By Leo Babauta
OK, so the title was an attention-grabber, I’ll admit – eating healthier meals won’t necessarily make you sexier.
But that’s because most of you are as sexy as possible already.
Still, eating a healthy diet packed with plants, fiber and nutrition is great for your health. So I’m issuing a challenge to all of you for June: eat healthy meals every day.
What does that mean? The first week, I challenge you to eat a hearty salad for lunch. Then each week after that, add a healthy meal to your day (more below) or clean up the junk in some part of your diet.
I’m going to do this challenge myself, and would love for you to join me. It’s not just for those who want to lose weight (though it’s well suited for that goal), but also for anybody who wants to get leaner, gain muscle, or just have radiant health.
It’s my belief that radiant health comes from:
- A healthy diet full of vegetables and other fibrous, nutritious foods
- Good sleep
- Regular exercise (strength, yoga, and some kind of walk/run/bike/sports activity are my favorites)
- Not smoking
- Relationships/community
- Some kind of purpose in life
- Mindfulness & stress coping mechanisms
Not in that order, as they’re all pretty important. But if you could develop these, you’d be living a radiantly healthy life.
Of these, probably the areas that would have the biggest impact for most people would be sleep, diet and quitting smoking (if applicable). I’d like you to pick diet for June, unless you strongly need to focus on your sleep right now.
So I’m issuing the Eat Healthy Meals Challenge!
Here’s the challenge:
- First week: Focus on eating a hearty salad for lunch every day (or some other veggie-filled simple meal)
- Second week: Focus on eating a healthy, fiber-filled breakfast (while keeping the salad for lunch)
- Third week: Focus on eating a healthy dinner (I have some suggestions), keeping the other meals going
- Fourth week: Strengthen areas that need to be strengthened – changing your accountability or environment (if needed) to be more consistent, getting rid of unhealthy drinks or snacks, etc.
Join my Sea Change Program and I’ll be providing some vegan recipes for the hearty salad, my favorite breakfast at the moment, and my favorite dinner … but you are free to choose something different, as long as you are getting lots of vegetables and fiber and other nutrition.
If you join Sea Change](http://seachange.zenhabits.net/), I’ll have articles talking about nutrition and changing your eating habits as well. And of course, we’ll have a weekly check-in.
Take the challenge on your own, or join Sea Change today!
Questions & Answers
A couple answers to questions you might have:
- Q: Do I need to eat vegan for this challenge? A: Not at all. The meals I’ll share will be vegan, but you can either alter them to suit you (add fish or chicken, for example) or choose your own healthy meals to stick to.
- Q: What if I don’t want to eat a salad for lunch? A: You can make the challenge whatever you want. I highly recommend a hearty salad because you’re getting a ton of nutrition in one meal (I’ll go more into that soon), but I’m not going to force anyone to do anything.
- Q: Can I do this challenge without joining the Sea Change Program? A: Yep, absolutely. In the program, we’ll have accountability as well as videos & articles, but to do the challenge, you just need to follow the guidelines above. Use the #EatHealthyMeals hashtag on Twitter if you like!
My New Fearless Training Program on Patreon
So I’ve launched something new … it’s a training program that I’m developing to change habitual patterns around fear, procrastination, distraction and more … it’s called the Fearless Training Program, and you can be a part of it.
Get more info and get in on the training here on Patreon.
I’m really excited about it and can’t wait to get started!