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Clean Eating Challenge Day -1
First of all, I won't clog up the board with a post every day. Maybe like 1-2x per week.
The challenge will officially start tomorrow. The only rule, is - if you mess up, you just get right back on it. If you are doing the challenge, commit to the whole month. It would be pretty hard to be 100% perfect, so aim for 80 or 90%. It's about forming new habits.
So for today's post - PLANNING. List 3 times you are most likely to have a hard time this week, and then list a strategy for how you will plan in advance to ensure you are prepped for success.
1. Tonight after spin I will be raveneous. I usually go home and start munching on the first thing I can get my hands on. I will plan ahead to buy some almonds at lunch time to have on hand in the car.
2. Wednesday night I am going to a baseball game and will feel pressure from friends to eat crap! I will eat a BIG salad with protein before I go into the game, and then I will drink water and eat peanuts at the game.
3. Friday night I am going out with the in-laws to celebrate H's bday. I will eat a big meal of protein and veggies so I am full and then I will drink decaf coffee to avoid eating cake. I will just deal with the comments I will most definitely get 
Re: Clean Eating Challenge Day -1
1. I am going to a playoff hockey game tonight. I plan to do one cheat meal a week (I find it motivating), so this will be it. I still plan to try to stick to a salad for dinner, as we are hitting an Italian restaurant first, but I'm going to have a couple of beers at the game. But I scheduled an appointment with my trainer in the morning to prevent going too crazy tonight.
2. My husband and I have weekly date night. On that night, I will stick to one glass of red wine and find a place where I can do seafood and veggies, sashimi, or something equally light.
My week is actually pretty quiet! It's a good week for me to start, but the biggest challenge for me all week will be avoiding DD's stash of Easter candy from her grandparents.
1.Prepping my food ahead of time. I've been meaning to start doing this for months...basically packing all my snacks/lunches the night before so I'm not using time constraints as an excuse to get breakfast or lunch out, which leads to mainly bad food choices. My strategy is simply to: start doing this!
2. Another huge issue of mine is eating well on the weekends. It just doesn't happen, I only eat 2 real meals that day and graze here and there using pregnancy as an excuse. My strategy will be to plan/pack my food the day before just like the weekdays.
3. Dinners are always unplanned. Strategy: commit to a menu and stick with it. Brainstorm how to cut time prepping dinner for the week.
Basically my issues all stem from failing to plan which we all know leads to plan to fail. I just have to bite the bullet and do the things that will prevent my bad habits.
PR's
5k 10/15/11 30:34 9:51 pace
8k 9/24/11 55:20 11:08 pace
10k 11/24/11 11:24 pace
10 mile 4/25/10 2:03:54
Ditto all of this! Seriously, these are all of my challenges. We bought a ton of veggies this weekend, so we've got everything we need to make this happen.
I think food-wise, the biggest challenge will be to give up bread/toast.
Planning ahead is definitely key.
1. Every day at work - if I don't bring in enough food for snacks and lunch, I grab snacks from the break room. Solution - plan out every snack and bring a little extra just in case. I did a lot of baking yesterday and made some "Egg Muffins" (think mini-quiche) and cottage-cheese biscuits, both clean. I just had one of each for my morning snack.
2. Not sure what day, but I think my boss is taking our group out to eat this week. It's often hard for me to find vegetarian options, and they usually involve non-whole grains, so I'll either cheat as necessary or get a salad if possible (and have an extra snack in case I don't get enough to eat).
3. Thursday night - FI and I often eat out in some way on Thursdays, usually a long walk with dinner or dessert along the way. Planning to eat in instead, then go for a walk and NOT get froyo.
I think the hardest thing overall for me is going to be keeping my fridge/pantry stocked with everything I need. It's hard for me to plan my eating when my FI randomly decimates my supplies of various things (who ate all my strawberries?). Luckily the grocery store is nearby, but there are some evenings when I don't have time to go.
1) I have a few lunch and learns this week where food is provided. Just eating salad and not having any of the other food will be a challenge.
2) I'm going to a strawberry festival this weekend, and they always have awesome strawberry shortcake and other sweet and sugary foods. I'll try to stick with plain strawberries, maybe with a little cream.
3) Trying to resist the leftover Easter candy in my kitchen.
71 workouts completed in 2012
Either bring it into work to give away or have your husband hide it from you! This is what I have to do in order to avoid temptation...get rid of it!
PR's
5k 10/15/11 30:34 9:51 pace
8k 9/24/11 55:20 11:08 pace
10k 11/24/11 11:24 pace
10 mile 4/25/10 2:03:54
On a related note, how often are we going check in? Daily, weekly, 2-3x per week?
I'm going to be tracking my own food intake on myfitnesspal, and if anyone wants to see it, my diary key is "clean": http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/zano28
My biggest challenges are:
*Prepping ahead of time. I will try to do it when I make my son's lunch in the evening.
*Bringing my breakfast and lunch to work. If I eat in the cafeteria it's just too hard to figure out if it's clean or not. I will try my best to bring breakfast and lunch with me. That way I can also stay within my points.
I think that is enough to conquer for week one! I feel good that I passed up the free cake in the cafeteria today! Baby steps . . .
1 - it's mr.'s birthday this week so he's going to want to go out for frozen yogurt or muffins (or both!). I'll pass and get some work done while he goes out with DD or have a decaf if I go out with them.
2 - This is more of an ongoing thing, but I always end up having bites of this and that while I'm preparing dinner and then I'm not all that hungry. I'll make a point of having some tea or sparkling water instead.
3 - When we do our big shopping on Friday we end up getting a "car snack" that's usually less than ideal like chips or nuts roasted/fried in crappy oils we shouldn't be eating. I'm fine without it but then I end up eating a bunch I wasn't hungry for just because it's there. I'm thinking a banana would make a good substitute. I'll see if I can get it together to feed mr. & DD before we go off so everyone's set until dinner.
Really excited to start this challenge, and I'd definitely advocate for more check-ins than less. I love being able to hear others' challenges and successes as well.
This week's big challenges for me will likely be:
1. I have back to back events from late afternoon through late evening Wednesday, where I'm sure there will be lots of hors d'oeuvres that are heavy and cheesy/breadish. I'll plan to make a very hearty lunch and have a healthy afternoon snack just before my first meeting so I can avoid the fatty carby stuff at the events.
2. I'm in charge of picking up breakfast for an early meeting later this week - which inevitably means big huge bagels. I'm so glad for this post, because I already looked at the place I was going to pick breakfast up from and saw they have a big fruit cup and an all natural smoothie. Woot!
3. Because I work from home, I can sometimes tend to snack all day and not really eat a balanced meal. I have a couple of days this week with no meetings, which means I'll be home all day. I will be sure to pre-make a salad or something really healthy the night before so I'll have a lunch pre-made and ensure I can have a healthy breakfast as well.
This has been such a helpful post! Identifying the areas that might be difficult this week will definitely help me avoid them! Thanks!