A Lean and Clean Reflection
Frequent readers of my blog will know that in mid-May of this year, my husband and I signed up for a six-week Lean and Clean challenge at our gym (https://mondaymollymusings.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-lean-and-clean-refresh.html ).
The challenge is (almost) over. As part of the “bonus points” we were able to earn, we were invited to write a final reflection. What were the highs, the lows and the take-aways? What were the habits we established? What barriers hampered our success?
This reflection is for our coach, but also for my blog.
The Successes
I would not have had as many “wins” if it were not for my husband. It was actually his idea to try the Lean and Clean Challenge. I had vowed I would never get involved in something like this. I didn’t want to compete with others. I’m usually not motivated by things like points. (I know the dangers of relying on extrinsic motivation factors like rewards to change behaviour.) However, once he expressed some interest, I signed us up. We’ve been going to our Cross Fit gym since 2018 and it was time to “shake things up” and give our gym participation a bit of a refresh.
(This is a photo of James taken around May 24, 2025.)
The pre-challenge physical evaluation and “game plan” at the start really helped to establish measurable, quantifiable parameters. I had kept food diaries in the past, but I had never tracked things like caloric intake along with protein, carbohydrate, fat, sugar and sodium levels. I learned a lot more about food this way, even though James was the one who did most of the meal planning (since he does most of the cooking). For instance, I was delighted with my original idea that I’d get to eat as much bacon as I wanted, because I needed to increase my protein intake. To my disappointment, the sodium levels in bacon made that pipe dream impossible. I tried turkey bacon but it wasn’t the same. James said that when he went grocery shopping, even our kids started to copy his lead and check the nutrition labels on products. I knew about nutrition labels. Heck, I even taught about nutrition labels to my students! However, I didn’t really understand the ins and outs of these labels until we had to make note of the numbers.
Speaking of numbers, I used to have a Fit Bit but I stopped wearing it after the pandemic. My step count became so low that it felt pointless. Paying attention to my step count again helped me become a better judge of how active I was throughout the day (because I had numbers to actually confirm it!) and it even motivated my students. At one point during Week 5, we were asked to try and spend at least 30 minutes outside in nature. I combined this with my step count and at lunch, I’d walk around our large school yard path. Some students walked with me. Some students wanted to see how many steps I earned after a single lap of the path. They had fun estimating how many steps a lap would take and then eagerly crowded around me to see how many steps I had racked up. They cheered when I increased by 1000 steps after each lap.
Another success was that going to the gym - and increasing our number of gym visits from three times a week to five times a week - did not seem as big of a deal. There were other things that were much harder than just going to the gym for an hour, especially the ones involving eating.
(The photos above were taken in early June.)
James saw some pretty impressive physical transformations, even in just six weeks. He moved his belt one notch smaller. He could fit into shirts that were extra-snug before. His face was thinner, his waist narrower, and his abdominal muscles became more defined. I wasn’t seeing the same kind of metamorphosis in myself. However, a colleague at work said to me one day, “I don’t like to make a point of commenting on people’s physical appearances, but you look fitter; I see a difference in you.” She saw something in me that I didn’t.
My stomach didn’t gurgle as much in the night, probably thanks to the type of things I was eating. My skin wasn’t as dry, because I was drinking a lot of water. There were quite a few positive results.
The Setbacks
It definitely wasn’t all wine and roses. (Actually, there was no wine; alcohol has too many calories.) Let me complain, for a bit, about the water. I was required to drink 3 liters of water a day. This was extremely difficult. I had to spend a lot more time in the bathroom. During the first three or four weeks, I felt like I was sloshing around. I even accidentally hurt my teeth by bulging my cheeks out with water inside (which caused a pressure vacuum). I’d leave my water bottles in random places and I really had to force myself to drink. The amount of water drinking meant that I didn’t want to drink anything else. I would occasionally have a cup of herbal tea in the morning, but I was just turned off consuming more liquid.
My biggest gripes besides the water were the lack of spontaneity and the impact on social events. I deliberately “broke” or missed my macronutrient goals a few times, because of certain gatherings. I went to brunch with friends. I fed my parents their favourite West Indian curry and roti from Mona’s and ate alongside them. I went to a TL event at a pub. I took James out for Father’s Day to Red Lobster. I dined at a retirement function. Some of these places didn’t even have calorie numbers on their menus. It’s challenging to plan, stick to your plan, and not look like a “party pooper”.
(This is a photo of my brunch with friends.)
I didn’t give in to every social opportunity, but it made for awkward moments. My principal really wanted to treat the staff during the spring concert with a pizza dinner. He offered to buy me a salad so I could participate, but it was easier to stick with my planned meals for the day. Communal eating builds bonds between people. I turned down spending time with friends at a Korean restaurant prior to attending a play because I didn’t want to try to calculate what a meal would involve. I don’t have the skills yet to be able to accurately determine the best meal on the menu to order.
