How a "Treat-free Challenge" Facebook group HUGELY helped me during the holidays and beyond!!!!!

When my team decided to do a 10 Day Treat-Free challenge leading up to the holidays, we were all a bit nervous about it!! We weren’t sure if or how we’d be able to stick with it! But we rallied together all our best strategies and more importantly, we rallied together as a TEAM (both coaches and our clients)! We created a Facebook group and all shared progress, tips, things we were struggling with, and daily successes in the group. It was SO FULL OF INCREDIBLE ENCOURAGEMENT!! We tackled treat temptations at the office, holiday parties, and social events head-on!

Even us coaches were nervous for this! :)

The rules weren’t necessarily that you HAD to go treat-free for the full 10 days, but we had everyone at the beginning of the group state what their own rules for themselves were going to be for the full 10 days. My rule was that I was going to avoid any desserts, junk food, and alcohol for the full 10 days. To be perfectly honest with you all, I didn’t do it! I did manage to avoid all junk food and desserts (including some of the snacks available at my friends’ house when I went to visit them on the other side of the state)! But I indulged in a glass of wine while out to dinner with them, then later in the weekend on my trip, we went out for a night on the town with their friends and I had some drinks that night too.

Did I accomplish my initial goal? No. But I did WAYYYYY better than I would have had I not had this group and this challenge. And honestly, the group somehow managed to make it FUN!!! It felt like playing video games with a bunch of friends as kids! We all had a common “enemy,” we shared tips and strategies, we rooted each other on, we picked each other up when temporarily defeated, and we celebrated all of our wins together!

The even MORE phenomenal result was that by the end of the 10 days, it almost had become second nature to avoid treats! The sugar and addictive food substances were out of my system and I wasn’t craving any of it! The group ended the day before Christmas Eve but I went into the holidays with a TON of momentum and did not go overboard at all during Christmas! In fact, even a week after the holidays, I felt GREAT (this picture was taken on December 29)!! I felt healthy, energized, strong, motivated to stick with my workouts and good nutrition, and was able to continue my momentum into the new year (WAY beyond the initial challenge)! What a way to dive into the new year!!

If you’re interested in doing anything like this with us, please contact me!! Our team runs challenges and groups like this every month so there are always ways to get involved!! We’d love to have you on the TEAM!!



Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Team Beachbody Coach

LOVE YOURSELF to where you want to be!!!

I’ve got an IMPORTANT message- this has been coming up A LOT lately.

**I cannot stress enough how important it is to LOVE yourself to where you want to be rather than self-hating/shaming/guilting yourself to where you want to be!** I can PROMISE you that the added stress and pressure and negative emotions that the latter thought process causes is counterproductive to your health and happiness. Loving yourself right where you are does not mean you are throwing in the towel on the healthy changes you want to make- what it DOES mean is that you constantly shower yourself with love and acceptance while still evaluating how you can be kinder to yourself and create healthier habits. The THOUGHT PROCESS must be healthy too in order for it to show up in the physical form! And isn’t it wonderful to know that there’s someone that will ALWAYS be there for you and ALWAYS have your back 100% and will ALWAYS love and accept you know matter what?? Yep, and that person is YOU!! While it’s WONDERFUL to have a loving support system, it is also IMPERATIVE to work on loving and accepting yourself exactly the way you are, right now, at this very minute. Take a moment to APPRECIATE all that your body is doing for you! No matter what you do to it or what you put into it, it is digesting, breathing, keeping your heart beating, moving your eyeballs right now as you read this, and YES, your body is your biggest cheerleader!! LOVE IT BACK!!

Admittedly, this has not been my best summer for healthy habits. Between my birthday, several trips, and normal summer busyness, I’ve indulged quite a bit. But just because I’m working towards getting stronger, improving my endurance, and feeling more health and vitality, does not mean I can’t appreciate this awesome life and self I have right in the here and now!! If you’re struggling with this, think of someone less fortunate than you in their health or life circumstances that would give anything to be where you are. If that helps, start by appreciating your self and your life and your body for them first THEN slowly, over time, move into loving you for your own sake!!

If you base your self-love on how you look or a number on the scale, then your happiness at any given point in time will always be dependent on whether you are or are not at that point. So make the decision NOW that you will love yourself and have your back no matter what!!! It is truly as simple as that… just DECIDE!!! Throw out your cares of what anyone else might think (because anyone who does not love you unconditionally is not worth it anyway!) and know that no matter what, YOU have your back!! YOU ARE WORTH IT!!!!

I did a follow-up to this post that can be found here: http://katelynlesk.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-follow-up-about-self-love-and-weight.html

Healthy systems are more effective than willpower

In my world, willpower alone is not enough (not NEARLY enough) to make healthy choices regularly. My workout motivation has centered around years of gratitude practice for what my body is capable of (literally take a second to picture all the complex mechanisms that are involved in just getting one finger to move!!) and I've created systems to get me moving and keep me accountable (thank you, online challenge groups with my clients). My nutrition is the same way. Relying on willpower alone to make healthy choices or avoid the junk would be setting myself up for failure (that's why I don't do so great at parties or cookouts where the junk food is a temptation for hours on end)! But at home, I have great systems. I literally won't let myself buy junk at the grocery store and I make sure to keep my fridge PACKED with the healthy stuff. So for example, one aspect of this system is to make sure I never miss a farmer's market! So at least I know that every single Tuesday, my fridge is getting restocked with lots of fresh produce. I don't crave junk when I have all this delicious, healthy food keeping me well nourished!

What are some of your systems for good health??

Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach.