I tried to eat like Clean Eating Alice for a week
For the next five* days I am going to adopt the diet of Instagram angel Alice Liveing, also known as Clean Eating Alice. She is a personal trainer and part of the LDN Muscle gang, but she’s arguably just as famous for her amazing abs and remarkable culinary skills.
I have admired this lady for a long time now, pawing at her beautiful recipes on Instagram, but I have never actively followed them. Her virtual life points to a pint size trainer who is brimming with energy and enthusiasm; she is very positive and motivated and I wonder whether that is due to her diet. Also you’d be a fool not to notice that she looks smoking hot – I assume I will metaphorise into a tiny, glowing goddess once my first 24 hours of being Clean Eating Alice is complete!
So I am taking on this challenge to see whether I will have more energy and generally be in better health from eating this kind of diet. Alice is also renowned for her beautiful Instagram arrangements, I can’t promise mine will be half as good but I will try as I copy Clean Eating Alice’s recipes for the next seven days.
Before the challenge
To kick start my challenge I chose the foods that I would be eating for the next week by scrolling through Alice’s Instagram and noting down what looked good.
First of all everything looked good, and perfectly arranged, however I did wonder how I was going to replicate this during my usual schedule. The kitchen at work only has a microwave and no where to prepare food – lots of tupperware and meal prepping would definitely be required!
Day one:
1.30 PM: After forgetting I was starting the challenge, I ate my usual strawberry protein porridge (using Active woman protein from BioSynergy which tastes like strawberry ice cream FYI).
However, I quickly remembered my mission and had a delicious lunch (Alice loves the word delicious) of salmon, rocket, broccoli and avocado with a bit of salt and pepper – obviously I snapped it before I tucked in, a la Alice.
I was meant to have asparagus and smoked salmon, but the co-op did not supply these items, so I used my imagination. Think green.
15.17 PM: I’m not sure if Alice drinks tea with semi skimmed milk, but I’m sure she wouldn’t want me to have withdrawal symptoms – I’m from Yorkshire after all. I’m still feeling full and satisfied, but not sleepy and bloated like I usually am in the afternoon.
16.24 PM: I have a banana because I’m feeling peckish, I’m sure Alice would approve of bananas. Fruit is nature’s candy after all.
17.52 PM: I am still at work, so I had another banana.
19.00 PM: After work I ate chicken, aubergine, courgette, peppers, tomatoes and spinach and rocket with a bit of feta cheese crumbled over the top. It was really tasty and filled me up. However, I then had to start baking a protein cake which meant I ate a lot of mango while preparing. Although I’m sure Alice falls susceptible by a fresh mango once in awhile!
21.00 PM: Finished baking my very weird cake (it had kidney beans in) and went to the gym. Did a leg session (squats, lunges, deadlifts, kettlebell swings) and finished with 20 minutes of treadmill sprints on speed 16 incline 5 (20 on, 40 off) I had a lot of energy considering it was quite late at night and I’d been at work all day.
23.00 PM: When I got home, I had some of the weird cake I made earlier, which actually tastes quite nice considering it’s made from protein powders, kidney beans, eggs and a few oats.
Day two:
07.15 AM: I woke up much earlier than normal and felt like I had loads of energy, I also slept really well!
8.00 AM: Salmon, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, avocado, spinach and rocket was my breakfast, which was delicious and filled me up surprisingly well. I usually eat protein porridge at my desk at work at about 9.30 so I do anticipate to be a lot hungrier by lunch than I would be……
10.41 AM: A lot of tea has been consumed…I am getting peckish now. I have some walnuts in my drawer that I’m holding out until 12 for.
11.00 AM: I ate 4 walnuts and a banana.
12.54 PM: Just finished lunch (salmon, avocado, broccoli, 2 boiled eggs). I feel pretty full. Might have to have another banana later on because I’m going straight to a military fitness bootcamp after work tonight.
On another note, I bought a 10 pack of eggs last night and I’ve already used six which is strange. Is eating too many eggs bad for you? I think the cholesterol thing is a myth. I hope I don’t end up having a heart attack and ending up in the Daily Mail “Diet crazed girl hospitalises herself by eating 50 eggs a day!”
