Anybody can become a gym rat, spending hours a day pumping iron or running themselves until exhaustion, yet if you’re missing the KEY INGREDIENT to all of that, then every bit of hard work you’ve just put in has gone to waste.

I’m talking about EATING CLEAN.

The most difficult (and rewarding) part to any successful lifestyle. Note I said LIFESTYLE and not “diet,” because eating clean isn’t a diet or something you turn on and off, it’s something that becomes a part of you. You don’t do it one day and not do it the next, or just do it for a few months and then go back to your old habits. I mean sure, you COULD, but you’d only be wasting your time. Eating clean is a habit you develop that you follow through on day after day, week after week. It’s the key to transforming all your hard work into actual results, and without it you’re going to severely hamper any progress you’re trying to make.

So what IS eating clean? Much like the name implies, it’s about eating a diet void of processed or refined foods, sugary foods, foods high in saturated or trans fat, and foods with low nutritional value. To further answer any questions you may have, YES it requires a bit of planning, and YES it takes discipline and dedication to pull off.

It’s really a very simple concept, and it doesn’t require anything special to get rolling. You don’t need to sign up for some program and have your food mailed to you, you’re not limited to buying your food from specific brands, and you’re not mandated to only eating at specific times. In fact, eating clean is far more effective than any “diet” out there, and it’s also much easier to pull off once you’ve understood it.

For example, let’s say you’re going to buy a sandwich or sub somewhere, and as you get to the counter, the first question you’re asked is “what kind of bread would you like, white or whole wheat?” In eating clean, the obvious answer would be WHOLE WHEAT, as it’s far more nutritious than white bread is, and it’s not made from processed white flour either. Forego the popular but ever-fattening potato chips and get a piece of fruit or a serving of vegetables as your side item.

Eating clean also means preparing most of your meals and passing up on things like TV dinners and other quick microwave products. While not all of these products are bad, part of eating clean is getting rid of all the excess sodium and preservatives that we too often consume, something that processed food is full of. This means taking in as many raw products as possible. Keep in mind that by raw I don’t mean “undercooked,” but rather something in its most natural form. Think a potato compared to a potato chip. But let’s say you wanted to throw together a quick snack, in this case a tortilla wrap, something you could eat real quick right before you left the house to keep your hunger at bay until you got home. In eating clean we’d add:

• Whole wheat tortilla
• Black beans
• Pico de gallo
• Spinach / romaine lettuce
• Green Peppers
• Small amount of cheese

Non clean eating version:

• Anything you’d find at your local fast food restaurant
• Pretty much anything pre-made and frozen at the grocery store

Another distinction between my clean eating tortilla and the other tortilla is that I use all organic products. Organic products don’t have all the preservatives that non-organic products have, and so therefore they’re MUCH lower in sodium. I’m sure if you looked in the frozen section at your grocery store you could find a near identical product to the one I make, the difference being theirs would have at the very least have hundreds of mg worth of sodium, where as mine clocks in at around 300 mg of sodium for the entire thing.

If you’re still unsure about the distinctions in eating clean compared to not eating clean, then think of it like you would a car or any other device that requires fuel. If you dump in clean burning fuel over and over again, you’re going to have a smooth, well running engine. If you take that same fuel and mix it with a bunch of junk, putting products in there that the engine never even INTENDED for, then what’s going to happen? Would your car even start? Would you have engine problems within a week? Within a month? Within a year? That’s exactly how our bodies operate, and by shoveling down junk all the time there’s really no way of knowing what’s going to happen to us. We KNOW your body isn’t going to run as smoothly as it would if you were eating clean, however just WHAT effects will take place and WHEN those effects will take place is anybody’s guess. Some people get fat, some people feel sluggish, some people are unable to develop muscle mass, some people get bad skin and acne, and some people get extremely weak immune systems. SOME people develop one of these issues, however MOST people who eat unhealthy week after week, year after year, will develop ALL of these issues. Unfortunately, if you shovel junk into your mouth day after day, the odds are highly stacked against you, and even if you’re young now and think it won’t have much of a profound effect on you, think again. Just because the effects aren’t always visible on the outside, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Why needlessly hamper your immune system? If you’re spending time working out, why halt your muscle growth? And if you just put in the time to exhaust yourself doing all that cardio, why replace the calories and fat you just burned up with a fresh layer of calories and fat?!

On a bit of a side-note to all of that, what do you think the most effective means to developing six-pack abs is? It’s not doing crunches until you’re blue in the face or that newest exercise you just heard about. The biggest way to build a six pack is to EAT CLEAN and remove that layer of fat. What good is a strong abdominal section if it can’t even be seen? It’s nearly as bad as those “buff” guys you see walking around with their arms all jutted out and yet there’s not one bit of definition. It’s just looks all puffed up and fat. Sure, there’s some muscle mass under there, but that layer of fat is going to make sure nobody sees that. Of course, had they spent as much work on their nutrition as they did in the gym and put effort into EATING CLEAN they wouldn’t have that issue.

To get the most out of eating clean, combining it with multiple small meals is best, as is consuming plenty of water. Juices are fine here and there, but milk, soda, and all that other junk can be tossed out.

Everybody has foods they enjoy that don’t always make the “healthy” list, and even the most devout of clean eaters have to indulge every once in a while. Personally, I’m a huge fan of pizza and chocolate, neither of which has ever won the eating clean award, and neither of which seems to be topping nutritional charts these days. While many advise that you give yourself one day a week to eat whatever foods you enjoy, I personally find that a bit unrealistic. Not only is it possible to spend the entire day gorging yourself on junk, but sometimes going the entire week dreaming of your favorite food group is just too long. On the other hand, I’m also not a fan of eating small portions of junk food everyday either, because a “small serving” soon becomes addictive, and once you get rolling it becomes almost impossible to stop yourself. Eating clean gets thrown out the window and it feels like the entire day has been wasted, as you’ve already “ruined” the day with your junk food binge. What to do then?

Once you feel the urge hit you, immediately eat something clean first, to get rid of that immediate hunger, and wait 30 minutes to see how you feel. If that temptation for junk food is still as persistent as ever, then give in and let yourself have a SMALL serving, keeping note to not do this more than once a day. Also keep in mind that by a SMALL serving I mean less than 100 hundred calories. While this should help many people get over those immediate cravings, as the fuller you feel the less you’ll crave junk food, (or any food for that matter) it’s still not a guaranteed method for everyone. Ultimately it comes down to the individual, and regardless of what I say or do on here, it’s up to YOU to resist the temptation to make junk food a part of your regular diet. Eating clean doesn’t have to be overly strict with everything you eat, but it does mean having a bit of willpower and fighting off those junk food urges once in a while. Giving in all the time is going to quickly halt your progress and slow down your hard work.

So there we have it, the basis for eating clean and appreciating everything it can do for you. For anyone that wants to:

• Lose fat
• Build muscle
• Feel energized all day long
• Have clean, clear skin
• Increased mental finesse

Then eating clean is definitely for you. As I mentioned, combine this with multiple small meals a day to ensure your metabolism is roaring, and there’s nothing that can stop you from achieving the physique you desire.