Yesterday, the 7 Day Challenge began. Women (and men) checking in from all over the place letting me know how they were faring on living their lives a little cleaner, a little leaner and a little greener. Now, it’s time to let everyone else know how you’re doing!
Did you hit a road block? Did you have an amazing epiphany? Did you have a moment where you felt like a hero?
What’d you eat? Did you try something new? Did you love it? Did you hate it?
What didn’t you eat? Did someone else cook in your house, and throw you off track? Did you turn down your favorite food?
Are you an experienced clean eater, wanting to offer advice?
I want to hear about your struggles, your successes, your moments of defeat and your moments of victory! More importantly, other challengers want to hear! So spill it!
21 comments
I must confess – yesterday was NOT a clean eating day for me. I was out-of-town at a friend’s wedding and of course there was nothing there even remotely clean except the salad greens. Oh yeah, and the grapefruit that I ate in the hotel before we left for the wedding!
I am better prepared today, and know that my eating will be much better because I packed my food for work and hubby is cooking dinner.
I started today, because I was sick in bed most of the weekend. So far so good. I was hoping you would do a check in of sorts to help out.
So it’s day 2 and so far I’m doing alright! The only snag I hit was with this particular Weight Watchers snack I love and bought (mindlessly) at my Saturday meeting. I guess easiest way for me to stick to eating clean foods is to have nothing but clean foods in stock and, of course, mindfulness about what I’m putting in my mouth. Every time I think to eat something I think, “Is this really clean?”
What also helps me stick to any sort of challenge is accountability – so I started a blog just to keep track of my progress in the challenge. Something about writing it down and sharing just makes it work better for me.
I had to begin today because I was out of town on yesterday and my food options were limited. Today is going well, although I’ve been craving chips. I was wondering if a shopping list was posted. I’ve read “what’s in your clean eating kitchen” and “now that I’m eating clean, what can I cook”, but thought that there was going to be a separate shopping list. Thanks!
my first comment! yay! so first, thanks so much for sharing your journey, experiences and insights. i LOVE this blog and site!
ok, so i am taking this challenge seriously b/c i am using it to consider a clean eating lifestyle beyond these seven days.
i had serious obstacles. i was supposed to fly from denver to dc yesterday morning. i even planned to meet up with friends at an organic restaurant in dc for dinner before returning to my home in ny. nothing went according to plan!
i didn’t get on my flight and ended up re-routing to charlotte to wait on a flight to dc. it took more than 24 hours! i drank water, turned down my usual soda on the flight. i had a cup of chilli from quiznos at the airport yesterday and had oatmeal with fruit and brown sugar from starbucks this morning.
all things considered, i did pretty well, and i think avoiding whatever burger king was offering, passing on potato chips… is more than just a great start to this challenge, but signifies a MAJOR breakthrough in my lifelong battle with emotionally-charged eating.
I did NOT eat clean yesterday. But today – I am all in. Had hard boiled egg & fruit for bfast. Made lentil soup (with water, no broth) for lunch and will have a large salad with homemade dressing for dinner. YAY!
I believe it is going good so far. I am tempted by certain foods, I did have some honey roasted cashews but other than that, I’ve been good. I hope to feel the same 5 days from now.
I have been struggling with food. I need to have a lifestyle change but it involves having money to buy the healthy food. It is a lot of work to plan meal and I did it for 2 weeks then stopped. I am unemployed and changing my lifestyle in food choices has been a problem for me. I figure in 2012 the world might end anyway so I might as well just workout 5 days a week and maintain my weight until December 21 2012. If nothing happens then, I will start to a new plan.
Today was clean eating…..until I drank a NOS energy drink. These late-nighters are hard, and coffee just doesn’t do it for me. I’m going to have to find a better substitute.
I didn’t get a chance to post until now… but I have been taking baby steps towards clean eating and this week’s step was making my own yogurt! My kids LOVE yogurt but organic yogurt is so expensive. I tried a crockpot recipe that I thought for sure I got from you but can’t find now. Here it is in case anyone else wants to try:
http://www.nourishingdays.com/2009/02/make-yogurt-in-your-crock-pot/
Mine came out a little thin because I only left it for 8hrs on the last step, but still delicious and my boys are gobbling it down. I divided it up into Gladware containers and added blueberries, strawberries, and vanilla to each one (and stevia) to make different flavors and I am thrilled by how well-recieved it has been.
Thanks for inspiring me to take these steps, Erika!
I’m new to the site and I’m glad I came just in time for this challenge! [ B4 I get started you are freaking AMAZING! and thanks for sharing your insight and journey. ]
I “borrowed” the shopping list that you posted in a Wednesday Q&A a while ago… I think it’s titled $50 challenge because well… all I had was 50 bucks (life of a broke grad student). I had spinach and artichoke whole wheat pasta for dinner yday and today (sent pictures thru email and text messages telling everyone I know they have to try this clean eating thing.) and it was yummy.
Last night I had a craving for sweets and opted for some fresh honeydew instead of ice cream… I’d like to think I deserve a pat on the back.
I feel satisfied instead of stuffed after meals and I’m kicking myself in the butt for all the non-clean (is that the term?) foods I usually eat.
Seriously… this blog is a blessing in my life. Thanks.
I am a long-time lurker, and would love to join you on this journey. I need accountability and encouragement, and hope to offer it to others.
