The power of reflection?

Today is the last day of another 30 day challenge.  It is time to get the tape measure and the camera out and get your after measurements.  It is also time to reflect on the experience as a whole.  Did it work for you? Did it not? Did you do the challenge, or was it some crazy hybrid that you thought up on the fly? Either way, the experience should be looked at as a learning one and there is a lot that you can glean from it if you take the time to reflect.

For some, the challenge was a welcomed reset.  It sets them up on a healthy start to their new year and is a very positive experience.  For others, the challenge can be a bitter reminder of another attempt at weight loss that ends in failure.  Both groups have an opportunity to learn and grow from the experience and in that sense I would say the ones who did not have the success they had envisioned have even more to gain.

I use a teaching tactic in the classroom occasionally called the 5 whys.  It helps students dig deeper into an issue.  Whenever they provide an answer I reply with why 5 times in a row or as many times as it takes to get them thinking deeper on a given topic.  Try this with yourself as a way to reflect on the challenge.  It may look something like this.

How did the challenge go for you?  " Not so well, I only lost 5 pounds and I don't feel any different"
Why? "I don't know, I guess it didn't help that I had that cake at my cousins birthday party or the beer watching the Ravens game."
Why? "These were special occasions that only come up every now and then"
Why? " I felt confined in the challenge and I am a grown person I can eat and drink whatever I want, when I want."
Why? "I guess I never really committed to the whole challenge"
Why? "I fear failure and if I give anything my all and it still does not work then what is left?"

Now we are getting somewhere.  This is a very common feeling and once acknowledged something can be done about it and there is a good chance this is affecting other areas of your life as well.  This is a purely hypothetical situation, but we have seen versions of it play out almost every challenge we have done.  The answers to the 5 whys might lead you in different directions, but the point is there is great insight in reflection, but only if you take the time to focus in and do it. 

As for the end of the challenge we are going to send you to this past post on how to reintroduce foods back into your diet in a systematic way so that you can tell if those foods have a negative effect on your health.  This is good and bad in a couple of ways.  The good news is that if you have an issue with a given food, you will know right away.  The bad news is you will probably need to be close to a bathroom.  The other good/bad part deals with the acceptance that you just can't eat some foods.  It has taken Dawn the better part of 5 years to accept that she cannot eat cheese.  Every time she does, her sinuses fill up and she sneezes for the next few hours.  Even this does not stop her from enjoying the random pizza night, but she now knows what is going to happen.

As always we really enjoyed the experience and hope you did as well.  We will continue with at least weekly posts and shift our focus back and forth from lifestyle issues and training.  Looking forward to a nice glass of wine tomorrow night.

The Practice of Clean Eating

As we get ready to head out into the rough and tumble post challenge world of temptation and peer pressure, we wanted to talk a bit today about what we are going to call the practice of clean eating.  We have ended past challenges by saying that it does not really end.  If what you are searching for is optimal health than the challenge continues on daily for the rest of your life.  Over the course of several years of clean eating ourselves we have found this stance to be a bit intimidating and ultimately unnecessary for optimum health.

There are many factors that go into our total health and nutrition is but one. Sleep, movement, social interactions, professional growth, play, and ways to deal with chronic stress are all right up there. We will dig a little deeper into these other factors in future posts.  Today we want to look at how you look at clean eating when you are not on a challenge.

Remember that the strict nature of the challenge is a purposeful attempt to let the gut heal and try to figure out which foods are causing you problems.  Once the challenge is over you will need to find a way of eating that works for you.  We are confident in saying that whatever nutritional practices you settle on, you are better off eating real food and avoiding the processed junk found in most grocery stores.

We had a comment from a challenge member, Jen, on the last post about being overwhelmed by the information that is out there and many people feel the same way.  Remember the key word, "Practice."  If you look at the changes that you are making to your nutritional selections as a practice, implying that it is a work in progress rather than some kind of final performance, you take away the pressure of perfection.  Robyn O'Brien said it well in the video from the last post, "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good."  Start with small changes get used to them and add on from there.

