Eating Clean

A recent discovery of mine (thanks to my beautiful, healthy Canadian friend Rebecca Young) was The Eat-Clean Diet (www.eatcleandiet.com) -  or should I say lifestyle.

This is not another fad diet where you cut out this food group and calorie-count till the cows come home! If you know me, I am really not into fad diets. So if you thought this blog would be all the latest on how to lose 10 pounds in a week...think again!

I'm in the middle of reading one of Tosca Reno's 12 books on her Eat-Clean phenomenon that has sold 2,000,000 books worldwide - The Eat Clean Diet Recharged.  Tosca is a model, spokesperson and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner that turned her life and health around at the age of 40 by shedding unwanted pounds and sharing how she did it in a magazine article. Now 53, she was recently awarded first place in a body-sculpting contest! 

Anyway, although it's very inspiring and commendable, I'm less fussed about her story, as I don't relate to it all that much. What I love is the values and knowledge she so passionately writes about.
(If you are interested to read more about her journey click here.)

The main principles to the diet lifestyle are very sensible and in my mind, if you want it enough, very achievable:

• eat to maintain a healthy metabolism: 6 small meals each day 
• eat breakfast every day, within an hour of rising
• eat a combination of lean protein and complex carbohydrates at each meal
• eat enough healthy fats each day (2-3 servings)
• drink loads of water (2-3 litres)
• eat lots of varied fruit and veg to get all the vitamins, nutrients and fibre you need
• carry your snacks and meals with you in a cool bag, with the above in mind, so you don't find yourself succumbing to the nearest fast food restaurant when you’re peckish!
• eat foods that a pure in their form - no processed junk with e-numbers and ingredients you've never heard of, nor can you pronounce!
• adhere to proper portion sizes.

Eating Clean is not a new idea though - it is practised by the physique and body building industry - that is, fitness gurus and those building a lean physique through fitness training and exercise. 

Anyway, enough of the science. I've been following this lifestyle for about three weeks now (fairly strictly: my only four moments of weakness being a homemade lasagne that won me first place in a cook-off competition, a small and very worthy-of-the-indulgence slice of homemade carrot cake, a little home-made fruity cheesecake pot and local grilled fish and chips). The results have been great! I feel good in myself - less bloated, more energetic in the afternoons, my skin has got clearer and I've lost 5 pounds! 

But best of all, I just love knowing what I'm eating is fueling and nourishing me from the inside out. I love that my organs and blood and brain and heart and hair and nails and eyes and muscles are all saying, 'Yey! Just what I've been after!'. It just feels right to be eating right.

Plus I'm making lots of new discoveries about weird and wonderful foods that nature has created, which I didn't know existed! Did you know bee pollen was a superfood?! Keep reading to join the discovery...