Whole Life Challenge: Wrapping It Up

Well, 56 days of the Whole Life Challenge have come and gone.  I almost feel SAD that it's over!  It was a great community-building experience with my colleagues.  And I learned a ton about myself and my eating habits.

1.  I learned how much crap I was eating.  I knew I ate lots of bad stuff, but it's always eye opening when you have to really stop and keep track and make yourself accountable for every single bite that you put in your mouth.
2. I discovered many new recipes and substitutes. I found out that I don't like my buffalo chicken recipe much anymore because it's too salty.  It tasted awful to me that last time I made it!  I also discovered I don't need to eat chocolate at 3pm every day to get rid of my sweet tooth.  Dates and nuts work just as well.  I now make muffins and cookies without ANY sugar and enjoy them--I look forward to using honey as a sweetener now that I'm off this diet, but I will use it sparingly.  I crave kale chips on a regular basis, eat quinoa salad once a week (and would eat it more if Carlos would go for it), and even made my own healthy, preservative-free falafel patties one day.  And they were good.
3. I am so much more flexible than I was, thanks to just doing 10 minutes of stretching a day.
4. I feel stronger.  I can do many more push-ups now than when I started. 
5. I feel better and am more productive at work in the afternoon if I have the time to go for a brisk walk at lunch time with my colleagues.
6. Meditation isn't so bad.  I enjoyed the Headspace app I downloaded. (Check it out!)
7. I do miss bread and pasta and sugar, but not as much as I thought I would.  I think what I missed most is cream in my coffee (even though I now like black coffee), cheese, and honey.

My clothes don't necessarily fit much better--they are still tighter than I would have hoped or imagined after cutting all this crap out of my diet for 2 months.  But I will re-measure my hips and waist this weekend and see if I've lost any inches.  I'm curious.

I will seriously consider doing the challenge again in the future, maybe as soon as May or at least next year during the same time period so that I can reset after a long fall of work and a string of holiday over-indulging.  But truly, my hope is I won't NEED to participate again because the changes will stick over time.  I never thought I'd feel sad that this would end.  But I do, and the reality is, it doesn't have to end today.  That's a nice feeling.