So many of us have these unrealistic expectations and are looking for a pill or some sort of quick program that will reverse a lifetime of poor nutritional choices.  When we slip up in the slightest way we become angry with ourselves, throw in the towel, and often self medicate with copious amounts of whatever we decided a week ago had to go in order for us to be healthy.  If instead, we looked at our attempts to change the way we eat as a PRACTICE, the implication is a process, a journey, a continual learning and growing through experience.  It allows us to forgive ourselves of our flaws, acknowledge  and accept them for what they are and move right along.  Rather than indulging and supporting them.

Keeping the focus on the practice of clean eating allows you to accept the past while making a purposeful path to a new future.  A future of healthy acceptance of who you are and where you are going.  Enjoy the journey!

A Look At Our Food System

As we head into the last week of the challenge we wanted to take a look at what is going on with our national food system.  Just how did we get into the state of affairs we find ourselves in now where our kids are expected to have a shorter lifespan then us?  Several years ago, when Dawn stopped teaching and was just starting out with training, we went to see a viewing of, what was then, a small scale documentary called Food INC.  It has since become more mainstream and maybe you have seen it.

What we saw in the movie shook both of us to our core and has had a significant effect on our focus on nutrition as a means to make people more healthy starting with ourselves.  Today we came across a Ted talk video that had a similar effect on us.  It is almost a readers digest version of Food Inc.    The talk was given by a woman named Robyn O'Brien who has been called the Erin Brockovich of the food industry.  She has also written a book called The Unhealthy Truth: One mothers shocking investigation into the dangers of Americas food supply and what every family can do to protect itself.  I have not read the book yet but it has been added to what is becoming a long amazon wish list.  If you have 20 minutes to spare the video is well worth the time.  The talk will scare, anger, and motivate you all in 20 short minutes.

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Quick and easy meals

Last week was one of our best weeks. We had meals for the week prepared ahead of time which made everything run more smoothly!!  We worked together and put the following meals together while listening to our favorite podcasts.  The only thing that was missing that would have made it perfect was a glass of wine:)  Here goes: 


First was a quiche recipe we got from the Paleo Comfort Foods book by Julie and Charles Mayfield.

 

 

 

Sautéed onions, spinach, and peppers in coconut oil.

 

Threw the sautéed veggies in with an egg, almond flour, and baking powder mixture. We added cooked loose country sausage from the Amish Market also.

 

Baked the quiche in the oven for about 35 minutes and it was delicious!!

 

The next meal was Paul's concoction that he prepared on Monday when he had the day off. it involved  little more prep time than our ordinary breakfast meals.

 

 Breakfast sandwich.  Homemade hash browns with organic peeled white potatoes.  Turkey sausage from the Amish Market, sunny side up egg, and sliced avocado.  One of the best breakfasts I have had in a long time.  I felt like I was eating in a restaurant:)

 

 

 

Last, but not least, we prepared spaghetti squash and meat sauce for dinner and we had leftovers for a few days which is always an added bonus!!!

 

 

Spaghetti Squash that we roasted in the oven or about an hour.  We poured coconut oil over the squash and then sprinkled some salt, pepper, and garlic powder on it. 

 

Browned some ground beef that our friend Maria got from a local farm that has amazing grass fed beef.  We added a can of organic tomato sauce and poured it over the spaghetti squash. 

 

 

 

We hope everyone is still holding strong and we will be providing you with posts on how to prepare for the end of the challenge.  We also want to leave you with a link from one of our challenge members Elizabeth about the new "hidden menu" at Panera.  We are excited about it and are looking forward to giving it a try!  

Are You Eating Enough?

 
One of the more common things we are hearing this challenge is that people are hungry.  While it is normal to feel hungry at the start of any type of nutritional transition, your body should quickly adapt to the new fuel and adjust the hunger mechanism accordingly.  Our company line has been and always will be, "If you are hungry, eat!"  Just make sure the food you eat is challenge friendly.

