Jonathan and I are one week into this challenge. We’ve already blown it. I want to be up front and honest about the fact that we were not perfect this week. If I had to give us a score, I’d give us maybe a 90%. Which is pretty good — in school I would have been marginally pleased with a 90%. So why did I spend two days trying to decide whether we should just give up on this since we couldn’t even do it for a week?
Then I read this blog post, shared by someone on my facebook feed. I have no idea who this person is, but their words spoke to me.
http://jlgerhardt.tumblr.com/post/86313682822/no-more-perfect-days-on-starting-over
In recap, she emphasizes how by human nature once we ruin a perfect day, we feel like that is our permission to give up on that day and on ourselves. Then she decides to start starting over. So I have been trying to do that, even when we get off course.
Well, Jonathan and I are not giving up. We might have had a crazy busy weekend, didn’t plan appropriately and ended up grabbing hamburgers one day because, well, it was past lunchtime and the hopes of going home and cooking a nice, pre-planned, perfect meal just didn’t pan out. It’s okay. I considered saying, forget it, we already had hamburgers, let’s just have pizza for dinner. It’s fast and easy and we are both tired. But I didn’t. We stuck with it and ate a clean dinner.
We are eating about 90% clean at this point, and that’s 100% because we are doing this self-imposed challenge. Without it, we would have already lapsed into our regular bad habits.
So, at this 1-week mark, I wanted to share our weight progress and some thoughts from each of us:
June 9,2014 Weigh In
Sasha : 163.2 (down 4.4 lbs)
Jonathan: 181.2 (down 3.6 lbs)
Thoughts from Sasha:
Each day, making healthier decisions gets easier. I felt exhausted and a little sick after that hamburger. I feel like I am getting better at reading my body and what I need. Also, I believe that you can become desensitized to the amazing flavor of fresh fruits and vegetables when you overwhelm your palate with too much sugar and chemicals. Today, my raspberries and blueberries tasted as sweet as candy to me. I am enjoying rediscovering a variety of produce and how great they taste on their own. I eat raw veggies daily with lunch, and have enjoyed jicama, green beans, carrots, cucumber, and zucchini raw. I have also had the chance to get creative with meals. The jambalaya recipe that I shared last week was so great that I remade it tonight! I also made a chicken/coconut/sweet potato stew and chicken with brown rice pasta. I don’t usually do so much cooking, so it has been sort of nice to give Jonathan a break and get creative.
Thoughts from Jonathan:
It’s odd, never feeling full but never being hungry either. It’s weird to be eating the same portions as Sasha, but it seems to be working. I’m slowly losing weight and I don’t feel like it’s in a way that is unhealthy or unsustainable (other than the cost). It’s tough to be prepared for every day, but hopefully with some practice that will be easier. Some days I want to just be lazy and get something delicious for lunch, but knowing we’ve bought the stuff and it’s waiting in the fridge makes it easier.
So here we boldy go into week two. We’re eating roughly the same things as week one, but cycled ever couple of day in alignment with the Fast Metabolism Diet.
Does anyone else ever get into the mentality of wanting “Perfect” days?
Tags: 28 day clean eating challenge, diet, Fast Metabolism Diet, FMD, health, weight loss
Sash Around the Clock 