Ahhh Wellness Wednesday, my favorite!
So today I wanted to bring up a topic that seems to be everywhere: clean eating! I thought I would share with you my clean eating journey, how I stay balanced and what clean eating means to me these days.
To me, Ambitious Kitchen is a clean-eating focused food blog. Although I do have many baked goodies, many of them are healthy, better for you versions of my favorite treats. Some favorites include these banana chocolate chip muffins, the dark chocolate raspberry oatmeal cookies and even these ridiculously delicious chickpea blondies. Over the past few years, I’ve started baking with more unrefined sweeteners and focusing more on the actual nutritional value of the recipe, versus just the calories. This helped Ambitious Kitchen be what it is today and above all, I hope it inspires you to eat better, learn a little about food, get creative and have a balanced, healthy relationship with food.
As I guided AK (and myself) to become a health-focused food blog, I also learned a great deal about new foods and how to bake and cook with them. This clean eating journey wasn’t easy. I mean for the most part, I was eating clean about 60% of the time, but I knew there were certain areas that I could improve such as baking with grain free flours, unrefined sweeteners and healthier fats. So I started experimenting A LOT. I baked gluten free goodies and switched up my carbs for healthier ones like sweet potatoes. I used coconut oil instead of butter. I ate more vegetables and REAL food instead of packaged protein bars and sweet potato fries.
I wanted to share what clean eating is, what it means to me and how I approach it with balance.
So, what exactly is clean eating?
Clean eating is NOT a temporary diet. Clean eating is a lifestyle and a way that you choose to eat. When you choose to eat clean, you eliminate many processed and refined foods. Clean eating is NOT a trend, it’s simply choosing to eat fresh, seasonal, wholesome, healthy food. Typically clean eating means avoiding packaged or boxed food, eating of the earth often (lots of veggies + fruit). It means looking for simple and few ingredients that you can actually pronounce. Basically your going to be making DIY versions of your favorite things: salad dressings, sauces, granola bars, salads, marinades, bread, desserts, etc.
My initial thoughts on clean eating:
So after I first thought about clean eating, I had several questions. Does clean eating mean you can’t eat bread? So does this make me gluten free too? What about paleo? And yogurt comes in a container, so is that out? SO CONFUSING.
After doing some research, I realized that it really depends on how far you want to take it. It’s a little unrealistic to expect for something never to come from a box, bag or can. And when did wheat become so terrible? (Unless you are GF, of course!). Wheat is not the devil and either are carbs. Paleo is great, but for a lot of people it’s only great sometimes. Often times I’m eating paleo for a day and don’t even realize it (salads, chicken, eggs, sweet potatoes, almond butter, etc.).
My clean eating philosophy:
Clean eating should allow for flexibility. You need to make choices that are right for your personal self. For me, I absolutely eat greek yogurt because I love the protein and probiotics it provides me. I don’t eat bread often, but sometimes I really enjoy a sandwich so when I choose to buy bread, I look for bread without any added sugar and 100% whole wheat or sprouted. I’m not a huge regular cheese fan, but I’m never not having cheese on my enchiladas. When I’m with Tony, sometimes I eat french fries. Two times a year, I enjoy a big, juicy cheeseburger. I make elaborate cookies, cakes and pies with way too much butter for special birthdays.
BUT for the most part (about 80% time) I’m eating clean. And that is 100% okay with me. For me in particular, a healthy food balance is great for my mental health AND my physical health. For two years during and after college, I didn’t touch a cookie, piece of cake, french fry or ice cream. Chocolate was off limits too. I was clean eating to the extreme. I even sacrificed my love of baking because I didn’t want to eat any of the final product.
These days, enjoying a cookie or frozen yogurt helps me to stay satisfied. Having a slice of cake at a birthday party makes me want to work out a little bit harder the next day. It motivates me just a little bit, but without any guilt. Now I enjoy those ooey-gooey cookies (even if they are baked a little bit healthier).
A concern about clean eating:
Lately I’ve heard of many young women taking clean eating to an extreme to the point where it becomes an eating disorder. Have you heard of Orthorexia? A few of my readers have asked me to address it in a Wellness Wednesday because it’s a fairly unknown, but common eating disorder. My guess is that it may be becoming more common due to our society’s obsession with looking perfect. Plain and simple, there’s a difference between eating healthy and an obsession with eating only certain foods because they are healthy. Please make sure to talk to someone if you think you might be struggling with this. Trust me, it helps.
My balanced approach to clean eating:
I eat clean most of the time, but I also indulge myself in treats that aren’t clean but often put a smile on my face. I want to create a life that’s enriched with food, culture, but also making sure I’m providing my body with fuel for proper energy. And that’s what keeps me fulfilled.
A quick note:
This may be completely different for you. Everyone’s approach to eating and their relationship with food is never the same. Most of all, I love that we’re all able to share our experiences with one another without judgment.
Please take the time to leave a comment, it always means the world to me and I know others in the AK community love seeing them too!
