The challenge group I'm participating in is 3-pronged: 1. exercise (duh), 2. Shakeology (really kind of enjoying this) and 3. clean eating. Ugh. That last one is going to be my biggest struggle for sure. I can make time to exercise. I can do a chocolate shake a day. In order to "eat clean" I have to overcome 31 years of bad habits. Eating clean basically means eating foods in their most natural state (or as close to it as you can safely get). Lean meats. Fruits, veggies. No packaged foods, no preservatives, no Taco Bell, McDonalds or Wendys. Oh, and no pizza. Well, not the commercial ones at least. This is going to be hard. Those meals of convenience have become a bit of a habit in our house. Heck, Friday night has become "pizza night." We eat out more than we should. I know that. But cutting everything out cold turkey... yikes! It didn't help that when I went on a message board for Beachbody coaches this morning I found a post from a coach lamenting the fact that a member of their challenge group had a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast. What?! I mean, I realize they're not the greatest for you. Sugars and all that. But really?! I'm not perfect. I'm going to mess up. Probably a lot while I get the hang of this. But there are a lot of worse things the person could have been eating... like Fruity Pebbles (which I happen to have on top of my fridge right now, by the way...). Therefore, I solemnly swear if I'm ever your coach, I am not going to freak out about an occasional slip up.
I really believe that you get out of the challenge what you put in. I enter it with that full knowledge and acceptance. If I eat a slice of pizza, or a bowl of cereal, I'm the one who suffers for it. And I'm ok with that. I don't want to develop such a complex over the clean eating that I feel guilty if I have a beer with friends or cake at my daughter's birthday party. Every healthy choice I make makes me that much better. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to 'challenge' myself to do better, to be better. But I'm not going to strive for 'perfection," that's just setting myself up for failure. As a special education teacher, setting goals is something that has been ingrained in my education. Goals have to be SMART - Strategic/Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results oriented and Time bound. So I'm setting attainable goals for myself. :o)
P.S. My first official workout of the challenge went well. I burned 458 calories according to the HRM. Pretty stoked about that!
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