Course Objective

This course aims to introduce energy-unblocking and energy-increasing changes that you can apply to many life aspects: your morning and evening routine, food choices, exercise, other well-being habits, etc. As you progress in the course you will have a chance to try out quite a few things and observe how your energy changes and how you feel as a result. By the end, you will have a very clear picture of the lifestyle that first you personally and how to create a life routine that will support you best.

The “80 Percent Rule” is a philosophical element of this course. The essence of this concept is that you should enjoy your life and your wellness pursuits without worrying about being perfect. Strive to do your very best to complete the course action items and align your lifestyle with the Energy Reset approach, knowing and accepting that you will occasionally fall short in today’s hectic modern world.

To be clear, we want you to strive for 100 percent success and accept 80 percent, not strive for 80 percent and see what happens. The 80 Percent Rule also applies to all 5 pillars of this course. This course is about learning how to be proactive in creating a winning environment for your daily habits. However, if a long-lost friend stops by with a fresh homemade cheesecake offering on your no sugar day, enjoy the treat and socialise without a second thought…and then commit fully again. Our ancestors had no time for guilt over guilty pleasures, and neither do we!

Getting healthy and sustaining your health is a process which takes commitment, dedication and persistence. Like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. And it doesn’t just happen overnight, you must keep at it every single day but if you slip, forgive yourself, reflect and commit again.

Pillar 1: Food

Let’s dish on the organic vs. conventional food debate. You’ve been reading about how locally grown products are far superior to conventional, mass-produced products. However, this is not always easy for the budget and logistics. While there are clearly strong objections to eating a bunless burger of dubious origin from a fast food joint or buying conventional blueberries flown in from Chile in the dead of winter, these choices are still much better than eating chips or snickers – or any other highly processed product.

Your main commitment during this reset should be to eat whole foods, choosing the highest quality products you can locate and afford in the various food categories. As long as you eat whole foods, you don’t have to stress about the details too much.

If we really want to go organic, then meat and eggs should be your #1 priority for organic. If you must purchase conventional meats, choose the leanest possible cuts and trim the excess fat. This will significantly reduce your potential exposure to toxins. Furthermore, we recommend that you stock up on a lot of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices, and dark chocolate (yessss!)  as these will help you obtain sufficient antioxidants to help neutralise any potential toxin residue left in meat after cooking.

So don’t drive yourself crazy these 21 days trying to hunt down the purest organic and seasonal food. As long as you stay far from the most processed food and ingredients you can’t even pronounce, then the conventional domain occasionally won’t thwart your efforts. Happy dining!

During the 21 days we ask you to boycott Industrialised Food. Strive to completely avoid eating at fast food chains or any other processed or frozen meals from multinational food corporations—today, and for the duration of your 21-Day challenge.

Today, make a specific statement in favor of your health and against the industrialization of food by planting a few seeds in your apartment (maybe herbs?), finding healthy local or direct – order alternatives to mainstream sources.

Pillars 2 & 3: Morning and evening routine 

We are massive advocates for creating a personalised magical morning & evening routine, the reason being is that they are so dang powerful at helping you live an intentional life. Starting your morning with your own soulful sequence creates discipline, establishes boundaries and sets you up for success. When you take the time to honour yourself — to fill yourself up — life flows so much more smoothly. The way you end your day is equally important as an epic day starts the night before.

But remember… stuff is going to come up. Life will happen and  the way you start and end you day might not pan out exactly how you had envisioned it. But that’s okay. The most important thing is to not be attached to the outcome. We love it when our day flows according to the plan but we also don’t care if it doesn’t. We are not attached and don’t have any expectations. It just is what it is. Stress and guilt are far worse for your health and overall wellness than missing one thing on you morning or evening routine. Remember that. Nothing changes if nothing changes.

Pillar 4: Well-being habits

Our wellbeing activities are designed to help you change some not very supportive habits, and create new ones. They will help you to connect to yourself, your environment, nature and people around you. They promote gratitude, awe, connectedness, grounding, etc. and increase life satisfaction while improving your energy. They will range from 2 to 30 min and can be extended if you have more time available and enjoy them. Make at least 3 minutes commitment to doing them each day! 3 minute is better than 0 minutes.

Pillar 5: Exercise

Movement and exercise are not weight-loss tools, they are well-being tools.

Why do you “work out”? To burn whatever you ate? If yes, then we encourage you to re-frame your relationship with movement in general, and exercise in particular.

Move because it makes you feel good. Biologically, we’re designed to move at low intensity for long periods (e.g. walking) and at high intensity for brief periods ( e.g. running, dancing). The aches and pains you feel are probably from lack of movement (and perhaps an excess of exercise) instead of lack.

What is the best exercise? The one you enjoy. It can be dancing, walking, a sport, running (with proper technique and methodology). Ideally, you want some form of strength or resistance training, but it is not mandatory if you’re just starting out – moving your own body will be enough.

