Basically it is a way to cleanse your body of all gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine and alcohol so you can reintroduce these at the end of the 30 days and you can see how these foods affect your body and how you feel.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it - - ha! It was DIFFICULT at first. I mean... I'm the sugar cereal, toast with jelly, pasta mama! Did I mention bread?!? I LOVE bread! -- and to be truthful, not having coffee with oodles of creamer (coconut please!) and a nice refreshing beer at night was so hard!
We did 'cheat' but I don't like that word at all, so I would say that we indulged - - allowed - - ourselves in a few treats throughout the month. A 12 oz of beer a few times, cheese on a bun-less burger, ranch on a salad, and I'm sure a few more. <--- probably more than a few.
We did find a new way to live though. We found discipline.... not only in our eating habits but it carried over to a lot of our living as well. But tonight we're talking about food.
We started our journey as we were spending almost a week on the road. Rather than eating out for every meal, we chose to go to the grocery store and purchased more whole foods than we'd probably ever eaten. We spent the following week at the fair (Lemon-dairies, vikings, funnel cakes and more!) and packed our dinner and snacks for every night we were there. (I've rarely packed a cooler because it always seemed much easier to just go out and eat) Now that takes discipline folks!
It got easier as the month went on. We spent many meals having the basics that we knew we ok to eat.... brown rice, black beans, salsa. That did get old at first but that just meant we needed to find more creative ways to eat.... again discipline to sit down and meal plan. Pinterest has a lot of ideas!
The first 5 days of this challenge, I truly felt like a bus had smacked me right in the center of my being. I felt like CRUD! I thought I was getting the flu. Little did I know, that is completely normal when you start to detoxify your body. I have spent many MANY years eating whatever I wanted and now I was paying for it. But my body was thanking me... (it was - I could hear it loud and clear :)
Day 6 I woke up feeling better and by the afternoon I felt FANTASTIC! I think I lived with a constant headache. With constant bloating. Always tired. Always crabby. I could tell that was all gone. I felt soooooooo good!
I knew at that point I wasn't going to give up! I wasn't going to give in to the temptations that were screaming at me EVERYWHERE we went. Coca-cola, snickers and donuts were a norm for this girl.
Now, I had a baby 8 months prior to starting this challenge. I was still holding on to about 30 extra pounds. Not a good feeling. But I couldn't seem to shake it. (now don't get all fussy on me - "well you were eating snickers and donuts silly!") I'm still nursing and I was sure I would lose the weight faster because of that. Nope. Turns out I needed to actually CHANGE the way I was LIVING.
Fast forward to today. Today was the final weigh-in. In 29 days, I have learned how to eat healthy and feed my family in a way I can be proud. I have also lost 14.8 pounds. That is 8.4% of my body weight (you can do the math :) JUST BY EATING RIGHT!
My mom yoga pants are baggy. My jeans fit. (I'm not completely squished into them) I feel good. I have more energy. I know I'm a better wife and mom.
I must say having it be a challenge was really good for both Joel and myself. We kept each other accountable (we've always been enablers for each other) and I'm proud to say that Joel even lost just over 13 pounds this past month too.
To celebrate a month of discipline, I wanted to go to the store and find a treat to indulge in. Like a reward. I searched the whole store - the 6 aisle store we have in our little town - to find the perfect sugary treat. I stared at the Oreo's, soda, and gummy candies. I went home empty handed. Nothing looked good. Like at all. So I opted for a nice cup of tea.
If you want to learn more about the challenge, check out Jenny's website.
I have another pretty funny but VERY SERIOUS story for you later too. It has to do with the other half of being healthy.... Fitness!
Stay tuned.
XO.
Jari
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