Are you ready for a change in 2015?

I have the perfect idea for you!  Well, only to those who need or want it.

Are you ready to take a step in a better direction for your health in 2015?

Maybe you're sick of feeling the way you do and just having to cope.  Maybe you are tired and sluggish and never have any energy, or don't sleep well.  Migraines? Digestive issues?  Honestly, I didn't even realize that I was suppossed to feel better than I was!  Maybe you'd love to drop some pounds.  Along with these other things, this was a huge motivation for me last year. 

January 2014 was the first time in my life I decided to finally make some decisions to be healthier. Until then, I never cared.  So if you don't care, that's okay.  I am not preaching to you. If you don't care, then you don't need to read this.  Come back later if you ever change your mind. I didn't care for a long time either.  It's sad to me that there's a divide between people who eat healthy and those who don't.  That there are so many opinions and poking fun. This is about what YOU need.  I needed it.  I was living with several migraines a month, low energy, digestive issues I had lived with my whole life and just thought was normal, and not to mention extra pounds that I was finally ready to do something about.  You know if you need a change or not.  It doesn't mean you'll be jumping up and down excited to change.  Change is hard.  But a change like this will leave you looking back being soooo glad for the commitment you made.

This year I took part in 2 challenges with My Clean Eating Challenge.   Before the first one this summer, I was definitely nervous.  I had major bad habits with food, I didn't like many veggies, I never read a label in my life and felt like eating clean was going to be virtually impossible and not enjoyable in any way.  

Thankfully I was wrong about a lot of that. 

I never knew food could heal so much. The right food, anyway. And it makes all the discipline worth it.  And after one challenge I was ready to do another.  Just to make sure my habits were sticking and that this wasn't going to be something I did for 90 days and then stopped. I personally need accountability and tend to not be very disciplined in some areas of my life without it.

Not to mention I really had no clue what clean eating was all about so I needed help.

I did a few other posts about the challenge, and my clean eating journey here and here. 

Why's it called clean eating?  I'm not really sure.  It's just the term everyone's picked up.  We have to call it something. But if you prefer to call it REAL FOOD eating, go right ahead.  It's about eating foods that were made to be eaten, and not eating things that were never intended to go in our bodies. Little did I know how far the food industry has gotten away from real food.  It doesn't eliminate entire food groups, it just suggests limiting things that aren't the most beneficial to our bodies and health.

I realize this can be taken to all kinds of levels.  But it can also be kept simple. 

 

The challenge is about people coming together to learn. (because let's face it, we don't all have hours and hours to spend researching, educating ourselves and figuring out a new food journey all on our own, having someone just teach it to us is much easier).  It's people coming together for encouragement, and having a team, and a coach, to help you when you say "I have no idea what I'm doing!"

The challenge is about real people eating real food in real life.  It's not about shopping at Whole Foods and Trader Joes every other day.  I could never do that.  I'm a small town, home-body who doesn't venture past Walmart and Dillons most of the time.  I need REAL LIFE habits.  Not things that I'll only be able to keep up for a short period and breaks the budget. This is what the My Clean Eating Challenge is all about. 

And let's be honest.  This isn't about saying goodbye to your favorite treats forever.  At this point that may not be realistic to you at all.  Even during the challenge, you'll get 2 cheat meals a week.  I never thought I would say goodbye to Pepsi.  But I don't do this perfectly.  We still ordered a 2 liter along with our pizza tonight. But rare is way better than every day.  I didn't sign my life away to something.  I just made huge changes.  I will enjoy treats at Christmas, but I'll make better choices than years past because I know how I feel now and how I don't want to feel.  I am aware of the junk now.

I would love to invite you to start 2015 off with the Winter My Clean Eating Challenge.  It begins January 8 and will be 10 weeks long.  Every week there will be a webinar helping you learn and know how to do this!  Recipes will be shared, tips will be given, you will get SOOO much support! 

Why do I talk so much about this?  I guess it's just like anything else in life.  When you're excited and passionate about something, we don't tend to stay silent do we?  If everyone stayed silent I, myself, would never have be encouraged to start this journey.  I would NEVER have figured this all out on my own.  Never, ever.

