15 Weeks

Last Saturday a friend shared that they were starting 75 day challenge. The quick details I was given were you had to drink a gallon of water, exercise twice for a min of 45 minutes each time -one must be outside, follow a diet of your choice, read ten pages of a book, and take a progress photo. I was intrigued. It sounded like the type of challenge I would normally attempt. So I did a bit more research, and this challenge is rigid. 

There are very clear rules. You can do any diet you like but there are no cheat days or treats of any kind. The book read must be a self-help book and audiobooks or podcasts are not allowed. If you miss any of the daily targets you have failed and must begin again at day one...no exceptions. If you are on Day 73 and forget to take your phot -FAILURE start over. It sounds hard; which is why the challenge is called 75 Hard. The creator, Andy Frisella, says that this is not a weight-loss/health program; it is about building mental toughness. He was inspired by an iron man competitor who completed 50 consecutive iron mans. He decided to push himself to preserve. After listening to his podcast explaining the program I came away with two main thoughts 1) this is very inspiring and there are pieces I'd like to try and 2) this isn't the type of challenge I need in my life at this moment.

Why 75 Hard Isn't For Me...Right Now:

• I am working on moderation and not extremes in my daily habits. It has meant working to grant myself grace when I miss a day. Changing the script of how I think, life is not all or nothing (which 75 Hard totally is). For me, right now, I am working through negative beliefs that think "not meeting a goal makes me a failure and erase pervious successes".
• I'm already struggling to go for a 45 minute walk three times a week. It feels like signing up  would be a huge challenge jump like "you can't swim a lap of the pool so lets cross the English Channel"
• I have other challenges on my plate. I'm progressing through my Birthday goals like a tortoise (slow and steady wins the race) and next month I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo. It feels like adding this challenge would be throwing the paddles out of the canoe because we're about to hit rapids. 
• Another aspect of my life I am working on is truly resting and being restored one day a week. It is a spiritual discipline I wanted to practice this year so I added it to the birthday challenge list. For my success it means not doing chores or having a to do list during "Sabbath" and the 75 Hard would defiantly be a chore. 
• I don't think drinking a gallon of water is something my body needs.

Yet, I am still inspired by the concept. I like many aspects of Frisella's list. I considered making a "75 Light" challenge for myself. But that seems to undermine the original concept. So I've been thinking about it all week and decided on my own challenge.

What Will I Be Doing?

First I am going to be doing my challenge Mondays to Fridays, with the option to track on Saturdays but no requirements on Sundays (the day I've set as for Sabbath keeping). I took the idea of 75 days, with my five days a week to get the 15 week goal. 

Fifteen weeks gives me three 5 week blocks to work in. I am keeping the first five week block simple, it was inspired by the 75 Hard challenges. At the end of the each set I am going to evaluate the daily habits. It might mean something new is added (like a specific wake up) or a challenge increased (more pages read daily). 

Here are the first five week goals:

• Drink 4 "little mermaid" cups worth of water (about a half gallon)
• Do a XBX workout
• 8000 Steps
• Meet the Noom food budget without going over the red foods
• Read two pages from a physical book
• On Mondays take a progress photo and post an update on this blog.