Many people still look at the challenge as a temporary diet, A way to quickly drop some unwanted pounds. When those pounds don't melt off in the first week or so, they go back to the tried and true method of cutting calories, by reducing portion sizes.  Many of these same people are performing some type of workout also and will ramp up the intensity in that department as well in an effort to burn more calories.  This double whammy is an ineffective approach for several reasons that we will discuss and is why we usually start off challenges by telling people to hide their scale. 

The challenge should be looked at as a fundamental change in the way you provide your body with fuel so that it can be more healthy.  Losing weight is just an added benefit to getting healthy.  We want you focused on how you look, feel and perform instead of your weight.  How is your skin complexion and hair health?  How do your clothes fit?  How does your belly feel after a meal?  Are your bowel movements regular? What are your energy levels throughout the day?  These are the things we want you to focus on, rather than your weight.

You need to take in enough calories and nutrients from food to fuel many body processes, including cognitive functions, metabolic functions, repair and regeneration, and reproduction. Lets take a look at each.

Your brain needs a lot of energy to function properly.  Minor calorie restriction can slow down brain matabolism effecting short term memory, recall, problem solving and creative thinking.  Severe calorie restriction can effect mood and overall well being leading to fatigue, anxiety, irritability and depression.  Dawn has even experienced bouts of vertigo in times of calorie restriction, before realizing she needs to eat more.

Your resting metabolic rate is the rate at which your body burns calories just to maintain normal functions.  Reductions in your caloric intake cause your resting metabolic rate to decrease.  Conversely an increase in caloric intake causes your resting metabolic rate to increase and you burn more calories at rest.  So cutting calories sends a signal to your body to burn less.

Calories and the nutrients that come with them are critical to help your body repair and restore itself from the damage done by exercise.  Severe calorie restriction can lead to muscle breakdown, stiff and sore joints and chronic pain.

Extreme calorie restriction can also lead to many problems with reproductive function in both men and women.  Calorie restriction down regulates the production of the sex hormones of testosterone in men and estrogen in women.  This can lead to a host of problems ranging form reduced fertility in both men and women, irregular or complete cessation of periods in women, impotence in men, and a lack of sex drive in both men and women.

For us, one of the best things about eating real foods has been the effortless maintenance of our weight, by simply listening to our body and eating when we are hungry and not eating when we are not.  Getting to this point took almost a year. We want to make sure that you are not sabotaging your efforts by relying on old conventional wisdom that has not worked in the past.  There is a time and a place for calorie restriction, but this challenge is not it.  Make sure you are getting plenty of nutrient rich whole foods and you will be amazed by the results.

A Hodge Podge and a Call for Help

We have recently been looking at ways to organize our blog a bit better by placing posts in categories and making searching various topics a bit easier with the ultimate hope of putting together some type of manual or e-book.  In doing so we have been re-reading old posts and came across some that we just felt needed to be shared again.  I know all of our faithful readers have gone through and read all of our posts over the past three years, but today we wanted to highlight a few of the ones we thought you might need to re-read now that you are in the middle of a challenge. We are also sharing links to posts from others that we think will help you here at the midpoint of the challenge.

Here is one on the effects of food on the hormones of your body. This is really what it is all about.
Here is one we linked to from Robb Wolf for those who feel that you are not losing enough weight.
Here is one that answers the fiber question.
Here is one with several common questions and their answers.
Here is a great post on perspective from our usual go to Jason Seib over at Everyday Paleo.


If you have any more time for some casual reading I offer one that you should book mark and spend some time with after the challenge when a nice glass of wine is not off limits.  Believe it or not we do not feel that nutrition is the cure for all that ails you.  We just think it is a good place to start.  There are many other lifestyle issues that affect our health and we will devote more posts to those after the challenge.  Truly living is one of those things and this story encapsulates that spirit well.