It's been so awesome not only realizing what eating real, whole foods has done to my own body, but watching others too.  I've watched friends stop medication they were on daily, just because they learned that eating the right foods can fix a lot of issues.  I've watched friends get that sparkle back in them because they actually see hope in a journey of weight loss, and they don't feel tied down by signing their life away to counting calories or taking pills and shakes.   It's fun to do this together, and I would love to have you join us in January!

Here's how:

Go to www.mycleaneatingchallenge.com

Browse around and read about the challenge, the creators, the success stories.  Don't miss the FAQs. 

When you're ready...click REGISTER.

Fill out the registration form.  Cost is $150, but $125 if you register before January 7. 

It comes to $1.80 a day!  That's a cheap cost to feeling better, looking better and overall better health.

Join alone or get a friend or family member or a whole team of 3-6 to join you! Having someone doing this with you is HUGE!  But if you don't have anyone to join you, we'll get you on a team!

Listen to a recorded call with lots of info here.  All you have to do is enter your name and email address to access it. Don't worry - no spam!  It's the creators of the My Clean Eating Challenge, gals I know personally, giving you all the info!

Like the My Clean Eating Challenge official FB page - with 265 more likes they are giving away a free challenge!

Join the Winter My CEC event on FB so you don't miss announcements.

 Sign up for the free newsletter available to ANYONE!

Do you have an HSA account? If you do, you can possibly use your account to pay for the challenge! You simply need a script from your doctor prescribing the challenge and then out the appropriate paperwork!

And let me know if you have any questions!  Leave a comment or email me (email address in the Contact section of my blog).

I will surely need this challenge again myself after the next few weeks of Christmas goodies!!

It feels good to know I have a plan already set for getting back on track. 

The new Bikini Body Mommy Challenge starts January 5th too!  Perfect timing to get an amazing start to the new year!

half way through

I'm half way through my clean eating challenge so I thought I'd share 10 thoughts I have thus far:

1.  "Clean eating".  It's not anything that's new.  It's a way of eating from long ago.  Before we began to drown in processed food. For me, it's a way of eating I hadn't really cared to discover.  It's going back to the way your grandma cooked.  It was whole foods.
It may have a new name attached to it...to help people connect and define it a bit more.  But it's not a new phenomenon.  What is new is that people lately are finally starting to figure out how awful all the processed foods that are full of added sugar are for us, so more and more people are making the decision to make the changes to go back to this tried and true way of eating.  While it's something I could have started long long ago.  I had to reach the point that I was fed up knowing I was doing nothing to get healthier or get my body going in a better direction and I knew I was not feeling like I should. When a challenge was proposed to me, it was perfect timing.  I was finally ready to do this.  And I didn't have to buy into any pills or shakes or supplements to do it.  I've just had to learn to eat REAL food.

2.  One of the biggest reasons I drug my feet in committing to the 90 day clean eating challenge was because of all the traveling I'd be doing.  Not just one vacation, so not just one bad week, but multiple.  I was worried I would fail my team or fail myself.  But in the end, I decided not to stress.  The point of this challenge, as I've said several times, is not just a fad or diet, or even the challenge of 90 days. But learning long term a new way of thinking and eating.  And the team, points and challenge have helped me stay committed as it takes that long to learn sometimes.

3.  One of my biggest successes has been in my snacks. Both while traveling and at home. This in itself is pretty epic people!  When we travel, we are big gas station junkies.  We head in and come out with $20 worth of snacks and pop... cheetos, beef jerky, ice cream cookie sandwiches, honey roasted cashews, pepsi, mt dew, candy bars.

You think I'm joking.  But I'm not. 
And every year now, for 10 years, at my Premier Rally, my bag is stuffed full of boston baked beans, werthers originals, bite sized snickers and starbursts.  And I wonder why I've gotten a migraine every single year at some point.  I've decided that while traveling, snacks are one thing I can control when I may not be able to control the rest.

4.  After eating virtually 100% clean for several weeks, after just ONE day of eating awful on our camping trip, I felt horrible. This was a good lesson to learn.  This is how I used to eat 100% of the time. So feeling what it feels like to go back to it really sent me a message.

 

5.  I ordered my first salad in possibly 15 years while we were eating in Estes Park.  I know, I know, some of you think that's probably insane and you order them all the time.  But I would never have considered a salad a meal.  And there's no way I was gonna waste my money on a salad.

