There is a startling statistic that I know you've heard if you've read my blog, or sure you have heard elsewhere, that weight loss comes 75% from nutrition and only 25% from exercise. That is CRAZY to me! Every single time I hear that I am startled all over again. But it's so true. When I got my knee injury last year from running, I KNEW I needed to make a change in my own body, if for nothing else than to be easier on my joints because if I was starting this young with joint pain I would be bound to have problems later on in life. Changing my nutrition was pretty much majority of my weight loss journey. I am a huge advocate for exercise (obviously - you see my posts all the time about the things I'm up to,) but the thought of simply tweaking the way that you eat and the things that you put in your body and gaining almost complete control over your weight - that is AMAZING and TERRIFYING in and of itself. Amazing because we can make such small changes (ditch the sodapop and chips) and see such huge results - but terrifying because often times it can be too overwhelming to begin because of no idea on how to start! This can turn into a sick cycle of having INFORMATION OVERLOAD. THAT is what my clean-eating challenge group was for. It is very cut & dry information - not telling you to "buy organic, local, this, that, yada," though I believe that is the way to go (most of the time,) it is NOT a good place to start.
Not only that, but food is a very passionate and sentimental thing for so many people. Traditions, past-times, reminders of childhood, chocolate on Valentine's Day, Cinnamon rolls on Christmas (that's my family anway), pumpkin and pecan pie for Thanksgiving, most traditions revolve around food! And a GOOD family time spent is often associated with GOOD food being shared. It is something we fellowship over. So as you can see, food habits can be a pain in the butt to even WANT to change because these lines run SO deep! I'm not saying it is bad at all to indulge on holidays, definitely not! I'm saying that I think it's time we step back and take a look at how MUCH we indulge on the holidays - and THEN take a step back ever further and take a look at how much we indulge all the other times of the year...Friday night indulgence? Monday evening indulgence? Rewarding yourself with a splurge or two after a tough day - what if every day is a tough day - and then we wake up years later and think "when did this happen?" Weight gain doesn't happen overnight. And neither does weight LOSS.
The thing about making the decision to lose weight or getting healthier in general is that it should not be considered a diet. Starving yourself isn't the answer. It is time to take a look at and re-examine the foods that you are consuming on a regular basis. How many packages do you have to open per day? How many lids do you have to take off? How much trash are you throwing out each week? The goal for my clean-eating challenge group was not for anyone to starve, simply eat different foods, more simply...
I decided to publish the graphics that I created and used for my group so that everyone can check them out and use as much or as little as they'd like! For me - accountability is everything - so I function best in a group. But for others, it can be a very personal and independent journey. That is okay! Use these as much or as little as you'd like and if you ever decide you want help or accountability, I would love to work with you! I was SO excited to hear multiple people in my challenge group report back that they lost anywhere from 2-5 pounds in their first week just from making simple changes! It works people! :)
Thanks for spending time reading this! Let me know what you try :)
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