Thanksgiving is almost here + I cannot wait!! I haven’t seen my extended family in months [which is so unusual]! My Aunt is an incredible cook + always makes the most delicious Thanksgiving meal. 🙂 I’m already dreaming about turkey, side dishes, and the millions of desserts I intend to inhale. Before diving head first into my plate, I want to take a little time to do something good for my body.

Family pic on Thanksgiving! Circa 2012.
Family pic on Thanksgiving! Circa 2012.

For those who like to indulge during the holiday season, I’m inviting you to try this little prep activity with me.

I wouldn’t say that I lead an unhealthy life, but I know that I could be *much* healthier on a daily basis. For the next seven days, I wanted to make small, attainable goals that I know would leave my body feeling refreshed and ready for the holiday.  Don’t run away just yet! This is not a diet, or a cleanse, or some hardcore exercise challenge, it’s just a little bit of habit adjusting.

My super fit roommate helped me come up with 5 simple, daily tasks to complete this week.

1. Drink more water. Most days, I know that I don’t drink enough. To make it easy, I picked up a 24 pack of water bottles and the goal is to finish the entire thing before Thanksgiving. That’s 3 bottles a day…with 3 extra’s to distribute through the week. If you can drink more, excellent!

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2. Fruits + veggies. Do I eat fruits + vegetables every day? No. Do I know that I should? Obviously. The plan is to eat at least one serving of fruit or vegetables daily. Ideally, as substitutes for the less healthy, carb-loaded, salty, and sweet snacks.

Picked up some apples + carrots. However, I will not give up my ranch dip lol.
I picked up some apples + carrots to start. And no, I will not give up ranch dip lol.

3. No distracted eating. I want to be sure that all meals + snacks are not eaten while watching TV or browsing online.

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Exhibit A. As I’m currently writing this post…

4. No eating after 9:00pm. This always makes such a difference in the way my body looks + feels when I wake up in the morning…even after one day.

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5. Shoot to get 8 hours of sleep per night. Lately, I’ve been staying up way too late. Working, thinking, just wasting time. This week, I am going to make a conscious effort to get to bed a little earlier [maybe at 9:00pm …when I can no longer snack]! 😉

zzzzzz.
Zzzzz.

And that is it! These are definitely manageable changes, and honestly, things we should already be doing .

If you want to give it a try + participate with me, I made a little checklist for the week that you can print out + use to keep track!

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I’m ready to roll, because next Thursday…we feast!

XOXO 

25 comments on “Before You Feast…Refresh | Easy 7 Day Challenge”

  1. Awesome post as always. In fact am definitely going to join you in this one. Am gonna try to drink a lot more water and try to eat more fruits and veggies. Am hoping I can keep up with these wonderful habits.

    • Thank you, Millie! So glad you’re going to join. I think they’re definitely doable, we should all have a high success rate with this challenge. Like you, I hope I can turn these changes into habits too! 🙂 Thank you for reading, I appreciate it! XO

  2. Such great and simple steps! I am terrible at drinking water…. some days I hardly drink one bottle 🙁 I am fairly good with my fruits, veggies… not so much. I love my sleep so that’s an easy one, and I usually don’t eat after dinner anyways. The snacking when watching tv will be a toughy… but I am going to take you up on this challenge! P.S. chobani flips are my FAV! Just ate the key lime one!

    • Thank you! That was the goal – easy, manageable changes. 🙂 I can be so, so bad when it comes to drinking enough water too…and I can honestly just chalk it up to laziness. So glad you’re going to give it a try though! We can all motivate each other. And omg, the flips are INSANE! Key lime is one of my favorites, but I had the salted caramel one for the first time yesterday, and I swear, it was like eating froyo! LOL.

  3. Awesome job as always. We don’t do big Thanksgiving meals any more, and I do most of that stuff (Except the sleeping thing) more often than not, but WE ALL have room for improvement. 🙂 I use to be the water queen, but have been struggling with it lately so I will go with you on the water as far as needing 10-16 c a day or 5-8 16oz bottles a day. 🙂

    • Yay!! Glad you’re playing along! I go through phases too..and like you, I’ve been AWFUL lately! I did get about 4 bottles in today though – so far so good. Hopefully the sleep thing happens! 🙂

  4. So I am totally suppose to be at work right now and saw your post haha!! Just wanted to shoot you a quick comment and say I loved it as always!! Great tips and when I get home I am going to reread them!! Have this post bookmarked haha!! Thanks for always posting amazing content!!

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