But after a day and a half of junk, my body was screaming for greens.  Sometimes even I have to stop and ask myself  "WHO am I?"

6.    Food has always been a big part of our vacations.  You could say we like to eat our way through our vacations.  And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.  Treat yourself and enjoy it. I don't think I would ever succeed for the long run if I deprived myself 100% of some of my favorite things...like cheese fries and big fatty ribeyes.  The key is balance. My choices before were always pretty bad. But I now really think hard about what is really my favorite things and decide many times I don't need the treat because it's not worth it. I have those favorites on occasion and in between them I'm making much better choices.  The goal after being on vacation and not eating as well, is to get back on track when I get home.  For me, there used to not be any difference, I ate junk on vacation just like the junk I ate every day.

7. When I mention no sugar, I'm referring to refined sugars (the white sugar in the sugar bowl, or added sugars).  The goal is to switch out to natural sweeteners,  sweeteners as close to their natural state as you possibly can get...honey, real maple syrup, stevia.  Eating clean doesn't mean you can never taste anything sweet again. Just find ways to use natural sugars (but still be careful not to eat a ton of them).  I'm in love with this dark chocolate that I stock in my freezer...it's just cocoa powder, coconut oil, honey and then I add pure vanilla.  It's so yummy and definitely kicks those sweet cravings. Look at your recipes...a lot of times you can replace sugar with a natural sweetener and you can't tell at all.

8. If you wanted a baby step to start with (although this was not a baby step for me, this was huge), do some research on sugar and I can promise you that everywhere you read you'll read how awful ALL pop and sugary drinks (even Gatorade!) are.  So quit those.  And celebrate.  I still have a Pepsi here and there, just gonna be honest.  But I used to have 1-2 daily.  But we don't keep it in stock at home anymore. That has been one of our biggest victories.

9. Being in a 90 day challenge and being more strict than I probably will be after the challenge is over, means you get to see obvious results.  You get to cut the sugar and processed foods completely and really feel and SEE the difference it makes.  When you personally experience the positive effects, this is when you're forever changed. It's just like so many other things in life.  Until you have a first-hand experience, it's easy to be judgemental of others, question or doubt.  I know, because it's how I used to think.  I won't always be concerned about eating 100% clean all the time.  But I will forever think differently and be much more aware and cautious.

10.  So what results have I gotten?
*no migraines thus far - I typically get them 1-2 times a month
*more energy throughout my day
*more restful nights sleep
*weight loss - from one year ago, I'm down 15 pounds and a handful of inches. (so obviously not all 15 are from the challenge, 8 from January through June, and then 7 since the challenge began).
*best skin I've had in years and years

And why do I post about all of this? Please don't feel guilty if you're shoving a Snickers bar in your mouth while you're reading. Because I got my inspiration from the journies of others, while I was shoving Snickers bars in mouth.  Real life people that I could connect with and not just be intimidated by. Real life people that I could look at and say "if they can do it, then I guess I can do it".  People who talked about never feeling "good", who made me wonder if I was learning to cope with low energy and other issues, thinking it was just normal.  They made me wonder if there was more to how I felt. 
It's not about who's doing what and what wagon you're going to jump on.  One of the beauties of social media and the internet is that we can be motivated and inspired by others on similar journies. That's what began my journey.  Going from not caring at all....to listening with one ear open to what others were saying....to reading.....to researching....beginning to care....to being inspired....and realizing this is what I wanted and needed too. Or at least it was worth a shot in finding out what kind of results I could get.

Half way through the challenge and it's become so normal I don't even think about getting to the end.

raw week.

Okay, so RAW WEEK started today. And yes I was freaking out.  I'm  the gal who needs a nightly plate of nachos.  Or who loves to make brownies or chocolate chip cookies at 10pm at night and indulge with my hubby.  I would add my daily/nightly Pepsi also, but I gave that up in April.

But this is also the gal who is ready to get her body back. And to feel better all around.
If I keep doing what I'm doing, I'll keep getting what I'm getting.  (seems to be something I've been hearing a lot of lately).

So the deal is that we attempt a 5 day raw challenge.  If at any point we want to stop the raw challenge, we then just begin the clean eating challenge.  I honestly cannot believe I'm really doing this.

So this week it's veggies, fruits, more veggies, raw nuts, and more veggies. 

