Tonight’s essay is from another five one fiver, the one the only Brad Rush! Well done Brad and nice touch with the graphs, Justin loves graphs!
Have a great Wednesday!
“21 Days to Get It Right”

Why would you want to subject yourself to healthy eating and physical fitness in a world full of unhealthy temptations?  That’s the question I’m asked most often from family, friends and co-workers when they hear of the “21 Day Challenge”.   My answer is simple, it’s a challenge to make me a better person and provides me with the foundation to be alive and well for many years to come.   I must be honest as one of my first 21 Day Challenges, it was all about winning the money.  Quite honestly, my mind set was simply, drop as much weight as possible and be the “Biggest Loser” to win the money.  Easier said than done because I soon discovered it’s not meant to be a temporary thing as these challenges are to provide you guidance and feedback on your overall eating and physical performance to make you a better person…….forever!  Every day we have those unhealthy challenges put in front of us and the true challenge is, are you strong enough, emotionally, to handle that challenge and ignore the temptations?  

Overall, I’m down 17 lbs, through these challenges and I can tell you that it’s made a huge difference in my day to day life as well as my ability to perform various movements in the gym.  I can even do some workouts RX vs scaled.

Let’s talk about the positives in eating healthy and cutting out all the crap from your diet.  I’m always keeping an eye on my resting heart rate as it’s a great indicator of having a less stressed heart to keep your blood pumping.   Look at what I was able to accomplish in the last challenge, going from a 57 resting heart rate to a 49 increased my cardio capacity and allows for a higher heart rate in those workouts without feeling like I’m going to die.  Isn’t that the goal?  Doing the WOD’s as fast as possible without dying!!  Eating better helps you to accomplish this goal which turns into new personal records.    

In addition to having a better heart rate, I have also had positive experiences at the doctor, dentist and even getting a $500 discount on my health insurance for losing weight and having great blood work.  It “Pays” off!!  Really, it does!  During one of my recent visits to the dentist, my dentist asked what I was doing differently as my gums looked very nice and healthy.  I told her I changed my diet and she didn’t believe that my diet could impact my gum health.  I explained to her that nothing else has changed with my dental hygiene and the diet was the only thing that has changed.  Next thing I knew, I had a captive audience of hygienists and receptionists asking me what I changed in my diet.

 

I can honestly tell you I was a little bit hesitant on my first challenges as I even gave up and didn’t finish them all because I had to have a beer or a cookie.  Now that I can see the benefits of eating healthy, and how it’s having a positive impact in my life, I’m a huge advocate that everyone should be taking the “21 challenge”.  You will drop some weight, feel better and find you can do more and more things that you never thought you could do.  The last thing and probably the best , is having a friendly little competition with your fellow gym members to see who can win the right to stand on that podium and have the bragging rights.  For me, it’s all about beating Becky Smith!!