What is clean eating? How do you do it? I bet you’re finally ready to make a change. I'll give you 3 secrets (plus a bonus tip) for clean eating for weight loss, but let's start by looking at when it doesn't work right.
Watch the video on YouTube!
-Reggie
Have you struggled to keep up with all or nothing, 1,200 calorie diets? When you tell MyFitnessPal you want to lose weight, it gives you a 1,200 calorie diet. You're like, "What am I supposed to do with that? I don't even know what a calorie is or how many calories I was eating before."
Without the right preparation, a clean eating plan for weight loss is too big of an adjustment, and it doesn’t go well. You go for a month, you fall off, you feel mentally weak, like you're not good enough. Then you start beating yourself up. It's a terrible way to lose weight and build confidence.
What we want to do is keep you from feeling lost, keep you from being a stuck casual implementer because we know that feels terrible. That's just not the way to do it. That's why the Guilt-free Framework is so important to how I teach this.
Stop focusing on the weight loss; focus on your confidence.
Without all of the hardcore weight loss plans and all or nothing diets. Then you don't even have to focus on losing weight; you'll actually just feel more energized, more confident. Then the weight loss will come after that. if you had weight to lose, right? If you make that healthy shift and you are feeling that new energy, you're going to see your body change to reflect that.
So that's what we're up to at Fit for Freelance- guilt-free. I'm not trying to make you feel bad. That's the worst. I mean, when people feel bad, you feel disempowered. You are not leading the healthy, fulfilling life of your dreams, right? You don't have confident ownership of your path to freedom of fitness. All my mission and vision are clear because I want you to take confident ownership of your path.
You know when you're eating things that are less healthy, things that don't make you feel good, things that are very rewarding, but about 30 minutes later, you have a stomach ache- that is not clean eating.
The clean eating stuff is a common guidance that you can find anywhere:
No big news here, right? Eat your veggies. When's the last time you had a salad? If you haven't had a salad in like two days, then there's probably not a whole lot of clean eating happening at your place right now.
You know it’s time to switch that up. Here are the three secrets to help you get to what you know you “should” be doing- what's healthy for you, what you really need to stick to a clean eating plan for weight loss so you're adaptive and ready to take confident ownership.
First and foremost, you have to believe that you're worth it. Have you ever started some kind of plan, then a less healthy option shows up? You tell yourself, "Oh well, this one time." Then there's another just one time, and then there's another just one time…
You know what I'm talking about, especially if you're one of those new year's resolutioners who starts out. I’ve seen people do it right in front of me, where I said, "You don't have to eat that," and they're said, "But I want the cupcake," and they eat the whole cupcake. Then another one. Then they feel bad about it and think “What was I thinking? Why did I even try?”
(To be clear, I love cupcakes. I had a cupcake the day I recorded this video. It was delicious. But I don’t restrict my meals; I'm using the Flexible Food Gameplan that I actually coach. So I have leeway there- but we’ll cover realistic focus later.)
Many times when people make a mistake, they'll fall off and then they'll say, "I'll start again tomorrow. Or I'll start again on Monday." Right? The diet always starts on Monday for whatever reason. You can just start it right now.
Then they never get back to it and they feel bad and guilty about. Then they're off track for another couple months until another event comes up and they remember, "Oh boy, I got to try something."
With confidence and self-compassion, you feel empowered. You know you're worth it. You're going to try your best. If you make a mistake, you can just fix it. You just bounce right back. It’s a key to the Guilt-free Framework.
It’s easy to get stuck if you use apps like MyFitnessPal without context. They basically recommend a 1,200 calories per day diet for anyone trying to start losing weight, but this is a real problem.
If you were eating 2,400 calories, and then you go half, you're going to be hungry. You're going to be grumpy. You're not going to like it. You're going to be like, "Why am I doing this?" because you don't have the vision of focus for it and then it's not realistic for you. How do you just count those calories and not even know what they do for you, how they make you feel, all those steps? It’s unrealistic.
I’m not anti-calorie counting, however, I know there’s more to the picture. I actually use apps for some of my clients; it's just we start with the baseline. We track where you are for three days, then we take a few calories off of that, instead of focusing on 1,200 calories. You need that realistic focus in order to stay on track and that's going to help you with your clean eating.
How easy is it to quit something if it’s just you doing something that no one knows about? It’s a lot easier to let things slide. Do these sound familiar?
"Well, I'm just going to have a little bit.
Oh, a couple of drinks here won't hurt."
I’ll restart on Monday
You don't have anyone keeping you accountable. I've got a group on Facebook that I'm running that we can get some accountability
In the Guilt-free Framework, we also call accountability “a process for ownership.” It can look like investing in a coaching program, betting on yourself or against a friend, or making a donation if you break your contract with yourself. Not wanting to lose is usually more motivating than wanting to win.
So having accountability, having people that know what you're up to you, in addition to that confidence and realistic focus- that's where you get those three beautiful things to come together for an adaptive business leader, starting a clean eating plan, new health habits, or anything you're trying to do.
There's too much guilt and shame in diet culture, weight loss, body composition, the whole scene, including the term “clean eating.” As the guilt-free weight loss coach for entrepreneurs, I like to be careful with language because it matters a lot.
When you think about the opposite of clean, usually your first word is dirty, right? You might think greasy, lots of words that feel bad in contrast to good with clean eating. Maybe you would feel better if you were able to consistently “eat clean.” But while you’re learning, I like to focus on more healthy choices and less healthy choices, or choices that you want to make more often to reach your goals and choice you want to make less often.
Taking loaded language out makes a huge difference! So that's kind of my bonus secret for you today on how to eat clean and having more success.
Any clean eating plan for weight loss you find on the internet- there are tons- can work. It’s just that you need to use them so they work for you. Which of these secrets are you ready to try today? Confidence and self-compassion, realistic focus, accountability, or being more careful with your language are all great starts.
If you’re ready to invest in your health, confidence, and success, I have the 30-day Plant-based Training Camp, where you learn what to buy and how to cook it. You get the grocery list, recipes, the complete meal plan, macros, and more for 30 days. It's easy to follow. It's delicious. Those are some tasty recipes- I did it myself and I had great results.
It works.
If you want to start with a free offer, I have the Plant-based Snack Pack that's a completely free download with a sample of five of the favorite groceries and recipes from the Training Camp.
Both make it simple to start eating healthier, feel that energy and confidence, then really get back to loving your body and taking confident ownership of your path to freedom and fitness.
Keep practicing
Reggie
