After news that my school would transfer online due to Covid-19, I swung by Manhattan to grab a few clothes and went home from my trip to Colorado. I love being home and was ecstatic for another week off of school and the thought of online school. It felt like a snow day and I was all about it. After nestling at home for a week and soaking up the relaxing time, I knew I needed to start motivating myself or my mental health would quickly deteriorate. I'm someone who needs an action plan and goals for myself or my natural sloth will emerge and I will come out a miserable, 500-pound Eeyore.
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| My nook where I get everything done but never clean...sorry mom |
I had been watching tons of Youtube videos on challenges. They are my crack. I love seeing people complete something difficult while tracking their progress. Becoming better at anything gives me life. Originally I was talking to my sister about a fitness challenge. Taking inspiration from a few videos and also common knowledge of a healthy lifestyle we created our 30 day challenge. It included; drinking one gallon of water a day, working out 6 days a week, a second type of movement but it had to be outside, and intermittent fasting. If either of us cheated, both had to start completely over.
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| Proof that I drank the water...I look like an alcoholic |
I had watched tons of videos of people drinking a gallon of water for a week and looking at their results from under eye circles, to bloating to weight loss. I was very aware that naturally I probably drink 6 oz of water a day. This was a no brainer that I need to add it to the list. As far as working out, I knew the gyms would be closing so I didn't want to pay for a membership in my hometown to not be able to use it. I was regularly going to the gym at college and really loving it. My dad has always off and on done P90X so I asked him if we could do it together. It's a 12 week at home workout video plan. It's intense but a well designed program. This has meant most days waking up before 6 to get the workout in before he heads off to work. Without him waking me up, I would sleep in till 11 and that is absolutely not healthy for my mental health. My second type of movement was typically going on a walk around our property or jumping on the tramploline to work on my backflip.
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| Practicing my handstand for my 10 instagram followers |
I have tried intermittent fasting before and really liked it. However, I wasn't sure that I had really done it for an extended amount of time. Another main reason for 30 days was because I wanted to try something for a longer period of time than a week. I wanted to track it and see if I could really keep it up. I chose to do 18 hours fasting and 6 hours eating. I have done tons of research and there's tons of benefits to list. Apparently, it's good for our bodies to get a break from food. For many years people weren't able to graze all day. They would go hunt for food for hours and then feast. It gives your organs a chance to rest and if there's fat stored up to eat that first. I feel good doing it and it helps for a productive morning. I'm not focused on food all day. It's not something where you can't eat certain foods, its just about when you're eating. I would typically start eating at 1pm and end eating at 7pm.
After I established my healthy challenge I wanted to make a chart of the other things I wished to accomplish throughout the day. I realized when I focus on what I don't want to do (Netflix) instead of all the others things I could be doing (piano, sewing, reading, homework ect) I get in a downward spiral. So I made a chart to see what I really did in a day and to give me ideas of what would make me feel productive and like a creator at the end of my day. This part of the challenge wasn't about if I didn't complete it there would be consequences, it was just something I did when I was homeschooled to help me stay productive and focused.
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| I have read so many books during quarantine. I feel like everyone around me as been giving me the very best books to borrow. I've been ripping through them and I'm going to do some book reviews soon. Reading isn't something I'm addicted to but I always feel accomplished after. It's a habit I have to stretch and workout but becomes more natural and desirable the more consistent I am and the better the book. |
I had fun thinking about the activities I put on my chart. I love lists and crossing things off. The satisfaction of going to my chart and crossing it off was motivation enough to get off the couch and play the piano. I wrote down things I needed to do like homework, things that are imperative like spending time with God, and hobbies such as crafts or playing piano and things to keep me connected like writing letters and facetiming someone. I wrote down a few of my recent goals like doing a handstand and backflip, things I knew I needed to work on every day.
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| When you realize the self timer is taking 10 pictures not 1 |
As far as the health challenge, I only had one cheat day and that was Easter. Because I'm trying to not be so legalistic I decided it would be an intentional cheat day and my sister and I wouldn't have to start over. Other than that day, I did not cheat. Sometimes that meant going on a walk at 10pm because I forgot or chugging 32 oz of water before bed, then my brother making me laugh and throwing up the water... Waking up early and working out started my day into motion early, which meant the earth was quite which helped me focus my mind. Intermittent fasting went well. It was hard but shows me even if I'm hungry, I'll live, it's ok to not eat if others are eating, and I don't always need to eat right before bed. It took away the myth that I need as much food as I was consuming.
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| For the "craft" activity I was mostly wanting to push myself to sew more. I honestly failed and sewed twice last month. I'm glad I broadened it to craft so that I could cross off a few more squares with paper art. I'm hoping to sew a bit more next month. I've got some projects I've been wanting to share! |
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| I put "letters" for an activity because I really wanted to encourage people and what's better than a hand written letter? My favorite thing to do is go on Pinterest and search "envelope art" and copy what people have done. It's a two in one project, art and writing letters. However, I realized no one has gotten my letters yet...I'm a little worried. |
Before I started the challenge I wrote down things like joy level, focus level, headaches, energy, body confidence and motivation. I wanted to have other ways to determine my progress than the scale or just completion. After completing it was so encouraging to see how much getting motivated and taking care of yourself makes you feel so much better. I wasn't really in a low place at all when I started but I'm sure if I hadn't done this, I would be right now. I started my next 30 days and have changed a bit of the activity and it's pretty much the same. Also, something I stopped doing the last week was media. I stopped watching Netflix, Hulu, Disney plus (you name it I had someone's login), and yes YouTube (gah I'm so embarrassed about that one). I realized I was so anxious and unhappy and couldn't' focus. It was affecting my time in the Bible a lot and the way I treated people.
I realized I'm someone who wants to be doing the best thing, the most entertaining thing. When the back of my mind knows I could be watching something that would be way more entertaining than reading a book, suddenly that's all I can focus on. Then when my flesh wins and I reach for my laptop, it's a never-ending loop of a stressful feeling of watching the most exciting video. I couldn't even concentrate on a 12-minute video let alone a movie. I wanted to work on single-tasking especially in my mind and knew that media was destroying that. Anyway, it was nixed and I feel 100 times better.
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| Yup here's me trying to do homework. I honestly hate online school. My teachers have really thrown in the towel. Which means I have next to nothing to do (which is amazing). However, What I do have to do, is completely on my own. Again I really feel like I'm homeschooled again. |
I hope this inspires you. I know that lots of people are not wired like me and would hate this. That's completely fine. Take this extra time to do some self-evaluation on how you're wired and what will help you feel your best, add to the earth, and get off the couch. Let me know if you want the google doc link for my chart. :) And here's my next 30 days! Join me if you'd like! You can click on it to go to my google docs. Just copy and paste it to your own document and you can customize it.
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