I'm not really sure how this "non" veggie girl is going to do.

Why raw??  Lots of reasons...

It will detox my body, get a kickstart on weight loss, get my body ready to DO THIS, help me start to develop a taste and desire for veggies, and give me a jumpstart on having energy and feeling good.
And now that I've completed day 1, I'm realizing that it is going to make clean eating seem like a breeze!!!

I chopped tons of stuff on Sunday.  Which made it so much easier to have things ready fast for smoothies, salads and snacks.

So today's menu was pretty simple:

Smoothie for breakfast:  spinach, kale, banana, strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, carrot, chia seeds and ice cubes.

Snack: Carrot and watermelon

Lunch:  Well, lunch is when things turned bad...

 It looks good, I know.  But I tried the mixed power greens (mizuna, chard, kale, spinach).  There was something in there I didn't like at all.  I doused it with salsa, which I think will be my saving grace this week for my salads. But I had to swallow almost every bite with water.  Tomorrow I think I'll stick with spinach and kale.
I used this recipe for the salsa.  The Gracious Pantry is the best place I've found to get any clean eating recipes.

Snack: handful of raw nuts and cherries.

Dinner:  Same smoothie as breakfast just BIGGER, but this time I did the power greens in it, and I didn't taste them at all!

Plus I made sure to get all my water down (half my body weight in ounces) and got my workout in.

What are my thoughts on day 1?
It was doable.  I felt full most of the day. I had a few people that made comments about me being hungry all day, but I was surprisingly full.  But I ate big servings.  Because when you're eating fruits and veggies, you can!  I will save the power greens for smoothies only, and tomorrow I'll be dousing my salad with guacamole also.  I had greens for every meal.  First time in my lifetime.  It's a mental game.  So much of this is training my brain and thinking of food as medicine, what my body NEEDS, not what my body wants. 

To end a day knowing that I put nothing but good stuff in my body feels pretty good.

 I have no clue how long I'll make it.

Wednesday I'm hosting a lunch and playdate for a bunch of my Premier girls, I will be making them yummy ham and cheese sliders.  I've had this planned long before I knew this would be raw week.  So yeah, if I make it past Wednesday, it will be a miracle.

I was smart today.  I put together roast, carrots and potatoes for my family in the crockpot last night so I don't have to prepare a dinner tonight while I'm trying to stick to my raws.  Now if only I can be on top of things the rest of the week.  Then we'll all get on the same menu for the most part.


I've had a lot of people ask me if this will be a one time challenge or if it will be offered again.  YES! It will be offered again.  Probably one in the fall and then again in the winter.  So if you're thinking it's something you want to do, just watch for announcements, I'll be sure to let you know. And start changing some habits now, it will make it much easier! The challenge is based out of Ohio/Indiana, but there are teams from a handful of different states. There is tons of support and learning involved in the challenge, plus coaches that can answer all of our questions and help us on this journey. We aren't given a meal plan but are given ideas.  We are being taught how to just eat clean.  Buy whole foods and not processed.  A good starting point for me was just figuring out how I could take our normal meals and make them clean.  I would never realistically be able to follow someone else's meal plan/recipes for the long haul.  This is about learning how to do this for more than just a few weeks or months.  If you're at all interested in the next challenge, let me know and I'll start a list of people who want to know when the next challenge starts and try hard to make sure you know about it.

I won't continue to post daily about this challenge, I know that would annoy some of you greatly.
But I will try to update you from time to time.   I have one more post about something else I'm doing for my health that I'll tell you about in the next few days.

Bring on Day 2 of raw.

some changes

So I wanted to tell you about some changes that I'm making to get healthier.  Mostly to hold myself accountable.  But also because I'm getting a lot of questions and I figured I could explain things better here.  And, because I know that there are probably some of you out there that are exactly where I was, stuck in your ways and not caring too much about changing habits.   I'm not trying to persuade you to change. I just want to say that I was right there.

When it came to anything health and food related, I would say I was just simply uneducated and didn't care all that much to be educated. I didn't care what I was eating, as long as it tasted good.  I do like to workout.  But I can count on one hand the number of months I've consistently worked out in the last 10 years. I got in a 3-4 month routine of going to the gym last year, and I felt AMAZING and saw some changes in my body.  But 1-2 hours at the gym every night just wasn't feasible to continue for the long haul.  The phase wore off.  That workout phase was the first time since college I had done much, other than train for 3 weeks one time for a 5K.  And with that phase, for the first time I actually wanted to eat better.  I was working hard to look decent in my swim suit for our 2 vacations last year.  And when I work out, I am motivated to eat the right foods.  The minute I stopped working out, I started eating crap again.

