Before you go on the 30-day healthy diet challenge, you need to be honest. Are you living in a healthy way? Do you choose healthy foods to put into your body? Do you avoid overeating? Do you make choices that are best for you? If not, and you are thinking about going on a diet, then you’ve come to the right place! There are a million diets out there, but instead of trying one of them, how about trying a 30-day healthy diet regime that involves doing things that are known to be healthy? No counting calories. No stressing about fat or carbs. Just following some simple guidelines based on healthy eating and living. If you are going to try a diet, this might as well be it. If you can lose weight and feel great after 30 days of healthy living, then you don’t need to try the next and ‘greatest’ diet. You can just live… wouldn’t that be nice?
5 Reasons To Take The 30-Day Healthy Diet Challenge
1. No Counting Calories
When you eat healthily, you don’t need to count calories. Instead, you need to make sure that you are putting good food in your body and not overeating.
Counting calories sucks, and it’s hard on your mental state. I’ve watched an older family member spend the last 20 years counting points on a popular diet program, and she still hasn’t lost all the weight. BUT, she has stressed herself out to a point where I think her cognitive skills are being affected – memory, concentration, etc.
The bottom line is that constant stress has a very negative effect on your brain and I have yet to meet one person who counts calories or points that isn’t stressed out when it comes to eating.
2. Make A Lifestyle Change
When you get on the 30-day healthy diet challenge, it won’t be about ‘doing it for 30 days’. It will be about learning how to eat better and healthier food as a way of life. It will be about learning to appreciate good food and how it tastes and makes you feel. That will help you avoid the ’30-day diet’ and, instead, incorporate a new way of eating into your life. What you do repeatedly in regards to eating sticks, so spending 30 days in a healthy food zone can really help you stick to eating healthy food.
3. Discover How Good A Healthy Diet Can Really Taste
Pizza, burgers, chips, and sugary desserts can become a staple for many people because they like the taste, but once you start eating healthy food, you will notice that healthy food has a satisfying taste as well. In fact, I’m willing to bet you will be amazed at how amazing good food can actually taste.
One of the things I’ve noticed is that when you eat healthier, you learn how to spice things up. You learn how to create dishes that have different (and awesome) flavors, and nothing tastes like grease anymore.
My friend’s parents eat fast food 99% of the time, but when they come to her house and she cooks them a homemade meal with spices and herbs that really bring out the flavors, they are blown away at how much they like it.
There are so many different spices and herbs out there to alter the tastes of dishes, that I’m pretty sure you could eat a slightly different taste each day for your 30 days. (Maybe that’s another diet challenge in the making?)
4. Eat Foods That Help You Burn Fat Instead Of Store It
The right foods can help optimize your hormones and metabolism and send your body into a fat-burning frenzy. That’s why it’s not about calories. It’s about eating foods that do good things in your body and help it work at full power.
Anyone who is stuck on the notion of calories in and calories out will have a hard time with this one. But, the fact is that fat loss and weight loss is not just about calories in and calories out. Anyone who has deprived themselves of calories and not lost weight should understand that.
As someone with hypothyroidism, I know that it’s important to keep my hormones in check if I want to maintain my weight and stay healthy. If you haven’t delved into the world of how everything in life, including your diet, is affecting your hormones, and what that means for you, I highly suggest you do. It could change the way you view a healthy lifestyle.
5. Influence Other People In A Healthy Way
Lastly, how you live teaches other people how to live. If you are stressed out, eating poorly, and struggling with your weight, you are affecting other people in your life negatively. You don’t just influence kids in your life, you influence loved ones who decide to make poor decisions because you do.
When you take on this 30-day healthy diet challenge, you will be influencing the people around you in a positive way. You will be showing them that healthy living is possible. You will be influencing how they view healthy living. And, as you go through the 30 days, you will be teaching them the things you discover and learn, which will further influence them in a positive way. You may even help some people get out of an unhealthy rut and feeling better about themselves – who knows.
One thing I’ve learned about teaching and influencing is that it doesn’t stop at the person you teach or influence. They teach and influence others too. And, you could end up impacting the lives of many people indirectly just by impacting the life of one person directly. That’s some powerful stuff. You could make hundreds or thousands of people healthy by being healthier yourself.
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” – Brillat-Savarin
Where To Go For Healthy Recipes For Your 30 Day Diet Challenge?
