Yesterday was the last day of our 7 Day Rescue Motiv8 Challenge. It was awesome seeing everyone's food posts and thanks to everyone who shared their experience on the Motiv8 HQ Facebook page!
The next question is, "what do I do now?"
The challenge is over, so do I continue on this path or do I go back to my old ways?
Today's blog post focuses on just this topic. What to do now?
Today, I'd like for you to take a good five minutes and review the three steps below.
3 Steps to Take After A Diet Program!
Motiv8ers, now that our challenge is over, it's important to spend a little bit of time reflecting on your experiences. Check out the three steps below to help you decide what parts of this challenge you would like to adopt and what parts you would like to discard.
First Step: Review how you felt during the challenge.
Take out a sheet of paper and write down how you felt over the seven days. Think about the topics below, then write down if you felt better or worse for each topic.
- Did you have more energy or less energy during the day? If you had less energy, why do you think this might be?
- Did you feel more focused at work or less focused?
- Did you have more energy or less energy at your workouts?
- Did you have cravings for the foods you were avoiding or were you satisfied with your meals?
- Do you feel like you gained weight or lost weight?
- Did your mood improve during the day or decline?
- How was your sleep? Did you feel fresh in the morning or worn out?
Second Step: Ask yourself if you could make this diet a new lifestyle.
Many of us start a diet, see success, but then find ourselves falling back into our old bad habits and gaining back all the unwanted weight that we lost. So in order to make your results stick, you have to fully commit to making this diet part of your new lifestyle.
The mind is a powerful tool. Have you ever heard the phrase "you are what you think?" If you want to be healthy and strong but you always think of yourself as out of shape and overweight, there is no way you will be able to adopt a new healthy lifestyle. You might be strong at first, but you will always fall back into your poor habits because your mind doesn't believe you can do it.
So if you decide that this diet is for you, you have to think of yourself as the type of person that eats this way and that sees the results you are looking for. Believe that you can be healthy and make this type of diet your new norm.
Make this new lifestyle who you are and ignore what your environment or social circles are telling you. If you feel good eating this way, don't allow your friends, family, or coworkers to persuade you into falling back into your old bad habits. Become a new person and embrace the new strength and power that your body will feel as you become a healthier, happier person.
Third Step: Learn how to have balance.
Motiv8ers, the 7 day challenge's goal is to help you have a healthier relationship with food and learn how to eat when your body needs the most healing. It isn't saying that you have to stop eating the processed sugar, dairy, junk food, alcohol, etc. The goal is to help you have the right relationship with these foods.
Think of food as having a purpose.
You eat proteins when your body needs to repair and heal. Carbohydrates are taken in when the body needs energy or needs to refuel after a hard day or workout. Fats are designed to help lubricate the body and organs, give it a little bit of energy, and help with brain health.
Think of your junk food as party food or special occasion food. You have it when you are at a party or when you are celebrating or out with friends. But in your day-to-day life, you need to stay away from those foods that causes your body the most stress. Instead, you focus on the foods that give your body energy, helps it heal, and makes you feel great.
For example, I used to have a problem with the Clif Shot Bloks. These are energy chews that are supposed to help you sustain your energy during long endurance events like a marathon. But I was using them to give me energy before a workout and eventually I started eating them as a snack. It got so bad that I was eating two packages a day. I felt like I needed them to be energetic in the workouts I coached. But they were causing me a lot of problems and I wasn't even aware of it. They were spiking my blood sugar which made me feel a bit tired later in the day. The biggest problem was they were giving me canker sores in my mouth. I would get one or two small sores every week. It was caused by the processed sugar. I thought it was something I was just prone to and I would have to live with, but once I took them out of my diet the sores went away quick. And, for almost a year now, I have kept the sores away. Which makes my life so much happier. =) I still eat the bloks but only how they are meant to be eaten. During a long run which only happens once every two or three weeks.
Conclusion:
Motiv8ers, it comes down to this: A diet program is not meant to help you get a quick fix so that you can go back to your old ways.
A diet program is used to help you make a lifestyle switch. To help you become a healthier new version of yourself.
So ask yourself what you liked about this challenge. Can you adopt this challenge into your lifestyle and make it your new norm? You started this challenge because you needed something different, or what you were doing previously wasn't working. In order for you to become a new healthier person, your mind, your habits, and your lifestyle has to change.
So Crew, use the steps above and start this week with making a conscious decision to take another step forward in your health.
Crew, that is all for today!
If you enjoyed this challenge and would like to have more challenges in the future, post below or post on our Motiv8 HQ Facebook page.
Also, if you would like to do some further reading for more info on a plant based diet, check out these two books below. I highly recommend them:
By Michael Greger
By Rip Esselstyn
Coach Ty Out!
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