Inspiration

Now What? Life after the Paleo Challenge…

By June 1, 2016 No Comments

It Is Over!

After the many challenges we decide to tackle in our lives – be it to run a 10km, do an Ironman, or your first CrossFit competition.  And even with challenges that are not athletic, like learning to finally play the guitar, or in our case, doing a Paleo Challenge, I find there are two types of mindsets for most people:

Was that 30 days already? Bring on another 30 baby!

Or

I would like to order the biggest pizza you have and please double the gluten?

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Challenges are like planting seeds.  After you are done, some will take root, and grow, but not all do.  Despite giving them the right nourishment to grow in, and lots of water and light, sometimes, nothing really changes.  We fall back to our old, well established programming.

When you successfully complete a challenge, it should allow you go up a level of FAITH in yourself.  Faith that if you take the steps and plant some better seeds in your mind-body that you do benefit from it.  It all began with you, thirty days ago, just deciding to plant a few more CANS worth of “I can” seeds than from the cans of “I can’t’s.”

After challenges are complete, it is a good time to take a moment to reflect on the experience.  Many people who challenged themselves to summit Mt. Everest realize afterwards how important their family is to them, and how they really need to nourish those seeds more often than they do.

Despite how difficult you may have found the Paleo Challenge, you may not have had “grand realizations” like you may have standing on top of the worlds highest point.  I thought had a Mt. Everest-type realization when one of our members brought in a Paleo Apple Crumble Pie!  It was like I was standing on top of the world.  

However, you may have realized that you CAN do a better job at prepping food for the week.  Ensuring that you have an abundant supply of clean food in your fridge to prep with.  Just by doing this simple action, you found yourself reacting less at the end of the day with “what are we having for dinner?” or “I haven’t had time to think about dinner so let’s grab something.”

You may have realized that you CAN start collecting recipes that you tried out and were a hit in the household and are already putting them into a weekly or monthly rotation.  You may have also decided to take some recipes out of your lineup because you realize they are not as in line with YOUR new FUEL needs.

You may have realized that you do just feel better when you FUEL right.  You workout better?  You sleep better?  You have more time during the week?  You’re more focused?  You smile more?

These seeds that you plant can begin to make up a new set of your personal CORE VALUES that you begin to live by.  Companies develop core values that they feel are important to them, and put into actions how best to fulfill them.  We often don’t investigate what are own core values are, and these challenges can help you begin to define them.

Perhaps now, your core value is to “keep scoring 8’s” throughout the week”, despite the challenge being over.  Or you may put an amendment to that core value of “keep scoring 8’s” throughout the week, but having more than one black coffee doesn’t count…cause that’s still technically Paleo.”  Or you may say that I’m going to have one cup on the weekend where I will really sit down and enjoy every drop while I journal, or watch my kids play, or whatever amendment you would like to add…

After all, YOU are the Governor!  You can decide.  You are the state of your being.  You can lead the revolution and make the change that benefits to you.

Now…you may have drove the community who got you elected as governor around you absolute crazy, but you can find a way now over the next days to be so…”paleo-compulsive” about it.  In the sense that you will start to know what foods you can eat, and how to adapt them into different ways.  You will be able to order off the menu and no longer need to give a dissertation to everyone you are dining with about your food selections.  It’s like learning to ride a bicycle.  It all just becomes second nature.  You begin to develop good practices that allow you to even enjoy the process.

For many of you, a core value is now to go to the gym 2x or 3x/week.  I have talked to some of you, and you said you “just made it a priority.”  You put the intent into it and made it happen.   You developed the will power, and you planted a seed.  Many of you have strung together 8’s on going to the gym regularly without even perhaps not much effort anymore.  It has become second nature to you.

In numerology they say the energy or “vibration” of the number 8 is that of “abundance.”

“The power of 8 is all about success and abundance.  Claiming your brilliant potential in every way, is totally empowering yourself and others.  This is tapping into your abundance of spirit, abundance of health, abundance of knowledge, abundance of energy, abundance of success and wealth, abundance of community and loving friends.”

Keep planting those seeds of 8’s in your FUEL, MOVE, and REST core values and we will try our best to do that also.

 

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