The great news is that the internet offers you a ton of free healthy recipes to do this 30-day challenge. You don’t need to go out and buy a cookbook, yet, you just need to gather up some recipes that look good to you and try them out and discover what works, what doesn’t, and what your tastes are all about when it comes to healthy eating.
Just go to Google’s search engine and type in ‘healthy recipes’ for thousands of new ideas. And, if you want something, in particular, type in ‘healthy [insert type] recipes’ for thousands of ideas on that. For instance, ‘healthy pasta recipes‘ will leave you with so many ideas that your head will spin.
You can also get on Pinterest and find some healthy recipes.
Making Your Favorite Foods Healthier
One more thing…
When I was younger, I was dating a guy who had a sister that was obsessed with living a healthy life. I remember going to her house for a party and she had tweaked popular party foods to be healthy. They were good, and she was over-the-moon-happy about how she had made these foods healthy.
Now I know that she was on to something. You can make almost any food into a healthy version, it’s just a matter of finding the right recipe or combination. But, there are people who have done that for you. Just search for healthy [insert favorite food here].
Also, you can get the cookbook, Substitute Yourself Skinny. I got my mom that cookbook a few years back and it taught her so many ways she can enjoy her favorite tastes without all the unhealthy ingredients.
The 30-Day Diet Challenge: Let’s Do This!
This diet challenge is not about stress. You simply want to eat healthier foods for 30 days. So, don’t panic about how much of this or how little of that is in the foods. Just try to eat healthy and balanced meals that you know are made with good ingredients.
Obviously, this will require you to cook on weekdays – or at least precook on weekends – so that will be a part of the challenge. But, as someone who has been cooking homemade food for years, I can tell you that it really doesn’t take a ton of time, especially with the right tools. For instance, a pressure cooker can help you cook a soup or stew quickly while a slow cooker can help you set up everything in the morning and have supper at night, including dessert.
And, if you can get a pot that does everything, like this 7-in-1 Multi-Use programmable pot, you are laughing.
3 Steps To Make This Challenge Work For You
Remember, this is a personal challenge you are taking on to eat better. Don’t overcomplicate it. Don’t make it about fat, carbs, and calories.
You already know what healthy food is. If you don’t, healthy food is fresh, whole food that provides you with nutrients. It’s not about sugary, processed, and fried foods. And, healthy eating is about eating those foods when hungry and stopping when full. It’s simple, but it works.
Healthy eating is also about finding what foods give you the most energy and what foods drain you and then eating foods that give you energy. If the food you eat is making you feel bad, then how good do you think it is for you? Listening to your body is key, and that’s one of the things this challenge will help you do.
1. Plan Your 30 Days As Best As Possible
There is no pre-made recipe list for this healthy eating diet challenge… you have to make it yourself. The reason is simple – we all like different foods and tastes, so creating your own 30-day menu is ideal to keep you on track with this 30-day health diet challenge.
Go ahead and find recipes that appeal to you and then fill them into a monthly calendar or planner so that you know exactly what you are going to eat on a day-to-day basis. This will ensure you always know what’s for dinner and have things bought, prepped, and planned. In short, this will save you a TON of time!
I have a planner dedicated to my weekly meals, but you can do it however you want. Following is a method by How Jen Does It that you may want to try!
2. Go To Farmer’s Markets Or Health Food Stores
One thing you will find is that healthy food markets will make you want to eat healthier. If you go the grocery store where you normally buy all that processed food, you will be tempted to buy that processed food, and that’s when willpower must kick in.
Some days, especially at the start, when everything has gone wrong and you are ‘challenged out’, you may give in and buy something that goes against the Healthy Diet Challenge, and it’s all downhill from there!
So, go to your local farmer’s markets, or, get out to a health food store that focuses on fresh, whole foods, and keep yourself on track for eating healthy.
3. Don’t Stock Up With Unhealthy Foods
Lastly, it doesn’t matter how strong you are, if you have unhealthy foods in the house that you often crave, you will give in to those cravings. You may not think so now, but it happens to the best of us, and you don’t want to get to day 21 of the challenge and get on the wrong path.
Just for this month, at least, keep those foods out of the house. Stick to your diet challenge. Tell other people that they will need to buy their own foods if they must do so, and only enough for them to eat at one time.
Download For The 30-Day Healthy Diet Challenge
Template To Write Down What You Will Be Eating For The 30 Days: Download this 30-day template to plan out what you will eat on your 30-day healthy diet challenge.
Good luck with the challenge! This can be a life-changing one and get you off the diet hamster wheel.
