What it means to eat clean, Accountability and my new challenge

Hey Guys and Dolls!

Today I will discuss what it means to eat clean, why its important to be accountable for your progress and will tell you my new challenge which I have set for myself! Exciting!

Eating Clean

The mistake a lot of people are making when setting themselves fitness goals is they spend hours in the gym to burn calories but then choose to invade their body with junk food thereby defeating all the hard work achieved at the gym. 

Food is the answer to your health goals, essentially you are what you eat! Eat junk and you body will show it and you will feel lethargic coupled with bad skin. However if you eat whole and healthy fresh food, your body and skin will glow with health and your energy levels will increase.

Eating clean is where you avoid eating PROCESSED and REFINED foods based on a diet of whole foods.

Essentials to Eating Clean

The essential principles to eating clean is as follows:

1. Eat whole foods- these are foods that have not been tampered with, the come straight from the farm, such as whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains, grass fed and free range meat, low fat dairy products unsalted nuts and seeds. (We have lots of markets here in Lagos where these whole foods are delivered straight from the farm - so no excused for my Nigerian readers!)

   - Cut out refined grains - such as white flour, white rice

2. Avoid processed foods - these are those foods that have labels. Obviously things like whole grain pasta does not have to be avoided. But when you go to the supermarket read the labels and if you can not pronounce an ingredient then don't put it in your shopping basket! 

3. Eliminate refined sugar - calorie heaven! There is no room for this in a eating clean plan. Look for alternatives such as natural honey, and sweeteners

4. Cook your own meals- it is quick and simple, and you not only save some money but most importantly you know what is going into your plate. This will really aid in your journey to clean living! 

5. Cut down on salt - this will lower our risk of heart disease by 9% according to New England Journal of Medicine. Again avoid eating out too often and avoid processed foods which can be very high in sodium.

6. Cut down Saturated fats - such as while milk, cheese, butter and meat. You can do this by swapping animal fats for plant foods like nuts (unsalted almonds YUM!) avocado and olive oil. 

7. Drink water- this is the best drink to consume, a lot of people say they hate the taste of water *shrug* it has no taste lol, why not squeeze some lemon or lime in it to to give it the kick you need! Much better than chugging down a 330ml can of coke which is 141.9calories! It also has about 39g of sugar thats like 10 teaspoons! How many in water? 0! I know what I'd rather choose! 

Also why not swap your coffee for green tea? It aids in boosting immunity and fights cavities. 

Those are the main guidelines to having a clean diet! It may seem like a lot but down the road it will be well worth it. Good health and looking good! If you are new to this slowly weed out all the bad stuff especially refined sugars and incorporate your whole foods! Fruits are such a great way to cure that sweet tooth so stock up!

One key thing you will need to do is PLAN if you fail to plan you plan to fail! So ensure you have a food plan for the week, I don't have one written physically but I am always making a mental note and planning ahead. You can also do meal prep for the week by cooking all the food you will eat for the week over the weekend like on a Sunday, whatever suits your routine. 

Once you have all that in place all that work at the gym will pay off and you won't feel discouraged during your weekly weigh ins when the scale has not budged or you have gained a few pounds! 

My motto: abdominal exercise will build muscle; the kitchen is where your abs work is revealed! This really goes for all parts if the body that you are targeting! 

Moving on! I will keep the next part short and sweet!

Accountability 

When you start your journey it is important to stay accountable to yourself about your progress. I would advice you first to set yourself a REALISTIC goal. Once your goal is set you are good to go! 

Take pictures along the way, weekly weigh ins, but even more important than the scales is measuring yourself! Inches sometimes is a far better indication than what the scales tell you, so don't obsess over the scales. Once you stay accountable to yourself it is easier to review or understand why things may be going wrong with your plan, or more importantly continue to encourage you to keep up the good work! 

You may also want to download the app called 'myfitness pal' it really helps to track your progress and provides rough idea of how many calories you need to eat a day to lose/gain up to 2llbs a week (which is the healthy number to lose a week) 

You can also start a blog and write about your progress or appoint a willing buddy to start their own journey with you, that way you can both account to each other about your progress.

Most importantly do not cheat when accounting to yourself! You are only deceiving yourself! So if you had a bad week ACKNOWLEDGE it and plan how you will make today every other day different. If you gain 1kg or so it is not the end of the world, you can always get back on the wagon so don't beat yourself up about little/minimal weight gain.

Finally

New challenge

I know I have said I do not plan to lose anymore weight, however I am giving myself a Summer abs challenge with which I want to lean out a little more and have defined abs. I know some people find it hard to think why a woman wants defined abs however this is 21st century, so lets keep moving with time! I don't want to look like the women that compete in weight competitions, just aiming for a nice firm bikini body look if you know what I mean. 

I have decided this will entail me losing 3 more kilos and absolute clean eating for at least the next month and training dirty with the aid of Shaun T and friends! Then 20 minutes skipping in the evening.  I will also look into spin classes I heard there is one at Four Points in Victoria Island. I'm still intermittent fasting as always  :)

Inserted is a pic I took this weekend of my before and current abs situation! 

Current weight: 57.8kgs aiming for 55kgs 

Apparently I have 15.5% body fat, I don't know how accurate that is, I will try and get the proper tools to better determine this percentage and update you in a later post!

That's all folks! If you have any questions please leave them below, or tweet me @bunmilosingit 

Xx