I first heard about the WILDFIT 90-DAY CHALLENGE in 2018, when watching Mindvalley’s founder, Vishen Lakhiani, talk about the awesome results he had experienced. In early 2019, my boyfriend and I decided to jump in! We finished the Wildfit 90-Day Challenge in late May 2019.
Here is what we honestly think about the programme.
Is the Wildfit 90-Day Challenge Really Worth it?
I’d like to start with a summary of the pros and cons, based on my personal experience with the programme. Later in this article, I will dive more into our experience and how we feel about it now that 3 months have passed since the end of the programme.
PROS of the Wildfit 90-Day Challenge
1. You Improve Your Food Awareness and Mindset
I thought that I was already pretty aware and mindful about food, eating and how my body feels as a result. Well, this programme took me to the NEXT LEVEL! I pay much more attention to the WAY FOOD ACTUALLY FEELS. And I think this one is essential: you get an incredible TOOL to IMPROVE your diet constantly! Here is what I would call a “Food-Awareness-Feedback-loop” (FAF).
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What does my mind THINK it will feel like?
Tasty? Delicious? Well yes, very often this is what I THINK the food will be! Now that I pay more attention to this, I ask myself: “What was it ACTUALLY like, last time you ate it?” Because very often, you DESIRE some food just because it belongs to a certain category.
But you don’t even really like it! I for my part am addicted to sugar. But guess what: while I find SOME sweets delicious, others are really not worth the trouble. For instance, I love delicious chocolate soufflés or crême brûlées. Even some types of home-made cookies. But I don’t really like most chocolate or creamy cakes. But it is SUGAR.
So, very often, my mind tricks me into wanting it anyway. Because “at least it’s sugar”. By becoming more aware of this, I could focus more on ELIMINATING the foods that are bad for me in any way. I go MORE FOR QUALITY now.
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What do I HOPE to get from it?
Happiness? Stress-relief? Or any feeling related to my past? I am more aware of the fact that commercials, nostalgia and other emotions are the biggest contributors to my POSITIVE ASSOCIATION WITH BAD FOODS. It is amazing how much progress I made thanks to the Wildfit Challenge to realise what I ACTUALLY will get from the food in the end. White bread is a good example.
I had a very positive association in terms of savour and nostalgia with it. See, I grew up in France, where “baguette” is the queen of every meal. Now, however, when I look at white bread, I see EMPTY FOOD. I will still it some at times, especially when visiting my family, but I do not crave it and would not buy it myself.
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What does it ACTUALLY FEEL LIKE when I take the first few bites? Is it as delicious as I had expected?
I realised how many foods were actually not that tasty to me. My EXPECTATION of the food was MUCH MORE DELICIOUS THAN THE ACTUAL FOOD. Of course, some unhealthy foods still feel absolutely delicious. BUT I have since noticed other sensations that come with them, which are not as great.
When I eat sweets, like high-quality chocolate or ice cream, I now notice some scratching and burning in my throat and mouth. And that is amazing because THIS REMINDS ME right there and then that those foods are literally making me sick when I overdo it.
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How do I feel when I am HALFWAY through it?
Some foods seem delicious at the beginning, but halfway through they are nothing special at best. I try much more to be aware of this now. This is a good tool as we normally eat up what we get presented on our plate without thinking much about it.
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How do I feel AFTER eating the food?
That one helps for food like pizza! The first bite is delicious. Halfway through you start feeling really FULL. But AFTER eating a full pizza, it feels soooo bad!
It is amazing how paying attention to that reshaped my whole relationship with the food…
2. Healthy Food Becomes Appealing to You
Using the Food-Awareness-Feedback-loop will not only bring much clarity as to your attraction to bad foods, but it will also HELP YOU APPRECIATE HEALTHY FOODS. I realised how amazing and important leafy greens are for me. Now, I CRAVE GREEN SALADS and green-only smoothies.
I know how they help my system clean up and get rid of the bad stuff. And I literally can feel my body’s “relief” when I eat them. On top of this, the programme helps change your TASTE. You start noticing more flavours. And your preferences change. You start liking some vegetables that you did not care for before. I started finding CUCUMBERS really, really sweet! And I am NOW SNACKING ON CHICORÉE.
3. The Programme Makes a Good Job at TEACHING You the Logic Behind Their Approach.
I found that the Wildfit Challenge was a very EMPOWERING programme. Instead of just receiving instructions, you get tons of videos and documents to dive into the WHY you should or should not eat something. Additionally, the weekly calls help you get DIRECT contact with the Wildfit team.
