Challenge Description: Simply put, to eat mainly a pescatarian diet. High-level this means no red or white meat. This was my January challenge and I decided to extend it to February and March as well.
Pescetarian diet plan ingredients, healthy balanced grocery food, fresh fruit, berries, fish and shellfish clams, black stone concrete background copy space
Motivation: I would eventually like to transition into a plant-based diet, but last time I went cold turkey and just tried to plant-based, I failed. My hope is to use the next few challenges to transition into a full-time plant-based diet. This is the 1st pass. The next pass will be vegetarian, then vegan, then plant-based with an emphasis on an Alkaline Diet.
The why is always more important than the what. My why for wanting to eat an Alkaline plant-based diet is my understanding of this form of eating helping in disease prevention.
“Let thy food by thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” –Imhotep
Expectations: Last months I did consume other meats besides seafood so my grade went down compared to January. I am reinvigorating my efforts to consume seafood only if I have a craving for meat. My overall goal is to transition to an all plant-based diet and I’m taking small steps to achieve this so another month of a pescatarian diet. Wish me luck!
Challenge Description: Simply put, to eat mainly a pescatarian diet. High-level this means no red or white meat. This was my January challenge and I decided to extend it to February and March as well.
A healthy pescatarian diet
Motivation: I would eventually like to transition into a plant-based diet, but last time I went cold turkey and just tried to plant-based, I failed. My hope is to use the next few challenges to transition into a full-time plant-based diet. This is the 1st pass. The next pass will be vegetarian, then vegan, then plant-based with an emphasis on an Alkaline Diet.
The why is always more important than the what. My why for wanting to eat an Alkaline plant-based diet is my understanding of this form of eating helping in disease prevention.
“Let thy food by thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” –Imhotep
Expectations: I’m still in Panama City, Panama and the seafood here is wonderful! I admit there is a lot of fresh fruits, but a meal is mostly composed of meat, a heavy card, and a small salad. I’m hoping to eat seafood + vegetables or carbs + vegetables to avoid mixing meat/cards so that it’s easier for my body to breakdown and eliminate food waste in a more efficient manner
Grade: B+
Reflection: My grade went down this month because I did indulge in eating chicken and even beef a few days this month. Honestly is was probably only a cumulative of 5 days, but my goal is to stick to the goal! I’m giving myself some grace. I’ve been eating meat for over 35 years so cravings will happen. This is why I am doing a few extra months on the pescatarian diet as I transition into a plant-based diet. Small steps.
Challenge Description: Simply put, to eat mainly a pescatarian diet. High-level this means no red or white meat. Also a change in my challenges is to report any weight gain/loss since I am still on my journey to lose 50 lbs by Fall 2023 Cardio and weight training is not included in this challenge, but I will engage in this activity as well.
Motivation: I would eventually like to transition into a plant-based diet, but last time I went cold turkey and just tried to plant-based, I failed. My hope is to use the next few challenges to transition into a full-time plant-based diet. This is the 1st pass. The next pass will be vegetarian, then vegan, then plant-based with an emphasis on an Alkaline Diet.
The why is always more important than the what. My why for wanting to eat an Alkaline plant-based diet is my understanding of this form of eating helping in disease prevention.
“Let thy food by thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” –Imhotep
Expectations: I’m moving to Panama for 6-months. Every time I leave the United States and traveled to another country, I find it is much easier to access fresh fruits and vegetables. I hope this move will work in my favor. On the other side, moving is difficult and I admit this can lead to me eating poorly sometimes.
Grade: A
Reflection: I recently moved to Panama City, Panama and seafood is plentiful. When I get a craving for meat I usually eat shrimp or fish. Otherwise there are plenty of delicious fresh fruits and vegetables here. I think I will extend this challenge to Feb and March.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Trying to lose 50 lbs by September 2023 which puts me on the path to losing 1 lb/week. I did lose 5 lbs in November so I’m on track. I understand tracking weight isn’t the best metric (you can gain muscle, be blotted with excessive water, + and – 3 lbs, etc etc) so I’m not obsessing over weight, just monitoring it. I did lose 10 lbs and then gained back 5 lbs after a bout of pneumonia in November so things happen. I’m going to keep pressing on my journey.