I wasn't really finding anything that would work for me, exercise or diet, for more than a short period.  Everything always wore off eventually. I'm guessing I'm not alone in that. 

This year started a new journey to become healthier.  At the beginning of the year I attended an essential oils and clean eating class.  Both of which left an impact on me and nudged me into changes.  Before this, I hadn't really heard the term "clean eating" all that much.  Mostly because I didn't care.  I had my stubborn opinions about food.  But to put it simply, this is what has stuck with me...
"80% of the way we feel has to do with the food that we eat".

Hmmm??  Well I know I don't feel the best most of the time.  I don't ever feel like I have much energy. I seem to get sick pretty easily.  And we just finished the worst winter ever with sickness in our home.  Now, I realize that could be our stage of life.  Little kids who are in nurseries and preschool classes, and who bring all the yucky germs home.  I realize it may not all be in my control and that we could take every precaution possible and still get sick.  But, I am willing to do what I can with what is in my control.  And then ultimately, I'm ready to not only feel better, but also feel better about myself.  It's no fun at all feeling like a frumpy mom, trying to hide her body all the time because of baby weight that I've been dragging around for several years.  And let's be real...wearing a spanx cami every single day of my life is just no fun.  And when it's 100 degrees outside, it's pretty much miserable.

So here's the deal on clean eating...
Everyone you talk to may give a different explanation. Some forms of it are pretty extreme, and cut out things like dairy and meat completely. And clean eating is not the same as paleo.  Some versions include only eating fresh picked produce (which means you better have the ability to grow all your own food).  I'm totally fine buying my food at the store.

What I like about clean eating is that to an extent, you make up the rules that work for you and you are comfortable with, but the basics are always the same.  And it's not a crash diet.  And I don't want a diet that makes grocery shopping impossible.  I pretty much never leave this town to get groceries, so I need to be able to get everything here locally, and I'm finding that to be completely doable.  It's not meant to be something you just do for a short time.  It's more about a lifestyle change than a diet.  That's great for me.  I don't want a diet that I end up quitting after a month or so and then go straight back to where I was. 
Based on my cooking, grocery shopping and eating habits, I was in need of a lifestyle change.

I don't feel like I have to commit to "all clean, all the time".  I'm not going to stress out on holidays and times I'm out with friends.  And realistically, even at home, things are not going to be 100% clean.  But what I've noticed already, in the last 6 months is that I think differently about food.  When I'm eating the yucky stuff, but the oh so good stuff, I think about it.  I know it's not good for me, I know I can't fall into a habit of it.  These are not things I used to think about.  When I grocery shop I automatically read every label.  I can't even help it anymore. I don't care about the nutritional facts.  I just care about what's in my food.  If the list is long, with a ton of things that I can't even pronounce, I know it's overly processed and full of things I don't need nor want in my body, or my kids' bodies.
Once I started educating myself and actually learned what that extra stuff in our foods does to us, it was hard to ignore it.  It’s scary to look at an ingredient list and realize you wouldn’t want to breathe in or touch most of the chemicals listed.

Clean eating for us is eating whole foods as close to their natural state as possible. It's stopping myself from grabbing all the convenience foods and just making things myself when I can (like salad dressings, sauces, using my own seasonings, etc).  It's been about changing some of the things we used on a regular basis to the cleaner version. And about not eating out so much. They aren't changes that are just going to last a short time, they are changes that will continue.  I really felt like this was a good explanation for me...

So Monday I'm starting a 90 day clean eating challenge.  I'm participating in the challenge with about 200 other people, all placed on teams for accountability and support from a handful of different states.  The challenge includes coaches available to answer questions and help us learn how to do this, including a doctor specializing in natural and functional medicine and clinical nutrition, clean eating classes, and a community of support to help us keep going.