You can ask your questions and talk about how you are feeling. I have not personally been attending them, but I could always watch the replay. And it helped me tremendously to see that I often had the same struggles and questions as others did. Not to mention the motivating answers and feedback to it.
4. The Logic Behind Wildfit Makes Sense
Of course, it is hard to say whether the logic behind Wildfit is scientifically legitimate for a non-expert of the field like me. But I have to admit that most of what Eric Edmeades (the creator of Wildfit) says, even when it is just a hypothesis, really appeals to my logical brain. And BE IT “SCIENTIFIC TRUTH” OR NOT, this is very important because of the placebo effect: you HAVE TO BELIEVE in the programme for it to WORK AT ITS BEST. So there is a bonus point for that!
5. There is NO Absolute
Very often during the programme, participants are trying to get ABSOLUTE answers to their food decisions. And although it is often easier to just get a straight “yes” or “no”, life is more complicated than this. The Wildfit programme forces you to FIND OUT what is GOOD FOR YOU and to stop relying too much on external sources.
Of course, it provides you with a lot of guidance. But Eric Edmeades makes it clear that EVERYTHING IS AN EXPERIMENT. So, as long as you are learning, and feeling healthier progressively, that is great. The SEASONAL approach of the Wildfit Challenge fits well into this philosophy, which I like. According to it, it is all about HOW OFTEN you expose your body to a certain food. SUGAR, in the form of honey, fruits and sweet vegetables, for instance, is NOT A BAD FOOD IN ITSELF.
But if you eat it daily, it may become a burden to certain parts or organs of your body. And the SAME GOES FOR SUPER HEALTHY FOODS. Eating a lot of one veggie every single day may become a burden as well. Which is why a seasonal rotation makes sense (but again, I have not checked the science behind this).
6. You DO Feel Noticeable Health Benefits
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A lot of participants to the challenge seem to see their health improve during the challenge. This was also the case for me. The first thing I noticed was how MY SKIN CHANGED for the better. It regained colour (it was starting to become grey) and all skin imperfections almost completely disappeared.
That is something that had NEVER happened in my lifetime up until then. My ENERGY LEVELS rose to an all-time high if you consider the last 3 years or so. I thought it was just normal to be tired very often. Sometimes to the point that you almost cannot think but are close to falling asleep.
I was having “afternoon lows” of about up to 3 hours. I believed this tiredness, as well as my greying skin, were just normal and related to age (after all, I hit 30 almost 3 years ago).
But while in “deep spring” as they call in the Wildfit Challenge, after 2 weeks I started feeling full of energy and I needed much less sleep at night. My afternoon lows disappeared.
I have now been able to confirm this change, as both my skin and energy level get back on track when I go into “spring” as described in the Wildfit Programme. Last but not least, I was FINALLY ABLE TO IDENTIFY SOME SORT OF FOOD INTOLERANCE, which has been causing me much pain for about 10 years now.
Much better even, I have found that if I eat enough leafy greens and salad, even if I eat some of the food I am intolerant to, I FEEL NO PAIN AT ALL! In that sense, I must say that in my case, the Wildfit 90-Day Challenge solved pretty much all of my (apparent) health issues.
7. (MOST) People Lose Weight
A lot of people lose weight during the Wildfit Challenge. Most begin seeing changes about 6 or 7 weeks into the programme, but of course, it is highly individual.
So, how much weight will you lose in 90 days? Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to this. I, personally, lost about 3-4 kilograms of fat. And I would argue that I could have lost more weight hadn’t I started to binge on nuts. I have since improved the whole process and feel more in (healthy) control of my weight.
It feels like I FINALLY KNOW HOW MY BODY WORKS AND WHY IT WORKS THAT WAY! This, to me, means LESS FIGHTING AGAINST my body and MORE GIVING IT WHAT IT NEEDS, while ripping the nice side benefits off it.
This means that after a vacation or any excesses, I make an extra effort to get back into “spring” (which means you get into Ketosis) and start burning fat again. And the best thing is, the “extra effort” now actually feels great, as my body starts craving it when I’ve been exaggerating otherwise!
8. Wildfit is Incredibly Motivating, So That You Manage to Eat Really Differently
With all the videos, the community, the live calls… You are incredibly motivated and most people stick to the Challenge until the end. Which means that you manage to CHANGE THE WAY YOU EAT almost completely (for most of us). This is not easy, but the Wildfit 90-Day Challenge helps you get there progressively, as your tasting buds start working differently.
