3,2,1........GO

courtesy of Pinterest

Welcome to Clean Eating Chronicles! This blog is MY experience ONLY; I am simply sharing part of my journey in physically becoming the woman I know I can be.  Please don't think I am offering advice, medical opinions, nor am I a chef. However I am a woman who has struggled with her weight most of her life and I will be sharing what hasn't worked for me, what has worked for me, recipes, sources of inspiration, and even failures.  I'll even post the dreaded "before" pics........eventually.  Seriously, once I learn how to truly navigate my page and have tabs, etc I will post pics and measurements. 

My long-term boyfriend / spousal equivalent (aka S.E.) and I quit smoking on 1/12/2011 and joined a wonderful gym the next month.  We are still smoke-free and average at least 5 days a week at the gym.  I lift weights (heavy weight / low reps), participate in various cardio classes, and meet with a trainer for a new workout once amonth.  In the course of the last 10 months, I simply haven't seen the physical transformation I thought I would - I'm working out, eating right (most of the time)......why don't I look like Jamie Eason ??? If anything I feel and look a little bulkier! At first I thought I should lift lighter weight, do more reps, but after doing some research I realized I looked bulky because I was building muscle but NOT losing FAT! If I eliminate the fat, I am convinced I have some nice looking muscles under there.  OK, so lots of cardio and fat burning will eliminate the fat, right? Right.  I was a cardio machine for a few months and still no results.  That little voice in my head, some call it a conscience, we'll call mine Common Sense kept saying, "It's your diet, really, you can't eat good for 3 days, bad for 2 days, good for one day and expect to see results!" I kept telling Common Sense to ,"STFU! I workout hard, if I want to drink beer and have chicken wings every weekend, then I'm going to!"

Common Sense is right. I give! It's my nutrition, I know it is! I don't have a naturally high metabolism, I gain weight when I consume alcohol and eat crappy food, plain and simple.  I did manage to dodge the 20 pounds most put on after quitting smoking but that is it - I haven't lost any weight! So I started doing some research about clean eating and how it isn't a diet but a lifestyle change.  A VERY basic definition of clean eating is the elimination of processed sugar, white flour, man-made processed foods with upteen ingredients; essentially it is lean proteins, vegetables, fruits, and complex carboyhydrates 5-6 times a day. I discovered there are varying degrees of cleanliness and I had to decide what was right for me and S.E.  Here are some sites I have found helpful:  The Gracious Pantry and The Eat Clean Diet. 

So this blog will essentially be about me changing my lifestyle and the way I view food.  I am going to try to post something daily; however I work full-time and go to school full-time (non-traditional, trust me I'm not young) so sometimes I may miss a day.  As my knowledge grows, I will pass it along and am always open for comments from readers too.