After I completed my first challenge a year ago, I was so sure that the Eat to Live 6 week challenge could help others, especially my own family and friends, that I recruited people to start new challenges. This will be the sixth challenge since my very first on Valentine's 2011 and we have 50 official challengers and probably a few more unofficial challengers. Join along!
Here is my first email sent to my Kung Hee Fat Choy Eat to Live challengers. I wish them all the best of luck!
KUNG HEE FAT CHOY
So excited! Happy New Year! I have some great info for you:
Good news: You can eat all the fruits, veggies, beans (any kine, all kinds) you want.
More good news: You can even eat SOME (LIMITED quantities) seeds, nuts, and whole grains.
GREAT news: You do NOT need to ever be hungry. You will never have to be hungry again.
YAY!
DO NOT eat any salt, sugar, oil, dairy, refined grains, meat. of any sort. Nothing that was born with eyes. Do not drink anything but water. The only time you'll use 100% juice is to put in a small amount to make smoothies and dressings. Eating refined carbs (i.e., flour, white rice) is like eating sugar. That's what it turns into when you eat it. Right away. Sugar.
BAD NEWS (but it's really good news in disguise): You may experience nausea, headaches, and lightheadedness. Alcoholics and drug addicts experience horrible withdrawal symptoms when they quit cold turkey. You are going cold turkey to the most addictive food ingredients: Salt, sugar, fat. So you may experience withdrawal symptoms. Acknowledge it and ride it out. Maybe it's coffee. Who knows. But stay with it. It won't last. You'll get over it. You can do it. Six weeks. Don't get weak on me. You might want to take it easy on the exercise if you do anything at a high intensity. I learned the hard way in kickboxing class. Had to make a quick getaway after about 15 minutes so the class wouldn't see me puke and then faint. Fortunately I did neither but it was a close one!
MORE bad news: (gee, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it really is more good news in disguise) You may also experience an inordinate amount of gas (too bad you can't bottle it up and run your car!) and loose poop (your body never had such great fiber!) but that should get better as time passes. Your body adjusted to the crap food and lack of fiber and gave your regular poop (or maybe not) but now that fiber is your friend your body is not used to it and will have to take some time to readjust. Enjoy it :-) You will experience what one challenger refers to as "RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES" in the bathroom. No time to sit and read your magazines. In and out. And maybe multiple times a day. Yay for you and your bowel system.
Use tofu. Eat soybeans. Instead of dairy milk use soymilk (or almond milk or rice milk or any other of a number of choices. Just make sure it is UNSWEETENED). I know there is some controversy with soy. But I don't worry about tofu and the milk. I don't consume a lot of it. People should worry about the fats they are consuming and the hormones and antibiotics in meat.
Which reminds me: CHECK LABELS for ingredients! Don't assume that if something says 100% whole wheat it is. Well it might be made with whole wheat but it might also contain sugar (especially high fructose corn syrup). DO NOT BE FOOLED. DO NOT GET SUCKED IN. If there is salt, sugar, oil, MSG, any of those, especially in the first five ingredients DO NOT GET IT! And trust me, companies are T R I C K Y !!! Makes me futless, I tell you. READ! Stay informed.
You are doing what others think they CANNOT do. But it's totally doable. Is it hard? Heck yeah. Sorta. Can you do it? Heck yeah. I've seen people do it all the time. Regular people. Like you and me. Seriously. There's nothing special about those who have done it. But oh my oh my those who have done it before are changed. They look different. They feel different.
You may have a gluten issue. You may be old. You may have a super busy job and kids or in laws at home. No excuse. You can do it. It's six weeks in a lifetime. And if you're getting this email you've agreed to commit to the six weeks challenge. Hope you read the book or you have NO IDEA how important this is.
What are you going to use to sweeten your dressings/smoothies/anything? Use dates. Equal parts dates and water, blend it up. Date syrup. Yum. It works well. Just gotta use it within the week.
You experienced challengers -- take it to a new level! You had a successful challenge in 2011. Now's the time to rev up that engine, make up for all the holiday indulgences. Re-read the book to pick up new pointers. Best of luck to you!
Did you weigh yourself? I double dare you to just weigh yourself on the first and last day of the challenge (which, btw, is March 5). I also hope you have recent cholesterol screening, blood pressure, blood glucose, A1C data. You're going to be amazed by the change. And hopefully your doctor will learn a thing or two from you. Make your appointment for 6 weeks from today! Make that 6 weeks and a day!
PREPARE FOR SUCCESS!
And don't forget to check out the So Duck Soup blog and "like" us on facebook. We have some great meal ideas!
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