9. Wildfit Gives You Good Tools to Manage Yourself and Make a Plan for the Future
I want to put emphasis on this point, as it is very important! 90 Days is enough for you to suck in the knowledge and GET GOING ON YOUR ON. I feel like I have fully absorbed the information. I rarely go check my notes or the Wildfit material. And, on top of that, I have my own rules that keep moving. I KEEP EXPERIMENTING and iterating. And it definitely feels like PROGRESS.
CONS of the Wildfit 90-Day Challenge
1. Wildfit is Generally Quite Expensive
The Wildfit 90-Day Challenge is expensive in itself. I bought it via Mindvalley with a discount. But even so, the programme remained quite pricey and I thought about it for 4-5 months before I decided to jump in. On top of that, if you want to follow the programme the best you can, it will also most likely require money to buy higher quality food.
To improve your health via food – which is the aim of the Wildfit Challenge – you are advised to buy organic ingredients. And since at some point you will be eating a lot of vegetables and animal protein, and completely cutting out on the cheap stuff (e.g. pasta, rice, bread…), this will also cause your expenses to spike. I would say it was all totally worth it. But unfortunately, a lot of people could not even afford to try it out.
2. Wildfit Can Be Really Difficult for Vegetarians and Vegans
Although you can definitely do the Wildfit 90-Day Challenge being a vegetarian or a vegan, it will for sure be MUCH MORE DIFFICULT. A lot of types of food get cut out which will affect vegetarians and vegans.
As mentioned above, grains will be cut out, and all of the meat-like vegetarian or vegan products are not really recommended either… You are normally supposed to eat quite some animal protein in “spring”.
And this helps bring more diversity into your meals. Cutting out this one additional element is really hard and can be frustrating and cause cravings. Nevertheless, it is still feasible and I would still say that it is worth a shot.
3. You Have to Be Dedicated and Invest a LOT of Time
If you want to do the Wildfit 90-Day Challenge right, you REALLY HAVE TO DIVE IN AND SPEND A LOT OF TIME in it. There are a lot of videos to watch and some material to read. And at some point, you will HAVE TO COOK for yourself.
The food outside will most likely NOT fulfil the requirements, even in places that are considered healthy restaurants.
It will all require extra time because you are new to this. GROCERY SHOPPING WILL TAKE LONGER because you will be scanning through all food in your supermarket until you realize that you only can eat about 5% of the processed food there (which is still not recommended but can be tolerated under certain conditions).
Then you will finally find out 2-3 meals that work for you and you can cook easily. But after a couple of days, you will feel bored and will have to look for creative alternatives again, hence spending a lot of time on the process again. We were lucky to be able to invest the time to learn all this. And we thought it was well worth it. But it was really difficult and time-consuming.
4. Wildfit Gets Extra Challenging When You Travel
There are good tips in the programme to help you out when you have to travel and still want to eat Wildfit. But it IS CHALLENGING and I, for my part, still fall out of it when I get kicked out of my routine and home.
5. It is Not a “Miracle” Pill as Some May Expect
Although the results most people seem to be having with Wildfit are exciting, it is NOT A MIRACLE SOLUTION. It does REQUIRE WORK and after the 90-Day Challenge, you will still need to keep making progress. 3 months are not enough to change an entire life of habits!
For instance, I still have cravings. Very much so actually! My cravings have changed and some foods do not appeal to me anymore at all (which I consider great progress!). But I am still a sugar addict and when I allow myself, will have trouble to limit myself. This is why I also regained almost all of my lost weight during summer vacations.
I ate much sugar, bread and cheese, and drunk wine. On the positive side, I have made so much progress and NOW FINALLY UNDERSTAND WHY my body puts on weight, my skin gets worse and I feel tired all the time. So after vacation, I am back into “spring” and my aim is simply to improve my ratio of being in and out of Wildfit in the long run.
How I Felt During the Programme
Before Starting the Challenge:
I had been struggling with health issues for a bit. And therefore I was highly motivated to try out something new and move another step forward. I had been thinking about doing the programme for a few months and was more than ready to start.
During the Challenge:
For me, every phase was a challenge in itself. In the beginning, I wanted to go much faster than foreseen by the programme. I would have loved to skip a step or two! It was quite difficult to contain the enthusiasm and stick to the Wildfit Challenge’s rhythm. Then came the changes, which become more and more difficult every week.
