As I continue to lead people through 10 day challenges, there is one particular aspect that seems to ensure that some don’t get the results for which they had hoped. For some, with just an adjustment of meal planning and the addition of exercise, the pounds and inches just melt away. Then there are those who follow the plan perfect and become discouraged when little or nothing changes by day 10. This is usually the point where we have to dig deeper and find out what is holding challengers back.
The 10 day challenge is very basic. One follows a simple, well-balanced meal plan and incorporates Shakeology as part of their nutrition. Each person adjusts their calories based on their individual needs. The key concepts are to eat 5 times a day, control portions, and keep the meals clean (meaning as little processed foods as possible).
For some, this is a huge challenge. I encounter people all of the time who skip meals frequently or who only eat once a day. This habit is as foreign to me as my practice of eating 5 times a day must be for them. Quite frankly, it takes a lot of patience and encouragement to convince challengers that eating more often is going to help them lose weight. Somehow, we get it stuck in our head, that if we eat less or skip meals all together, we are getting less calories and therefore we should lose weight. Makes sense right? Wrong!!!
Here is a scenario I see often. We will call her Eve. Eve has put on the pounds since her last baby 3 years ago. She is getting to the point of frustration. She wakes up in the morning, gets the kids ready for school, and has just enough time to put on some mascara and lipstick before she rushes out the door. After she drops the kids off at school, she has just enough time to swing by a drive-thru for a 64 oz coffee. We won’t even talk about what she put in the coffee! Eve gets to work and is immediately handed a task list that will take her all day. She never even gave breakfast a second thought. There was no time to pack lunch so she has someone pick up a quick salad for lunch. It’s 7:00pm now and she is trying her best to get something on the table for the kids. Nearly a full 24 hours has gone by and she has had coffee and a salad. And exercise? Who has time for that?
Here is an analogy that I first heard from Team Beachbody celebrity trainer, Chalene Johnson. Think of your body as a fire. How do you make a fire burn fast and produce lots of heat? You fuel it! If you let a fire burn for 5 hours straight and never add wood, what happens? It dies down. It no longer puts out heat. There is little or no energy. There simply is not much left to burn. If you wait until the fire has already dwindled to a few hot coals, it is nearly impossible to get it burning strong again. You body works in a very similar way. If you are eating every 3 hours and making good food choices, you are creating your own little inferno. Go ahead and ask any fit person what they had to eat yesterday. Strong, healthy people eat and they eat often. When I wake up in the morning. The first thing I do is make 1/2 of a whole wheat English muffin with a smear of peanut butter.
Now, here is the dilemma: If I have Eve change her eating habits and use the 10 Day challenge as a tool to get her started, there is a good chance she will not get the results we want. This is because her body has become accustomed to essentially starving. It holds on to everything she puts in her body because it is in survival mode. Eve’s body isn’t sure when the next meal is going to come. It is going to take time for Eve to get her body burning again. Though she has decided to eat often and well balanced meals and she is going to the gym daily, two weeks later she quits because the scale has not moved. She thinks that her efforts are in vain.
EVE!!!! DON’T QUIT!!! I promise, just as that fire is slow to start burning again, you will move a little slow at first as well, but hang in there. Commit! Remember why you started this! I promise, if you keep fueling your body and working out hard- push yourself- you will see your progress speed up. It will be like a train going up hill at first, but then your body will get it and you will be speeding down the other side of that hill and melting all of that fat away as you get stronger.
So what is your plan? What are you going to do to commit and stay committed? Get it on paper and know WHY you are doing this! Find a Team Beachbody coach and get the accountability and support you need. You deserve this!
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