30 ‘KINDA’ hard challenge

If you have been following me on social media, you know I recently completed a 30 Day fitness and nutrition challenge. For those who don’t know, I am a beachbody coach on the side. It’s a multi-level marketing side hustle which means I am on a team with other women. We are constantly coming up with different challenges and different ways to motivate each other. For example, we did a health bet where there was even money involved!

There is a  challenge going around called the 75 HARD challenge. To complete the 75 HARD challenge you need to check off the following items every day for 75 days-

• Two 45 minute workoutts a day- 1 of which must be done outdoors
• Follow any  nutrition plan
• Drink 1 gallon of water
• NO ALCOHOL
• Read 10 pages of personal development a day
• Take a progress photo every day

This is NOT what we did! Haha I’d say most of the women on our team are moms and while I am sure if we really wanted to and really put our minds to it we could do it- to dedicate 1.5 hours a day every day to working out for a parent would be very difficult.

Instead, the ’30 Kinda Hard’ challenge was presented to us. It’s a much more doable version of the 75 Hard challenge. To complete the challenge we had to check the following off for 30 days-

• 1 workout a day from Beachbody on demand
• 1 outdoor activity (running, walking, biking, swimming, etc.)
• 1 gallon of water
• Follow a nutrition plan
• Give something up- could be alcohol, sugar, desserts or it could have even been something not related to food or drinks that just wasn’t serving you

I am usually on point with my nutrition plan Monday- Thursday but on the weekends I would usually get off the rails. I am not big on junk food but I do love GOOD food like a good bowl of pasta, a good burger with fries, a good pizza. I am also a drinker- especially wine and that would come into play Friday- Sunday. For some time now, I have been considering taking one of the nutrition plans beachbody offers and sticking to it no matter what for 3 or 4 weeks just to see what would happen and how my body may change. We’d had so many things going on  a few weeks before causing my nutrition to suffer even on Monday- Thursday. Peter had weekday baseball games several days a week which usually caused us to eat out and drink beer, Natalia’s birthday was around there etc. I have my seasons in life where I’ll let myself go a bit but then I’ll reach a point where I’m not feeling good and I know I need to clean it back up. I was at this point and funny enough, the morning I came across the challenge I was thinking about really committing to my nutrition plan, even on the weekend, and cutting out alcohol during this time had crossed my mind because it is my weakness. When I logged into Instagram and saw a post about the challenge, I knew it was the right time for me to commit to something like this.

Suddenly it was all I could think about and after asking around about it I decided to commit. I could have taken the easy road and said I was giving up desserts or something like that but I had to be honest with myself. Dessert isn’t my weakness. Alcohol is and I know it. If you are serious about doing something like this, my advice is to start telling everyone that you’re doing it. I told my family and friends, and I announced it on social media. Now if I failed, I was going to have to tell the world I failed. Day 1 came and already the temptation was there! Day 1 was May 17^th which this year, happened to be our biggest deadline of the year at work. I do taxes and usually April 15^th is our biggest deadline but because of COVID, it was moved to May 17^th. While having our final meeting we’ll usually have wine to start celebrating but I wasn’t going to cave on Day 1.I work with family and my mom and my uncle told me I had really chosen a bad day to start this, and they were probably right, but was there ever really going to be a good time to commit to no alcohol and sticking to my nutrition plan 100%? That night Peter had his baseball championship game and while they didn’t officially win the game (I think they won but that’s another story! Haha) as runner ups they still earned their first rings! There were celebrations all week. It was not kinda hard, it was HARD not to cave.

I won’t sit here and bore you with EVERY occasion where this was HARD but Memorial Day on a yacht with bottles of Veuve Clicquot popping left and right, a kid free party at our friend’s house with shots of EmergenC and vodka in syringes (inside joke), and a pool party at our house with Peter’s baseball team which involved shots of tequila and dancing were tough to name a few.

The 30 days came and went and my friends, I checked off EVERY box EVERY damn day. The working out part was not hard for me. I chose a 30 day running program beachbody offers which was perfect for this challenge. It was 30 days exactly, I’d do my strength training workout and then run outside for my outdoor activity. Our super trainers would never encourage going 30 days doing intense workouts so most of our programs have active recovery workouts built in which include stretching, mobility, foam rolling etc. On these days I would walk or swim instead of run. Totally doable. The gallon of water also wasn’t hard. I sometimes struggled with the 10 minutes of personal development. I chose to read a devotional each day and journal about it. If I’m being honest, once or twice maybe I didn’t get to it but I would make it up the next day and make sure to do at least 20 minutes. Most days I was going over 10 minutes anyway so I consider this box checked! While I gave up alcohol, I did not have any cheats or treats during the 30 days. I did not have any pizza, cookies, dessert, or processed foods. Beachbody offers different nutrition paths and the last 3 weeks of the challenge I decided to kick it up a notch and try carb cycling! This involved eliminating dairy for the last three weeks as well.

So what motivated me to stick to it? First of all, I remember I had told the world I was doing this and I’d been sharing my journey on social media! I definitely considered caving on the alcohol, especially the kid free night party at our friend’s house! I even admitted it on Instagram! I am also the type of person that If I say I am going to do something, I do it. I’ve started books and TV shows I’ve realized half way I don’t like but I’ll finish them, I said I was going to run my first half marathon and I did it. I wasn’t going to leave things half way so I said I was going to run a full, and I did it. I would finish this. My very good friend is a photographer and I also asked her to come and take photos the day after so that was also a motivating factor!

What did I take away from it? On the surface-

1. EAT YOUR VEGGIES! Get your veggies in with every meal! They contain vitamins, minerals, fiber and will fill you up so you can still enjoy some of the bad stuff but maybe you won’t eat as much of it
2. HYDRATE- drinking water is important! You will feel better and it helps with digestion. If you struggle with this, buy a marked water bottle. I am working on setting up an Amazon Storefront where I can share links for some.
3. Following the nutrition plan isn’t that hard but you do need to plan ahead, especially if you are going to an event. Restaurants  usually have protein and veggies but often times they won’t be offered at house parties. I myself have been guilty of this but now try to offer greens at gatherings. If you are really committed, carry in your purse carrots, cherry tomatoes or other veggies you can put in a ziplock. Same for protein. Hard boiled eggs or deli slices are good options.
4. Sometimes You just want something to sip on! Perrier and lime was a sugar free carb free life saver during these 30 days!
5. Having Abs pop out is nice but so is wine and good food! Sorry not sorry- I said it! Haha It’s all about balance. I am definitely taking some things I learned from the challenge and applying them but I am also back to enjoying my wine, cocktails and pizza and if my little abs go hiding again- as long as I don’t get near an unhealthy weight that is OK!

Now, something deeper came out of this and it’s not about looking good in a bikini. Sometimes, you need to do something that scares you! Do you think it’s no coincidence that I did my 30 day challenge and the week after completing it I did something that had been on my mind for FIVE years? FIVE years of thinking about starting this blog, five years asking other bloggers for advice every now and then, five years of researching how to set up a blog, what sites to do it on. FIVE years of every so often opening up word and starting to type to just delete everything I’d written. More recently I had finally hit save on what I wrote and I still did NOTHING with it. All because I was scared that I would not have anything to say or that no one would care what I had to say. I’ll be honest and admit to that I don’t have thick skin and as hard as it is to admit this, I’m scared I’ll be judged for what I say, or for trying to do this at all. I realized though that I can do things that scare me. I ran a full marathon a few years back, I did this 30 day challenge, I can stop thinking about starting a blog and just DO IT! I challenge you today to DO THE THING THAT SCARES YOU!

Thanks for visiting!

-Jenny