#22: Clean Eating 5-Day Challenge

A friend recently sent me an invite on Facebook to join a 5-Day Clean Eating Challenge. I typically eat fairly healthy, but lately I’ve felt like I needed some inspiration to step things up. With diet and exercise, like most people, I always do better when I have a specific goal or program to focus on. And her message said side effects of a clean eating diet might include:

• Feeling better
• Improved digestion
• Mental clarity
• Enhanced mood
• Better sleep
• Weight loss
• Less bloat
• And much more good stuff!

I could use all of these things, so I decided to give it a try. She’s a Beachbody coach and she and another coach created the event to offer support and accountability for participants. They posted some initial details on how to eat clean, and I did some additional research to be sure I understood all of the do’s and don’ts.

Clean eating is about getting rid of processed foods that contain chemicals that can be harmful to our bodies. The idea for the challenge was that NOTHING you eat would have an ingredients label, unless it listed the whole foods that it contained. Everything should be food you can get from nature.

Again, I do try to eat pretty healthy, so I figured this would be easy. My diet regularly consists of vegetables and I primarily eat healthy carbs and grilled or baked meats.

However, it was much more difficult than I thought. I didn’t realize how many unnatural ingredients are in many of the sauces, marinades and dressings I typically use. And almost all of the breads and snack foods in our house were not clean. My favorite Greek yogurt, “healthy” frozen meals, canned veggies and flavored waters were also out of the question.

It was kind of fun though to go shopping and find things I could actually eat for these five days…primarily fresh fruits and veggies. I also hit up Sprouts and Whole Foods for some clean protein and grain options. And it was even fun at first to only eat clean food.

I admit that excitement wore off pretty quickly but I managed to make it through the full five-day challenge.  And with the exception of day two (when according to my family I became very irritable and grumpy), I experienced almost all of the benefits listed above.The challenge also helped me realize a few things:

• Taking pictures of your food can be a great tool. Before this week I thought people who constantly snap pictures of their food were a little strange, but by chronicling my diet I felt much more inspired to make sure I followed the rules and I tried harder to have lots of color on my plate.
• There’s a lot to look at on labels. I’ve been a label reader most of my life, but until now I primarily looked at fat, calorie and sodium content. I had no idea how many artificial ingredients and preservatives were in food I thought was healthy. This experience will definitely impact my future grocery trips.
• Restaurant food can be a mystery. Like most people, my family stays busy. My husband and I both work full time and our kids are in activities almost every night, so we tend to eat out more than we should. For these five days I mostly avoided restaurants to ensure I stayed clean. But I’ll be much more selective and inquisitive about restaurant food preparation and origin in the future.

Overall I enjoyed the challenge and gained a lot of knowledge from the experience. I encourage others to try it as a way to learn more about what you’re putting into your body and to experience the health benefits that go along with clean eating. My 5-day challenge ended yesterday, but what I learned will absolutely impact my future food choices.

Only 18 more experiences to go!