It’s here! For some of us it took a lifetime, for others it flew by. One thing is for sure – whether your goals were met 100% or not, you should absolutely applaud yourself for doing the challenge and taking that first step toward a healthier lifestyle. So take a moment and pat yourself on the back. Next, it’s time to email Barry. By now you should all have received the final email from him asking you to reflect on a few points from the challenge. Take this time to really be honest with yourself and learn from your self discoveries. You can really tell who was successful with this by looking around the gym. There are a LOT of people ending this challenge looking and feeling different. It’s as if they have an extra bounce in their step! It’s very cool to see. We can tell everyone this lifestyle works but until you try it for yourself and really reap the benefits it often times doesn’t 100% sink in. So again, congrats to you all especially those who stuck to it 100%. We faced A LOT of “life” hurdles with all the snow and power outages. That was an unexpected curve ball, but that’s life and we have to learn how to deal with situations like that. So really, it was perfect timing for all that to go down.

One ongoing theme throughout this challenge has always been “preparation.” We prepared by simplifying our life before the challenge and cleaned out the kitchen. We prepared prior to starting also by reading up on Paleo, researching what was in and what was out regarding food choices. During the challenge, we prepared each week by prepping food and making meals to eat throughout the week. Now it’s time to take another important step along the same lines. We need to PREPARE to enter into a world with no challenge boundaries. We need to prepare for life after the challenge. It will look different for all of us, but needs to continue tracking forward, not backward.

We have already talked to many people who are going to continue another 30 days. The deposit is staying locked away in our office for you to go strong another month. I love this, however, that is not a necessary step. Remember though how you feel now vs. before you started. You’ve come too far to revert back to that old you. Figure out how this lifestyle will work into your life for the long run and go with it. Going back now will only undo all that was accomplished in the last 30 days.

So email us, let us know how you did. If you have any questions or want to talk through an ongoing plan with us, just let us know. Stay connected with this lifestyle by continuing to go to websites, read blogs, try new recipes. The further from it you get, the more likely you are to fall off the wagon. Blogs we love are:
Marks Daily Apple
The Whole9 Life
Robb Wolf podcasts and website
All the great blogs with recipes…. too many to list, but you know what they are at this point.

Best of luck to all of you…. stay in touch!
~Barry and Jocelyn