This week’s questions:
1. Do you practice clean eating?
2. How do you stay balanced while you eat clean?
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Monique, I have been following your blog for a while and just stumbled upon this post and LOVE IT! I honestly agree with just about everything you said and how you phrased it! For the longest time I struggled with body image issues and issues with food and eating in public. I was irrationally concerned about how much I was eating (but not necessarily what I was eating), not keeping a lot of what I did eat down, and working out obsessively to make up for what I did eat. It took me a while to realize just how unhealthy that approach was, how dangerous, and how unhappy it made me. For the past year and a half, I have truly discovered BALANCE and learning how to treat my body and self well. I firmly believe in the 80/20 rule and have rediscovered what it is to eat and enjoy food! Not to mention I feel stronger when I workout, I’m happier and so much more confident! Thank you so much for sharing this! I think it’s super important and love how you presented what it means to eat clean and still treat yourself!
Hi thanks for this commentary. I am 4 days away from finishing my first whole 30. . Was struggling wth how extreme to stay or how much to transition back to foods I’ve abstained from. . This was really quite helpful.
For such a young age Ive had a lot of ups and downs with food and fitness. From a 6th grader putting herself on a fruit and bread diet (what even?!) , a young high schooler binging on weekends & doing weight watchers during the week (no veggies in those daily points), experiencing anorexia, orthoexic, crazy cardio, and resisting even just a bite of the treats I baked almost every day (go figure, my passion is pastry). Finally I have found beautiful balance through crossfit, clean eating with the 80/20 rule and realizing there is so much more to life!! I had pizza for dinner but eggs and fruit for breakfast. Ill have my veggies for lunch and maybe some froyo for dessert. It really is about listening to your body and your soul at the same time. I love love love your blog and instagram, honestly i feel like a mini you! Cats + Almond butter + healthy baking = <3333
Thank you so much for your post and the reminder. Cant wait for more wellness wednesdays!
I’m so glad I clicked over to this from your sidebar. I LITERALLY was about to type into google ‘what is clean eating’ and then look what I found while perusing your blog 🙂 after this paleo diet, I’m making it my mission to eat cleaner and eat way less sugar and do a 80/20 on eating well/healthy. I have a feeling I’ll be coming to your blog lots for inspiration! 🙂
Love this post. So open and honest,
While I never stricly followed any ‘clean eating’ rules I’ve definitely been to extremes with my diet before and am finally finding a point I’d call balanced. I like how you’re using the words ‘enriched’ and ‘fulfilled’ to describe what you’re striving for in life. Because I think to live just that way we have to free ourselves of any set-in-stone rules and an approach like 80/20 [varying on some days] sets us up with a good mindset.
I love this post! I think it is so important to figure out what works for your body. I mostly eat Paleo (in large part because my fiance has an auto immune disease and needs to cut out inflammatory foods). When I first started Paleo, I was really strict about it, because I felt like I had to follow the rules. But then I realized that my body was able to handle healthy foods like greek yogurt, brown rice, and quinoa. And that just because they aren’t “paleo”, that doesn’t mean that they should be cut out of my life forever. I think the key to balance is listening to your body. My fiance eat’s goat’s milk yogurt because his body can’t handle cow’s milk. But I still eat regular cow’s milk yogurt from time to time because my body can. Taking the time to really listen to my body has been the best way for me to eat as clean as possible, which is paleo about 70% of the time.
I feel the same way about clean eating. It’s a lifestyle and not a “diet.” I love the way I feel after I know I’ve eaten food thats good for me all day. When I’m tempted with something bad for me, I think about how I’ll feel after I eat it and that helps me stay on track. I definitely indulge on the weekends though and that keeps me satisfied and happy and it’s what works for me. A long run and some deep dish pizza and beer is a perfect Saturday in my book 🙂
Hi Monique! Wonderful post 🙂 I personally love eating clean (especially since I’m lactose and gluten intolerant, so I need to eat right nutritionally) but like you have learned that baked goods and chocolate aren’t necessarily bad. Unfortunately I have noticed a very close friend of mine develop an unhealthy relationship to the point of a type of orthorexia or anorexia. I don’t know what to do in this situation, but hopefully she will soon discover all this wonderful information you put in your post today. xx
Omg, every single one of these photos makes me drool. For real. Additionally, I love your balanced approach! I was just talking to someone today about the 80/20 rule 🙂 and how I cook “clean” or healthy for myself, but allow for treats as well. <3
Monique, we both share a very similar outlook both on and off the blog regarding ‘clean eating’- I love how you highlighted that everyone’s definition is different too!
I love your wellness posts! So inspiring!! I can totally relate on so many levels when it comes to figuring out the “clean eating” world – it’s all so confusing at first!
I’m scared to talk to someone if I feel orthorexic. I have moments of it 🙁 if I tell my parents they’ll send me to a hospital and if I tell anyone else they wouldn’t understand.
Anyways, I love your approach on clean eating! I’ve learned to start indulging a bit more and allowing myself to eat more of what I used to fear!
Don’t be scared. It is completely worth getting the help. It ‘s hard and a tough habit to get over. I can completely relate to family not understanding, but your health is very important 🙂 Stay strong!