Challenging Myself to Create Mind and Body Wellness
- lizziedunavin
- Aug 13, 2020
- 3 min read
As you may have read in a previous post, I am a highly competitive individual. If you put the word "challenge" behind something, you've caught my attention. This mindset has given me great success in various fitness journeys. It could be a step challenge, daily workout challenge, journaling challenge, even a streak on MyFitnessPal. You get the point, I take challenges and streaks very seriously and suddenly my fitness, nutrition, or mental health become a top priority.
Now let me tell you the problem with challenges. Although they have fueled my fire and pulled me off the couch time and time again, once the 30 days end, the behavior is never maintained. For example, I had a MyFitnessPal streak for 284 days. Great streak right?! I logged my food morning, noon, and night. Then one day, I wasn't around my phone, or I wasn't paying attention, and I lost my streak. A reasonable person may have been upset, but they would have looked at all the progress they had made with the calorie counting app and they would have started again. Not I. I was so upset about losing the streak, I decided that I would never get to a higher streak and I saw no point in continuing the program if I couldn't "win". (How crazy is that. There is no winner with MyFitnessPal!)
"But this time, I'm trying a 30-day challenge that will lead into a morning routine."
Similar situations to the one above have been a pattern of mine with 30-day challenges. If I start them, I usually finish them, but once they are over there is no going back. That's tricky when it comes to lasting behavior change for a healthy lifestyle. So I'm trying again! But this time, I'm trying a 30-day challenge that will lead into a morning routine.
Yoga with Adrien!
Heard of it? Adrien and her YouTube channel have taken the yogi world by storm. With a 30 day introductory challenge to the world of yoga, she caters to all levels of experience. If you aren't quite up for a challenge, she has videos for stretching, meditation, full body yoga, abs, courage, and so much more. Take some time and check her out, videos typically run 30 minutes and leave you feeling refreshed and ready for the day.
I'm sure you're wondering, Lizzie, you said it yourself "once the 30 days end, the behavior is never maintained." I get it, I get it. But much like I am making a LIFESTYLE change with my nutrition, I hope to do the same with daily exercise. I plan to embrace my love-hate relationship with 30 day challenges. This month I started with Adrien's 30 days of yoga. Next month I may move to another one of Adrien's 30 day challenges (home, dedicate, true, yoga camp) OR I may try a new 30 day challenge. Maybe I will do a couch to 5K in 30 days. Maybe I'll do a 30 day lifting challenge. The opportunities are endless.
Here is what I know, I am most committed when I have something to commit to. By setting goals and drawing a road map to those goals, I am more likely to succeed. (Coming Soon: post all about goal setting!) I also found that 30 minutes of yoga every morning has helped me to get out of bed, start my day, and create a routine. Before this challenge, I found myself pressing snooze until I absolutely had to get out of bed. I would quickly throw something on, brush my teeth, and grab my breakfast for the car. Now the alarm rings, I hop out of bed and on the mat. I set aside 30 minutes after my yogi time for some journaling and breakfast. To create a healthy lifestyle, it starts with healthy habits. Setting a morning routine was an important habit I needed to develop.
Anyways, I hope you feel inspire to dust off the yoga mat and give Adrien a try. If I haven't convinced you of that, maybe I inspired you to create a morning routine. If not, maybe you'll decide to join me on a 30-day journey later on, whether that be running, lifting, cross fit, yoga, or something completely out of the box. Until next time!
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