Spring Challenge Finale

Tomorrow marks the final day of the September spring challenge and I write to you as a healthier more energetic version of me. Before I get into writing I want to tell you a secret.  I almost didn’t take part in the challenge. Say what? I know, I know!

After the way I have harped on about how much I love it, you would think I was crazy.

My reason was it sounded like a diet and I already knew a lot about what is good for my body... I just rarely put it into practice.  So, due to some miscommunication about what the challenge was actually about my spirits were dampened and I very nearly pulled out.

I am SO glad that I didn’t. Once I committed myself to the program it didn’t take very long for me to realize that a whole different set of reasons would prompt me to turn this Spring challenge into a life long health journey.  

Here’s the thing- I have always loved exercise. It makes me feel good and more often than not I come home from a run or a swim to tell my hubby “ I just had an awesome workout!” On the other hand, when I have tried to diet or ‘ eat cleaner’ I have NEVER felt the same way or told my hubby just how awesome I feel.

While I know my bowl of ice cream after dinner was not scoring points with my thighs, I have always found it easier to add more intensity to my exercise routine than give up my favourite treats. I think mentally I cope better with an addition to my life, rather than a subtraction.

For these reasons I was concerned I couldn’t last a whole 30 days and would go back to my regular eating habits, thus wasting my money. However, the more I got into the challenge, the more I realized it wasn’t anything like a diet. I was, in fact, ‘adding’ to my life in all sorts of ways. To earn my 5 fruit/veggie points I had to be creative with my menu planning. I added fruit to my muesli in the morning or replaced my breakfast with a spinach, coconut and banana shake. Instead of snacking on protein bars I kept carrot and celery sticks in the fridge at work.

Another big change I made was switching my exercise routine to the morning so that I had more time in the evenings to cook and experiment with new vegetable based recipes. This was fun, and unlike any other ‘dieting’ experience I have had. Perhaps my most favourite part of this challenge is that I can look back over my week and when I count the amount of things I have eaten that have come out of a packet instead of the ground, it doesn’t hit the double digits. Even the items I consider as ‘packeted things’ such as – organic muesli, canned tomatoes, canned chickpeas and lentils, organic yogurt, curry paste and oyster sauce are all really healthy.

On top of learning to really love my food and the eating process here’s what I gained:

Energy. In my 4 years of teaching I have come to expect that 3:20pm last period slump. To deal with this in the past I have either gone into my classroom to lie under my desk for a few minutes (so sad, but true), or willed myself to keep my eyes open long enough to plan for the next day.  However, after a few weeks of adding more vegetables into my diet and taking out some of the crap my body doesn’t need, I found I could still work efficiently right up until home time at 5pm.  

I learned to listen to my body. When I started the challenge I decided that I would stop eating processed sugar. I have travelled this road many times before and it is always hard. One of my favourite food bloggers calls sugar“ dietary crack”, and that’s exactly what it is for me. A drug.

There were no points awarded for eliminating sugar so I easily could have had some if I wanted to, but what I came to learn is that my body didn’t really want it at all. I’m not saying I didn’t crave something sweet, I did, but my body did not miss the taste of processed sugar. My baking repertoire has expanded to include ingredients such as agave nectar and cacao powder, which provide that rich sweet taste minus the harmful effects. The best thing about using so many whole, natural ingredients in my baking is that my body knows when it has had enough. Last week I made raw brownie, and unlike brownie I have made in the past, it was impossible to overeat it.

My pants are looser. Disclaimer – If you have a high opinion of me then don’t read this paragraph because I am sinking to an all time low. This paragraph also contains references to nudity.

When I started this challenge I told myself I was going for optimal health, not optimal size so the weight loss didn’t matter. However, there is so much motivating power in being able to actually SEE results. After Week 2 I noticed that my blue dress trousers were really baggy. I looked ridiculous, but for the first time thought that maybe I could actually have a chance at winning this challenge!

Since then, the final weigh in has been at the front of my mind. I have followed the points chart to a T, yet my weight hasn’t dropped as much as I would have liked. On Monday I weighed in at 62.4 kilo’s. That’s 4 kilo’s down from the start of the month and at any other time in my life I would be ecstatic with these results but, because I know there will be other contestants who have lost more than that, I felt disappointed.

I sat on my sofa Tuesday night concocting ways to drop another 2 kilo’s during the week. Go back to three shakes a day….. completely dehydrate myself over the weekend…… (hitting rock bottom now) weigh myself naked! Suffice to say, this was not one of my finer moments.

I had a really good talk with my realist hubby. He gave me one of his usual pep talks “At the end of the day the scales do not measure fat. The amount you currently have, or the amount you’ve lost through changing your diet. Most of that weight on the scale will be muscle. Don’t worry so much about the number, instead focus on all the positive things you have gained from this.”

He was right. If I focus solely on the competition I will have lost sight of the true meaning of the challenge, which is health.  I already have so much to be proud of, and can honestly say I am happier now than I was a month ago having completed my half marathon. More than anything, the last month has given me greater respect for my body, so I guess I am already a winner.