Yes, I have a confession to make to you – I do not always want to eat healthy, much less exercise! So why am I telling you this, instead of giving you an image of someone who is always strong, always avoiding processed gunk, and steadfastly gaining strength and endurance with my regular exercise? Actually, before I give you the reason, I don’t think I’ve ever portrayed myself as being perfect, but I want to be sure you understand that I’m not. 😉

The reason that I share this with you is because when you commit to changing your lifestyle and get off the processed, sugared, prepackaged and fast food, and take action to engage in regular exercise, you might just have to “force” yourself in the beginning; at least, this has always been my experience.

Depending on how long you’ve been eating a regular diet of sugared, processed, additive filled foods, your body does get used to this to a certain extent. In fact, you don’t really know how much better you could feel by getting off of the processed stuff since your body will adapt to your unhealthy diet. Now, if you consistently eat a diet filled with healthy, whole foods and then indulge in sugared, processed food, you will feel a difference. Your body will tell you that it doesn’t like what you’re feeding it, you just have to listen.

What I’ve experienced is that during the times that I’ve been eating processed foods and I commit to clean up my diet and eat healthy, whole foods, is that at least for the first 3 days I do still want to eat junk food. Sometimes I’ve even had a struggle to “get clean” throughout the first week. My body is goes through detox and I tend to feel tired, and even irritable. Once I get past those first 3-7 days though, my energy soars and I’m thankful to myself for sticking it out.

Additionally, it has been my experience that I must stay off of the sugar and processed foods altogether, because if I try to include just a little in my diet, it sets up cravings for more (and then I don’t even want to eat whole foods at all).

I hope that this information helps you if you choose to clean up your diet and ditch the processed foods. In the beginning, you will probably still want to eat the refined sugars, unhealthy fats, white flour, excess sodium, all of those addictive, “keep ’em coming back for more” ingredients that are rampant in processed and fast food. However, by knowing that this is just a temporary phase, I encourage you to push through it and avoid going back.