reflections on my 30 day challenge: NO FRIED FOOD!

I want to say that this challenge sucked. However, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. There was no magic formula. I just gave up fried food. I knew there was an end, and that was that. I did blow it after two weeks because of my best friend's wedding. However, when I went back on the challenge, I did it for 30 days straight.

Some important lessons learned:

The fried food I love so much doesn't taste all that great. For example, I recently had some french fries and they just weren't as yummy as I had remembered. Maybe it's because I also have Dr. Hans's analogy about french fries being equivalent to cigarettes. Ew!

I can actually feel how it affects my body. My workouts are slower and I don't look forward to doing them as much as I'd like to. It's true that food does affect your performance. Although the challenge hasn't made me the perfect eater, it's made me aware of the food choices I make. Granted, since the challenge has been over, I've been devouring bad food like a bandit. However, I'm aware of what's available, what alternatives I have and the choices I now consciously make.

There is life without deep, battered fried food. Granted, this life may not be as fun :) But if you need to, you can easily find non-fried food alternatives. It's important to note that those alternatives may not be healthier, which is why eating well entails more than just cutting out something really bad like fried food. When I ate out or was out with friends/family at social events, I just pretended that I was allergic to fried food and that eating the stuff would make me break out in hives. This is a pretty good strategy :)

Discipline will take you far. Yeah. That's what it takes for someone like me to stay away from fried food for 30 days. UGH!

On October 1st, I'm starting my next challenge. Part of my next challenge is incorporating the previous one. What I'm trying to do is ultimately incorporate better eating habits. I'll talk more about my next challenge in another post. For now, on October 1st I will limit my fried food intake to just once a week - a cheat day, if you will. And that's just to prevent me from feeling deprived. I'm going to hold on to this fried food only once a week policy for as long as I can. I'm going to maintain it by keeping a food journal.

By the way, I finally upgraded my planner system and did the daily pages. Since the pages start in October, that's when my food journal starts :) Granted, I'm not much for endorsements, but I have to say that I'm lovin' my Covey planner. It's helping me gage my daily activities and making me feel more functional. I'm also feeling more accomplished because I begin and end each day with my nerdy checklists. Thank heaven for nerd gear! ha ha ha!