Eating Clean: Why I won’t let “clean eating” even sit in the same sentence as the word “diet.”

If I had my way a higher power would have already granted me a pair of scissors and permission to cut the word “diet” out of every dictionary.

I don’t like the word. I cringe at the thought of it. The mere mention of D word brings me back to the days of itchy turtlenecks on picture day and unhealthy bouts of claustrophobia. I equate the word “diet” with “deprivation” and a flashing red message in bold marquee letters that reads: FAILURE IN PENDING.

I realized shortly after reading the comments to my post on Clean Eating that I had stumbled upon a buzz word and that a lot of people wanted to get on the path towards eating healthier. Once upon a time I wanted to do the same, but the first lesson (and the biggest lesson) I learned is that clean eating is so much more mental than it is physical. Clean eating is not a diet, clean eating is a choice.

The beef I have with diets is that they are very quick to limit our choices. They boil our selections down to “should eat” and “should not eat.” No carbs. No fats. No sugars. And by being denied of foods that we once centered ourselves on we are more apt to engage in binge eating, to translate our feelings of frustration from deprivation into a large bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce. The diet fails and we head back to the starting point, head down and feet dragging.

Diets show up to convince us that we are missing something. That we are not good enough as is. They tap us on the shoulder, pull us over to the side of the room and whisper, “You know, you really cannot afford that second serving” or “Hunny, give up the donuts, you already have one sitting around your waist.”

Clean eating stands up to this bully; it beats down this concept that forces us into  acts of deprivation and outcomes of low self esteem. Clean eating is all about loving yourself so much that you only want to fill yourself up with the best nutrients and grains that life can offer. Clean eating, contrary to popular belief, is all about abundance.

Instead of saying “I cannot have butter” or “I cannot have carbs,” I think “I can have so much. I have dozens of veggies to choose from. Tons of whole grain selections. A million and one recipes out there that will leave me feeling more satisfied than fries and a burger.” And being in the age of the internet, where a juicy recipe is one Google search away, there is no excuse for not embracing this abundance and diversifying our meals.

I made a promise with myself when I began embracing the clean eating lifestyle.  I decided once and for all to give up my griping and my “victimized dieter” syndrome. No more “Poor me, I cannot have carbs. Down with “Boo hoo, no donuts for me.” No more whining. No more complaining. No more tummy rumbling for all the wrong reasons.

Clean eating fills us up with all the right stuff and we feel stronger and healthier because of it. We should be kissing the feet of a clean diet before we decide to trash talk it. We must shy away from the statements that allow deprivation to saunter into our syllables. It is not, “Ugh, I wish I could have that Nutella right now” but rather “I am choosing something healthier than Nutella. I am doing my body a favor.” We can have all the fat and trans fat we want, make no mistake about that. It is first deciding for ourselves that we want something better for our bodies, that our body is so good to us already that we are deciding to pay the favor back.

In my eyes, clean eating is a privilege. It is a privilege to fill my tummy with foods that will make me a stronger human being. It is an honor to indulge in veggies and whole grains and lean meats and natural ingredients. I could very well put myself on a diet if I wanted to, I could continue to deprive myself and feast upon the negativity that comes with the word. But at the end of the day, clean eating allows me to step away from that Negative Nancy attitude that comes hand in hand with diets these days. It allows me to open my arms up to good foods and love.

Clean eating is a choice. And for any choice to work out in our favor, we have to want to make it. So are you in?

Tagged as: being healthier, diet vs. lifestyle, food