Photo by Ron Lach
So I’m 71 days into my challenge and let me tell you, this is not a challenge for the weak. I have never been so ready for a challenge to end. I expected it to be difficult but didn’t really realize just how long 75 days is…it’s basically 1/5 of a year!!
So, for those of you who are not regular readers of my blog and may not have any idea what I’m talking about….feel free to check out my previous post. I started this challenge on July 19th and this Sunday, October 1st will me my final day.
How did I do?
Following a diet and no alcohol for 90% of the time:
I did okay. I started off with intermittent fasting but fairly quickly changed to just tracking my calories daily. Intermittent fasting was easy enough during the work week but it just wasn’t feasible for my weekend schedule. I cheated on the alcohol twice. I had one drink (Malibu rum and pineapple juice-I mean, that’s fruit, right??) on a camping trip with friends. The second time was last week at a work banquet and I had maybe 3 ounces of red wine.
Drinking 96 ounces of water daily:
Passed with flying colors. Didn’t miss any days with this and I still hate water!
Read or listen to 10 minutes of personal development a day:
No problem with this one either. Didn’t miss a day.
45 minute workout each day:
One day when I was out camping I probably only got about 30 minutes of an actual power walk in so that was a half-hearted day but I was moving quite a bit throughout that day so I counted it. I’ll tell you, it’s tough to work out EVERY SINGLE DAY for 45 minutes. You really have to plan out your day/week to fit it in. There were a few days I left a friend’s house at 10pm to get to the gym.
Meditation for 5 minutes a day:
I’m not great at this because my brain is always going a hundred miles and hour in 6 different directions. I also found when I really did settle my brain down that I tended to drift off to sleep. Definitely something I want to continue working on in my life.
Picture on day 1 and day 75:
I took my day one picture and I will take my day 75 picture after my final workout Sunday night. Unfortunately, I suspect there will be little change.
The Positives
This was definitely a practice in developing discipline. Time management was a huge factor in my success and/or failures with this. If I knew my schedule was going to be crazy packed then I had to be disciplined enough to either get up early (which I HATE) to fit in my workout or realize I was going to be at the gym extra late.
I got a lot of reading in. Generally I kept reading well after my 10 minute time went off. I still have 4 days to go and I’ve finished 12 books since July 19th.
I’ve basically given up my life-long addiction to diet coke. It wasn’t part of this challenge but since I had to drink so much water on a daily basis anyway, I decided to knock out my 50 before 50 item of giving up diet coke for a week. The week came and went and I decided I could extend it out a bit. I’m not saying I will never drink a diet coke ever again because, again, I don’t like water and I love diet coke. I do think I can now drink it as more of an occasional treat rather than a multiple times a day necessity.
The Negatives
75 days is a really long time, lol. Did I mention that earlier?
I’m not a big drinker but it was a bummer a couple times when I normally would have wanted a drink, like on my camping trip with friends.
The obligation of the 45 minute workout every single day, even those days I didn’t feel well or worked late or just wanted to chill out in front of the TV for the night.
I didn’t lose any weight and I really don’t think it’s because I’ve gained muscle because I don’t feel like I look any more toned. That is the most frustrating part of this for me. I wonder if that would have been different if I had kept up with the intermittent diet…who knows.
What’s Next?
I can say with great certainty that I will not do this again. I do think I’ve probably created enough discipline to consistently be able to work our 4-5 times a week now. I’m also going to continue drinking more water.
My October challenge will be to write on a daily basis. I think I’ll probably set some time parameter on that as well, such as 30-45 minutes daily, or maybe 5 hours a week. October is a really busy work month for me because I have to get our city property tax bills out but I still want to make this a priority. Writing is my passion and I also need to get in the daily habit since I plan on participating in NANOWRIMO again this year in November.
So what’s the most difficult thing you’ve ever challenged yourself with in the past? Or better yet, is there anything you anticipate challenging yourself with in the future? Leave me a comment and let me know!
