5 Reasons Your "Clean" Diet Won't Work...

My friend Ian wrote this guest post...It's pretty hilarious, and very true based on my experience.  I hope it helps you tweak your diet, and encourages you to stick to your clean eating plan!

~Amy Crouse

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5 Reasons your Clean Diet Won't Work...

 

1.  You still eat TONS of sugar

"Giving up sugar" is great and all, but you may still be sucking down enough carbs throughout the day to fuel an entire team of marathon runners.  If you're tossing back an apple, chasing it with a banana, and topping it off with a mango, you're not going to see a whole lot of results in the way of weight loss, or performance. 

Make sure you're balancing your carbs out with healthy fats, and protein (google "paleo zone diet" for more on this).  Also, try to get lots of your carbs from VEGETABLES instead of always reaching for a piece of fruit.

2. You've never counted calories.

Don't get me wrong. Turning your life into a math equation is never fun, but it would do everyone some good to track their caloric intake for a time.  The Lose It app available in the iTunes store is a good way to do this.  You may not have to track your calories forever, but do it long enough to know whether you're consistently eating too many (or too few) calories.

3.  You follow the letter of the law, but abuse the spirit of it

Ok now let's see....I can have almonds...honey...raw cocoa....and coconut oil.  This means I can eat a dozen paleo no-bake chocolate almond cookies! (Which are delicious by the way). 

Eating Paleo is a great way to give yourself some healthy parameters, but don't pretend to be some sort of health nut while you're eating a pound of honey and fat every day.

In short...don't try to eat a "clean diet" by transforming your clean ingredients into a smorgasbord of culinary debauchery.

4.  You "only cheat a little bit."

Diet's are a bit like spouses.  Even cheating on them "a little bit" will have drastic consequences.  I see this all the time at our gym.  People "sorta" do paleo, and then report back that it only "sorta" worked.  If you're not seeing a ton of results...take a closer look at what you're doing, and see how you might reign in all your little cheats. 

As Saint Augustine said:  "Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation." Cheating a little bit is a slippery slope, and can lead to cheating a lot.  Do yourself a favor.  Be faithful to the plan, and it will be faithful to you.

5.  You don't plan ahead!

If you don't want us to find you in the gutter languishing in the final morsels of a leftover birthday cake, you need to plan ahead. 

I might be (slightly) exaggerating, but you really are tempting fate if you don't surround yourself with healthy snacks. 

Without an alternative, you'll be doing a swan dive off the wagon into the box of cookies in the break room.  We make terrible decisions when we're hangry (a mixture of hungry and angry).  Buy LOTS of groceries...Stash food everywhere...plan...plan...plan!

So there you have it!

5 ways you may be sabotaging your clean eating plan. 

However, many of you find that the occasional cheat meal keeps you from inflicting violence on the world around you.  You may have no need/desire to toe the line and follow a rigid eating plan.  You may want 6-pack abs a little less than you want tacos. 

Which is why we made this super-fun T-shirt...