14.10 PM: I’m starting to lose my concentration and decided a banana would be the key to restoring it. I’ve eaten two today, one more and I may be in danger – this way of eating is starting to turn me into Peter Andre rather than Clean eating Alice.(He famously passed out because he overdosed on potassium after eating too many bananas. Which was probably the pinnacle of his career.)
14.41 PM: 2 more walnuts…..3..4..5..6..7 walnuts.
15.45 PM: I am really hungry now and feeling a bit dizzy despite drinking so much water. I might have a protein shake with milk.
17.30PM: Got home and ate my chicken from last night with vegetables and then some MORE of that kidney bean cake…..I don’t think Alice would continue to eat cake everyday. Even if it is kidney bean protein cake.
19.30 PM: Went for a run with Emilie around Heaton Park, then came home and did some body weight exercises. After this I felt quite hungry again so I grated some sweet potato and mixed it with an egg white and some chopped chorizo. That filled me up but then I was desperate for something sweet….so guess what? I ATE THE REST OF THE CAKE**.
DAY 3:
09:30 AM: Took my breakfast to work so I wouldn’t be as hungry by lunch time. It seemed to work well and I stayed full until about 11. This was good considering it was salmon, spinach, rocket, two scrambled eggs and some tomatoes.
11.30 AM: The walnuts came out again…..I may have eaten 10.
14.05 PM: Lunch today was baked sweet potato, sugar snap peas, asparagus and Cajun spiced chicken. One really positive thing has come out of this challenge, I’ve realised I don’t actually hate asparagus like I thought I did.
14.30 PM: THE FRUIT BOWL HAS BEEN FILLED AT WORK! BEST. NEWS. EVER.
18:54 PM: Cooked a weird ratatouille style dinner with aubergine, peppers, tomatoes, courgette and chicken. I got a bit excited with the pepper and poured so much in I could barely eat the meal. On the plus side it took me ages to eat it so I was quite full by the end of it.
DAY 4:
09:45 AM: Had to switch back to protein porridge because I couldn’t face having salmon or eggs again. It was a very welcome change.
I’ve been thinking, Alice gets through a helluva lot of eggs, perhaps she has her own pet chicken? I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a small share in an organic farming business because of the amount of chicken, eggs and salmon she must get through.
13.33PM: Lunch is the cajun chicken, asparagus, avocado and sweet potato!
After the challenge
Ok so I have to admit I didn’t fully follow the challenge for five days, let alone seven. I was writing this as I went along and making voice notes (I’m cool, ok!) but I stopped doing it on Thursday night when I went for drinks with my friends and lost track of everything. Sorry Alice, I failed you and didn’t turn into a beautiful muscular angel. However I did learn some stuff:
Here’s what I learnt from eating like Clean Eating Alice.
- I love asparagus and rocket now
- Eating salmon and eggs every day makes you HATE salmon and eggs
- I don’t have a six pack (but my stomach was a bit flatter)
- My sleep and energy improved
- It wasn’t as expensive as I anticipated
- Because all the food was fresh you had to eat it quickly so it didn’t go to waste
- I turn to food for comfort not fuel
- You have to carry around ALOT of tupperware
- Putting spicy pepper on avocado is unreal, it transforms the entire taste of it
- It isn’t that difficult to eat like this when you have a full time office job BUT it is hard when you don’t have a car due to all the tupperware boxes
All in all I enjoyed this challenge and I’ll be integrating some of Clean Eating Alice’s recipes into my diet from now on. Although I’m going to stick with my usual breakfast of protein porridge, just because it’s easier.
Notes
*I was originally going to do this for 7 days, but I forgot and went to see the Guilty Feminist live on Monday (which was brilliant) and had loads of macarons, bread and gin, so I have decided to start a fresh today. I am also going to Almost Famous on Sunday…
** Since writing this post I accidentally deleted all the pics of my food on Instagram, so sorry for the lack of pics!
*** I need to mention the fact there was a snickers bar in my cupboard and I didn’t eat that, so I should get some Alice points for that act of sainthood.
