Axosoft is all about being healthy, from our tower gardens in the kitchen, to our daily workout classes in our office gym. But last month we took it to a whole new level…
THE 28 DAY CHALLENGE
Confused? You should be, I haven’t explained what it is yet.
Let’s break it down!
The 28 Day Challenge is a healthy eating initiative that we decided to put into effect at Axosoft. We thought it would be a great way for everyone to start eating right and getting healthy in a supportive team environment.
The challenge involved 3 different steps:
1. For 28 day we would give up one, or all, of the TEN DON’Ts:
1. No wheat
2. No corn
3. No dairy
4. No soy
5. No refined sugar
6. No caffeine
7. No alcohol
8. No dried fruit or fruit juices
9. No artificial sweeteners
10. No fat-free “diet foods”
2. We would eat only the foods from 3 phases, spaced throughout the week:
Phase 1: Eat only Fruit, Veggie, Protein, and Grain
Phase 2: Eat only Veggie and Protein
Phase 3: Eat only Protein, Fruit,Veggie, Grain, and Healthy Fat
3. While eating the foods in these phases, we follow the TEN DOs:
1. You must eat five times a day. That’s three meals and two snacks per day.
2. You must eat every three to four hours, except when you’re sleeping.
3. You must eat within 30 minutes of waking. Every day.
4. You must stay on the plan for the full 28 days.
5. You must stick to the foods allowed on your phase. Religiously.
6. You must follow the phases in order.
7. You must drink half your body weight in fluid ounces of water every day.
8. Eat organic whenever possible.
9. Meat choices must be nitrate-free.
10. You must exercise three times per week.
Our amazing Lawdan Shojaee pitching the diet to the company.
I’m not gonna lie, it was tough, really tough. There was a lot of good stuff we were giving up and a lot of rules we had to follow. Many of those DON’T items were in our stocked kitchen and had to be removed… that almost caused a riot. The items were replaced with healthier and phase approved snacks, but they did not have the same sugary, salty goodness we all liked.
The fact that there wasn’t a caffeine deprived murder in the first week, is amazing. Also you have no idea how hard it is to eat every 3 hours while drinking half your body weight in fluids, the combo caused some impressive lines at the restrooms.
Axofit classes with Jake!
But we stuck with it, and at the end of the 28 days there were some awesome results.
- Mike lost 13 pounds.
- Mona lost 12 pounds.
- Allen lost 15 pounds and his wife, who decided to do the challenge with him, lost 13 pounds.
- Gus started losing so much weight that he had to drop out of the challenge or his wife threatened to divorce him.
- Lawdan began sleeping better and no longer needed her allergy medicine.
- James liked having the healthier snack options in the kitchen.
- Jonathan lost 10 pounds and admitted feeling a little sexier towards the end of those 28 days.
- Hamid was surprised at how easy giving up coffee was.
- Sara liked how the plan helped her figure out healthier snacks and meals.
Everyone agreed that having the team environment made the challenge much easier. And probably the best result of all is several people have kept following the healthy eating initiative, even after the 28th day!
GO TEAM AXOHEALTH!!!