Another challenge: dealing with surprises. One day, a wonderful parent volunteer beckoned me over and said she had made something special for me. It was this absolutely delicious ice cream vanilla layer cake. I couldn’t pass up such a wonderful gift. (It tasted divine!)
There are lots of snacks offered at school and I couldn’t partake most of the time because it wasn’t part of the plan and I didn’t know enough about adjusting things to accommodate.
I thought that my LEWIS (Lunch Every Wednesday Is Salad) event at my school would be helpful, but it was more stressful. It’s a salad buffet where participants bring in an assigned item each week. With this amount of variety, I couldn’t properly estimate my salads. I could check the salad dressing labels but I didn’t want to be “that” person to measure everything I put on my plate or bring a food scale to school.
(This was one of the salads I had. Little dressing!)
I will also take this opportunity to curse out burpees. At one point, we had to spend ten minutes on an exercise that we dislike and that could use some improvement. Sadly, there are MANY exercises that fall under those categories for me. With advice from one of the coaches, I chose burpees. I hate burpees. I only did it twice for that bonus week.
The Second Act
So, what are our take-aways? What will we continue to do even now that Lean & Clean is over? It’s tempting to throw all restrictions aside and eat with abandonment. However, I think there will be some lasting habits we will try to maintain, even when we don’t get points for them.
I will try to drink more water. I won’t drink 3L but I will try to drink at least 2L most days.
I will try to continue using my pedometer to monitor my steps.
I will try to go four times a week to the gym during the summer. (It’s a halfway mark between our past practice of three days a week and our Lean & Clean drill of five days a week.)
I will attempt to maintain the practice of measuring my snacks (e.g. 1 cup of Hickory Sticks, 17 Malteasers) and continue to eat healthy snacks as well (e.g. Babybel cheese, Kashi flax bars).
I will possibly continue writing in my Lean & Clean booklet (since I never was able to get the hang of the My Fitness Pal app) until I finish all the pages.
I will no longer skip breakfast and lunch. A bowl of cereal or two boiled eggs with an apple is better than starving by 3:00 p.m. and grabbing junk food.
The Surprises
There were observations I wanted to include that didn’t fit into the pre-determined categories, so I included this section, on surprises.
There’s a lot of economic privileges involved with taking on a challenge like this. You’d think it’d be cheaper to eat healthy but it’s not. We bought food scales and special water bottles and satchels to carry my phone in to use as a pedometer. We signed up for healthy meal services that cost a lot more money than a typical TV dinner you could buy at the supermarket.
(This is James posing with my new water bottle.)
Having said that, I was surprised at how tasty some of these meals were. We used the Factor Meals program and those were easy to prepare and yummy to eat.
(This was part of my first Factor meal I tried.)
Talking about this journey with others has also brought some surprising insights and discoveries. My friend has the gift of accurate meal estimation. At the Lean & Clean Nutrition Seminar and launch, the coaches talked about using the plate method and comparing portions to body part sizes (i.e. the size of your fist, or palm). This was hard for me and I had to rely on weighing or labels or James. I was out twice with this friend, who glanced at what I ordered and told me what she determined was my protein and carb level. I was so impressed! She explained that, as a diabetic, she had a natural feedback method built into her, so she got good at figuring out how much food she needed to stay balanced.
(She said this was 65-70g of carbs & 6 oz of protein.)
I was really surprised (and somewhat sad) to discover that I’ve lost the taste for certain things. I don’t want pop anymore. I’m too full of water to desire anything else to drink. Plus, when I was at Ban Ban Chicken, I ordered a Crush Cream Soda and found it was too sweet.
I was surprised to see how I began to become aware of how certain foods affected me, and that expensive meals that are protein-heavy, like this delicious meal at Chakko (Korean BBQ - see photos below) “sat well” with me, whereas things that were more fried or processed didn’t.
Finally, I was surprised to discover I liked taking long walks with James that served no other purpose except to be outside and stay active.
So, big thanks to all the Cross Fit Canuck staff and to all the participants of Lean & Clean (whose names and faces I finally know because of that display I set up at the gym- that was the secret motivation to doing it, to help my poor memory!). This was a very educational journey for me.
This was the “wall” before we added cards!
P.S. I wrote this blog post a while back. I wanted to add that the final results have been reported. I'm delighted to share that my husband "won" as the top male in the Lean & Clean Challenge. As the images below (taken from the Cross Fit Canuck Instagram account) show, James lost 13.8 pounds of fat and reduced his overall body fat by 5.7%. (The top woman in the group, Marsha, is a friend of ours from the gym. She works very hard and I'm so glad she ended up first among the females!)
