It was Wednesday night. I sat curled up on my couch, laptop on the arm of the chair checking in on the blog related places on social media. I’d had a Tupperware party. A rather large and loud one. I’d had party pies and wine for dinner. And it felt like again. Since the start of September we have had a single weekend at home with nothing to attend. The silly season started early for us and we got lazy. The food we are eating is convenient and packed with all the nasties that we normally avoid. Numbers and words I can’t pronounce.
And pizza, so much freaking pizza.
I’d had enough. I declared it time for a detox and asked if you wanted to join me. It turns out, a number of you did. A two-week challenge idea was born. Two weeks for clean eating, regular exercise, better sleep patterns and no junk.
The Green Monster Team Challenge was born.
Named after my love of all things green smoothie, of COURSE.
This is a fun and fabulous group aimed at supporting us all to nourish our bodies through rest and whole foods, get some regular exercise and head into the holiday season fighting fit. This is not a weight loss program, a diet or a how-to guide. Please consider not weighing yourself. Instead take some measurements if you like. This is about wellness and health, I don’t care what you weigh. Neither should you in my opinion. For me it’s a trigger to spend too much time on the scales, measuring and obsession. Let’s keep our heads about this.
If you are doing this with the intention of being fighting fit your weight will never really give you the best guide to that anyway. I’m sure there are people who would argue with me, much more learned people in fact, but those people have been proven wrong before {hello food pyramid!} so grain of salt and all that.
Right!
So are you ready!? Are you ready to clean up your diet and treat yourself with the care and concern you deserve? Well I hope so, because here we go. Best you finish reading this post and declare your intention to participate below! We kick off tomorrow morning. Everything’s better when you start it on a Monday. I know it’s short notice but do what you can.
Suger’s Green Monster Team Challenge Rules
Stick to foods on the food guide where possible
Get at LEAST 15 minutes exercise every day
No junk food
No booze
Limit caffeine
Get to bed before 11pm
Challenge dates: Monday 11th November to Sunday 24th November 2013.
Take on all the challenges or just a few of them. You make the decision what’s going to work for you. I’m here to support you. Maybe you’d like to set a personal challenge. Like an earlier bedtime, more time spent one-on-one with your family or something else that improves the quality of your life. Add that.
Below is a suggested beginner’s clean eating guide I found online. It has some USA brands {I assume} so replace with your favorite local brand. Modify it as per YOUR requirements and don’t forget to make sure you are eating regularly throughout the day with meals and snacks, drinking LOADS of water and avoiding those pesky junk items.
For more about the clean eating for beginner’s guide pop over to Melissa Morris’s page. While I’m not a fan of before and after photos {like, ever} there is an awesome Clean Eating 101 guide and the image I have used below was pinned from her blog. It will get you underway. Her clean eating pinterest board is also pretty darn fab. I also recommend searching clean eating recipes on Pinterest if you are stuck. SUCH a great resource.
Let’s get social – Instagram, Twitter and Facebook!
Now it’s only a team challenge if we work together. Share our wins, losses and all that as we go. So share your images, tips or recipes in the comments on this post and I will make sure I make it easily accessible on the front page of the blog. You can also share them on any of the Suger Coat It platforms, tag the page or use the #sugersgreenmonsters or #teamsuger hashtag where you can so we can find them. Let’s work together and get this thing going.
The disclaimer:
I am not a professional nutritionist, medical professional or person who studies health or wellness. I like the interwebs and it seems to provide the answer to most things HOWEVER you are in charge here. There are some basic guidelines but I am not going to tell you what you do. You should consult your medical professionals for advice before taking on any lifestyle change like this. If you have other experts in your life, speak to them too. Be smart, be safe.
Now who’s IN!?
It’s important to declare yourself so do so below. Give me your name and a SUGER I’M IN!
Hi! I’m Suger and I’m the Chief Blogger here. I make stuff for the internet. Which means I take photos, build websites, write copy and create social media plans for people. This is my blog where I share my life and the things that interest me. It’s been living its best life on the interwebs since 2009.
I’m already eating a fairly healthy diet, but i’ve had a few slip ups lately with sugar intake so I’m using the challenge as added motivation to really focus on nourishing my body and getting back to my best day to day diet 🙂 xx
Sounds awesome lady. Welcome aboard!
I’m in!!! I have been trying to eat ‘clean’ but sometimes it just gets too hard. This may just be the motivation I need 🙂
Awesome! A whole bunch of people to back you up and ask your questions to, that’s got to be a win. I’m hoping a few great {new!} recipes will come from this for all of us.
Suger I’m in! I’d love to cut out sugar and limit myself to one coffee a day… Lets see how we go. Good luck everyone
Sounds good Jane!
Suger I’m in! Lets do this thing! Yaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy…I’m going to KFC for the last time woo hoo!!
Oh goodness Anne!! Haha. See you bright and early in the morning then. 😉
I’m in. I’ve been trying for months to re-start my healthy eating, I’m making myself sick and tired and its not cool! Time to kick the chocolate-bar-a-day diet ive been on for the past 6 months! (even worse considering im dairy and sugar intolerant, bleh!)
Sounds good! Glad to have you on board Steph.
So I guess this bowl of icecream with coffee and liqueur stired in will be my last for a while? Lol
Haha. Sure. Unless you plan to take a day a week or something to have a free day. Just decide tongiht before you kick off. 😉
I’d love to join in but I’m going overseas for a week on Thurs so bad timing for me.
I would question including decaf coffee. apparently the chemicals used to decaf it are worse than caffiene (in moderation).
Great point. I’m like that about light/skim milk products. Anything too tampered with can’t be a good thing. I tend to agree that the real thing in moderation has to be better than excesses of a faked product.
Enjoy your trip! Maybe we’ll do a new year round too. 😉
Sounds good Mel – for me as an after Christmas Detox…………..my christmas season starts in that period. I think I’ll try and adopt many of the things you suggested but can’t commit to it fully….
Ooooo getting the party going already are you Claire!? Nice. I was just saying below, maybe we’ll need to look at a second round in the new year. Another lady on Facebook is going to designate the days she will be at events {a big birthday with a friend she hasn’t seen for years being the main one} and declared them as free days. That could work too.
I am soooo in. X
Awesome! I was going to ask you for a couple of recipes I can share. I’ll send you a text tomorrow. x
Mr 2 won’t allow early bed and I don’t agree with parts of the food chart but I’m in!! 🙂
Haha. I hear they can be a little willful on such matters. 😉
And that’s more than fine with me, do whatever works for you. It was the best I could find to act as a guide for us all. I’m all for flexibility.
Welcome to Team Suger! 😉
I’m in! Early bed may be an issue but I’m in !!!!
For you and me both! Haha. Welcome. 😉
I’m in – have been doing green juices for the last 8 days so this will be a brill motivator for me to continue :-). Brilliant timing! Looking forward to the challenges x.
Awesome Dee! Oooo make sure you let us know some of your juice combinations. I’m always looking for some new ones. 🙂
I am in & have started! Will be in Brisbane & Gold Coast for the last 2 days so I will try to stay on track..
Sounds great Nic! AND you’ll be visiting in my part of the world. Nice one.
I’m in Suger – smoothies are a part of my morning routine and I’m getting active so I’m really please to hook up with others!
Welcome on board! We can’t wait to hear from you.
Bummer I have missed the challenge. I have no will power whatsoever when it comes to food. Give me the exercise, no caffeine but chocolate is my biggest down fall
Sory you missed it! Happy to continue to support you as you go on though. Chocolate is SO addictive. Tricky bugger. Good luck with that!