I was very happy about any of them. As each step meant going forward and trying something new. BUT maintaining the ultimate Wildfit “deep spring”, one of the programme’s said “seasons” was definitely challenging. I would say that the lack of diversity made it difficult. We found 3-4 meals that were working and stuck to them.
After a while, it gets boring and it is definitely not that easy to always find easy to make quick alternatives. But we managed to maintain it. And after a bit, WE SAW THE CHANGES. We were amazed and it was so motivating that we wanted to stay in this Wildfit season much longer.
At the End of the Challenge:
At the end of the Wildfit 90-Day Challenge, I felt so amazing that I wanted to keep eating Wildfit forever. Also, I had to identify different categories of food and classify what I was eating for myself.
This part became really interesting. Before the programme, my absolute ADDICTION was to any kind of sweets. And as an extension to this, I had an addiction to pasta or any kind of white carbohydrates (bread, potatoes) as a substitute. I was also extremely fond of cheese, especially Parmigiano.
After the programme, from all the considered unhealthy food I was craving before, only 3 foods remained interesting to me: high-quality sweets, coffee and good wine. I was truly amazed! Who would have thought that I would NOT MISS PASTA, BREAD, POTATOES and CHEESE!
What We Can Say 3 Months After Finishing the Programme
We finished the 90-Day Wildfit Challenge in late May. Then came summer... For me, it is the worst season when it comes to a healthy diet. There are so many temptations! A few days after the Wildfit Challenge was finished, I TRAVELLED to Bucarest to visit a good friend of mine for a few days. When I arrived, we went straight for lunch together, in a quite healthy place.
However, they had plenty of nice sandwiches and desserts, that would have been looking extremely attractive to me before I did the challenge. But I DID NOT EVEN FEEL LIKE EATING THOSE AT ALL. I WANTED SALADS AND VEGGIES! This is what I was truly craving!
Back To Zero?
However, this did not hold for long. I started trying one or the other dish that was not complying with the Wildfit diet. And then a dessert. And I got hooked again.
My sugar addiction was back on! Now, my only way ever out of this sugar addiction was to simply forbid myself to eat sweets and desserts. For me, they are either in or they are out. And this works very well, as I have learned that a life without them is a healthier, happier life for me. And 2-3 weeks in I do not even think about them anymore.
This has remained the case even after Wildfit. Which means that I have now completely cut out sweets again, but, I would say, not thanks to Wildfit in itself.
With all the summer vacations, fun and moments with friends and family, I was very happy to see that my boyfriend and I managed to GET BACK INTO WILDFIT every time we came back home, or on Mondays after a festive weekend. We have the feeling that it IS GETTING EASIER EVERY TIME.
We know what to eat, what to do. Now, we are able to accelerate the process and get into Ketosis much quicker. We even know what will make the transition harder, and how it feels with the little energy low before Ketosis kicks in. For instance, binging on sugar the day before will cause me to have a hard headache when the sugar is gone.
I will also feel somewhat sad and slightly depressed. Now that I have identified it as being related to the sugar deprivation, I can cope better with this. And since I have decided to cut sweets, everything goes much smoother anyways.
Gotta Love The Process
WE LOVE THIS PROCESS and our bodies have started to CRAVE THE GOOD STUFF, especially when we start exaggerating while on vacation.
We still find it HARD TO SAY NO when we are on vacation or when friends and family are visiting. I, personally, also have trouble when GOING TO A RESTAURANT.
I still do not want to be the annoying person that asks for the complete ingredient list and ends up not eating anything because it all has added sugar.
Which is why the best for me is to be able to plan ahead and COOK OR EAT AT HOME. Most times, when out, I will either allow myself more flexibility, OR I WILL SIMPLY NOT EAT but stick to mineral water or the like. I found out that this disturbs almost no one so it is a good alternative for me when I still feel like being full into Wildfit.
WE DEFINITELY WANT TO KEEP GETTING CLOSER TO WILDFIT but we see it as an ITERATIVE PROCESS. So far, we also feel like we will never be absolute Wildfitters. We want to keep allowing ourselves some great wine and diverse restaurant food every now and then. We JUST WANT TO INCREASE THE PROPORTION of Wildfit healthy food in our diet.
Final Words
WE KNOW THAT changing your habits is an ITERATIVE process, and we are extremely HAPPY with the results! We also know that the results we want (i.e. better health) will not come without efforts. But we are prepared to KEEP MAKING PROGRESS. We think Wildfit is an amazing programme that gave us the feeling that we are now MASTERING THE TOOLS to get there at our own speed.
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