I was scared to commit, I really was.  And I almost didn't do it. 90 days is a long time.  It would have been a no brainer had it been 30 days.  But what I realized is that 90 days will help change habits, and not just pick up changes that will last a month and then fall back into old routine.  90 days is enough time to see huge changes to overall health, when 30 days is about the length of time someone may barely begin to see changes.  After 90 days, I will know how awful I felt before.  It will give me the chance to 100% prove to myself how food affects my body and the way I feel.  That's what I need.  I need the proof.   Weight loss isn't the #1 goal with clean eating.  But those that have been a part of the challenge before have definitely dropped major poundage.

I'm not going into this cold turkey.  There is actually no way I would be able to do that.  We've been eating much much cleaner since January.  And guess what!?!  If we want to simply make this about weight loss (which it is actually way more than that), I'll tell you that I am about 8 pounds lighter than I have been for years.  Last year, even when I was working out, my body changed, which was great, but the pounds didn't seem to go anywhere. I completely contribute the number on the scale right now to the changes I've made in my food since the new year.  No calorie counting, no crash diet.  Just eating cleaner.  And that's without adding the workouts in.  I've only started working out again in the last 5 weeks.  So I'm super pumped to see where I can get when I have both the food and the exercise going for me!

 So I've had about 6 months to baby step into this.  Baby steps is what I need.  We slowly switched our white rice and pasta for brown.  We slowly stopped using the cheap maple syrup and brown sugar in our oatmeal and switched to honey or real maple syrup or no sweetener at all. We slowly stopped opening the cupboard to look for snacks, and instead are learning to grab fruit and other healthier snack options. We slowly began putting more veggies on our plates. I am NOT a veggie eater, so this has been a challenge.  I stopped drinking pop at Easter and hardly even think about it anymore.  And we very very slowly transitioned off cereal (even the "healthy" stuff is full of sugar), something I honestly didn't think my kids could do.  Next question everyone asks...what in the world do your kids eat for breakfast then?  We eat eggs, oatmeal and smoothies.  That's pretty much it.  On weekends, every once in a while I'll make whole wheat pancakes.  I would have said you were crazy to think I could get my kids off cereal, they ate it every morning and pretty much every night for a bedtime snack.  But they did it!  And it's really been so neat to watch them learn to make better food choices and take pride in the choices they make.

I am the only one in my family 100% committed to the 90 day challenge.  I know there are going to be times I'm just not going to be able to keep it clean for everyone all the time.  But because we've been working to this point anyway, they know they challenge is coming, they know they will be participating too, and they are all for it. They just begged to have more cheats than the 2 cheat meals I get each week.

We'll have several trips during this challenge and I just told myself I'm not going to stress.  If I don't have good point days during those trips, it's ok.  But getting back on track when I get home is what will matter.  I'll fail some days I'm sure.  But my goal is to start each new day fresh, do better than I did the day before.  This if for the long-haul, not just something trendy and short-lived.
After the challenge is over, I know I won't be as hard core as I will have been for the challenge.  We need cheat meals, treats, even cheat weeks. But I have a feeling after experiencing the results of eating clean, it will be hard to go back.

It's crazy the responses I've gotten already as I've approached this challenge.  Some people think it's crazy.  They roll their eyes. But that's okay.  I probably would have been one of them a year ago.  Some people don't get it, don't understand the whys.  That would have been me too.   Some people automatically define it as impossible.  I would have felt the same way had I not taken the last 6 months to slowly get us here.  And some have just wondered why not just eat clean on my own, why participate on a team, in a challenge.  I have been mostly eating clean on my own for the last 6 months.  But for me, the team, the points, the support, the extra education, and motivation of a challenge is what will help me go ALL IN.  And going ALL IN means I'll get to experience all of the results that I don't necessarily experience when I'm just "mostly" eating clean.

I want to know what feeling good really feels like.  It seems like we just learn to cope with the way we feel sometimes.  We think it's normal.  We don't realize how low on energy we are until we experience what energy really feels like.  We don't realize how bogged down our immune systems are until we strengthen it.  And we don't realize how many health issues we deal with on a regular basis that are completely connected to the foods we eat.  I'm ready to care about it all, and I'm ready to make changes.

 I'm ready.  I'm nervous, but I'm ready.  I have friends doing it along, which I know will help so much!
Week one starts off with a 5 day "raw" challenge.  I'll tell you more about that soon.
If you have questions, feel free to leave them for me!

The countdown is on...3 days to go.