I am 39 (40 in December!), and want to be the Finest, most Fabulous,and Fittest 40 year old walking around, I am a former dancer, fitness instructor, teacher, turned military wife and mommy. I just let myself go. Period. Battles with Post-partem depression, depression during my husband’s deployment, laziness, and crappy eating, stress, and of course taking care of my children, all took priority over ME. It’s been a roller-coaster ride of dieting, gaining, detoxing, running, binging, crying, giving up, trying again….blah blah blah. It’s got to stop. I began Chaleane Extreme 1 month ago, and believe I have found my “Soul Mate” workout! I love love love it. Wight-lifting is changing by body composition, I am eating clean,(thank you, Tosca Reno, Clean-Eating magazine, and ERIKA!!), tracking my measurements, and the big difference this time…..I have written down all my goals in present tense, and put them on index cards which now cover my bedroom mirror. They include short term and long term goals. For example: ” I am the hottest wife at hubby’s Christmas party, my dress is a size 6, and I am confident and radiant” Yep…it’s vain….but who cares. I’ve spent enough time hating myself. I read my goals daily as I am getting dressed.
I am trying not to become obsessed with calorie-counting, as I can easily develop a “warped” relationship with food, but I do know my baseline, and just recently realized that I was eating too FEW calories for effective fat-loss. That’s right….I wasn’t fueling properly. Working on that, big time.
I completed my workout this morning, had oatmeal with flax-seed and blueberries and protein powder for breakfast, and re-read all of my goals.
I hope you all are having a wonderful, productive, committed, and successful day! Drink lots of water! 🙂
Tracy
Hi Tracy,
I just read your comments, and we have a few things in common. I will also be 40 on Dec 21st, and I’m trying to make healthy changes so my next 20 years will not be as frustrating as my last. One of my favorite workouts is Turbo Fire, Chalean kicks butt!! I agree that weight training is the fountain of youth, and I’m definitely noticing changes in my body.
Thanks for the reminder about writing down your goals and reading them everyday, and best of luck to you and your family.
I have been in a weird place for the past few weeks. Probably because my weight loss progress slowed to less than a crawl. I took a 10 day break. I had a vacation, busy work schedule, and was really busy. I ate poorly. More fast food. More coffee. More sugar.
Now trying to go back to my old habits…..
yesterday was OK. I gave in to a couple of treats. I haven’t felt like doing a lot of cooking. So I got some prepared foods. They are pretty clean. But not as clean as I could be. I need to get back on track this weekend.
Yesterday’s foods? Trader Joes cous cous salad (I made my own dressing), breakfast of raspberries, greek yogurt and granola, snacks: iced coffee, chocolate covered grahams, dinner; grilled salmon, stir-fried broccoli. Dessert: peach, plum, chocolate trail mix, peanut butter. And a few cups of tea. It was a starving day.
Drinking water instead of wine after and during lunch is gross. I need something strong to wash down the taste and keep it down too. This way I feel the food in the back of my throat and drinking more water just makes it more unpleasant.
A cup of tea helps a bit with the aftertaste but at this point I took in too much fluids and it’s not a nice feeling.
I am a recovering soda addict so I know exactly how you feel here. I used to eat certain foods just for the experience of washing the taste down with soda. Most of the foods were highly salty and the sweet sweet soda would be the perfect counterpoint.
This month, I challenged myself to let go of the soda and that’s when I really paid attention to the times I “had to have” a soda and eating food that isn’t really the best tasting was one of the main reasons.
I also realized I liked the shock of ice cold soda following my warm food down the gullet. So, I make sure to keep my water ice cold. Literally, there is a big chunk of ice in my water bottle at all times.
Now when I do have soda (recovery still in progress) it is almost overwhelmingly sweet and overpowering. I’ve gotten used to how refreshing water can be.
Another thing I realized was just how thirsty/dehydrated I was and I automatically interpreted that signal as a need for soda. At the beginning, I used to psych myself out and say, okay…drink some soda, but you gotta drink it after this water. Next thing you know, I’d forget all about drinking that soda because my thirst had been quenched.
I am starting Tuesday (today) now because I didn’t read yesterday but I am all prepared and ready jan 7th I did manage to throw away 2 of the 4 cookies I was going to eat at work I simply threw them in the trash however I came home from work and my husband had processed pizza and chicken fingers and I ate a piece of each but that was it all day at work I ate pretty good exept for the vending machine trip which consisted of party mix and gold fish
I feel like I did good yesterday but today I’m having the worst hunger pains even with eating snacks in between my meals. I’ve tried to drink green tea to help, but I’m so hungry. Help!
Hello. Well I tried!!!! I had oatmeal,apples slices, and raisin. Grilled fish, brussel sprouts, yellow rice for lunch, and a turkey sandwich for dinner. So today is a new day and I will try it again. Unfortunately, I did not drink a glass of water every hour.
Thanks.
I made an early New Year’s resolution on 12/05/12. My food plan was between a certain number of calories each day, a range (800 to 1200) and a max (1500) that i would not go over. i also committed to exercise daily. So far, i have only missed exercise 2 days. I have been successful staying within calorie range too. I depend on your blog for daily inspiration and motivation and I always find it. Thanks for that!
Ok what is this 7 day thing. I just got on. I don’t wont to miss anything. Im layn here with the flu but have to knw. And no mt. Dew for me. Nor Pepsi. Bbless.
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