Our Spring 2021 Beyond the Challenge Winner, Kaden!

As an 18-year-old kid, completely changing my lifestyle has been such a hard, but rewarding thing. I have always been so self-conscious about my appearance and my weight. It is something I have always had on my mind and something I wanted to change about myself, but I was never sure how I was supposed to do it. 

I was introduced to Clean Simple Eats and it has completely altered my life for the better. I started using their meal plans and started exercising and started to see success. As I made progress, it only motivated me more and more to keep going. There were many bumps in the road—such as a broken collarbone, surgeries, gyms closing because of Covid, and other things that made it difficult, but that only made me want to work harder and it taught me so much more.

Trying to change my lifestyle during high school was NOT an easy thing, but I decided to put all my effort into becoming better. As I did that, I had to give up many things to change. There have been countless times where I have had to do something different than what my friends were doing because of my goals. But as I adapted this new lifestyle, I applied Clean Simple Eats to my life. 

I was able to eat the same types of food, but in a much healthier, macro-friendly way. As hard as it was to be “different” than the normal high school kid, I saw many rewarding outcomes because of it. I have been able to help others get on track to change their lifestyles and make progress as well. People ask me, “What did you do to lose all that weight?” and I always answer with “I changed my lifestyle.” I don’t see this as a “diet” - I see it as a way of life. 

I have lost 80 pounds as a teenager. Oftentimes, people see these changes as only physical changes as your appearance changes, but mentally and emotionally, I have matured and learned how to be an overall healthier person. I learned how to cook, exercise, and change my health and lifestyle. It was mentally and emotionally exhausting and extremely challenging to learn how to do this, but I was able to do so and adapt these changes to my life for the better.

There have been countless times I have wanted to give up, but I have been able to push myself harder than ever before to improve my health and become a better person. There have also been so many triumphs and rewarding experiences such as reaching goals I never thought I’d be able to accomplish, learning new things, helping others, and completely creating a new lifestyle.

Overall, I am beyond grateful for learning how to change my lifestyle. JJ & Erika have been amazing and Clean Simple Eats has simply been life-changing and I am SO grateful for everything I have learned.