New Habits all in 21 days and beyond!

I started on February 28, 2011 with a challenge for 21 days to a healthier you and had 41 other willing participants committed on my Facebook page event tab to doing the same. Research has shown it takes 21 days to form a new habit.

Habits are learned, and old habits can be unlearned.
 

After 21 days of consecutively doing something, the neural pathways in your brain begin to associate the benefits of such habit, and sends the message to repeat action.

For those who were looking to recommit, we wanted to keep it simple and set realistic goals.  A weight amount was not set, nor was a specific fitness regimen.  Instead, I suggested that everyone start small with goals such as: "For 21 days, I will eat from the small dinner plate instead of the regular size."
"….I will take 5 minutes to do stretches in the morning."
"….I will eat grilled food instead of fried."

 

In an earlier post I mentioned that I visited with a retail dietitian at my local Shoprite grocery store exactly on February 28.  I had admitted to her that I had gotten into a nasty little habit of eating while totally stressed out!  I mean intense stress where I started to get a numbing tingling in my right arm.   I was so overwhelmed with stress one particular Saturday, that I actually had a meltdown and started crying. 

I realized then that if I was going to help myself deal with this stress, then I had better be having fun with what I was eating.  Life is too short to live on cottage cheese and celery sticks (and being on Weight Watchers, NOTHING IS OFF LIMITS!  

I decided to replace one meal a day with Shakeology and did that for 30 days.  To learn more about Shakeology visit this link http://www.myshakeology.com/peaches65  I also committed to restarting P90X.  The last time I started, I only got about half way through and so I have to prove to my husband that I am not doing P45X but P90X! 

For added accountability, I logged my workouts in WOWY (you can get a free account here: http://bit.ly/dCCO5K)

Nutrition/Supplementation:

So the entire month of March, I had 30 days of Shakeology as my lunch meal, about 27 days of P90X (didn't start the first week of my challenge) and then I waited all week to weigh in at Weight Watchers.  I also used Beachbody's Slimming Formula and took 2 tablets 3 times a day!  I also added Shakeology The Fiber to my smoothie every day! 

Results:

From February 28 to today's weigh in on April 1, I lost a total of 8.8 lbs. in a month. My goal of getting back to my Lifetime weight (ok its an adjusted weight) is becoming more attainable.

I have extended the challenge to July 1st so if you're interested in joining, hop on!  http://bit.ly/eIu24t