Good morning, lovelies! I hope your week is going well.

I did something yesterday that I haven’t done in a very long time…I overslept!

Last week I finally traded in my cracked screen donning iPhone6 for a sparkly new one, and totally failed with transferring over all of my settings (and pictures. and apps. Oops.)

So when I had to set my alarm for yesterday morning at 4:45 (an hour early – typically my wakeup time is 5:45) apparently, my alarm didn’t sound. Thusly, I woke up precisely 20 minutes before I had to BE at the gym, and got dressed and brushed my teeth in record-setting times. Bless Shane’s heart for pouring me a cup of to-go coffee.

Now, I usually wake up extra early so I can get some work done and make a nutritious breakfast. My go-to’s are my healthy French toast or my egg + veggie scramble with an Ezekiel muffin. Yesterday, however, I was lucky that I had time to grab a protein bar on my way out the door.

Now, while this isn’t the most nutritious option, I made with do. It’s fine. I didn’t have any veggies, and had to resort to processed food. But again, it’s completely ok.  I actually typically have one food item each day that’s processed into a protein bar anyway; this day I just started off with it.

With my own diet, as well as with my clients, while I do place a strong emphasis on eating a nutrient-rich diet overall, I never preach “clean eating” 100% of the time.

What is Clean Eating, Anyway?

What even is Clean Eating anyway? Some say it’s a diet where the food eaten is only one ingredient. Some tout that if it has a shelf life of longer than two weeks, it’s not “clean.” To others, it’s a diet that adheres to the guidelines to only eat unprocessed foods that don’t contain refined sugar.

This is all well and good. Eating abundant, nutrient-dense, whole, natural foods is a really great thing – both for your health, your energy levels, your performance, and – when eaten in appropriate portions, your goals. I’m all for it.

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While I do promote eating foods that come from the ground or had a mother, I don’t promote perfection, which I believe Clean Eating diets tend to emphasize.

With Clean Eating Diets (CED’s, we’ll call it for short) there tend to be “good foods” and “bad foods.” Good foods include anything that fits the criteria above, and bad foods, well, anything that doesn’t fit the criteria above.

You can imagine, then, if you’re an all or nothing type of person on a CED. Your nutrition Monday through Friday adheres to the plan nearly to a T…and then comes Saturday and when you’re out to breakfast, you have a bite of your dining partner’s biscuit.

This, while is  totally NOT a big deal, and something that likely won’t affect your progress or results at all, has a tendency of being seen as a “fail,” simply because it’s a food that’s not allowed/considered clean. The biscuit (which was totally delicious and worth it) was not a clean food, therefore, you “cheated.”

However, to most of us, it’s really really really hard to eat clean ALL of the time. I’m not crazy about the idea of there being “good foods” and “bad foods.” It gives food to much power when it’s really just food, right? As I mentioned earlier, CED’s tend to promote perfection, even while that’s not the intention of some of them.

Before signing off, let it be known that I’m not bashing eating whole, nutrient-dense foods, and having that guideline being the center of a certain nutrition plan. What I am saying, is that I’m never about a diet – or anything, for that matter – that has a focus on being “perfect.”