There is a story behind this one.  Last spring we went on a hike with some friends up Sugarloaf Mountain and the conversation on the hike turned to really experiencing life and what would that entail.  I shared a story that caught my imagination about a couple who sold their house bought a boat and took their kids sailing up and down the east coast for four years.  My buddy Steve and I went on and on about what it would take to actually do something like that, just pick up and leave and experience life in a different way.  Well, fast forward to this past June and I saw Steve at a swim practice and asked how things were going and he told me he had just been laid off from his job.  Shocked, I asked if he had any leads or prospects for any other work and he said no, he wasn't really looking.  He was considering taking his severance and checking out for a while.  Ultimately he decided to take his wife and two girls on a trip to Positano, Italy and live there for four months.  Here is his blog about the experience.  We have not had a chance to get together since he has been back, but I enjoyed living vicariously through him while reading the blog and the pictures alone are worth the time invested. On that hike last spring we both decided that all it took to do something like that was a set of cahonies big enough to take the leap.  I hope that some day soon, I find mine. 

Sunrise in Positano

Finally, I also wanted to ask for your help.  Most of you know I teach high school physical education.  In a meeting one day I casually mentioned that I had just participated in a polar bear plunge and as luck would have it, my principal had just received an e-mail requiring him to find a sponsor for the schools polar bear plunge team.  Problem solved.  For the past two years, I have helped bus kids down to Sandy Point State Park for the annual Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge.  Proceeds for the plunge benefit the Maryland Special Olympics.  The Special Olympics is a charity I have supported for a long time.  I started out volunteering as a "hugger" when I was in high school.  I also had a friend who's son had special needs and always accompanied him to his yearly Special Olympics events.  For several years, I have taught the adapted physical education class at my school and have two current clients who have special needs, one of which competes in skiing with the Special Olympics.  So long story short, if you would like to support a great cause,  below is a link to my fundraising page.

Last years plunge, look for the "high schooler" with the receeding hair line.

To help me out and donate to a great cause click here.

Meals in Pictures Jan 13

Here are a few of the food combinations we have come up with over the past two weeks.  Hope it helps with ideas.

Will's breakfast - Bacon, one egg over easy and frozen blueberries

Will's dinner - flank steak, roasted broccoli, and homemade potato chips

Flank steak, roasted broccoli, and sauteed cabbage

Kylie's lunch - Turkey and salami woth carrots, mini cucumbers, and a clementine

 

Raw kale salad with tomatoes and flank steak

Broccoli and cauliflower stalks sauteed with bacon pieces and topped with eggs.  This is a pretty regular breakfast of ours

Egg pizza with bacon and a banana

Chicken wings broccoli and biscuit

No nitrate all beef hotdogs with broccoli and a homemade biscuit

Sauteed kale roasted chicken breast and biscuit

Week 2's vegetables

Kelp noodles with marinara sauce, roasted broccoli, grapes, and broccoli

Chicken wings, kelp noodles, onions and kale, roasted broccoli and biscuit

Kelp noodles w/marinara, wings, broccoli, grapes and a biscuit.

Turkey sausage, hash browns, and eggs

Hard too see scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage balls with frozen blueberries

Roasted assperagus, guac, carrots and peppers with grilled chicken sausage

Chicken Bone Broth

Working in the school system gives you an up close and personal view of the flu bug that has been all around us the past couple of weeks.  Just yesterday we had more than 60 kids go home early because of illness and many more out for the whole day.  One weapon in our attack against colds and flu is homemade bone broth.  Bone broth is good for many things. Bone broth has been shown to be beneficial in helping heal a damaged gut and help in the suppression of many auto-immune diseases. Bone broth has also been found to help in the reduction of chronic inflammation. Consumption of bone broth has been shown to aid in attaining optimal levels of nutrients, it helps with issues of bacterial overgrowth once again healing the gut.   The combination of all of these things means a strengthened immune system.  As an added bonus because swim suit season is really not that far away, bone broth has also been shown to reduce cellulite by improving connective tissue.

