As most of you know, we recently concluded a 30 day nutrition challenge. We typically conduct these challenges every six months or so and each time we try to tweak the process so that we can give the best service possible.
The challenge started with a presentation on nutrition where critical information and rules were covered along with taking before photos and an initial weigh-in.
This time around we used The Whole 30 as our template for the challenge which specifically asks participants to rule out food groups/types such as added sugar, grains, dairy, legumes, alcohol and more for 30 days before progressively re-introducing these food types in order to accurately measure any negative that may come with them.
We chose to use The Whole 30 as Marie and I have had personal experience with this approach and know it to be successful (when adhered to) along with the added benefit of a plethora of information available on the net for participants to fall back on.
Accountability: Once we got going with the challenge, each week participants were asked to provide us with photos of at least 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 2 dinners along with filling out a questionnaire that covered things like energy levels, feeling of satiety, sticking to the rules etc. We used the combination of being able to see their meals through the photos provided as well as the answers to their weekly questionnaire to provide feedback and improvements (where necessary).
Most people were very detailed and diligent with their responses which made the feedback process much easier for us.
Results: Overall we were very happy with the commitment level of the participants this time around and like anything in life the people who put in the most got the most back.
It is important to understand that the benefits of a process like this extend far beyond simply a number on the scales (the rules of the challenge specifically forbid participants from weighing themselves throughout the 30 days) and while the people who lost the most body fat typically get the most hype it is more important to consider the the long term health and fitness implications of improving one’s nutrition.
Of course everyone is still interested in that number on the scales and we saw as much as 7kg lost from one individual and 100% of participants (who finished the 30 days) lost weight on the scales in varying amounts.
Where to from here? We feel confident that everyone who did the challenge has had a significant reset to their standards on nutrition and we hope and strongly suggest that they use this momentum to carry these practices into the future.
The big thing is that no matter how much knowledge you have on nutrition, or how good you think your nutrition is, or whether you have done a challenge before, the accountability afforded through a process like this is what makes it worth doing.
Most of our participants were well aware of what foods are to be avoided before they even started the challenge but by knowing that their food would be seen and that questions would be asked, they all made a much bigger effort than they would normally.
We will be conducing another challenge mid year and we really hope to see many more people involved especially after seeing some of the outstanding results from this time around.
Chris.
