The Realness 10-Day Challenge

Welcome to 10 days of eating real food, reconnecting with your body, rebooting your system and learning once and for what works - and what doesn’t - for your body, lifestyle and goals.

So what’s the challenge?

It’s an elimination diet (see this post for more info on elimination diets) built to:

• Regulate your blood sugar

• Find out if you have food sensitivities

• Beat your sugar addiction

• Balance your hormones

• Discover how real food can heal you, inside and out

What it’s not

A calorie-counting, spend-all-your-time measuring, calorie-deficit diet meant for weight loss. It’s truly a way to jump start long-lasting lifestyle change and to teach you how to trust and listen to your body and its unique needs.

What We’re Eliminating

What you Get

What about when it’s over?

Honestly, this is where the challenge really starts - but we’re not letting you do it alone! We are going to reintroduce each thing we eliminated, one at a time and this is where to true body-mind connection will go into effect as you learn how your body reacts to different things so you can choose what you want to incorporate for the long-term

It’s 10 days. It’s not forever, not even close and it’s 10 days for a lifetime change. If you’ve been struggling with your relationship with food and feel like your mind and your body are two different entities, then this challenge is for you.

We’re starting January 13, 2020!

Sign up here to commit to do your best for 10 days and receive the full guide.

It’ll be over before you know it.

All About Elimination Diets

If you can’t tell, we don’t love traditional “diets” around here. Restricting calories, food groups, or specific items for the sake of losing weight only to fit into societal standards is honestly a waste of time, especially if it comes with a heavy dose of guilt, frustration and rebound weight gain because you aren’t making a lifestyle change. Elimination diets, however, can serve a purpose much larger than just loosing weight (although that’s often a side effect).

We talk a lot about the mind-body connection and tell you to listen and trust your bodies. That all sounds great and everything, but how can you actually do that? If you’re like us (and most people), you are probably pretty disconnected from your body. One way to begin to pay attention and increase your connection is to try an elimination diet. 

What’s an elimination diet?

An elimination diet, not to be confused with a “normal” diet, serves a specific purpose and has a time limit. It’s basically what it sounds like – you eliminate foods that you may be sensitive to and then reintroduce them one a time. They last anywhere from 10 to 30 days with a reintroduction period of a couple of weeks, depending on what foods you are eliminating.

Why should you do one?

As we said, you need to get to know your body in order to be able to listen to it. Most of us walk around every day with food sensitivities and even allergies that go unnoticed for years. And you may think, if it’s not causing a reaction, why should I care? Unfortunately, while you may not get an obvious, physical reaction, food sensitivities that go unnoticed can cause a lot of harm in the long run – digestive issues, bloating, fatigue, mind fogginess, and things you may not even think are related to what you’re eating, like depression or anxiety. Figuring out what your body reacts to doesn’t mean you’ll never eat that food again, but you can make more conscious choices and figure out what’s worth it, and what’s not. It will teach you to be more mindful of your food choices and more mindfulness = more connection to your body. 

Is it right for you?

An important thing to consider in doing an elimination diet is your why, are you sure it’s not to lose weight? Because if that’s your ultimate goal, then maybe it’s not the right choice for you. Elimination diets are not all fun and rainbows, you go through withdrawals, especially from sugar and can feel pretty crappy the first few days. There are ways to help reduce those symptoms but your body will go into a detox and there’s no way around that. Another aspect to take into consideration is that maybe you have done elimination diets before and you know what works and what doesn’t, well, our microbiome changes constantly, with the weather, our hormones, stress levels, that all affects your reactivity to foods, so it’s a good idea to do one once in a while to get another baseline, or at least, as a reset.

How do you do it?

There a lot of resources out there but you just do it with us! Starting September 3, we are doing a 10 Day Reset based on Dr. Hyman’s Food:What the Heck Should I Eat? book, which by the way, go read it - it’s amazing. Eliminating all the major food groups that cause food sensitivities will help you figure out what works for YOU. If you’re feeling ambitious you can keep it going through September and complete a Whole30 - I mean, you’ll already be 1/3 of the way in at that point. 

If you join us, you will receive:

·      24/7 Group Chat Support

·      Full Prep Guide with guidelines and what to expect over the 10 days

·      Recipe ideas

·      Daily tips and tricks with how to stay on track

The best part? It’s FREE.

Getting through an elimination diet can be hard, but it’s made easy when you have support and resources at your fingertips. Interested or want more info? Sign up below! 

