With our Kantok throw-down fast approaching, our last blog was all about the power of competition in our intramural. Now let’s talk about another component – the nutrition challenges!
Nutrition challenges are a bit controversial – people ask why they should make these changes when they so rarely stick. Giving up sugar for a month rarely results in someone giving up sugar for life. Meal prepping for a few weeks in a challenge doesn’t often lead to meal prepping in the long term.
So why should we do them?
Well… improving our nutrition is all about moving the needle as far as we can. The worst-case scenario is that we have made a healthy change for a few weeks. The best scenario is that we have made a dramatic healthy change to our nutrition habits. The most likely scenario though, is that we will have moved the needle a couple of notches. We will have started thinking about nutrition differently or we might even have started a new habit.
Ben Bergeron and EC Synkowski recently discussed this very topic on their podcast. Both agreed that nutrition challenges were a great way to introduce new ways of thinking about nutrition and claimed that the difference nutrition challenges make to people are dependent on just how keen that person is to make changes to their lifestyle.
So, when these challenges come up, jump onboard and try to stick with them for the duration. Maybe you won’t stick to it for the rest of your life, but maybe it will trigger some new ways of fuelling that work for you.