Ok on to the challenge…
Challenge Description: No Sugar, No Alcohol and Only Home-Cooked Meals. During the holiday season you say? Yep! That’s why it’s a challenge! From November’s post you can see I have the exercising thing down, but with food, let me just put it here: I’m an addict. I need to get my eating under control and build better habits. Christmas Eve and all the traveling over the holidays will be there to temp me. On the bright side, I do have 2-weeks off during the December month giving me the opportunity to cook more at home.
I put no sugar, no alcohol, and no eating-out all in one challenge because 1) I couldn’t decide between them for the December challenge, 2). These are some my worst eating habits and I want to start the process in conquering them.
Motivation: The “why” is always clear to me in most of these challenges. I don’t just want to be fit and healthy, but also I want to exhibit good habits for my family and children. I believe in generational health. I grew up learning very unhealthy habits and I don’t want impose the same on my children. I’m here to break the generational curse of unhealthy living. Ok that previous statement was negative, better put: I’m here to set an example of generational health and longevity for generations to come.
Expectations: I actually don’t think this challenge will be too bad for me even with the holiday season. We’re actually moving soon so we won’t have a lot of time to engage in as many holiday festivities. Our biggest holiday party is my family’s gathering on Christmas Eve where my aunt makes this amazing banana pudding! I’ll probably lose points for eating that. I just want to set realistic expectations upfront. While we’re traveling I’m going to be pro-active about packing road snacks and meals so we can avoid eating out. I’ll work with my family to plan meals that they’ll be comfortable eating on the road. I think I can do this!
Grade: F
Outcome: I just didn’t do well on this challenge. I would blame the holidays, but no I keep eating sugar outside of the holidays. Sugar is in everything! I would eat a sweet and thing “Well I failed this challenge.” I did however cut down on alcohol. I only drank a few cocktails during Christmas Eve.
Next Steps: Just on to my next challenge, but I do want to see in January if I can minimize my sugar intake,
I was 34 and I was traveling with my mother and two small children ages 4 and 1. Needless to say, I was nervous. I’ve traveled internationally growing up, beginning when I was five years old. When I was younger, all the responsibility of trip planning and keeping us safe fell on my parents. Now the tables were turned. I was responsible for taking my two young children on their 1st international trip. Challenge accepted!
My 1st piece of advice: embrace fear, anxiety, and nerves. It’s natural. Just don’t give into it. Travel with the kiddos despite all that! You won’t regret it.
Our 1st international trip was to France, Monoco (the 2nd smallest country in the world), and Italy. Oh yes and we did this 3-country trip in one day. We went to celebrate my youngest daughter Elle’s 1st birthday. The budget for this trip was comparable to the 1st birthday celebration we threw for my 1st daughter’s birthday party (for those of you wondering about cost).
5 Top Highlights of the Trip
1. The Flight
This was the part of the journey that I feared the most. I empathize with parents whose children cry on planes. On the other hand, I didn’t ever want to be that parent. I honestly have this weird distaste for bothering/inconveniencing people (well I did then). I hoped and prayed for a peaceful flight with no or minimal tantrums and crying.
My oldest daughter, Sydney (4 at the time) was an amazing traveler. We took her on her 1st plane ride at 2 weeks old. We took her on a lot of national trips. I don’t think I can remember her crying once on a plane. I was always so proud when people would mention how well-behaved she was. Note, I am writing this post 3 years later and I cringe at how emotionally dependent I was on others’ opinions of me and my children. No más!
Anyway…
I just knew I was killing this mother and traveling with her children thing. Wrong! My youngest Elle (1 at the time) came along and gave me a run for my money. We took her on her 1st flight at 3 months and she was my crier. I would breastfeed her and that would calm her down, but she was a piece of work.
This trip was different. She was 1 y/o and I was no longer breastfeeding. We had a few tantrums and fussiness on the flights to France, and she cried the entire flight during the last leg of the flight home (1 hour from Chicago to Dayton). Also, it probably wasn’t the fussiness as much as the neediness that annoyed me. I could give Syndey a tablet, movie, or coloring activity and I could sleep on most of the flight. Elle always wanted something so I spent a lot of time entertaining and feeding her.
