THE PRESSURE OF ‘CLEAN EATING’

I am not going to lie, I definitely put unnecessary pressure on myself to make sure I am always eating healthy and ‘clean’. It was only recently that I realised that I do this ALL the time and it really got me thinking about why I felt so much pressure to always be tucking into the latest super food ... because surely obsessing over clean food is unhealthy in its own right?

Over the last few years, ‘clean eating’ has taken over our lives. Superfood cafes galore, hashtags all over Instagram (#eatcleantraindirty I’m looking at you) and new celebrities that have popped up because they have helped formed this revolution. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for these amazing faces that have inspired SO many to look at their health, learn to cook healthy meals and become more active, but I wonder if I am starting to feel the pressure to ‘eat clean’ because it is literally EVERYWHERE.

Recently, I have changed jobs and whereas before I was working in London, I am now all over the country, meeting people from all walks of life. Previously working in London in the fashion industry and then fitness, I was always surrounded by clean food comments, girls chatting about the latest spin class and then feeling horrendously guilty about eating a sandwich at lunch-time or having a doughnut. Once, I walked into the kitchen to find a colleague hiding in there eating her lunch because she “would be mortified if someone saw her eating bread” – her words, not mine! – but, at the time, it was totally normal and I didn’t think twice about it.

Over the past few weeks, I have sat in several offices around the country and they look at me like I am a nut-case for ordering green teas, salads with extra spinach and taking the bread off my burger. I actually felt pretty embarrassed when I did that last one…! Admittedly, I eat healthy because my diet affects my stomach ALOT but I can allow myself certain things every once in a while, but I feel incredibly guilty when I do. I got chatting to a new colleague and she was telling me about what she ate the day before but instead of moaning about it and everyone else replying with tuts of horror, she was cracking up and saying she didn’t regret a second of it. (Just to clarity, this meal was 6x bacon sandwiches, 3x crème eggs and 2x large bags of choc in one sitting!) Instead, she walked home that evening and just ate well the next day.

It really got me thinking about why I am always feeling so guilty if I have a day off from my ‘clean eating’ or if I miss a week at the gym because I am exhausted from work or just simply have no time. I guess certain things in life become the norm when you are surrounded by it, but having recently stepped out of that, I realise it’s not healthy at all.

I will always whole-heartedly LOVE healthy food because it makes me feel great, but what I don’t want to do is beat myself up every time I have a few days off from cooking from scratch or eating too many chocolates in one day, because HEY that’s REAL LIFE. I worry with a lot of Instagram accounts I follow that they actually do me more harm than good. For example, if I haven’t had a great day with my eating and then I scroll through Instagram, I will usually be faced with instastars posting their clean meals and flexing it out which makes me feel horrible about my shortcomings that day. The worst thing is, I know it is highly unlikely these people are eating like that ALL the time but it’s social media so the majority of people will only show the best bits. I mean, I can’t imagine many of us posting a snap of us tucking into a huge Chinese or portion of chips. There are some of the girls that really do advocate a REAL LIFE healthy lifestyle and I love them (examples being the incred Chessie King and Healthy Chef Steph) but there are still loads that are unrealistic.

Last week, when I was chatting to my colleague who had the meal stated above, she honestly said you must eat so healthy, I must get some tips from you! At first, I felt pretty proud about that, like yeah she can tell I love my health and fitness, but after a while I realised I had never told her that my hobbies are cooking and gymming so that assumption must of just come from my attitude towards food over the few hours I had met her which seems totally crazy to me.

I suppose what I have realised is, yes, it is super important for the endless health benefits to eat well and pack in nutrients but what is not ok, is to obsess over ‘clean food’. There is already a lot of pressure across social media, press and everything else in our lives to do certain things and act a certain way, so do I really need to pile on more pressure about my food too? The last few weeks, I have travelled a lot for work and have been genuinely stressing about eating out at lunches and dinners which in reality, is madness. I should just enjoy a couple of naughty meals and be done with it!

I know I put the pressure on myself but at the same time, I think a lot of it stems from Instagram. Since I have started blogging, I have discovered loads of new accounts (some amazing!!) and got chatting to loads of different, inspirational people, but in the same turn, there is also some terrible ones that advertise health and fitness in a way that is not real. This month, Women’s Health wrote an article on #transformationtuesday and they spoke to some of the people that run these accounts who admitted that some of those ’12 week transformations’ are highly exaggerated and actually took a year. It’s crazy when I think about the amount of people out there who would take this as the truth and feel down and low when they don’t achieve those goals in 12 weeks.

From now on, I want to put less pressure on myself to always be that ‘clean living’ girl. Don’t get me wrong, it’s unlikely I will feel comfortable posting pictures of myself tucking into a bar of Galaxy on a Saturday night but I want to get there because that is my real life - I don't eat perfectly 100% of the time. I think more and more people are realising that what you see on Instagram is often the edited ‘best’ bits of someone’s life and now I need to learn it is equally unhealthy to obsess over ‘clean eating’. I don't want to feel guilty about the odd treat or glass (bottle) of wine! At the end of the day, I am actually just a normal girl, working full time, that is just trying to be as healthy as possible.

* Image sourced from 'Unsplash'