Day 2 of my 100 Healthy days marks my 1 week 100% clean paleo eating 'Reboot' goal too!
It's tougher than you'd think. It's essentially the Paleo lifestyle but VERY strict. The challenge is to see if you can go for 30 days straight with NO cheating. You cheat, you start from Day 1 again. I've had to restart twice, once because in a moment of habit I had a sip of my boyfriends coke at a party. Sigh. And the second time I had honey, which is allowed on Paleo but not the 30 Day reboot - go figure.
If you are up for the challenge check it out here:
http://www.sleekgeek.co.za/REBOOT/
This little victory got me thinking about just how difficult I had always found it to stick to any sort of eating plan or diet. Why do we find it so difficult to stick to diets and get healthy?
Let's think about it, if you are like me then it probably goes something like this: You've just started a diet; things are going really well and the weight is dropping every time you step on the scale, you are doing great and you are looking good and feeling really motivated. It's only going to be a little while longer until you get there and then finally all of the diets will be over! Your dreams will have come true and you can live your days out in the bikini bliss that you know you truly deserve, right? WRONG!
It's never ever going to over. That's right, I'll say it again:
It's NEVER EVER going to be over
Once you have lost all of the weight and gained all of the muscle, you have to keep at it - every single day. You cannot go back to your old ways, you cannot expect to be able to do what you like and eat what you like without any consequences. You may have put months or years into losing all the weight and feel like you deserve a break... but guess what? Your body doesn't give a crap and it WILL store the fat again if you let it. You have to keep up the healthy eating for the rest of your life.
This seems to be where I have been going wrong every single time before, I was always counting down the days until the nightmare would be over and I could do what I liked again. It's a huge mistake, I need to accept that I will never be able to go back and also that I don't want to. Why would I want to go back to how I was before, when it has made me so miserable about myself?
Sure I really enjoy the eating and the delicious food, so while I'm busy shoveling it in I feel awesome and happy - but it's instant gratification and nothing else because sooner or later I would be hating myself for it again.
It doesn't take much to set me off either, simply seeing myself in the mirror or not being able to fit into any good clothes while out shopping is enough to make me hate myself completely - and I don't want to live like that anymore.
The time has come, and there are no more excuses. I could quote every motivational out there to you now, but I think we all get the point. The only person holding me back is me, and I'm done with that.
Going forward I'm just going to keep challenging myself; so instead of having a countdown I'll count up and see how long I can stay healthy for; how far I can run, how much I can lift, what can I do now that I couldn't do before - and I'll keep increasing those and beating my own personal bests.
100 Healthy Days and the Reboot are a great start and I'll be adding in more activity this week, starting with a mini hike tomorrow. I hate hiking, but we've found a list of 20 hikes in and around Cape Town so I'm determined to be able to say I've done them all.
All of this makes me think of the awesome comic 'The Oatmeal' and the Blerch, if you have no idea what I'm talking about check it out here: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running
Seriously, go check it out, it's awesome!
I guess what I'm really trying to say is - I will keep trying to beat my Blerch but I also know he'll probably never truly be gone from my life, and that's ok too. I know I will probably have weak days and give in to the temptations and that's also ok, but the difference is I need to see it as a temporary set back and not let myself fall apart because of it.
So thanks Blerch, you are my motivation to be a better me and to keep beating myself. Just because I can.
If I can do it, so can you.
You've got this!
xx E
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