Have any of you participated in any of the 7 or 21 day "clean eating" challenges?

If so, do you plan on going back to the way you ate before the clean eating challenge, after the fact, or have you, or will you, actually change your eating habits for good?

The reason I am asking is because a bunch of my family members have been posting things on Facebook about joining in these challenges. What they don’t know is that I’ve completely changed my eating habits over the last year, and as a result, I have lost 30 pounds. I’ve also changed my exercise habits and have gained strength and fitness.

I realized that the only way for me to lose the weight, and to gain strength and fitness for life, was to change my eating and exercise habits for life, not just for 7 days, or 21 days.

My family members who are participating in the challenges are all overweight (way more than 30 pounds) and have terrible diets. I’m pretty sure all of them are going to go back to “business as usual” after the challenges. In my opinion, doing that only exacerbates their problems. They lose a few pounds, but then, when they go back to their regular ways, they not only gain all of the weight back, they often gain more. I’ve seen it happen with most of them.

I don’t see these folks often enough for them to notice or care that I am in better shape than I was a year ago. I also don’t post before and after pictures on Facebook or anywhere else, nor do I mention that I have changed my ways. My transformation has been fairly private, not because I’m trying to hide anything, it’s just because I don’t like to broadcast my business on Facebook.

When I have seen a couple of these folks, most recently at a couple of family parties over the last 2 months, at least two of my relatives commented on my weight loss and asked me how I did it. I told them that I cut my food intake by two thirds, cut out most sweets, and now rarely eat cheese, and I have a regular exercise routine that I do every day. I don’t go to a gym or use any special equipment, so it’s totally free. They already know that I’m a vegetarian. The two that asked about it said that it was great, but they would never be able to do it. I didn’t get into any other discussion about it with them, because I have no desire to try to convert anyone into my ways.

I’m just curious as to whether these folks actually think that by participating in a limited “health challenge” and then going back to their regular ways is actually going to help. I don’t think it will and I feel bad when I see these folks lamenting day after day, year after year that they need to lose weight and get healthy, but then they do stuff that doesn’t really help them, but it sounds good on Facebook and makes them “feel” good for awhile.

I don’t want to say anything to them, because it’s really none of my business, and I don’t want to hurt their feelings. I am just curious as to whether any of you participate in any of these temporary quick fixes and what might be your motivation for doing so, and why would you, or they, not continue down the path to better health and fitness? Is it just too boring? Too demanding? Or is it something else?