**DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A DOCTOR, TRAINER, NUTRITIONIST, OR DIETITIAN. THIS POST IS BASED SOLELY ON MY EXPERIENCE. I AM NOT AN EXPERT. PRIOR TO STARTING ANY DIET/WORKOUT PROGRAM SEEN ON MY BLOG, PLEASE CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR SO THAT YOU DON’T HARM YOUR BODY AND HEALTH. I AM NOT LIABLE FOR ANY HEALTH ISSUES THAT MAY ARISE IF YOU TRY A DIET WITHOUT CONSULTING YOUR DOCTOR FIRST.
As most of you know, I’ve tested out quite a number of diets over the years. I’ve always been obsessed with my body, and I decided to take that unhealthy obsession, and turn it into a healthy obsession. I never dieted the proper or healthy way. Nowadays, I will test out diets and listen to my body. I will never starve myself again, or think that eating a little amount of food is the healthy way to loose weight. After testing out so many different diets, they have all had something very similar in common; to eat real food.
Now, what is real food? This is food that is not processed. So, those “TV Dinners” are out of the question. Those chicken nuggets from McDonald’s that have 3 specific shapes (LOL, if you never noticed it, now you will), yup, that’s a big nope. Basically, anything that you don’t make yourself from scratch is not real food. All of the stuff that you don’t make yourself tastes really good, trust me I know, but it’s not good for your body. You’ll see in the pictures below what clean eating is on each diet. For example, the 21 Day Fix doesn’t allow you to have that much healthy fat, whereas on Keto you have to eat more healthy fats than protein. Then if you take a look at Whole30, there’s almost no fat, while Mediterranean allows it as well but in moderation.
The problem with diets or what some consider clean eating, is that it’s different for everyone. A low carb diet may be good for some people, whereas it can be harmful to others. My one friend and I were having a conversation about this not too long ago. Her doctor told her that she has a low sodium level and that she needs a lot of sodium. Whereas, I cannot have that much salt because I almost instantly bloat. I’ll eat one chicken cutlet that has some salt on it, and I instantly have a rounder face, and tighter jeans.
My mom and I have higher sugar levels, so low carb is the best for our bodies. I actually took a health test and the best diet for my body type is Keto/Atkins. A lot of people have told me that Keto/Atkins cannot be a lifestyle diet because of all of the other health issues that may arise from this. This isn’t true for all people. One of my coworkers at my last job was on the Atkins diet for several months and not only did she lose a lot of weight but her doctor ran her blood work and told her that whatever she had been doing to continue because her blood work came back perfect, and the best she’s ever seen it.
When it comes to dieting and clean eating, you really need to listen to your body, and you should speak with your doctor ahead of time. Do a ton of research on different diets and look for warning signs if the diet is not for you. Or, you can even take the plunge and go to a nutrionist to see if they can make a specific diet for you as well. Below are some of the clean eating diets that I’ve done, and you can see just by looking at the pictures, just how different they really are.
21 Day Fix
This is probably the cleanest eating I’ve done since I lived at home. My mom always tried to feed us really healthy foods and everything was made from scratch. My mom LOVES to cook. She finds a lot of enjoyment from it. If you aren’t familiar with the 21 Day Fix, this was one of my favorite diets because it was all about portion control, and I got to eat throughout the day instead of eating 3 bigger meals a day. This diet was low carb, and if you did eat carbs, it had to be whole wheat, and carbs of that nature. It was high in protein and veggies. What I liked is that it didn’t take out healthy fats completely (I love cheese even though it’s high in calories, and avocados) and you were allowed to eat fruits. Everything was in moderation and in containers, and once you got used to how much food should be in those containers, you didn’t even have to use them anymore. The only thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was the Shakeology shakes because even though they were tasty, I feel like they didn’t fill me up enough for a meal. The recipes were actually really delicious, and with this diet I was able to be really creative.
Mediterranean Diet
Sorry for the paper plate pictures, but unfortunately my plates and silverware haven’t delivered to my new home yet. Now, this is a diet that I just started, and I must say, next to the 21DF diet, this is a top favorite. There is no counting, no containers, no measuring, no weighing. The point of this diet isn’t to lose weight, it’s to be healthy which is what I like. Some people don’t lose weight on this diet which they get discouraged about, but it’s promoting a healthy life with still being able to live comfortably. If you want to go out with friends and binge, you can. You just eat healthy the rest of the time. It’s a very relaxed diet, and after doing some research online, it looks like it’s going to be THE diet of 2019. I will review this diet once I’ve done it for some time.