Additional tools

One of the best ways to ensure success with any health program is to set yourself up with the tools and resources you’ll need to get—and stay—on track. Prepare for your 21-Day journey by having these essentials at the ready:

To help create a calm, ambient environment, which will encourage great-quality sleep):

• f.lux app for smartphones, tablets or computers
• Amber lensed glasses (to block blue light at night)
• Himalayan salt lamps
• essential oils: lavender

Exercise basics:

• Comfortable clothing

Kitchen basics:

• A tidy fridge
• Available space in the freezer
• Cookbooks/ online recipes (our fave website: https://minimalistbaker.com/)
• A curated list of great culinary websites
• Cookware
• Spices (We love spices!)
• Whole foods only

Shopping resources:

• Local shops that offer quality vegetables, fruit, protein and produce
• Internet resources to order in the things you can’t buy locally

Workplace:

• Check out some options at work for quiet time and mini-workouts
• What appliances are available to you at work?
• Is there room in a fridge, cupboard or desk drawer for you to store some healthy snacks.
• Habit tracker (download here) Habit tracker

Benefits of keeping a habit tracker 

Habit tracking is powerful for three reasons:

1. It creates a visual cue that can remind you to act.
2. It is motivating to see the progress you are making. You don’t want to break your streak.
3. It feels satisfying to record your success in the moment.

Habit tracking also helps keep your eye on the ball: you’re focused on the process rather than the result. Every habit streak ends at some point. Perfection is not possible. Before long, an emergency will pop up—you get sick or you have to travel for work. Whenever this happens to me, I try to remind myself of a simple rule:

Never miss twice.

If you miss one day, try to get back into it as quickly as possible. Missing one happens, but don’t miss two in a row. Maybe you’ll have a big piece of cake, but you’ll immediately follow it up with a healthy meal. As soon as one streak ends, you get started on the next one. You can’t be perfect, but you can avoid the second mistake. Generally speaking, the first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. “Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.”

Take the time to tick off the activities on the tracker throughout this 21-day course. When you start living in the flow we are suggesting, you’ll discover that your routines, meals, workouts, mindset and other new lifestyle habits flow effortlessly day after day. The direct alignment of your behaviors and the supportive community serve as the strongest motivational force imaginable, far exceeding any regimented approach involving obsessive measuring, record-keeping or results-oriented motivations. Let’s shatter some long-standing diet and exercise habits and replace them with behaviors that may seem small at first but can radically change your psychological and physical well-being.

Celebrate progress and reject negativity 

Meals should be a time for celebration, during the 21-day challenge and forever after. Sure, it will be a little difficult to eschew old dietary staples like cereal, white bread, white pasta, and other highly processed foods, but keep your focus on the pleasure available instead of what you are missing out on. Grab some great cookbooks or get busy Googling recipes, and have fun experimenting with food that’s in line with your wellness goals.

One thing that really has to go is the negativity associated with eating: deprivation / restriction / portion control / guilt / rebellion and the like. Instead, treat eating as one of life’s greatest pleasures. Make sure you eat whatever whole foods you like until you are totally satisfied with each meal, and then feel free to eat again any time you feel hungry. (The operative word being “satisfied” not “stuffed to the brim.”) Eating whole foods frees you from the insulin roller coaster trap so that you can reconnect with the hunger and satisfaction cycles that have nourished humans optimally for 2.5 million years.

With the celebration mentality comes a deepened respect for food as nourishment, instead of gas for the tank. Take the time to create relaxing mealtime environments, eat at a comfortable pace so you can savor every bite and eliminate all distractions that inhibit your enjoyment of the meal and your dining companions. So pick up that fork and let the celebration begin!

The same goes for movement and your morning and evening rituals! The exercises you choose to do should make you feel good, stronger, more toned, flexible, and calmer. As we go on this journey together you’ll discover a way to exercise, to start and end your day that’s incredibly fun and makes you actually want to do it. It’s movement and daily rituals driven by self-acceptance and self-respect (the two most crucial ingredients of self-love) that will make the most difference  in embedding your healthy habits in your way of life. If you haven’t taken our self-love course, we highly encourage you to take it.

https://www.selfgrowthcourses.com/courses/self-love-course/

Know your WHY

What is your why? Why do you want to feel healthy? Journal about it and share it in the group or if you are doing the course on your own share it with your friend or partner.

NO pressure!

The ambitious pace of a 21-Day challenge can sometimes trigger anxiety on occasions when you fall a bit behind. We want you to prioritise this program, but we certainly don’t want you to feel pressure to keep up the pace.

There are many ways to embrace the spirit of the course at different levels and paces. While we don’t think it’s too much to ask of anyone to give up your favourite conventional sweets and start eating whole food meals, or to commit to 15 min of physical activity a day, you can certainly downsize the suggested workout or morning or evening routine to create a challenging, yet do-able, program.

If you start your 21-Day challenge and discover this isn’t really a great month for you, then abort the mission until you are ready to embark with a relatively clear calendar. Don’t set aside your goals for everyday excuses, but hit pause during circumstances such as extensive travel or extra-intense, deadline-driven work projects. Even catching a minor cold will put you at less than full strength for two weeks; so, delaying the program until you are healed is advised.