Well, it happened. My worst nightmare of the fussy kid on the plane was realized and you know what…
…being on the other side, it wasn’t as scary as I imagined. I had so much support from my Mom, the flight attendants, and even other passengers that there was some relief and few breaks. Plus I kind of miss showering her with so much attention. She completely ignores me on flights now.
Elle’s face is very telling
2. A Rough Start – Saved by a 4 yr/old
On our way from the airport to our AirBNB I was chatting with the taxi driver. My 4 y/o kept saying, “what is your name? what is your name?” (asking the taxi driver). Finally I turned to her and told her to say “Comment t’applle tu” because we were in a place where they spoke French and that’s how you ask somebody their name. So she did and the taxi driver replied with this name.
Fast forward, my mother left her phone in that taxi. She noticed it when we arrived to the AirBNB. Without her phone she couldn’t contact the AirBNB host (and I didn’t have this information in phone or email either). We agreed we should get into the AirBNB and worry about her phone after. I suggested we find a cafe with internet and she could use my phone/computer to contact the host. No luck there since none of the restaurants/cafes nearby had WiFi.
Next I suggested we take a taxi back to airport to get access to the WiFi and contact the host from there.
So we found a taxi and headed back to the airport. On our way there I was venting to the taxi driver(in French) about our misfortunes with the phone and AirBNB. He started asking questions about what the taxi looked like. My. mother described the outside. When we arrived to the airport, instead of taking us to the arrivals, he took us to where all the taxis were waiting. He knew what the outside looked like, but there were several silver taxis. Finally he said, “you wouldn’t happen to know the name of your taxi driver?” Then we remembered my 4 year old asked his name and we recounted it. We told him the name started a inquiring about this guy. He was found, and the phone was returned.
Saved by a inquisitive 4 year old!
3. Trip to Monaco
The best part was the gelato! Otherwise we just wanted to add another country to our count. Plus Monaco is the 2nd smallest country in the world. The only one smaller is the Vatican.
4. Trip to Sanremo, Italy, and Pizza!
My daughter’s face captures everything about how amazing this pizza was! That’s it…Italy…pizza!
5. Trip to Cannes, France
Beautiful beaches and spending time with my favorite ladies!
Before I discuss this challenge I just want to officially announce that I am on a weight loss journey to lose 50 lbs by September 2023 which puts me on the path to losing 1 lb/week. Overall I would like to get down to a healthy weight of 150 lbs and maintain that from now on. Ok now to the challenge!
Challenge Description: The goal is to engage in workouts 7 days a week for an entire month. These workouts will include but are not limited to Zumba, HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training), weight lifting, and running. I will aim to do 45 min – 1-hour workout sessions and come days do two workout sessions (time permitting).
Motivation: Well this is a good starting point for my weight loss journey (building up good fitness habits).
Expectations: I expect this challenge to be relatively straightforward. This is a November challenge so I know I’ll be traveling for the holidays. During the November holiday, we eat and drink a lot so another part of this challenge is to continue to workout even when I’m traveling. I’ve even asked my family if I could do a kid’s and adult Zumba and a short HIIT class with them. Even if nobody joins, I’ll still have the class and this will be a great way for me to continue to exercise.
Grade: A+
Outcome: Oh yes! I killed this challenge! I woke up every weekday at 5:00am and attended a 45min long Tabata class on MWF and a 1 hour boxing class on TTh. Even after the classes I still had so much energy that I practiced new choreos for my Zumba class. I even posted short videos of new choreos on my Zumba With NiaTikTok, FB, and Insta accounts. This move put a lot more eyes on my Zumba instructor business. Double win! Plus I still taught 1-hr Zumba classes TTh so on some days I worked out 2+ hours.
Also on Saturday and Sunday, I did a mix of rigorous workout and fun-n-lite. On most Saturdays I went to the Pushing Limits HIIT workout at 6am in morning. Now that is an intense workout, but I always left feeling like I accomplished so much. If I couldn’t make this workout, I tried to do something active with my family such as hiking or going roller skating with my daughters.
