Shadow
09-28-2007, 06:09 PM
The October Challenge: BE TRUE TO YOURSELF!
School year routines are settling in. Days and nights are both cooling off (unless you’re in the southern hemisphere…and if you are, I’m jealous!) October starts the ‘holiday’ quarter of the year—leading off with celebrations of bounty and plenty: Oktoberfest, Harvest Festival, Chinese Moon Festival that celebrate all of the summer’s bounty. Then we wind up the month (at least here in the States) with the sugarfest, Hallowe’en. If the stores in your area are like the ones around me, you may already have seen your first Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations.
As fall moves relentlessly from one holiday to another, it’s easy to feel squeezed between schedules, stuff you need to do before winter sets in (or summer, if you’re in Australia), family holiday celebrations, and the ‘demands’ of your eating and exercise plans. You tell yourself you’ll make time to take care of you--but all too often push comes to shove, and it’s your trip to the gym, packing a lunch or stocking your pantry with the right foods that gets squeezed off your to-do list.
Protein Power is flexible enough that you can get most of its benefits with a minimum of effort—as long as you commit to making that effort every day. Other plans may include 'weekends off' or 'planned cheat' models--but this is Protein Power. If you want to reverse insulin resistance and correct metabolism issues so that you can lose weight, then you need to stick to the plan every day until those issues resolve--and when you deviate from your plan, you make it harder to be true to your goals. So this month, the goal is to bring commitment every day, and be true to yourself. To do that, we'll explore some coping strategies against the inevitable time crunches and food challenges we face as the holidays get closer.
For many people, a simple plan is the easiest to stick to when the going gets tough. So let's work on being successful at the simple things. Stay focused on the basics—they never go away—and all month, we’ll share ways to put Protein Power on auto-pilot, and make it simpler for each of us to be true to ourselves every day.
What are the basics?
-- your minimum protein intake, every day
-- respecting your carb limits, every day
-- adequate hydration (at least 64 oz. of non-diuretic liquids every day)
-- doing something to keep your body active and strong, every day
-- exercising your mind, every day
What isn’t on this list? -- Planned ‘time-outs’, days ‘off-plan’ and ‘cheat days’
Protein Power doesn’t ‘forbid’ foods. You can eat anything, as long as the portion you eat doesn’t exceed your recommended maximum carb intake.
That doesn't mean some foods aren't 'off limits' -- but it's for what they contain, not their carb content. Protein Power recommends avoiding foods containing partially hydrogenated oils and asparame, and more recent books have also added avoiding fructose. That puts things like Twinkies and Hostess cup cakes off-limits. However, since even a straight teaspoon of regular sugar is permitted if you can digestively and physically (and mentally) tolerate it, there’s no need to forsake your sweet tooth. You just might have to learn to make your own cream-filled, portion appropriate cupcakes.
Since you have permission to eat just about anything as long as you stick to portion sizes that don’t put you over your ECC for the day, eating what you want to taste in the appropriate portion size is NOT cheating. And falling off plan or once in a great while designating a day on which you'll indulge in a larger carb portion isn't cheating, either.
But if you find yourself PLANNING to ignore your daily ECC on a regular basis, you’re not cheating--you're just not on plan. Coming 'off plan' on a regular basis makes getting to your goals harder the more you do it, not easier. Being true to our goals of getting healthier means being true to what the plan asks, every day. Some people call this NEAN--not even a nibble. Others call it being 'perfect on plan.'
This October, we're going to call it the challenge to be true to yourself and your goals—every day.
The only penalty you pay for falling off plan is in how your body feels after you choose to eat more carbs or less protein than you should be eating.
The only person you cheat is yourself, of progress and better health.
And the only person who can learn to keep steadily aiming at progress is YOU.
And if you aren't quite 'perfect' on a single day, your days on plan count starts over again...at 1.
We’ve got several ways planned to work through some of the basic Protein Power exercises—or you can work through them on your own.
Let’s start out by figuring out and writing down where we are on October 1:
-- Write down the single main thing you most often use to measure your progress (whether it’s your body fat percentage, your scale weight, your waist size, a clothing size, your stress level or your current state of fitness). Post where you are on that progress measurement on Oct. 1 NOTE…don’t rely on your signature or ticker. If that sig or ticker changes, it will update ALL of your posts and erase your ‘history.’ You’ll need this information in a post so that you can get back to it on October 31.
-- Post how much protein and what carb level you aim for every day.
-- Name your preferred non-diuretic beverage(s) and how much you plan to consume per day
-- Name what you plan to do every day to
1) be more physically active
2) get stronger
-- Name what you plan to do every day to exercise your minds
And finally, write down ONE WAY that you can SIMPLIFY staying on plan this month.
-- Check in every day.
We’ll celebrate a low or no-sugar Hallowe’en by reporting in at the end of the month, and measuring ourselves against our own personal progress measurement.
First on the board is welcome to open every day's challenge thread...
So, who wants to focus on being true to yourself...and aiming for 31 perfect October days?
---------------
Note - Gaelen is off on a camping trip right now so I am posting the challenge for her. She will be back on Monday :).
