Les Mills 21-day Nutrition Challenge

Les Mills, the genius people behind my beloved Grit, has a 21 day challenge which basically involves going squeaky clean, low-carb paleo (with the addition of a post-workout shake) for 21 days.

I’ve been thinking of doing a Whole 30 or similar lately & when this was raised at Gritshed, I thought it would be an ideal way to reduce the number of sweet potatoes I was ploughing through & have a break from my nightly dark chocolate anti-oxidant habit.

Normal paleo rules are in play but there’s also guidelines around portion sizes and timing of meals, as well as reducing your starchy carb intake.

Here’s the lowdown from Les Mills food dude Corey Baird:

So who’s with me?

I’m kicking this off on Wednesday March 19th & will be rolling through until Wednesday April 9th. For those clever cats playing at home, yep, that’s 22 days. Why is that? Well, it’s our anniversary in early April & we have a deluxe dinner booked at our favourite local restaurant Subo. While they do the most deliciously delicate meals of mostly locally sourced ingredients, I’m not missing out on a decadent feast due to possible traces of starchy carbs.

That’s my declaration of my only off-the-plan meal. I’m making the choice here to indulge in something I’m planning & totally looking forward to. This is vastly different to chowing into a block of chocolate at 9pm, or devouring a parcel of hot chips for a lazy dinner. And this is the secret to staying on the clean-eating bandwagon.

We’ve all had our slip-ups, felt like crap & ate our feelings.

The difference we want to develop with this challenge & with eating going forward is that you can & will be able to make a choice about everything that goes into your mouth. This isn’t about being hyper-aware of calories or ‘bad foods’, it’s about making choices. If you genuinely want that piece of chocolate, or that 7-course degustation in my case, & it is a choice you are consciously making, get in there & don’t feel guilty, enjoy it!

If you do fall victim to a carbalicious convenience food or a stray pile of deep fried business, get over it & get straight back on with cleaning up your act ahead of your next meal.

Don’t wait for the next day. Don’t wait for the next week. Don’t give up. 

Until launch day, I’m going to be posting a bunch of tips & bits to help you prepare for the challenge. Preparation is a big part of eating this way & even though it might seem like a load of work to start off with, you’ll get used to it pretty quickly & find the best way to make it work for you.

Once things are underway, I’ll still be posting regularly both here & via Instagram to share my experiences & delicious discoveries.

Let’s change the game.