some of you are taking this way to personally and either i'm not being very clear or you're clearly misinterpreting what I said so you can argue.
I never mentioned "clean eating" or MFP or anything else. Maybe I didn't clarify in this thread, but eating "healthy" to me means eating real (natural) food most of the time. I most certainly don't feel deprived or miserable, in fact preparing and eating real food has increased the pleasure I've found in food so much more, but maybe that's just me.
So eat real food most of the time and move, every day at least enough to get your hearth and lungs pumping hard 4-5 times daily minimum. I don't care if you go to a gym or run up your stairs at work or home. Just move.
I don't know why people take offense to that? It's simple, and all you need to do. Everyone wants to bring the message back to weight, and that's my point. DON'T
It doesn't matter. It's how you get there. If you're moving everyday and eating mostly real foods and your scale says you weight 180lbs, who cares. Fitness and fatness are related and they aren't. If getting below 180 means you're going to be miserable, but you're moving every single day and eating mostly real foods, then what are you really going to do that makes you more healthy?
and chances are if you're moving enough every day and eating real foods, you're not going to be miserable, and you're not going to be very "overweight" either, but some people are and it's ok because weight isn't, or shouldn't be the end goal. It's health and plenty of people carry a little extra that are perfectly healthy compared to their thin counterparts.
You think ice cream doesn't touch these lips? Please, I had cookies and cream last night with a banana. I was in sugar coma heaven, but it's not an all the time thing. Most days consist of real food, and what I do the majority of the time will overrule what I do some of the time. It's not a special rule made for me, it applies to everyone and everything.
and I like generalization. It keeps things simple, simple works. I know people might need to start differently than that, but in my experience, it's a rare person that can keep that up for long and keep health the goal. More often it's very obsessive people that may be thin, but are neurotic about healthy, they aren't healthy. There's always exceptions, but exceptions don't prove rules for me.
I don't mind how people start, but eventually the calorie counters, the body fat measurement, the weight scales, the measuring tapes etc all need to go or they become the focus and then people completely undermine their efforts to become more "healthy" either by doing drastic things or quitting. Eventually it is just about moving and eating real foods.