Oh and there’s more. So I did indeed host a Zumba class for my family the day after Thanksgiving. A few of my family members already had YMCA memberships and for the others I had free passes and/or just offered to pay. The staff at the J. Smith Young YMCA in Lexington, NC were so generous and helpful. They allowed us to use the YMCA free of charge (with signed waivers) and gave us access to one of their fitness rooms. The children went to play basketball, the men did weight training, and I hosted a Zumba class for the ladies. It was awesome and it’s a new day-after-Thanksgiving family tradition!
Overall I think working out is my new normal. I honestly don’t mind getting up early in the morning. Even on the days that I do struggle to get up and get in a good workout, I always think to how wonderful I feel after a workout: energized and ready to face the day!
Next Steps: Like I said, it’s my new normal, so I’m going to keep it up. I think I realize that I just need to move and diversifying my workouts has kept it new and exciting. I’ll try new classes and activities and try to move everyday.
So I want to give myself as much advantage for success as possible. When I was thinking about this challenge, I wanted to keep in mind that I will be traveling for work for one week this month. I know myself. I know that when I travel for work I eat the worse and work out the least. I think I can manage this challenge even while traveling.
Challenge Description: Make 80% of each meal a fruit or vegetable. For example, a sample meal day could be:
Breakfast: Fruit smooth (80%+ fruit)
Snack: Fruit
Lunch: Avocado sandwich and carrots (80%+ vegetables)
Snack: Celery sticks
Dinner: Chicken, mixed vegetables, and salad (80%+ vegetables)
That’s it. During every meal try to optimize the number of fruits and vegetables I consume each day. This challenge is exciting. Last month I tried my hand at several vegetable dishes and morning smoothies. I have a few favorites and I look forward to trying more!
Motivation: After reading the book Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, I was impressed by the simplicity of some of the ideas. I wasn’t looking for a diet, I was looking for a way of life. I admit I tried practicing the principles in the book and could only last about a week or two. I figured I would work through these principles one at a time. One of the principles is making each meal 80% fruits or vegetables. I hope the audience notices that since September each of the challenges I related to one of the Fit for Life principles. I love these principles and I think I need to integrate them into my life slowly.
Expectations: My expectation is that my body may go through a bit of a detox phase. I usually consume a lot of processed foods along with meats and carbs. I think consuming more fruits and vegetables will throw my body into a bit of chaos before it gets used to the idea of me putting better foods into it. I believe that by the end of this month I will have a lot more energy and mobility. Wish me luck!
Grade: C
Outcome: I think I received an F on this challenge last time so this is actually progress. Remember I’m trying to undo years of certain health/eating/fitness habits. I’m giving myself a C because I consistently had a smoothie each morning. Additionally, most of my meals consisted of a vegetable, but they didn’t occupy 80% of the plate. Another thing I started doing during this challenge and HIIT, weight lifting, and cardio workouts. I noticed the lighter I eat (i.e. more vegetables than protein/carbs), but easier the workout.
Next Steps: These results were encouraging so I’m going to continue to drink morning smoothies and have fruit in the morning. Additionally, I will continue to be very intentional about having 80% of my plate as vegetables.
Well here I am. Back again and working on habit development. I remember about 20 years ago, I just declared that I was only going to drink water. So I started drinking water…ordering it at restaurants….keeping water bottles on me….and now I look up and that’s what I drink….water. My children drink water also, mainly because I realized early on that any other drink led to potty accidents.
As I work to develop healthier habits and make better decisions about my food and fitness, I reflect on how this small declaration resulted in a life-long change. I’m trying to figure out how to recapture that. My hope is that these 30-day challenges will help me in this endeavor: small changes over longer periods of times resulting in life-long habits.
Challenge Description: Do not eat after 8-pm. That’s it. For those who have read my blog, you probably remember this challenge. I did it about a year ago. I failed it. I attributed the failure to:
“…, stresses of work and everyday life. Either I have to mitigate these stresses or find ways to avoid eating despite them.”
