As summer descends upon us, and I’m not NEARLY as close to my beach body as I was last year, I decided it was a great time to add another project to my plate. Because why not? I’m hosting what I call an Eating Positive Challenge, and I’d love to have as many people learning about how to Eat Clean, Eat Green, but most importantly, Eat Positive.
This challenge is interesting because it’s not just for my followers, although they are going to get a helluva lot of information that will change their lives. I’m doing this for me too. When I learn how Eating Positive– that is, eating for my unique self and all her quirks, peculiarities, and idiosyncrasies– I will have more success in achieving my fitness goals.
A Year After Success
Last year during the coronavirus quarantine, I practiced a modified Whole30. It took us about 3 months to complete, but my husband and I discovered some incredibly interesting things about how our eating habits make us feel. Sugar, and for us, even the keto-friendly sugar substitutes like Swerve and Stevia, does not do what we think it does. It does not satisfy our sweet tooth. It just makes us more hungry, and sends us on a roller coaster of eating the rest of the day. We discovered some other interesting things about some of the food we ate, some that we labeled “No Bueno” for both of us.
But the best part of our long experiment for me was losing 30 pounds over the summer. And I kept it off throughout most of the holidays, too until earlier this year, around February, I had my winter slump. And since then a lot of my eating habits I established have fallen to the wayside.
When I last got on the scale, I had gained 20 of those 30 pounds back. Yikes.
A Better Way?
So, I know heavily restricting my food intake for 30 days isn’t helpful. I know going super hard for a challenge isn’t realistic, because at the end of the 30 days (or 5 weeks, or whatever), most people, me included, just push through until the end, and go back to our old ways.
But what if I didn’t do something super restrictive, instead, I used science to figure out exactly what works best for me? Not just what FOODS work best for me, but HOW I eat those foods? What if instead of focusing on just “healthy” foods, I ate according to my unique DNA, my cycle, and my intuition? And I treated my habits as a science experiment?
This led me to what I’m calling Eating Positive. Now, as I explain it, it may sound extreme or restrictive, but keep in mind, I’ve already eliminated a lot of foods that I KNOW don’t serve me or my health and fitness. So, most of these ideas aren’t “restrictive” in the deprivation sense to me.
Eating Positive Challenge
So, what is Eating Positive? This is my interpretation of 4 other programs combined with ZooFit’s Eating Green. Eating Green is one of my favorite ideas of ZooFit, connecting our eating habits with conservation efforts. But with Eating Positive, I’m also going to use the Viome program to find my personal unique superfoods, FLO Living to sync my cycle with the right foods for the season and the month, Whole30 to eliminate some problematic foods in a experimental way for 30 days, and finally Intuitive Eating. Intuitive Eating is very intriguing to me. Basically, rather than restrict or deprive yourself of foods you “should” or “shouldn’t” eat, Intuitive Eating uses your intuition to make healthy choices, and allows you to eat what you need. I’m still learning more about this so I’m excited to include these ideas in my challenge.
As I did the math for when I should be ready for this Eating Positive Challenge, I realized this will probably occur the same month as Plastic-Free July. Can I do two things at once? You bet! Especially when the two are so interconnected. Practicing Plastic-Free July along with Eating Positive will not just improve your health dramatically, it will improve your impact on the planet.
Get Involved in Eating Positive
I’m inviting people to join me or participate in a capacity that holds me accountable. On my Patreon Page, I’ve created a temporary tier for $3 a month for Eat Clean, Green, and Positive. Join this level of membership, and you will be able to follow along with me as I prepare for the challenge, and see how I’m doing each and every day. I will be posting weekly master classes on certain habits that can help with eating healthy, along with daily posts sharing my food journal, workout, and my wins and lessons each day.
You are going to learn A LOT during this challenge, from now as I’m announcing it, until well past my 30-days as I test out foods I want to re-introduce. All throughout June I’ll be prepping my cupboards and meal plan, and practicing new habits along the way. In July I start Eating Positive, using the foods recommended by FLO Living, Viome, and from our previous Whole30-ish experiments. You get to see what’s in my grocery cart, learn new recipes, and discover new ideas for ways we can eat the way that works best for each of us as individuals.
The only way you can gain access to all this goodness is by being a Eating Positive member on Patreon. This is a fan-funded site where you can support your favorite creators in all their endeavors. After this challenge, you can join me for as little as $5 a month to keep receiving great ZooFit content, support me in my future projects, and help ZooFit teach the world how to Eat Clean, Live Green, and Train Positive.
Join In!
If you want to partake in the Eating Positive Challenge alongside me, that’s terrific! Definitely join the Patreon Page. I’ll be posting about Viome in the next couple of days as I’m doing the full health assessment and will be getting my blood sample “live” (for accountability’s sake– I’m a big baby when it comes to pricking my own finger), and sharing how you can get your test as well.
Want some more information while we get ready for this ultimate fun and enlightening event? Check out the books Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch and In the Flo by Alissa Vitti. You can also learn a little about what this challenge will look like by checking out my How to Eat Challenge from 2020.
Here’s to a healthier, brighter, happier you, me, and the whole community– taking care of the planet by taking care of ourselves.
Let’s do this!