A month ago my friends and I started a challenge called 30 Hard. The challenge involves sticking to a few rules for 30 days in a row. My rules consisted of three parts, diet, exercise, and lifestyle.
Diet
Drink 96 ounces of water a day
No heavily processed food or fast food
No sweet treats besides outshine fruit bars
At least one vegetable and one fruit a day
For breakfast, only eat half a bagel instead of a full one, and a healthy yogurt cup.
Exercise
Run outside every day
Go to the gym 5 days a week.
Lifestyle
Document gym and meals for blog to hold myself accountable
Make one blog post on my Instagram a week
Skincare every night
Overall I thought these goals were doable as I began the challenge, but the more I progressed, the more I realized that outside factors contributed heavily to my ability to complete these goals.
What was doable:
The first goal that was very easy for me to stick to was my new breakfast. I thought I would miss eating a full bagel, but by switching it to half I still got the taste, and was able to fill up in a much healthier way with the yogurt. I also was easily able to avoid heavily processed and fast food as that was not a regular part of my diet to begin with. Contributing one vegetable and fruit was also easy as I found recipes for salads that I really enjoyed, and I ate fruit daily to begin with. I also was very committed to going to the gym 5 days a week, and often went more. Lastly, documenting the gym and meals for my blog posts and making them every week was something I looked forward to doing and will continue doing.
What was challenging:
There were some goals that I was able to complete most of the time, but outside factors made them occasionally challenging. Avoiding all sweet treats besides outshine bars was difficult when it came to celebrations. Both my mom's and my friends birthday occurred during the month, which were celebrated by cake. It was also strawberry season and my mom makes strawberry shortcake with the berries my dad picks every year. It felt wrong to limit myself from the special moments and my takeaway was that it is ok to allow yourself a cheat on special occasions. Drinking 96 ounces of water was also a challenge. On some days I would complete it and others I would not. What made this difficult was being at work all day, most days, and drinking a lot of water was not on the forefront of my mind. However, I drank a lot more water than I normally did and I am happy with that.
What was Impractical
There were only two goals that I disregarded throughout the challenge because they were just not possible or practical for me. One was running outside every day. There were days I would work 10-6 and on weekends my gym was only open until 7, so it was hard to even make it to the gym. However, most days I would either wake up early to go to the gym or go straight away after work depending on my schedule. Finding the time to go to the gym as well as run outside just did not make sense. I decided that working out once a day as long as I was active in some form every day was enough, and this is a habit I can successfully continue. The other goal that was impractical for me was doing skincare every night. I don't have issues with my skin, it was more just a goal I created because I thought it would be better for me. However, I lacked motivation in doing it and didn't see the need to fix a problem that wasn't there.
Overall Takeaways
Overall I am very happy that I did this challenge. Although I did not stick to every goal, it helped me figure out a healthy lifestyle that worked for me, and I am doing much better than I was before this challenge. I encourage all of you to try some form of this challenge with goals that work for you. I realized the end result of this challenge was not to do everything perfectly, but to do everything to your best ability and stick with that lifestyle long past the challenge.
Comments