It’s a year later and I am actively working on strategies to mitigate the stresses of work and everyday life through self-care and “being present” behaviors. I look forward to working through this challenge again. I am much more confident in being successful.
Motivation: After reading the book Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, I was impressed by the simplicity of some of the ideas. I wasn’t looking for a diet, I was looking for a way of life. I admit I tried practicing the principles in the book and could only last about a week or two. I figured I would work through these principles one at a time. One of the principles is allowing you body to rest and digest all the food of the day especially since in the night your body is at rest and working the least.
This idea was reinvigorated during a podcast episode I heard the episode: Inside The Vault: How to Take Control of Your Health and Create an Abundance of Wealth with T-Walk the Hawk. T-Walk talked about what your body needs to do to heal itself. In the interview the host Ash Cash asked T-Walk how could people get started. He said just start one month at a time, month one eliminate one bad habit and then the next month eliminate another (I’m paraphrasing of course). Overall the message I took away is, all my good efforts will be negated if I don’t start taking away some of my bad habits, one month at a time.
Other motivation is that when I eat late, I usually wake up feel “drunk”. I will monitor my energy levels in the morning as time goes on to see if this method gives me more energy in the morning.
Expectations: My expectation is that I will have more energy in the morning and that if I successfully complete this challenge, it will set me up to overcome one of the greatest challenges I’m working to overcome, late-night stress eating.
Grade: C
Outcome: It’s an improvement from the F I received the last time I tried this challenge. Breaking habits takes time and I’m happy to try these challenges to start the process. Overall I had a few slip ups. Some nights I ate closer to 9 and 10pm, but overall I was able to maintain pre-8pm meals. The nights I was able to adhere to the challenge rules, I felt so much better in the morning and had a lot more energy. During these challenges I won’t be stepping on the scale, but rather monitoring and tracking how I feel and how my body reacts to these new habits.
Next Steps: I’m going to keep going with this one as I continue to add new challenges to my repertoire.
Challenge Description: The true goal here is habit building. For me, habit-building centers around three high-level dimensions: mind, body, and soul. For the next 6 months, I will focus on my body. I know that these dimensions depend on one another and work together, but I believe that improving my body will give me the energy and mental capacity to next work towards better mind and soul habits.
Motivation: I have built up a lot of bad habits related to food and exercise over the years. I don’t blame anything or anyone, yet acknowledge I need to engage in activities that will put my body in the optimal state of operation. I would also like to ensure my body gives me the energy I need to spend time with family, contribute to my community, and engage in activities that bring me happiness. Finally, I would like to pass on healthy habits to my children and future generations.
Expectation: I know the Challenge Description and Motivation are a bit vague and high level, but overall I’m going to re-do the 30-Day Vegan Challenge and 30-Day Strength Training Challenge for the next 6-months. I expect that I will want a slice of pizza or a bowl of ice cream from time to time, but overall I will try to stick to a strict vegan diet. Additionally, I will try to find time (even if I am having trouble getting up at 4:30am) to strength train 5 daysa week. Again the goal is habit building and setbacks are a part of that journey. I start Feb 1 and will rep ort at the end of every month.
Feb 2022: Throughout February I am slowly building up better habits. It’s a process. I easily fall back into my old ways so I have to continuously keep the goal of habit building at the forefront of my goals. As per the two challenges for these 6-months, instead of engaging in a strict vegan diet, I engaged in mostly a vegetarian/pescatarian ( just shrimp) diet. When I am able to eat strictly vegan dishes I do (i.e. hummus, pita bread, and veggies). I think for now engaging in a vegetarian diet will get me closer to a vegan diet, but I am not there yet. As for the 30-Day Strength Training Challenge, I think I was able to engage in this challenge about 60% of the time. The most difficult part of the challenge was waking up at 4:30am so I could get to the gym at 5pm and work out. I think to improve on this challenge, I should find other times to strength train. In February I relied strictly on waking up at 4:30am to get to the gym at 5am for an early morning workout. This always felt great, even though waking up this early was extremely challenging. Well on nights I stayed up too late (for whatever reason), waking up this early didn’t pan out. For March I will try two things to improve on these challenges: 1) Try to eat about 75% vegan dishes 2) Increase the amount of strength training time by using additional times (i.e. noon or evening times). Additionally (and this is not a part of either challenge) I am using the Lose It app to track my calories. This helps me avoid overeating. Even as a vegetarian it’s easy to overeat and gain weight so I just wanted to avoid that. The focus is still on building up those two key habits.
