I knew my latest 24 Day Challenge was going to be different when, as I was falling asleep at the end of Day 1, I realized I didn’t take the before photos. I did the before measurements, but not the photos. Oops #1.

It would not be the last Oops of this challenge. If you’ve been following my health journey the past year, you know that typically, I lose about 6 pounds over 24 days of eating clean, avoiding processed foods, exercising and taking supplements. You also know that I don’t even take all the supplements suggested by the plan. Since I take synthroid every morning to boost my thyroid gland, I don’t take the thermogenics in the package (in fact, I order my items separately vs. the pre-packaged set)… I don’t need even more tweaking of my gland, thank you very much!

This time around, I lost 3.7 lbs. And I’m pretty darn happy about it.

Why, you ask? (After all, it’s not what I thought I would do!) A few reasons:

• First, I figure if I wasn’t journaling what I ate during this time, and trying to eat clean for the most part, I likely would have GAINED at least 3 pounds or more.
• 3.7 lbs loss over 24 days is about a pound a week. It’s well known that anywhere from .5 to 2 lbs a week loss is healthy.
• I didn’t entirely stick to the plan. There were days I was at an event and allowed myself a glass of wine. There were meals I was served where I didn’t have much choice in the food, so I had to eat white bread or other no-no items for the challenge. And Friday the 13th was just a really stressful day, so there was wine and fried fish that night. And I got right back on track the next day.

I share all this because I know I’ve had other friends do this challenge, or similar challenges, and maybe your results weren’t what you had hoped they would be. But, progress is progress, and I feel learning something through it is the true goal, not the number on the scale. I was reminded journaling keeps me accountable, and going far over the calorie count I’m supposed to attain definitely affects me.

Most importantly, I learned that truly, I should try and stick to this level of eating clean and exercising as much as I can, whether I’m on an official challenge or not. Just like a muscle that weakens without use, nutritional balance can easily go out the window and is trick to get back on course.

So, who’s ready to challenge themselves to a healthier LIFEstyle?