Keto Diet
This was a very controversial diet of 2018. I’ve known about this diet since 2005 when I was diagnosed with epilepsy. I did a bunch of research, and this diet was used as a way of treatment in some epilepsy patients and they were seizure free. That is why I wanted to try it because I had a seizure for the first time in several years in November of 2017. I stayed on my medication obviously because, that is not something I’m going to mess around with, and I will say, Keto made me feel like a different person. They say that there is something that happens in the state of ketosis that affects the brain positively. I felt the best I have felt since before I had the my first seizure in 2005. I felt like I was seizure free. Not to mention, I also lost a decent amount of weight. The only problem, was there was a lot of planning and measuring involved in this diet. That is why it was so hard to maintain for me. However, the recipes were soooooo good.
Intermittent Fasting
I spoke to someone who is in the health and fitness industry and knows a lot about all of the fad diets, she focuses more on strength and building that instead of weight loss, and one of the things that she said was that Intermittent Fasting may be good for a male, but won’t be as good for a female. Both in results, and health. Women are designed differently than men. I personally didn’t mind IF, because eating breakfast started to become too hard for me to do because of my stomach and because I just didn’t have time because of my last job. In the first few days it was hard because I felt really hungry, but once I got over that, it was so easy for me to do. It did help me lose weight, and I did do this in addition to Keto, however, in my personal opinion, I don’t think it’s healthy to do long term. I know that people will argue this with me, but I just don’t see how something so extreme can be healthy.
Whole 30
If you read any of my posts regarding the Whole30, you know that I hated it. I thought it was the worst diet of all time. The food was not good, and there were so many restrictions. Physically I felt terrible. Mentally, I felt even worse. I think this diet just had way too many restrictions. The fact that once you’re done you have to ease yourself back into certain food groups is terrible. I ate a piece of cheese (just a small piece) and instantly went running to the bathroom. It took about 2 weeks for my body to not have a negative reaction. I think when you’re doing that extreme of a diet or eating regimen it’s not right for your body. I know that it’s to see which foods make you feel terrible and bloat, but I already know that beans and dairy make me bloat, so I tried this diet as an experiment. Needless to say that I gained almost all the weight back that I lost. The restrictions made it really hard to not binge eat everything in sight afterwards.
***
At the end of the day, I think that diets shouldn’t be so restrictive, unless you have a major medical condition. I think that you should live a healthy lifestyle, with occasional days of being able to eat junk food. All of the diets above are what the health and fitness industry would call fad diets. I would agree, however, some of these actually work for some people and they are able to maintain a healthy lifestyle because of them. I was having a conversation with my fiance the other day and we were talking about how I’m always trying out these diets and how only a few have really truly worked for me. It drives him crazy when I test all of these diets out because he doesn’t get why I do them, and why I don’t just eat in moderation the rest of the time. My problem is that when I’m on a diet, I have so much discipline and I’m able to follow it whereas when I’m not on a diet I binge eat. I have absolutely no control. I don’t know what it is, but it’s almost like a switch in my brain. I think this may come from my love from food and because when I was younger I would binge eat and then purge on working out. I didn’t make myself throw up or anything, but I would work out for hours on end. I recorded my work outs so that every day I would do one more crunch or one more pushup. My friends at school had actually talked to the guidance counselor and told him that I had an eating disorder and were concerned. That’s my issue, is there is no in between with me. I go extreme with anything that I do. When I’m working out, I don’t half ass anything and I go into beast mode every time.
xoxo Monica
Follow along on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter
Style Elixir // The Fashion Canvas // Walking in Memphis in High Heels // I do deClaire // Pumps and Pushups // Elegantly Dressed & Stylish // Elegance and Mommyhood // Posh Classy Mom // Glass of Glam// Shelbee on the Edge // Foxy Domestic Side // Style Assisted // This Main Life // Cappuccino and Fashion // Threads for Thomas
