I dare you!

Deborah says:
Have you ever given yourself a food challenge? I find sometimes it’s easy to get bored or in a rut with food. For example a salad with some sort of protein on it every night for a week? Apples are on sale – so they are the only fruit I eat for a week. So when I’m bored or my weight has plateaued, I will issue myself a challenge.
• I will eat only lean proteins for a week (fish, tofu, etc.)
• No canned foods for a week.
• No boxed foods for a week.
• Five fish meals in a week.

It really changes the way you eat for the duration of your challenge. You have to think, instead of do dinner on autopilot, you have to plan and shop and chop. It also changes how you feel. For example, I really love the way I feel when I eat lean proteins. Now, I can’t keep it up forever, sometimes I just want a pork chop, but I usually do two or three lean protein months every year. And it helps me remember how good I feel when I eat lean proteins, and it helps remind me to eat more lean proteins as a regular part of my diet, because I feel better when I do.

One week I challenged myself to eat no packaged foods of any type for a week (boxed or canned). And that was a hard, hard week. It surprised me, actually, what a challenge it was. And I’m a person that likes to cook from scratch. But imagine spaghetti sauce without canned tomatoes or tomato paste? Eggs without bacon, turkey bacon, ham slices, sausage? (though I made some creative omelets). Soup stocks made from scratch, no boxes or bouillon cubes.! That was actually the toughest challenge I ever gave myself.

I’ve also given myself an exercise challenge. My baseline is 30 minute of walking a day and 20 minutes of cardio 5 days a week, with some sort of strength training at least three times a week. In the style of Weight Watchers, I give myself points for exercise – 1 for every 15 minutes of leisure/easy workout, 2 points for 15 minutes of moderate and 2 points for every 10 minutes of OMG I can’t breathe workout. Over the Christmas holidays, while I was off work, I challenged myself to hit 100 points a week. Again, it kept me moving during almost ten days of enforced vacation, and it gave me leg muscles of absolute steel. Plus, a good sweat always makes me happy. And I did it, by the way, 106 points the first week, 96 points the second week (I lost out on New years day because I had a flood).

So if you’re bored, toss down the gauntlet to yourself (and your family) and challenge yourself with something and shake up your routine a bit.

Arlene says:
What a great idea! I love the idea of breaking out of the food rut. My husband teases me that I only cook five different meals, with some slight variations. I agree it would be tough to avoid all boxes and cans for a week, but what would fit for me is the new meal with new ingredients. One of my best friends gave me a a cookbook, Spilling the Beans, and I think I will take that on for the next few weeks. At least one new recipe a week which uses something out of my usual five. Hmmm how will I do?