Day 30: Phase III – Adjust and Maintain

Crossing the Finish Line

Congratulations to everyone who has completed the 30 day challenge here at Fitness Spotlight!! It wasn’t all that bad now was it? Actually I think it got easier once the first week was over (and allowing the caffeine back in might of had something to do with it too).

So lets take today to really reflect back on the lessons we learned, so we know how to go forward (as the challenge may be over, but life still goes on).

What Did You Get From it?

What were the important things that you learned about yourself, health, body, cravings, food choices, and anything else during these past 30 days?

Many have learned that they have more self control than they thought possible (by limiting or avoiding things like coffee or sweets). Others may have learned how much better they felt without all the grains/breads/dairy in their diets. Maybe you have more daily energy, less inflammtion or even lost some weight.

Of course we can also take other lessons seen such as snacking on such things as nuts will not guarantee weight loss even though we cut out the sugars (as calories still count in the whole fat loss equation, and nuts are packed full of them if you don’t keep track). Maybe you just enjoy eating more “meals” and don’t need “snacks” anymore.

Here’s just some personal observations of mine:

Got rid of the pizza fix that somehow seeped back into my lifestyle over the holidays
Didn’t really miss drinking beer that much (but will still have some on occasion of course)
Body has a new found love (and craving) for bison burgers I found at Trader Joes (Mmmmmm)
Forced me to cook more at home rather than relying on food outside (which meant more quality)
Good reminder to focus on one step at time and know where I want to go
I got more out of this challenge than I expected and am thankful for doing it

So tell us in the comments, what did you learn about yourself to use going forward for ongoing health and weight loss?

Phase III – Adjust and Maintain

journey life Day 30: Phase III Adjust and Maintain

So now we are entering into the most important phase, your lifestyle from this point on! Even though our little 30 day challenge is over, that doesn’t mean we stop doing everything we have done and go back to old bad habits. The key is finding the right balance in your lifestyle for eating healthy, keeping active and still being able to enjoy the foods you want to.

It will also be important to make sure the things we did eliminate for the most part, do not start to sneak back into our lives and then take our health/energy in the opposite direction. So if you start to feel like you are going down the wrong path again, step back and take notice of what is going on (with everything you have learned here). Only then can you again take action and stop it in it’s tracks.

Personally I like the idea of my intermittent fasting days (2x/week) as personal “detox” days. On those days, I keep it clean and light with mostly meat, fruit and veggies when I do eat later. This will be my ongoing reminder so I don’t let things get out of control on the other days.

So from here on, live a lifestyle that you enjoy (and don’t feel like you are really restricted from anything, but also make your food choices for the right reasons). Life is all about the journey, so enjoy it and stay healthy on the way!

Additional Note, FULL Challenge Page Coming Soon: For those who did not jump in on the challenge or are new here, we will be designing a special page with all the challenge info for anyone to use at any time real soon! No reason you can’t do it again if you feel you need it in the future. The challenge and the support of the great community here will be here for you!

maybe your body better responds without an overload of grains and dairy? (doesn’t mean you can never have it, but you may be better off using it on occasion vs as a staple)

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10 Reader Comments

lel on

I really enjoyed taking the challenge and had fun along the way. Truthfully, different thoughts went through my head during the journey. Initially, I couldn’t wait until the challenge was over so that I could go back to eating some of the things we cut out the first couple of weeks.

But, interestingly, along the way, those thoughts of going back to eating grains and sugars ever so slightly subsided. However, I am having my sprouted grain toast with butter for the first time in a month this morning but I’m not as excited as I thought I would be.

You are spot on Mike when you said after a few days, it got easier. For me, the first week was the toughest since your body was used to eating most of the things we eliminated in the first 2 weeks.

I was curious to see if the diet had any affect on my blood work so I went for cholesterol and blood sugar screening yesterday. My guess was that my glucose and triglycerides would have gone down but to my surprise, my cholesterol level went down 50 points – all but 5 points in the LDL!!! This phenomenom had to be due to not eating grains and sugar because I ate lot of fats during the 30 days period.

Now that I have proven to myself that I don’t have to have the grains and the sugars, going forward, I will drastically cut down on these foods in my diet.

Thanks again for your motivation and support. I feel great both physically and mentally and appreciate my accomplishments.

[Reply]
Filis on

Thanks for this challenge, although I did not start it from the beginning I really enjoyed eliminating the sugar and the grains from my diet. I had been cooking more often lately, bought a slow cooker and love it.

I had desert today for the first time in 3 weeks and hated it. Especially the after meal feeling of tiredness, good to know my body can feel good and energized all day long.

I will certainly stay away from grains and sugar from now on, keeping it only for very special occasions.

Also, I felt good to relax a bit my workouts and not be pressured to work out 3x a week after reading articles on your blog.

