Clean Eating: The good, the bad & the ugly

My fitness journey has taught me quite some things about being and eating healthy. Today I will share the good things I have learned, the bad things I’ve experienced and the ugly side I was exposed to.

THE GOOD:

• It made me aware of the wholesome, nutritious, natural foods we need to consume regularly for the health of our bodies, mind and heart.
• I was never ever a meat lover and it taught me to have protein at some or most meals per day.
• It made me conscious about how healthy or unhealthy particular things actual are, rather than what it claims to be.
• It taught me what food classifies as carbohydrates, proteins or fats.

THE BAD:

• Having a structured meal plan with ONLY the things listed as allowed eating, whereas everything else is off limits.
• It shows you that some foods are good while others are bad.
• Needing to space your meals every 2-3 hours and getting obsessed with eating on the clock every single meal, every single day.
• Having a cut off time for dinner.
• Not being allowed to eat carbohydrates after a certain time, which was about 6 PM for me, meaning I had no carbs or glycogen to fuel me after every evening workout.
• It led to excessive food source restrictions: like cutting out food groups such as dairy.
• I no longed enjoyed hearty home-made meals with my family or boyfriends family.
  
• I had a hard time choosing “clean” meals when dining out with friends or family.
• I started to avoid social gatherings because I didn’t want to eat “unclean” foods and cheat on my diet nor did I want to bring pre-prepped foods and feel awkward.
• Meal prep needed to be done when I went on trips or went out of town for appointments.
• Weekends away was an excuse to fill my body with candy, chocolates, chips, takeaways and mostly foods recognised as “unclean” the whole day.
• Having to explain myself the whole time when people asked why I eat what I eat.

• Eating very little throughout the day and being hungry for most of the time.
  

• Having 1 “cheat meal” per week!
• Getting bloated after having my huge cheat meals.
• Having to eat boring, gag-worthy, bland and unseasoned foods every meal, every day.
• Having uncontrollable cravings for everything, even foods or candy that you’ve never even liked before.
• Feeling guilty and emotional after cheating on your diet.

THE UGLY:

• Socially isolating myself from family, friends and loved ones for fear of going off track.
• Being unhappy for most of the time and developing semi-depression.
• The uncontrollable cravings or cheat meals leading to full out binging.
• Trying to compensate for cheating on my diet by attempting to self-induce vomit, taking fat-burners, detox teas and doing strenuous exercise the same of the next day.
• Having an extremely bad relationship with food and eating.
• Spending a lot of money on supplementation that aid in weight loss or burning fat.
• Screwing up my metabolism by eating such few calories in a day, which made my body adapt to the amount of food I ate.
• Gaining a lot of weight when I started eating normally (and due to binge eating).
• Developing Anorexia Nervosa.
• Developing Bulimia Nervosa.
• Suffering from Orhorexia Nervosa.
• Getting a full blown Binge Eating Disorder.

I had a pretty rough time thinking about the good side of eating clean. As you can see, the cons by far outweigh the pros. I am no longer a slave to a meal plan or diet, I don’t restrict my food sources, I eat nutritional food the majority of the time but I do use seasoning and condiments on a daily basis. I no longer eat purely “clean” and I probably won’t ever again. I firmly believe in creating a balance between what is good for your body and what is good for your taste buds. There’s absolutely no need to deprive yourself of the foods you enjoy. Balance, moderation, variety and consistency is the key to a successful and happy life or diet!