Science validates what our grandmothers knew. Rich homemade chicken broths help cure colds. Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

                                                                                       Broth is Beautiful - Weston A. Price Foundation

For today's post we wanted to show you how to make your own bone broth.  It is easy to do and can be done with any kind of bones we have used chicken and beef bones.  Dawn talked briefly about bone broth in this previous post about the book Deep Nutrition.

Here is the two step process for making your own bone broth.  Remember quality of meat matters for this broth we used an organic roaster chicken from Trader Joe's.  When we have done beef bones we have gotten them from the farmers market or the Amish market and they are dirt cheap.

We covered our chicken with melted coconut oil and added salt pepper and smoked paprika then roasted

Once most of the meat has been removed place the carcass in the crock pot  add about four cups of water.  We just fill it up most of the way.  Add in some more salt pepper.  We also throw in some onion powder garlic and cayenne peppers to add a little heat.

Let the whole thing simmer overnight or even longer if you want more flavor.  We occasionally have to add more water.  Then ladle out the broth and good bits of meat and enjoy.  It can be refrigerated for about a week or frozen and used whenever.  That is all there is to it and you have a healthy option that is surprisingly filling and makes you feel warm inside, especially when sick and achy.

We like to use broth as a side dish to any meal

Friday Motivation

My brother Steve, Will, Me, my dad, my mom, my brother Jim, Kylie, and my brother Sean.  Brought  my mom home for Thanksgiving for the afternoon.

As we continue navigating through the clean eating challenge, I thought I would pass along a motivational blog post from the website www.getjosette.com.  It will take you 2 seconds to read, but hits you with a  good message. As most of you know, my passion to help others does not just come from my own physical healing, but also my difficult journey with my own mom's physical health. I am bound and determined to help people take their health seriously now so they won't regret it later. My mom is 65 years young and can't be involved in her grandchildren's lives the way she wants to and it is a constant heartache.  You want and NEED to be mentally and physically alive no matter what your age.  You can make it through these thirty days and I guarantee your success will inspire somebody else along the way. If you have fallen off the wagon, get back up and dust yourself off. This is way too important! Have a great weekend and stay strong! Click here to read Josette's post.

The Challenge and Karate Kid

The first week of the challenge is almost done and it is at this point where we tend to see people fall.  The novelty and excitement of doing something new gives way to the effort involved in preparing your own meals and actually having to think about what you are going to eat.  Don't let this happen to you.  Stay strong because the two week mark has proven to be the point where many people hit a stride.

For this post, we wanted to clear up what we think are a few misconceptions about what the challenge is and what the challenge is not. This challenge is not a ready made diet plan where if you simply cut out certain foods, fat will melt away and you will be the picture of health.  It is also not a deprivation plan to be sufferd through and then forgotten about as soon as the thirty days are up. If you find that you are starving, eat.  Just make sure the food you eat is challenge friendly.

The challenge is a 30 day elimination plan where we are trying to cut out certain foods from our diet and let the gut heal from the effects of those foods.  We will then reintroduce those foods one at a time and see if they cause us problems.  It is a focused attempt to see if some of the most common foods in our current diets are causing us health related issues. 

What we hope to bring about by the end of the 30 day's is a renewed focus and understanding that the quality of your health is directly related to the quality of food you put into your mouth.  We also hope to bring about a shift in your mental and emotional attachment to food as well as an understanding that you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it.  

This is where the movie the Karate Kid comes in.   The old one with Ralph Macchio and Elizabeth Shue.  Do you remember it, especially this part?

The challenge is like painting the fence, waxing the car, and sanding the deck.  It sucks, it's hard, and not necessarily fun, but ultimately it is a means to an end.  That end, as far as the 30 days go, is not a sudden new found health and vitality where all of your problems are fixed, you look great naked, and everyone goes on their happy way.  It would be nice if things worked that way, but we all know they don't.  The challenge is a first step in a journey towards better health through a focus on providing your body with the most nutrient rich, whole, natural foods you can.  What that looks like for everyone is going to be different and figuring it out takes time and lots of experimentation.  To make things even more difficult your nutritional needs can change as your life changes.  If stress is low, sleep is great, and life is good, or if you are an exercise fanatic you can handle a lot more variety in your nutritional approach.  However, if you are suffering from current health conditions, under enormous chronic stress, or otherwise sedentary, you would really need to dial things in.  It is an evolving process.