I found that IF may not work for me though, I tried it twice in a week and I already feel like I have lost some weight (not a good thing for me, as I am trying to put on some muscle). Maybe I will give it another try when I will be more happy about my weight.

All in all, for these past weeks I felt energetic and strong, did not catch a cold although it is freezing here (probably the coldest winter I experienced by now) and did not experience any PMS

Thanks again

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skustes on

My results after 30 days…no major weight changes, but my weight rarely fluctuates anymore.

- I had coffee a few times starting on the 22nd of January.
- Haven’t had a drop of alcohol since just after midnight on New Year’s.
- I prefer caffeine to alcohol. I’ll still have the occasional drink, but will probably keep it limited. I don’t mind drinking water while everyone else is drinking beer or bourbon.
- No wheat (or other grains), no dairy, no sugary stuff since New Year’s either. Feeling great.
- I think my sleep was better and I’ve caught up as I tend to be having more trouble lately falling asleep when I want to. But I’m still plenty rested, so I guess I’ve made up most of my sleep deficit.
- My girlfriend and I did a lot of cooking this month instead of eating out. We’re celebrating tonight with sushi, but we’re really enjoying cooking awesome food at home. It saves lots of money too.

Cheers
Scott

[Reply]
Melody on

I felt good about my ability to participate in and complete the challenge. It wasn’t a huge lifestyle change for me, since I pretty much cook 90% of my own food anyway and avoided most grains. Now, I’m working on keeping the sugar consumption low.
Because there wasn’t much lifestyle change, I didn’t notice any change in energy, cravings or anything like that. Still, I did lose some weight, and I attribute that largely to removing all grains and cutting waaaay back on sugar.

Going forward? Cheese is back! No gluten for 2010 (New Year’s resolution), and will not eat grains during the week, though on weekends, I’ll enjoy corn tortillas and chips (one of my biggest weaknesses). No more buying candy for afternoon snacking!
Thank you again guys!
Melody

[Reply]
samantha on

This challenge was awesome! Between Scott and other informative powerhouses on this site I really learned much about making good choices and different options for grains. At the beginning of the challenge I had a hard time with cravings for cheese, grains, and sugar in my tea. The first week was definitely the hardest and I ate healthy snacks to compensate the cravings. Later I found out that peanuts were not good for me and were actually a legume so I quit eating peanut butter.

I probably didn’t lose as much weight as others that did this challenge because my snacks were nut or nut butter oriented. I feel good though, not bloated like I usually was and I attribute that to the heavy grain diet I had prior. I also had a huge craving for pizza that has finally subsided. I do miss cheese but mostly for the flavor and consistency it gave my food concoctions. Now, I don’t feel like I NEED it. I plan to incorporate cheese back into my diet but only when I can get a good quality cheese that isn’t pasteurized, the same for any dairy. I had never had coconut milk until this challenge and it is really nice and light. Again thanks to everyone, this site has been so helpful to me! I look forward to reading future posts.

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02/04/10 – CONGRATS TO ALL THE PALEO CHALLENGE COMPETITORS on

[...] Some advice from Fitness Spotlight on maintaining your new found healthier lifestyle [...]
Cathy on

Thanks so much for the challenge, I didn’t think I would make
it pass giving up the coffee and sugar. After the inital 4 days of
caffine withdrawal I was fine without having the coffee and
haven’t gone back to drinking it. I don’t plan on going back. I
also gave up all types of white sugar and artifical sweeteners.
I don’t crave sugar like I used to. The only thing I use is natural
honey. I have made a decision not to eat anything pre-packaged,
or any processed foods. I haven’t felt this good in a long time.
I am only 9 pounds from my lowest weight.
If it weren’t for this Challenge I would not be registered right
now to run a 10K road race and 25 mile bike tour in October, to
raise money for the Dempsey Cancer Center here in Maine, So
thanks so much!!!!
My new goals are to stay on the raw diet that I have become
accustomed to and to start my own organic garden come spring,
and to run this road race and bike the tour with pride.

[Reply]
Richard on

It’s a great thing you are doing here. Congratulations everyone who kept it up for the full 30 days.

[Reply]
Stress management on

Congratulation those who have completed full 30 days. I am 100% sure that most of the people would be very happy and very satisfied after done these 30 days fitness challenge.

[Reply]
Oresa on

Congratulations to everyone to started and completed the challenge. It takes great effort to do what you did and I am certain that the benefits were well worth the effort. Mike, I did not do the challenege. I was having a discussion with my sister the other day and she was tell me about this Master Cleanse that she did. She lost alot of weight but she said that she felt alot better too. It is totally natural. Lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and water. NO FOOD! The recommended duration is 10 days, minimum is 3. I was just wondering if you ever heard of this and what were your thoughts?
I started it and am unable to complete a full day since going completely with out food is hard. I gave up coffee and sugar which is big for me.
I am pretty anxious to hear what you have to say on this.

[Reply]

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