DietBet Week 1 Recap + Letting Go of the All-or-Nothing Healthy Living Mentality

Hi friends!

My post title makes this pretty obvious, but I’m currently participating in a DietBet game. I figure that springtime is the perfect time to shed a couple of pounds and tone up. Each week for the next month I’ll be doing a recap of my weekly progress, as well as discussing an important healthy living theme.

So what is DietBet?  

DietBet is a game that emphasizes online community in helping people to lose weight. I’m participating in Jen Widerstrom’s Summer Shake Down – whose The Biggest Loser trainer – which currently has 2,128 players and a pot of $63,840! For this game, all participants bet $30 on themselves that they can lose 4% of their body weight in a month. Everyone that achieves that goal wins the game and gets to split the pot evenly (after an admin percentage is taken out).

Why am I doing a DietBet?

I did a DietBet once before a few years back (<– whoa, old school blog post!), and I enjoyed participating it in back then, so I figured I’d like doing it again. Some of you may be thinking, “Why is a health coach doing a diet challenge?” But the fact of the matter is that health coaches are human too, and we have our own health challenges.

[Enter a delicious looking sweet treat…]

Complete disclosure: Sometimes I make a habit out of drinking wine a few nights a week and eating dessert every other night, and with my metabolism, I just can’t do that without gaining a couple lbs… even though I workout nearly every day, because life isn’t fair my friends! While I’d love to be able to eat a cupcake every day and not have to worry about it giving me lovehandles, that just isn’t my reality. I’m healthy and fit, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t benefit from getting a little strict with myself for a month to lose a few pounds. For me, 5 pounds is the difference between having baby cuts in my abs and not… and right now I want them!

Since I hate losing, DietBet pushes me to stay the course throughout the month. I figure it’s a win-win: I’ll win a few bucks and lose a few pounds!

Week 1 Recap

Totally coincidentally, I had made homemade mac & cheese with broccoli the night before my official weigh-in for the game, so my weight was higher than it had been. Anytime I have a heavy dinner or wine/food filled night, the next day my weight will be 1-2 pounds higher (got to love that, right?!). Because of this, I figured my weight would be down 3-4 pounds when I weighed myself a week later, and that’s exactly what happened.

For me to lose 4% of my body weight, it’s a total of between 5 and 6 pounds, so I’m already 75% of the way to my game goal. Of course I’m focused on winning, but more than that I just want to shed a few pounds of fat and tone up in general, so that’s more of my focus.

As per usual, my week was full of great workouts, including my ClassPass event Core40 workout, a hike, HIIT sessions, yoga and kickboxing. Since I lead a super active lifestyle and that side of things doesn’t fluctuate, my sole focus is on keeping my diet clean and my calories down – while still ensuring that I’m fueling my body properly for my workouts and workout recovery. The gist of it is that I’m watching my portions, drinking less alcohol and eating less sweets. Basically I’m eating the same diet I normally do, but just a bit less than usual and I’m upping my nutrition game.

I would never completely rule out things like sweets and wine (unless I was doing some sort of cleanse) because I’m all about moderation… and after all, I’m a foodie and wino! While the vast majority of what I’m eating is nutritionally sound and nourishing, I’m also giving myself room to indulge in things on occasion. Speaking of moderation, moving onto my…

Healthy Living Theme of the Week! 

This week I want to talk about healthy living not having to equate to an all-or-nothing mentality. In fact, that extreme mentality is what gets people who are trying to make a big healthy lifestyle change right back to where they started in going back to bad habits, gaining weight back and generally being unhealthy. In being healthy for the long haul, it’s all about the lifestyle, not a quick fix.

Fit a workout in today but ate too many fries at dinner? 

Had a cold all week and haven’t moved much, but you’ve stuck to your healthy diet? 

No worries! Being less than perfect in one aspect of your life doesn’t mean you should give up on the others for that day, week or month. Focus on the healthy things you did do right, give yourself a break and move on. It’s all about personal improvement and trying to be the best version of you, not being perfect.  

To that point, I’ll share with you a recent personal example:

When I was in Las Vegas for work a few weeks ago, this was one of my days: I woke up early to fit in a workout in my hotel room, then had a healthy breakfast of fruit, yogurt and Kashi cereal with my co-workers.

I walked probably a good 6-8 miles working all day at the convention center. For lunch, I found pretty much the only healthy option available: the salad bar, which I ate every day that week. I also drank a ton of water throughout the day, and had a protein bar as a snack a bunch of hours later.

After a long day, I made my way back to my hotel room. With no dinner plans and not feeling like venturing back out to find food, I ordered room service. The room service menu had very little vegetarian options and nearly nothing healthy, and I totally splurged. I ordered a cheese quesadilla, which really wasn’t great but I was hungry enough to eat it, and a piece of chocolate cake because I felt like eating dessert.

Was that a healthy meal? Definitely not. But did it negate all of the other healthy choices I had made that day? Definitely not. And what did I do the next morning? Woke up early to get a yoga session in before I had to start work for the day.

And so, my point here is that it really doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You can make choices that are great for your health every single day, but there will also be times, at least here and there, when you have the cake, skip the workout, slack on sleep, or whatever it may be..and that is okay. That’s life, and healthy living is all about moderation. We all are human, and all that matters is that you’re striving to be the healthiest you that you can be in a balanced, sustainable way.

Tell me… What healthy choices have you made today? Have you ever participated in a DietBet?

PS – If you’re looking for support in adapting a healthier lifestyle and losing weight, check out my health coaching page. I’d love to further chat about your goals and how I can help you achieve them!