The Myth of Moderation

Have you ever heard the phrase, “everything in moderation”? Chances are you probably have and this may be an unpopular opinion but that’s maybe the worst advice on the planet. What is moderation? How much is too much and how little is too little? Is a Coke a day too much? How about once a week? Is a salad a month enough?

The reason why moderation does not work is because it is completely subjective and it takes a lot of work to figure out what moderation is for each of us. Lara feels like crap if she doesn’t move her body everyday, at least for a long walk while Viviana enjoys her rest days on her couch watching TV. Who’s wrong? Who’s healthier? Answer: Neither and both!

Moderation, balance - it’s all yours and it changes day to day, even hour to hour. When someone recommends “moderation” it really doesn’t mean anything. You need to find what works for you - that’s what moderation is.

Let’s break it down a little more:

MODERATION IN FITNESS

Look online and you will find everything from taking one rest day is optimal to taking two to never ever resting. Some say active recovery is best and others say full rest. Why the huge amount of conflicting infromation? Because, as much as you probably don’t like hearing this, IT DEPENDS. On you, your fitness level, your goals, what you will sustain over time, your schedule, your time, your energy, you nutrition, your genes, your likes and dislikes. Literally depends on YOU. So how in the world are you supposed to find what works?

First, you have to learn how to listen to your body and yes, we know that’s the hardest thing in the world and takes lots of practice. But learning to listen and then being honest with yourself will allow you to really figure out what works and doesn’t work. Need a rest day? Or want a rest day? Both are fine and valid but you need to face both and own it. Results come from the work you put in, there’s no escaping that, but depending on your goals and what you’re after - how much work can vary vastly. There’s a time and a place for rest and there’s a time and a place to go really hard. But, you will only get the results you work for, whether that’s just keeping a fitness routine or training for a marathon, the work you put it is what you’ll get out of it, mentally and physically.

MODERATION IN NUTRITION

Unfortunately, it’s more of the same - IT DEPENDS. And the key is listening to your body. But, really, should you listen to your body when it’s screaming for donuts? And then a bag of chips? Followed by a massive Coca-Cola? Do you think you’re lacking self-control or motivation? Maybe. And probably. Your body has no physical need for those things, but maybe your emotions do. Ultimately, you’re an adult and you control what goes into your body. In nutrition, moderation doesn’t really exist. Consistency exists. There’s a time and a place for emotional eating because if it’s truly rare and on occassion, it won’t harm you. It’s when you do it consistently that it starts messing with you. Just like eating a broccoli on occasion won’t give you much nourishment. But eating it consistently, will.

Again, there is this myth of moderation - only have three bites of dessert! Have one soda a week! Truthfully, finding balance in nutrition is probably the hardest thing you’ll ever do. Do you really know what works and doesn’t work for your body? What causes bloating or a headache or a breakout? Probably not. The path to discover this is full of ups and downs and many don’t have the patience to go through with it in this lifestyle of quick, immediate satisfaction and results. It takes trial and error. Lots and lots of errors.

We know this is probably not what you want to hear (#sorrynotsory) but anyone out there offering you a quick solution that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably too good to be true. Your body has an innate ability to tell you what it needs if you just listen and override all the habit that you’ve built over your lifetime. Shameless plug - working with a nutrition consultant, that is working for you and your individual needs and goals, is the quickest way to results.

MODERATION IN MINDSET

Balance when it comes to mindset can be a little more difficult because our minds are usually all or nothing and we can get so wrapped up in ourselves that we can’t see other perspectives. Take it a day at a time and give yourself grace. But again, you have to do the work to get the benefits, whether that’s therapy, meditation, practicing mindfulness, etc.

In psychoanalysis, a form of therapy, patients go to therapy anywhere from 2-5 times a week, sometimes for years. A supervisor of mine told me that it all depends on how fast they want to get to where they want to go. Think about it, if you want to go to Alaska (we are in Texas so it is kind of a long walk), and you walk once a week for an hour, it might take you three years to get there. What about if you walk for 3 times a week? You’ll get there faster and you won’t have to spend time getting ready for the walk because it’s already done! Imagine how fast you’ll get there if you walk daily? In therapy, I use this so that patients come to their sessions ready to work and if they come more that once a week, we get the “what happened this week” out of the way and focus on the good stuff. When it comes to our minds, we need to work on it daily, I don’t believe we get to take a break from this one, that means taking care of your emotions and recognizing them!

Moderation is a myth, we strive for this perfect balance but the truth is, there isn’t one. There are seasons and you evolve and change and that may be more difficult to hear because it’s not an easy fix but we have to start getting away from that and doing the work and enjoying the journey.