Another coloration can be drawn from this great movie.

If you don't believe in yourself and the importance of what you are embarking on with regards to changing your nutritional approach for yourself and hopefully your family, you will struggle.  There was no magic in Mr. Miagi's hand rub trick that seemed to have healing powers, but it instilled in Daniel Son a belief that he could go on.  Our view of clean eating is merely a tool that will not work without the belief that you can do it.  Fighting through these 30 days helps to instill that belief.  There is no magic in the Paleo, South Beach, Vegetarian, Weight Watchers, Medi Fast, Blood Type,etc diets, the magic is in believing that you can do something and then setting about to do it, no matter what.  When you successfully complete 30 days of clean eating and change your mindset about what healthy is, you feel a sense of accomplishment and come to believe that you can accomplish anything. 

Hope this post was not too far out there, but in talking to people over the weekend we both felt that many people still didn't quite "get" what the challenge was all about.  Have a great week and feel free to share your successes and struggles, we are trying to use Facebook more as a place to share with each other as we work through the process.

A guide to cooking with fats and oils

One of the hardest things to wrap your head around when starting this way of eating is the notion that eating fat does not make you fat.  Carbs, especially highly processed ones, are more likely the culprit.  However, it has been hammered into our brains that fats make you fat and we have heard it enough that we now simply reach for the low fat version of whatever it is we are buying without giving thought to what that fat has been replaced with, which is usually sugar of some sort.  We are here to tell you that healthy fats are good and can and should be an important part of your nutritional plan.  They can be especially helpful in your cooking.

Healthy Fats are what we are looking for and if your goals are weight loss you want to shift your body from running off of carbohydrates to running off of the stored fat you have accumulated over the years.  This can be done by upping your fat intake.  We have talked about the whole saturated fat causes heart disease myth before, but if you are new here is a good article to help you wrap your head around it.  For this purposes of this post we just want to get a guide for cooking oils out there at the beginning of the challenge so that you are aware of what "Healthy Fats" are as you prepare your meals.

What we are looking for in healthy fats are the same things we are looking for in our foods, naturally occurring and minimally processed.

Fats are either saturated or unsaturated. 

Saturated fats are more stable and do not go bad very easily.  If you think about fats that are solid at room temperature, most of them are saturated fats.  These types of fats can handle heat without changing their chemical structure through oxidation and are good to cook with. 

Unsaturated fats are less stable and can go rancid(oxidize) easily in the presence of heat, light and air.  This is why they are often stored in dark glass containers.

Oxidized fats cause inflammation and an uneven balance of omega 3 to omega 6 fats in our body. 

Without going too deep into the details and putting everyone to sleep here is a Quick and easy break down.

For cooking you should be using the following saturated fats:

• Coconut Oil
• Palm Oil
• Butter - From grass feed cows
• Lard, bacon grease - from pastured free range hogs
• Tallow(beef fat) - from grass fed cows

There are also some more uncommon ones such as duck fat, chicken fat, and lamb fat

For cold uses unsaturated fats are best

• Olive oil
• Macademia nut oil
• Sesame Oil
• Avocado Oil
• Walnut Oil

Manmade fats and refined seed oils should be avoided at all costs as they are highly processed and or oxidize easily in the presence of light, heat, and or air.  They are:

• Margarine or butter spreads
• Corn Oil
• Canola Oil - (you would be shocked to see the process that goes into making canola oil edible)
• Vegetable Oil
• Soybean Oil
• Grapeseed Oil
• Sunflower Oil
• Safflower Oil

As well as any of the shortening made from these oils.

