Forget the word diet…it is all about clean eating in Healthy Living

Christmas is right around the corner and we know that the last thing you want think about is a “diet”. But for those immersed in the fitness world diets are passé. The new catchphrase in the fitness world is “clean eating” So tonight, we talk with health and fitness coach Ed Williams to help us demystify the art of clean eating.

Marleni Cuellar, Reporting

If you haven’t figured it out as yet; the term clean eating has nothing to do with hygiene practices. The newest catchphrase in fitness is all about a back-to-the-basics approach of eating; consuming foods in their most natural state, or as close to natural as possible.

Ed Williams, Health & Fitness Coach, Body Fitness Clinic

Ed Williams

“Clean eating is basically avoiding everything that man has tampered with. In other words you want to eat foods that are wholesome that have not been processed. You have an apple, its natural made by nature. It doesn’t come with a label to tell you what is in it. It’s the natural way of correcting imbalances in the body and we are in a state of imbalance because we are consuming all these processed foods with what I call suspect chemicals – we can’t even pronounce their names.”

Making the shift to clean eating may be a bit daunting for some; so Ed has shared some basic tips to get started.

Ed Williams

“The first one would be: we’re looking for balance. One of the problems with Belizean diet is that it’s not balanced. We have a serious shortage in veg, vegetables. The average Belizean will have a lot of grains, a lot of rice, a lot of beans, beans is good, and a little bit of coleslaw and that is the extend of the veg.”

The ideals preparation is eighty-five percent raw or unprocessed food and fifteen percent cooked – specifically grilled or steamed. The next tip focuses on your thoughts on clean eating.

Ed Williams

“Don’t tell yourself that you’re on a special diet that’s one way of shooting yourself in the leg. Diet is a four letter world. Eating clean is just eating naturally.  Not to think that they can’t have this or they can’t have that. This is something that my mom is very good at. She knows that as a kid if she tells me, “don’t touch that”, I’m going to touch it. So she says “Go ahead touch it, touch it” and I would say “No you trying to trick me” and it’s the same little concept.  Patience is important because first of all if you’re weight is your problem and you have accumulated some body fat, you did not accumulate it overnight. So eating clean for a couple of weeks and expecting the body fat to fall off, that’s ridiculous; that is expecting a little bit too much.  This is a new habit you’re trying to develop first of all; because we’ve fallen into a bad habit because our taste buds have been trained wrong. It takes time to make it your won, it takes at least twenty-one days and during that twenty-one days you have to hang in there. It’s like dropping your ball of strings you have to start over.”

To stay on target, Ed encourages keeping a record of measurements- not just weight but inches. This can be a great motivation for continuing with clean eating. Lastly, no matter what, you must plan ahead.

Ed Williams

“You want to have a plan, otherwise in the moment hunger will invade, and when hunger sets in forget it. You lose your ability to be selective, you overeat. So you end up with the wrong things. So basically you have to plan ahead. The thing to understand is this: In order to eat clean, you mostly have to cook; it’s very difficult to eat clean if you’re not going to cook.”

Lastly, keep in mind that clean eating is a change in lifestyle. One way to achieve the healthiest you!