Eating a Clean Diet for Permanent Weight Loss

If you want to lose some weight then following a healthy eating
plan is a good start, but allowing someone else to dictate
exactly what, when and how much you can eat is crazy making.
Guidance is good but ultimately you must learn to make better
choices in your eating which leads to your gaining the ability
to maintain your new shape after the weight has been lost. The
Clean Diet is the answer.

What is the Clean Diet?

The Clean Diet means different things to different people. My
version is less strict than some because frankly I’m not a
competitive body builder and I don’t have a modeling contract.
Unless you must maintain a specific body weight (as actors
sometimes do for instance), you probably are of the same mind as
I; that being, I want to lead a basically normal life. Eating
out sometimes, enjoying parties sometimes, and generally not
feeling like I have to “watch what I eat” or suffer the
consequences. The way I eat is sometimes called the non-dieting
approach because I don’t diet, but I do pay attention. That’s
what the Clean Diet means: paying attention to what you’re
eating.

What Can I Eat on The Clean Diet?

Vegetables: Enjoy unlimited raw, steam, baked. Go for it. I
don’t know anyone who got fat because they ate too many
vegetables and that includes carrots, beans, corn and potatoes.
Unless you are allergic, there is no reason to shun fresh
vegetables. Yes they contain carbohydrates. Get over it. Wean
yourself from sauces, and learn to like them without added
butter or salt. Vegetables like carrots and beets for instance
are very high in natural sugars (that’s the point — nature
intended to give you sweet things whereby you’d WANT to eat them
and would consequently get adequate Vitamin C among other
things).

Fruit: Try to eat at least one or two pieces a day. More is
fine. There is no reason to restrict yourself to one-quarter of
a cantaloupe or 1 small apple. Who comes up with these rules
anyway? An apple contains less than 100 calories. That’s not
exactly going to break the diet bank, is it? Eat all the fresh
fruit you like, especially late at night if you’re working on
learning to give up your chips or cookies habit. Apples are
great for snacking, as are grapes, bananas, kiwi or anything
else you like. Try to eat mostly fresh fruit, and saved canned
fruits for once in awhile.

Dried fruits such as raisins are a super concentrated food
source and should be treated with respect. A few thrown on your
morning cereal or in your trail mix is fine, but remember super
concentrated food is also high calorie food. You don’t need a
lot to get the nutrients. Learn the difference between densely
packed nutrients and loosely packed nutrients. Fresh fruit is
loosely packed, high in water content, and dried fruit is dense
with little or no water. Corn-on-the-cob is loose, corn syrup is
dense (and processed too).

An ounce of raisins contains 85 calories and 201 mg of
Potassium, while an ounce of fresh grapes is a mere 20 calories.
You’d need four times the fresh grapes to equal the dried.

Clean foods are as close to their natural state as possible
without being fanatical about it. There is a world of difference
between a baked potato and a bowlful of potato chips. One is a
good source of nutrients and one is a highly refined, richly
saturated fat, greasy, salty, modified source of nothing but
smears on your napkin. One is satisfying and one leaves you
wanting more. Betcha can’t eat just one was more than a catch
phrase for Lay’s Potato Chips. It’s a truism.

Grains & Beans: Whole grains like whole wheat, rice, millet,
barley, and others. Drop the habit to eat chips and crackers out
of a box. Once in awhile is okay, but if you eat them regularly,
then you need to make a modification. Cakes, crackers and the
like are simply not good for everyday fare, if you want to reach
a healthy bodyweight. Once in awhile, or special occasions is
fine, just not every day. Not even every other day. Once a week
is plenty, and if you can’t commit to weaning yourself off those
foods, then you need to adjust to living with a higher body
weight. It’s not a character flaw, but it is a fact you must
face. What you eat, dictates how healthy you will be, both mind
and body.

Whole grain means whole grain. Bread that lists whole wheat is
not 100% whole grain. Watch out. Seeing Whole Wheat on the
package means nothing. You want to see either 100% Whole Wheat
or 100% Whole Grain. Brown bread is not always whole grain, but
it may be brown because some molasses was added to color it
brown. Whole grain breads are heavier, more dense, chewier. I
think they are better. You might not share that belief,
especially if you’re used to the light and fluffy white bread.

When I was a teenager I could easily eat 10 slices of white
bread french toast and still not feel satisfied. How ridiculous
is that? I could, on the other hand, eat about three pieces of
whole grain bread french toast and that was enough.

Many people think if it is brown it is healthier, but it is not
true. If it is whole grain it is better than refined, but that
isn’t licence to eat lots of bread. A sandwich now and then is
just fine, thank you. The best breads are heavy. Think of being
a peasant sitting around a fire cooking a thick soup. What kind
of bread would be best to sop it up? Some lame white bread that
would disintegrate if liquid touched it, or a thick, hearty
brown bread that could serve as a staple if need be? I’ll take
the second.

My favorite thing to eat is brown rice with stuff. “Stuff” means
any vegetable concoction, or sauce, or just something to sort of
mix in there. Use a little oil, preferably olive or sesame for
flavor. My favorite quick vegetable is steamed sliced carrots
and onions. Both onions and carrots are naturally sweet and
ultra delicious all by themselves. Once you learn to simply eat
foods the way nature presents them, you’ll find your appetite
stays more in line with better health.

I didn’t intend to create a food rule book. My intention is to
point out that you need not live on a skimpy portion of grains
like 1/2 cup of oatmeal with 1/4 cup skimmed milk and a half a
slice of dry toast for breakfast. Eat hearty. I’m an example of
how hearty eating will enhance your health, and bring your
weight into line, not the opposite. I’ll have one or two cups of
oatmeal with raisins and a sprinkle of brown sugar (it won’t
kill you) or if you’ve grown used to it, no sweetener at all.
Use milk if you like, or soy milk.

Lean Meats, Chicken, Fish: Support your local butcher and
farmer. When you buy your meat from a local butcher you can be
assured you are getting the best available. Okay, it costs more
than the grocery store brand. If you want the best, buy the
best. Avoid farm bred fish at all costs. Simply ask your meat
counter to stock fresh fish.

Desserts, treats, snacks: It’s okay to eat these things, but
practice moderation. If you can’t do that, and think you’ll eat
the whole bag, then don’t get them when you’re alone. Share some
with someone else. Buy the smaller size package. Do whatever it
takes, but don’t tell yourself you can never eat any certain
food again, because that just makes it all the more difficult to
handle it when the time comes.

The Clean Diet is More a Way of Life than a Strict Set of Eating
Rules

Most people will allow themselves one or more “cheat days” every
week. The best plan is simply to choose eating clean as your
primary eating style, and when you don’t you don’t but every
meal stands alone. If you over ate at breakfast, you just eat
your usual lunch. You don’t try to “make up for it” by skimping
on lunch. That’s an equation that will never work. Just eat
normally, and when you occasionally overeat, so be it. That way,
rather than always thinking in terms of, “I’ll start my diet
again next Monday,” you just get right back on your plan. While
no foods are forbidden on a clean eating plan, common sense
rules the day.

See if eating a Clean Diet might work for you. Start by adding
more fresh fruit, and a few vegetables. Buy frozen vegetables
and add them to your other foods, such as when you eat a frozen
meal for instance. If you want chips with your sandwich, take a
handful (and a half, if you want) and put it on your plate,
rather than bringing the whole bag of chips to the table. Decide
in advance how many cookies you’ll have. Will four be enough,
how about five? It’s still better than half a bag. Take it one
day at a time, one meal at a time, and you’ll find things
happening in no time.

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