Sweet Fire Challenge: 30 Days to Jump Start Your Health and Weight Loss

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The “Sweet Fire Challenge” is a health and fitness-oriented community event to help people lose weight and feel healthier. It was inspired by my visit with CA Congressman Sam Farr in Washington DC as part of the American Diabetes Association. I witnessed how difficult it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle on Capitol Hill.

From that experience, I invited Congressman Farr to a special, 30-day challenge based on principles from my book, "Sweet Fire: Sugar, Diabetes & Your Health". He said yes! We both saw the opportunity to open this Challenge to the public to improve the health of many. Because the Challenge was so effective, I led it again!

We launched the Sweet Fire Challenge on November 11th, 2014 and 125 people joined us. It was another big success! [Read success stories.]

How Does the Challenge Work?

Participants chose the Basic or Extreme level, and followed those 3 simple rules for 30 days.
By making just these three changes you can lose extra weight and greatly improve your health and overall well-being.

BASIC

No alcohol after 7:30pm
No bread or pasta*
7,000 steps or
30 min exercise daily

EXTREME

No food or alcohol after 7:30pm
No foods with flour or >20g Sugars (per serving)
7,000 steps or
30 min exercise daily

*Eliminating bread will be the hardest thing to do, but is the fastest way to drop weight. Flour is the biggest source of hidden sugar in the American diet. A single plain bagel dumps 12 teaspoons of sugar in the blood. A typical serving of spaghetti will dump 22 teaspoons. Any sugar the body doesn’t use for energy gets turned into fat.

Registration Is Closed

The Sweet Fire 30-Day Challenge started November 11th and ended December 10th, 2014. Participants recieved daily educational and motivational emails, and were able to interact on Facebook with Nutrition Educator Mary Toscano and the Sweet Fire Team. Although the official Challenge is over, we encourage you to follow the 3 simple rules above at any time.

Who is Mary Toscano?

Mary Toscano is a Certified Nutrition Educator and the author of the book, "Sweet Fire: Sugar, Diabetes & Your Health." Because of her family history (both sets of grandparents died from complications of diabetes) and her own sensitivity to sugar, she has dedicated herself to figuring out the role of sugar in health. [Visit Website]

Cutting out flour had an almost immediate impact: the weight loss was really easy. – SG

I'm sleeping better, feeling less "doughy." – JC

I can get into a size 4 Vera Wang slacks I bought in 2009 and zip them up, which I could not do before the challenge. – JG

My blood sugar dropped to the point that I have been able to reduce my insulin injection by one third. – WS

I feel lighter and stronger. My clothes are looser and I can move about with a quicker step. – SM

Lost 5 more pounds and my sugar level and A1C are now in normal range. – PM

I lost 8 pounds, and I'm happy about that. I will continue to watch what I eat and I hope to lose another 10 lbs. – TS

I feel so good each day and sleep well too. Plus, the bonus is that my sciatic pain in the left hip is gone. – MLN

I now choose foods that have fewer carbs and less grams of sugars. I have recently learned that I am pre-diabetic, so this is an important change for me for my health and prevention of Type 2 diabetes. – AF

I felt really included. Loved that others were doing it also. Was fun to root for Sam. – BM

I loved the simplicity of the Challenge. There weren't too many rules to be followed and there was no guilt trip implied. – KR