30 minutes in on the exercise bike). I'm a little worried because the pain from hallux limitus has been increasing (I have to modify all workouts to avoid lunges, pushups, etc - anything involving dorsiflexion of the big toe).

I'm really looking forward to sharing some recipes and finding new ones!

Hi, I'm Lisa. I’ve been on myfitness for a few years now and lost some weight then stopped tracking and fell back into old habits I never quite got rid of. Now I’m trying again. I have been logging and watching everything I eat consistently again since Jan of this year. Personally I was never a huge fan of fast food but once I met my husband 10 years ago it became more of a staple in my diet then I would have preferred. Although I can now say that I haven’t had ANY fast food since before Christmas and since I cut it out my husband is eating it a lot less as well.

I love cooking and baking which is also why I started selling pampered chef about 2 years ago. It has always been my go to stress relief. My friends joke when they come over then don’t get a ‘hi’ from me they get ‘here try this’ and some form of my cooking shoved at them. :P Not that they complain. This spring we signed up for a local organic CSA and have been getting lots of tasty fruits and veggies. Besides that I get local grass fed, free range organic beef, pork and chicken as well as farm fresh eggs, raw milk and raw honey. It’s a great thing when you know and can see where your food comes from.

Not only have I cut out fast food we have cut back so much on anything overly processed, that the last time we had a ‘snacky’ night neither of us really enjoyed it. Everything just tasted off which I think is a good thing. I like being able to control what goes into what I’m eating.

I do have a sweet tooth that I can’t seem to lose. So I like to make my own desserts rather than buy them. Everything is ok in moderation and if I’m craving something I don’t try to deny myself it. I found when I do in the end I just end up bingeing on it. So I make my own cookies, brownies, potato chips…you name it. And if I’m making it then you can guarantee it’s never from a box. I’m always on the lookout for a new recipe to try.

I try and get exercise whenever I can squeeze it in. I volunteer a few days a week at a local rescue. Walking the dogs is so much better than paying to join a gym. I have been volunteering with the new York Bully Crew for over 2 years and a few of the dogs there I swear think I belong to them. Recently I also started adding in some strength training.

Hi I am Jo from Alberta, Canada. I will be 40 in October and struggling to lose 12 lbs. I think the key is to eat clean, but to actually commit is the big challenge especially with all the processed food out their. I am not a really good cook yet I have a ton of recipe books for Cleaning Eat and also own all of Tosca Reno's books. I start off good in the morning and usually fall apart when I get home from work as I am starving and need something to snack on.

Anyways looking forward to this group.

Hi, my name is Kathy and I'm from Ontario. I have been overweight most of my life. I recently returned to MFP after falling away from the tracking and exercising and back into the old habits. I have asthma and some COPD and the extra weight makes it difficult to breathe and exercise. I would like to break the sugar and carb cravings and I'm hoping that clean eating will help me on that journey, which in turn will lead to more energy to do what I need to do.

I have never signed into anything like this before in my life, but there's a first time for everything. I'm looking forward to reading suggestions from other members. I am a long way from my goal, but I'm going to take it one step at a time and try not to get discouraged along the way. Any encouragement and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.