March 2022: I mostly stuck to a pescatarian diet, eating before 8pm, and doing 2 hours/ week workout.
April 2022: Same as the previous month. I think I ate chicken a few times, but nothing big. I’m still a Zumba instructor so I workout 2 hours per week. I’m actually really glad I can say I consistently workout, that’s not as easy as I thought. Especially when I’m not feeling motivated to work out teaching is something I feel obligated to do since I don’t want to let down my students. I suspect one of the reasons I haven’t lost any weight is because of my eating and I haven’t gained any weight because I workout. I know on this blog I don’t post pictures or really show progress and I think that is an issue. I hope I don’t disappoint by cutting this 6-month challenge short and starting clean for the summer. See next post…
Score: F
Outcome: Well I didn’t complete the challenge. Better luck next time and hopefully accountability will keep me on task.
Challenge Description: For the first month of the new year I will engage in activities associated with select principles of Natural Hygiene. Overall Natural Hygience is a very large body of literature, but the general principle is naturally eliminating toxins from your body by eating at the right time, properly combining foods, and eating more water-based foods. I will focus specifically on sticking to the following principles:
Timing: Eating fruit between 4am-12pm ; Eating properly combined meals between 12pm-8pm.
Properly Combined Meals: Not combining fruit with anything. Combining vegetables (water-based) with non-meat concentrated foods. Since I want to continue on my vegan journey the main thing here is not to combine fruits with anything and eat them in the morning.
Water-based foods: Our body is 70-80% water so I would like my plate to reflect this. I will try to make all my 12pm-8pm plates 80% water-based (veggies)
Motivation: After reading the book Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, I was impressed by the simplicity of some of the ideas. I wasn’t looking for a diet, I was looking for a way of life. I admit I tried practicing the principles in the book and could only last about a week or two. I figured trying it for 30-days may help in developing better eating habits even if I don’t stick to it after the challenge.
Expectations: I expect this to be challenging for a few reasons. It’s January so I’ll be coming off a few weeks of unhealthy habits. I’ve tried this before and I wasn’t successfully after a week. I remember being very hungry. I know stress is a key part of why I have such bad eating habits and I’m still working on de-stressing activities. That may be my next challenge
Grade: F
Outcome: I didn’t do any of this. It’s cold. I’ve been depressed. I’ve engaged in excessive eating, little physical activity, and overall just being really down on myself. This too will pass, but honestly I did nothing in this challenge except reflect on how much I was failing it. Giving myself a little bit of grace, I was able to avoid eating flesh-based meat this month. I started back eating dairy and seafood (mainly shrimp). Last month I was vegan, doing cardio at least 2 hrs/week, and doing strength training 5 hours/week. This month I introduced new foods back into my diet and did on average about cardio 2 hrs/wk. Introducing these foods back into my diet and not working out as regularly as I did last month reduced my energy levels.
I am happy that my teaching Zumba still allows me to workout regularly. I just want to be honest about this month’s journey. It wasn’t what I expected (mainly because I’m comparing it to last month), but I appreciate this space to be open about it.
Next Steps: It’s been a hard month. I may be a little too hard on myself because last months I was doing such a great job health wise and I feel like this month I just dropped off. Additionally mentally and spiritually I just haven’t felt my best. Next month I’m going to try to re-do two previous challenges. One challenge focuses on eating, the other on physical activity. Additionally I want to try a little experiment. Work with me here. I would like to increase the timing for which I engage in these challenges. I don’t know if 30 days is enough for me to form good habits. It took my years to develop bad habits. I imagine it will take a bit of time to break them and focus on habit development. I think I need more time to achieve this.
Nia Peters 