School year routines are settling in. Days and nights are both cooling off (unless you’re in the southern hemisphere…and if you are, I’m jealous!) October starts the ‘holiday’ quarter of the year—leading off with celebrations of bounty and plenty: Oktoberfest, Harvest Festival, Chinese Moon Festival that celebrate all of the summer’s bounty. Then we wind up the month (at least here in the States) with the sugarfest, Hallowe’en. If the stores in your area are like the ones around me, you may already have seen your first Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations.
As fall moves relentlessly from one holiday to another, it’s easy to feel squeezed between schedules, stuff you need to do before winter sets in (or summer, if you’re in Australia), family holiday celebrations, and the ‘demands’ of your eating and exercise plans. You tell yourself you’ll make time to take care of you--but all too often push comes to shove, and it’s your trip to the gym, packing a lunch or stocking your pantry with the right foods that gets squeezed off your to-do list.
Protein Power is flexible enough that you can get most of its benefits with a minimum of effort—as long as you commit to making that effort every day. Other plans may include 'weekends off' or 'planned cheat' models--but this is Protein Power. If you want to reverse insulin resistance and correct metabolism issues so that you can lose weight, then you need to stick to the plan every day until those issues resolve--and when you deviate from your plan, you make it harder to be true to your goals. So this month, the goal is to bring commitment every day, and be true to yourself. To do that, we'll explore some coping strategies against the inevitable time crunches and food challenges we face as the holidays get closer.
For many people, a simple plan is the easiest to stick to when the going gets tough. So let's work on being successful at the simple things. Stay focused on the basics—they never go away—and all month, we’ll share ways to put Protein Power on auto-pilot, and make it simpler for each of us to be true to ourselves every day.
What are the basics?
-- your minimum protein intake, every day
-- respecting your carb limits, every day
-- adequate hydration (at least 64 oz. of non-diuretic liquids every day)
-- doing something to keep your body active and strong, every day
-- exercising your mind, every day
What isn’t on this list? -- Planned ‘time-outs’, days ‘off-plan’ and ‘cheat days’
Protein Power doesn’t ‘forbid’ foods. You can eat anything, as long as the portion you eat doesn’t exceed your recommended maximum carb intake.
That doesn't mean some foods aren't 'off limits' -- but it's for what they contain, not their carb content. Protein Power recommends avoiding foods containing partially hydrogenated oils and asparame, and more recent books have also added avoiding fructose. That puts things like Twinkies and Hostess cup cakes off-limits. However, since even a straight teaspoon of regular sugar is permitted if you can digestively and physically (and mentally) tolerate it, there’s no need to forsake your sweet tooth. You just might have to learn to make your own cream-filled, portion appropriate cupcakes.
Since you have permission to eat just about anything as long as you stick to portion sizes that don’t put you over your ECC for the day, eating what you want to taste in the appropriate portion size is NOT cheating. And falling off plan or once in a great while designating a day on which you'll indulge in a larger carb portion isn't cheating, either.
But if you find yourself PLANNING to ignore your daily ECC on a regular basis, you’re not cheating--you're just not on plan. Coming 'off plan' on a regular basis makes getting to your goals harder the more you do it, not easier. Being true to our goals of getting healthier means being true to what the plan asks, every day. Some people call this NEAN--not even a nibble. Others call it being 'perfect on plan.'
This October, we're going to call it the challenge to be true to yourself and your goals—every day.
The only penalty you pay for falling off plan is in how your body feels after you choose to eat more carbs or less protein than you should be eating.
The only person you cheat is yourself, of progress and better health.
And the only person who can learn to keep steadily aiming at progress is YOU.
And if you aren't quite 'perfect' on a single day, your days on plan count starts over again...at 1.
We’ve got several ways planned to work through some of the basic Protein Power exercises—or you can work through them on your own.
Let’s start out by figuring out and writing down where we are on October 1:
-- Write down the single main thing you most often use to measure your progress (whether it’s your body fat percentage, your scale weight, your waist size, a clothing size, your stress level or your current state of fitness). Post where you are on that progress measurement on Oct. 1 NOTE…don’t rely on your signature or ticker. If that sig or ticker changes, it will update ALL of your posts and erase your ‘history.’ You’ll need this information in a post so that you can get back to it on October 31.
-- Post how much protein and what carb level you aim for every day.
-- Name your preferred non-diuretic beverage(s) and how much you plan to consume per day
-- Name what you plan to do every day to
1) be more physically active
2) get stronger
-- Name what you plan to do every day to exercise your minds
And finally, write down ONE WAY that you can SIMPLIFY staying on plan this month.
-- Check in every day.
We’ll celebrate a low or no-sugar Hallowe’en by reporting in at the end of the month, and measuring ourselves against our own personal progress measurement.
First on the board is welcome to open every day's challenge thread...
So, who wants to focus on being true to yourself...and aiming for 31 perfect October days?
---------------
Note - Gaelen is off on a camping trip right now so I am posting the challenge for her. She will be back on Monday :).