It's been about 2 1/2 months since we finished the 24 Day Challenge. Since then, we've managed to maintain many of the clean eating habits we adopted during the challenge. The biggest one is not buying frozen lunches. I still try to make enough at dinner to supply lunches for us the next day. If not, we'll have a sandwich using low sodium turkey, or cooked chicken breast. The one thing that I have no kept up is high levels of protein in each meal. Breakfast particularly. I really miss the Meal Replacement Shakes, but they are way too expensive to continue drinking daily. I did, however, order some protein powder through a Groupon, and am just waiting to receive it in the mail. In cooking, I've continued to reduce salt and eliminate butter in my cooking. Unfortunately, with the craziness of moving (please check out my sister blog, for more on that) our eating habits have not been so great. This is changing Monday!
Fitness-wise, I have not been officially working out, but I have been working almost non stop on the new house, which is keeping me very active. Aside from working on homework for grad school, I have hardly had a moment to sit down and relax since moving in 2 weeks ago. Both Jake and I have managed to keep the weight off! I did gain a little bit back about a month after we completed challenge, but I weighed myself last night and was back down to my post-challenge weight. Woo Hoo! Now I just need to work on toning :)
The challenge is a great reminder, that a one month quick fix is only going to last so long. It's also about life-style change. While we're not as strict as we were during the challenge, it's been important to continue implementing the changes we made. Perhaps we could have done all of this without having to spend hundreds of dollars to eat healthier, but I truly believe that it was not only the financial motivation, but the products themselves that gave us a jump start on making this change.