This may be a shock to many who depend on canola or even olive oil for your cooking.  It is our position and we will explain further the why in a future post that these oils are not a healthy option and should be avoided.  Canola all together and olive oil should only be used for cold purposes such as in dressings.

Our favorite cooking oil is coconut oil and Costco has saved us money and hassle by recently offering this brand for about $15

Once you start cooking with oils, do yourself a favor and buy one of these.  Prior to the apron, just about every shirt we own had a grease stain on it.

 

10 things to do before the challenge starts

A quick list of 10 things to do before the challenge starts tomorrow

1. Get your mind right -  We have said several times that the mental/emotional side of eating is the toughest to deal with.  Start this challenge off right buy setting your mind to what it is you are going to do and commit to it.  Do not leave any wiggle room with words like maybe or might. Focus on the positive aspects that you want out of the next thirty days, rather than focusing on the things you are taking away and the time will not only fly by, but be enjoyable.
2. Take some measurements - This can be a painful process but a very motivating one.  Get a tape measure and your camera, strip down to whatever you are comfortable in, (it is much more effective if you can see your body, bathing suits or underwear work best no one will see these but you)and take the following measurements and pictures.
•  neck
• arm - midpoint between shoulder and elbow
• waist - right at your belly button
• hips - widest part of your bum
• thighs - the thick part   
• front picture
• side picture
• back picture  

      3. Buy some storage containers - We got a nice set of glass containers from Costco, but whatever you    get is fine, just make sure you have something you can take your food in on the go.

4.  Shop for and prepare your food ahead of time.  Here is a post we did on how we shop for the challenge. You will be buying more produce than you have ever before.   

These are our vegetables for the first week of the challenge, we have gotten used to the checkout person asking if we are vegetarians.

We clean and chop everything all at once

Bag it up and put it in the fridge

 5.  Be ready for the withdrawal - Many of us have spent most of our lives consuming large amounts of processed carbohydrates and the holiday season is usually even worse.  Know that you are not going to feel great for the first few day's of the challenge.  Irritability, dizziness, fatigue, and strong cravings for crappy food are normal and your body is adjusting.  Being prepared for this can help you get through without caving.

6.  Clean the pantry out  - Spend today sitting around watching football and eating what is left of the packaged processed stuff in your house, donate it to a food pantry, or just throw it away.  Just make sure it is out of the house by tomorrow.  It is too tempting to have it sitting around when you come home late from work and just want something quick to keep you going until dinner is done.

7.  Don't be a hero - This challenge is not easy and will require some serious focus on your part especially if it is your first time.  Don't get caught up in the hoopla of New Years resolutions and set out to do the challenge, start a workout program, fix your budget, and volunteer more.  Baby steps work better pick one thing and focus on that.  Make cleaning up your nutrition that one thing and once you have that down, you can layer in more.

8.  Do the program - We often hear from people who spend 30 day's following along and don't get the results they had hoped for and get frustrated.  Then we talk to them and they tell us that they ate clean except for cheese or beans or whole wheat pasta or cake or whatever thing they had to have. They were not doing the program.  Another thing we hear a lot is, "I can't do without _____"(insert whatever food here)  Guess what?  yes you can.  There is no can't.  You are in control and you make decisions.  If you are contemplating doing this challenge it is because you want something to change in your life, in order for things to change you have to do something different.  So put your big girl and boy pants on and do it.  There is not can't.

9.  Read, Read, Read - There is so much information out there.  Knowledge is power and motivating.  We will send you info as we work through, but there is great information in our archives and google can return amazing information.

10.  Enjoy the process - Keep a journal and keep track of what you are eating, what you are feeling, your goals, etc.  We did not get into whatever shape we are in now over night and getting back into great shape will take some time.  Pay close attention to how your body reacts and feels after you eat, and throughout the process and make a note of it.  Celebrate the good day's when you are feeling great and trudge through the bad ones.  If we didn't have any bad day's the good ones would not feel so good.  The process is as important as the outcome.  Go forth and be well.