Whole Life Challenge...Day 5

I signed up for the biggest challenge of my whole life about a month ago, its coincidentally called the "Whole Life Challenge". I've been doing crossfit at Crossfit Surf City pretty consistently for about a year and my gym is participating in a world wide challenge to become a fitter more healthier version of yourself. It wasn't mandatory to sign up, but I decided I wanted to as soon as I heard about it. I have been telling myself for as long as I can remember that I wanted to get into the best shape of my life. Well people, that takes some serious work and dedication and I am the worlds biggest self-saboteur for some reason. 

This challenge seemed to be just the thing I needed. I am not doing it alone in fact in my box (gym) alone there are 85 of us going through this together and worldwide I believe there are 250+ Crossfit affiliates that are participating. Here's the rundown on what exactly I am doing:

• 56 days of STRICT paleo with few added food rules i.e. 

• No Grains or starches including wheat, barley, oats, breads, rice (including wild rice), quinoa, pasta, potatoes, etc.

• No Corn or Soy (inlcuding oils)

• No Sugar or Sweetener of any kind including refined sugar, raw sugar, cane juice, evaporated cane juice, honey, agave, maple syrup, Truvia, aspartame, NutraSweet, sucralose, etc.

• No Dairy including milk, cheese, buttermilk, yogurt, kefir, sour cream, etc. EXCEPTION - Butter

• No Alcohol, Soda, or Juice. EXCEPTION – Lemon and lime juice

• No Artificial or Processed ingredients or foods. 
Any non-traditional food chemical is not permitted. This prohibition includes guar gum and agar. No food that required anything other than traditional food preparation methods such as cooking, drying, or curing. Food from jars, cans, or boxes are permitted as long as their ingredients or preparation do not violate the general nutrition rules.  

AND that's it. Easy right? :) I think this will look pretty similar to a blog post a few posts back when I attempted to do the Whole30 challenge on my own, yea I failed pretty early at that, and now I am doing 56 days and I KNOW I am NOT going to fail!!!

The difference is the community, the accountability we all have with each other and how I am determined to not let myself get in my way.

So today is day 5 of this adventure, I am feeling pretty good today, I am amazed at how many things have sugar listed in the ingredients that I never even thought of before like bacon, chili and lime cashews, jarred roasted red bell peppers, salami??!! Seriously its no wonder truly ridding yourself of sugar is pretty difficult when its EVERYWHERE.

Some things that I've noticed are I will think I want something to eat but when I really think about it I'm either bored or it just sounds fun and I'm not really hungry at all. This tends to happen around 3:30pm daily. Sometimes its just out of sheer habit, like going through Starbucks and getting a mocha because I 've just left the house to run errands. So if nothing else comes form this challenge, being able to re-train my brain or at least recognize my triggers will be great.

So here we go in this great adventure, day 5 half way done....51 1/2 days to go!