Build your own 30 Day Challenge

Happy 2018, team!

I’m sure almost everyone one of you reading this set out intentions and resolutions for the new year two weeks ago, and some of you might even be finding greatsuccess in this resolutions. Good job! Now it’s time to take your resolution to the next level by committing to it for the next 30 days.


I created a 30 days challenge for myself to help me improve on the 3 aspects of my life that I want to work on this year:

• Fitness
• Nutrition, and
• Personal Growth

But obviously, these goals are way too broad to make a resolution out of! Saying “I want to be more fit” is a great start, but we need to hone in on what “being more fit” really means for YOU. So, I asked myself this question, and here are my answers:

• I want to see more definition in my core, shoulders, and quads. I want to do an unassisted pull-up and a handstand pushup by July. I want to add 15 kg to my squat and deadlift by July. I want to run a sub 8 minute mile.
• I want to feel food freedom. I want to keep my indulgent foods to a minimum (dairy, nuts, and sweeteners), and focus my diet around protein, healthy fat, and veggies. I want to be intentional when I eat and not snack.
• I want to work on my social skills. I want to stop taking things personally. I want to be more selfless and gear my thoughts and intentions towards what others want rather than what I want.

Figuring out these answers for myself was a huge game changer and really helped me form the next part of my plan for 2018.

Figure out your Goals!

Start by taking 10 minutes right now to write down 1- 3 areas of your life that you’d like to see improvement on within the next 6 months, and write down measurable, achievable targets that you would like to reach to help you achieve them. (I.e. I want to be physically stronger, so I will go to the gym 6 days a week for the next 30 days).

Nutrition
Nutrition is a great place to start when it comes to improving the quality of your life currently, and down the road. The saying “abs are built in the kitchen” is a tried and true adage that should not be taken lightly. So if you also have aspirations to improve your body composition, building your nutritional foundation is a great place to begin!

Sadly though, so many people become discouraged when starting a nutrition plan because there is a lot of contradictory information floating around on the internet. One google search on “weight loss diet” or “healthy eating diet” will pull up 20 different sites, all contradicting one another! One page says “eat all the protein” and another says “eat only raw fruits and veggies”, and so on.

How to figure out the right nutrition approach for YOU?

I take a paleo, whole food approach to nutrition, because I have found this has been the most effective way to maintain health for the largest amount of people. I focus my meals around foods which are the most nutrient dense, easily digested, and health promoting, and I exclude anything that is not adding to my health is a positive way.

So how can you work this into your 30 day challenge?
Can you commit to doing any of these things for 30 days straight?

• Eliminate sugar and any added sweeteners (except fruit)
• Eliminate snacking, stick to 3-4 meals a day, where each plate is comprised of 50% veggies, 30-35% protein, and 15-20% fat. (These are ball park numbers and will vary from person to person.)
• Eliminate certain foods that you know are inflammatory or causing you distress, such as dairy, processed foods, caffeine, etc.
• Try intermittent fasting .

Pick one or two of these, or add to the list with ideas of your own. Write it down, pin it to your mirror, and commit to it for 30 days.

Fitness
It’s important when setting a fitness goal to be very specific with what you expect from yourself. If I tell myself “my goal is to get in better shape”- how do I do this? If I go to the gym twice this week, will that be “good enough”? If I do only cardio, or only strength, or walk 10,000 steps a day, will this help me achieve my goal?

My challenge to you for the next 30 days is to push yourself out of your comfort zone. This will mean drastically different things for different people! If you normally go to the gym 3 times a week and hit the elliptical for 30 minutes, and pump a few weights for another 30 minutes, then I challenge you to either up the intensity (do 15 minutes of high intensity interval training, HIIT, instead of 30 minutes of steady state cardio) or to change up your routine all together by taking a gym class, or find a hill to do sprints up for 15 minutes, or try a totally new sport like dancing or kick boxing. Make it fun! Do something that you’ve always wanted to try, but never got around to.

Put the numbers to work!
So now we know what to do, but we don’t necessarily know how often, or what our end goals are. You might also consider adding to your 30 day challenge a goal like one of the following:

• Do 30 pushups a day for 30 days
• Go to the gym 5/6/7 days a week every week
• Add 15 KG to my dead lift in 90 days
• Cut 10 seconds off my mile time in 30 days

Using numbers is a way to actually measure whether or not you’ve hit your goal. Measure where you are starting out at, and measure where you end up at the end of 30 days. Didn’t quite hit your goal? Stop, reassess, and get right back to it! If your goal was to deadlift 100 kg by the end of the month and only made it to 95 kg, maybe you didn’t train enough? Or maybe you overtrained and were not able to hit your max as often as you should have? The reassessment stage of goal setting is what allows us to break through plateaus and get to where we want to be, so don’t leave this part out!

Okay, enough of me talking and you listening. It’s time to put all of this brainstorming to paper, and then do it!




______________’s 30 Day Challenge

Start Date:_________________
End/Reassessment Date:_________________

Goal 1: __________________________________
Why do I want to achieve this goal?





What measurable, attainable steps will I take to reach this goal?





Goal 2: __________________________________
Why do I want to achieve this goal?






What measurable, attainable steps will I take to reach this goal?






Let’s get started, team!