Clean Eating – My Journey so far

Over the years I’ve gradually lost weight but have struggled to shift the last bit of stubborn fat. A lot of people told me I was mad. Even though I was not medically overweight it was the body fat percentage that bothered me.

After many attempts I was ready to give up until my husband suggested I go & see a nutritionist from his networking group. I was ready to try anything.

The starting point was an hour’s session once a week & to my surprise it wasn’t just about eating. As he was NLP trained, we talked about other additional aspects of my life that could have affected my not losing weight so easily.

NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming & is now widely used for personal & business development. If you would like to read further as to what NLP is please click here.

Over the sessions, the hour I had with him wasn’t just about eating. My mind & outlook was being trained mentally to become strong & to think about what I ate & its consequences. A workout regime was also given to compliment my eating plan.

Before beginning this journey, if someone had asked me what is clean eating or a balanced diet I would have probably told you something very different.

So what is clean eating? If you’ve read Clean & Lean Eating by James Duigan he will tell you cut the CRAP, which is an excellent way of summarising it.

C - Caffeine

R - Refined foods

A - Alcohol

P - Processed Foods

Yes it means you should cut all the above initially & treat yourself once in a while. Many suggest there should be only one cheat meal a week & some say one whole cheat day. I do feel this depends on what you are trying to achieve.

All my meals consisted of healthy carbs such as vegetables & fruits; all starchy carbs such pasta, bread rice etc were completely cut out. My breakfast was generally berries or protein based, along with my lunch & dinner consisting of healthy carbs, protein & healthy fats. It’s important to have all 3 present to ensure fat burning.

Along with this I was told to workout 3-4 times a week, which consisted of an hours worth of cardio. Cardio can be monotonous so ensure you have loads of music. I recommend trying the different machines at your local gym as well requesting for an in depth induction.

The first few days can be a challenge as your body is adjusting to the absence of refined sugars & caffeine. That’s when you realise how harmful sugar is & that most of the population are addicted without knowing.

After week 1 I lost 1.5kg & each week I kept losing. I did a plateau in between, however I was able to overcome it. After 4 weeks I suddenly woke up & noticed that the fat of my stomach had literally melted away! I could see some oblique lines. Whoop!!

As a result of the above my thyroid medication was reduced, which goes to show that clean eating had allowed my body to become that bit more efficient.

After this I never wanted to go back to eating the way I use to. We’re all human & at end of the day even I have my moments when I feel like a cheeky chocolate!

So what did I learn from my experience & new way of life!

• You are what you eat!

• Prepping is key to success. (Prepping was carried out by making a meal plan for each week)

• The mind is the most powerful tool that humans own, so use it. When the mind is strong anything is possible! J

• We’re all human so cheat days/meals are allowed.

• Clean eating should be embraced as a lifestyle change not a diet.

In a nutshell I followed a strict clean diet, only 3 hours a week in the gym and lost 6kg of stubborn fat. 8 weeks later there was coco chick from a size 12 to a much happier size 10! :)

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Clean eating is easier to follow than you think & you can get creative with your meals. You can eventually start introducing more healthy foods but listen to your body & its demands. If you’re outputting more physically then you will need to input more with the right foods.

If you feel you want help then enlist in a good nutritionist or read further on it. Joe Wicks & James Duigan are great clean eating gurus to follow. Joe Wicks has his 90 day plan you can sign up to as well as his Leanin 15 book. Remember everyone’s body is different & it will react differently, however the basic rules of cutting the crap are the base of any form of clean eating.

Remember this is a lifestyle change if your not willing to change for the better in the long run than you’ll be wasting your time. There’s no such thing as a quick fix.

I’ll be writing more on my journey so keep posted!

Happy Reading!

Coco Chick xx