Eating Clean // My 7-day Challenge

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A few weeks ago I helped run a 7-day Clean Eating Challenge/Support Group on Facebook. I’ve been getting my own eating habits back on track and wanted to put together a group of people looking to jumpstart their own clean-eating habits!

We provided a meal plan with clean-eating guidelines as well as gluten-free and veg options! The rules were clear:

1. Use the group as support. 2. No alcohol + no soda.

That’s it! 🙂

… and we all totally rocked the challenge.

Bonus — the food was delicious!

(from top left: toasted spelt bread w/natural almond butter + bananas;
2 eggs, scrambled, w/2 egg whites & spinach;
rice pasta w/coconut oil, grilled chicken & steamed broccoli;
grilled turkey burger w/grilled asparagus)

The thing about starting to eat healthy is that once you start, you don’t really want to derail it in any way. But real life is NOT always clean-eating. That’s why it’s important to learn to make healthy-eating decisions versus sticking to a super duper strict diet all of the time (hence the animal frites!).

Here’s the trick: Do not use food as a reward. Food is fuel. On occasion, it’s OK to ‘indulge’ a bit; but don’t say “Well I ran 3 miles, I guess it’s OK if I eat this giant bowl of ice cream!”

That’s not the way it works. I WISH that was the way it worked. But in the game of losing weight, it’s 80% diet. So even with all of those extra workouts you’re getting? You still have to eat healthy.

At the end of the 7-day challenge, I was down three-pounds and and an inch around my waist. It’s not perfection, but it’s progress. And that’s what health & fitness are all about — progress!

Has anyone else done a clean-eating challenge?? What did you think at the end??