As the Whole Life Challenge draws to a close this week, I wanted to share five takeaways from my experience. It’s been a great ride, and I’m glad so many of you decided to join in. If you didn’t do it this time, you should definitely on the next go-around!
- Sugar is addictive
- Don’t know why I can’t get rid of the alpha sub-bullet, but let’s go with it. When you are not thinking about not eating sugar, you don’t realize how much sugar you’re eating. There were so many things that Denee and I realized that we couldn’t buy at the store anymore because they seemed “super-clean” but had added sugar. Packaged rice, applesauce, almond/peanut butter – if you don’t search out the cleanest version at the cleanest store, it has sugar. And we still had that stuff in our pantry during the challenge, and I kept looking at it and longing for it, and realized I was addicted to sugar! We all probably are, in some sense, and cutting that vice out in a determined way for a long time (6 weeks) is a great way to break it. I am going to be very mindful of eating sugar on a regular basis.
- Weight loss is strengthening
- Don’t mean to brag, but I lost 6 pounds. It happened pretty quickly, within the first 3 weeks. And you know what is easier now? Pull-ups. Push-ups. Air squats. Running. Murph. You know what’s hard? Keeping it off, when you relax your eating guidelines and start “taking it easy on the weekends” as I have done in the last couple weeks. If you have a weight loss goal, don’t lose focus. Keep the bad stuff away, and your eyes on your goal. If you have a slip-up – either planned or unplanned, don’t let that blow up your goal for days! Jump back in to goal-mode as soon as you can and your body will recover quickly.
- Sweep in front of your own door
- Did anybody find themselves wondering if other people were cheating on the challenge? “I bet they’re putting 5 points for Nutrition every day but really they’re eating trash sometimes.” Or, “How could they always get their sleep goal, that’s not possible.” Guess what, it is possible, and there are some people that did this challenge nearly flawlessly. They have willpower, and motivation, and I bet they feel great. There are probably some other people that didn’t act honestly each time when they put their scores in, but guess what? I bet they don’t feel great. Either way, who cares? A wise man (my dad) once told me “sweep in front of your own door”, which means take care of your own stuff and don’t worry about what mess other people have going on. If they can’t hack it through a 6-week challenge and you can, no big deal – try to find a way to positively motivate them, but don’t degrade them – that is only making you feel bad as well.
- Abstaining is powerful
- Abstaining means not allowing yourself to have something. For the nutrition portion of the challenge, anyway, that’s what we were doing this whole time – abstaining from foods that we wanted but had committed not to eat. The key word there is “committed”. Once you commit to something, can you see it through? Taking on challenges like this can help you develop that skill, as it is something that definitely needs to be trained. The more times that you take on a commitment and follow through with determination to not fail, the stronger your willpower will be next time a real challenge in your life comes up that you need to face.
- A group challenge is easier than a personal one
- I don’t know about you, but I’ve tried and failed before to take on a nutrition challenge by myself. The first few days or even weeks are “easy”, as the motivation is strong and the short-term results (clearer head, easier wake-ups, better workouts) are firing away. But when those results become the new norm, I find it tough to maintain the motivation by myself. Enter the team!! The daily reflection part of the WLC has been so helpful for me to just hear what other people are going through, even if it’s just to validate that I’m not the only one struggling, or to hear stories of personal victory that can motivate me tomorrow. Rely on your teammates to take on a big challenge!