21-Day Eat Clean & Light Challenge: From Awareness to Action
Transform your relationship with food by focusing on clean choices & mindful portions
Welcome to our 2nd challenge of the year. You can find our previous one here.
1️⃣ Awareness
In our modern food environment, we're constantly bombarded with processed foods, hidden sugars, and marketing, making it increasingly difficult to maintain a healthy relationship with nutrition.
From gas stations to office supply stores, we're surrounded by ultra-processed foods that provide empty calories while lacking the essential nutrients our bodies need to thrive.
The solution lies in understanding and implementing two fundamental principles: eating clean and eating light.
Clean eating focuses on choosing foods closest to their natural state, avoiding hidden sugars, processed flours, and harmful oils.
Eating light means consuming appropriate portions and calories for our needs, recognizing that many require far fewer calories than we typically consume.
These principles form a powerful framework for transforming our nutrition and overall health.
2️⃣ Intention
The 21-Day Eat Clean & Light Challenge focuses on gradually implementing these principles through daily conscious choices and tracking.
Each day, you'll:
Record what you eat, noting where each item falls on the clean-to-processed spectrum
Identify and eliminate one source of hidden sugar, flour, or harmful oils from your diet
Consider implementing one of these eat-light strategies: time-restricted eating, no snacking between meals, or no seconds
Document your energy levels, hunger patterns, and how you feel
This challenge isn't about perfection or extreme restriction - it's about building awareness and making incremental improvements.
By focusing on both food quality (clean) and quantity (light), you'll naturally move toward a more sustainable and healthy approach to nutrition.
3️⃣ Action
First Steps:
Create a food journal or use a tracking app to record meals and observations
Clean out your immediate environment - remove ultra-processed foods from your home and workspace
Stock up on better alternatives - whole foods, quality proteins, and vegetables
Plan your meals to avoid defaulting to convenient processed options
Obstacles to Watch For:
Social pressure and food-centered gatherings
The initial discomfort of feeling hungry between meals
Decision fatigue when evaluating food choices
The urge to compensate for "clean" meals with larger portions
Being unprepared and hungry at the same time
Tips for Success:
Start with breakfast - it's often the easiest meal to control and sets the tone for the rest of the day
Read ingredient labels carefully - learn to identify hidden sugars and oils
Prepare meals at home whenever possible
Focus on getting as many single-ingredient foods in as you can
Remember: The goal isn't to achieve a perfect diet overnight but to gradually build awareness and better habits that will serve you for life.
🎧 Episodes to help as you go:
The Simplest Nutrition Strategy: Eat Clean & Eat Light
Harnessing the Power of Awareness, Intention, & Action
Moving Society from Sickness to Wellness to Fitness
Search for these episodes on Spotify | Apple Pods | YouTube
💬 Comments or Questions?
While this challenge is self-guided, feel free to use the comment section to ask questions, commit, or make suggestions to help others!
Our gym, Resilience CF Medfield, has been doing a great nutrition challenge, Jan 13-Feb 7. For those folks who don’t usually eat that many fruits and veggies each week they added another cup. They started with 3 cups and ended the last week with 6 cups. Throughout the challenge, you had to consume half your bodyweight in water. Each week they focused on different things. The first week was hitting protein, the second sleep, the third was mindfulness and the last week was getting outside. They added little challenges like 16 gym check ins, posting meal builder photos on our FB page, watching a zoom, reading an article & listening to a podcast. We also got to use the Inbody at the start and when we finish. Lastly, we did Cindy as a benchmark workout the first week and this week. It was great because there was something at which everyone may excel. It was amazing just by dialing in and logging my food consumption again, I noticed subtle changes in my body. (I’ve been doing lazy macros for years) This challenge will be great for me to keep my progress going!