Are you up for a challenge?
A 30-day challenge, that is. I’m not just talking vegan. It can be anything really. Fitness. Breaking bad habits. Adopting new habits. Practicing to get good at something. When I first met my husband, he was in the midst of two separate challenges. One was to practice juggling for 2 minutes every day, and the other was to practice his hand-stands for two minutes every day. Imagine meeting someone in Barcelona, and in the middle of them courting you, they take quick breaks for juggling and hand-stands.
I recently completed my very first 30-day challenge. As someone who’s spent most of my life completely addicted to sugar, I vowed for 30 days to not consume any refined sugar (or as I defined it for myself, any sugar with an indulgence element attached to it). For me, that meant, no candy, no desserts, and no juice. But, what I did allow for was natural pressed green juices, smoothies, and vegan yogurts. I mean, a girl’s still gotta live!
What did I learn? I learned that I was much stronger than I had ever given myself credit for. I endured that first two weeks of headaches from sugar withdrawals and I persisted. I also reinforced things that I had already known. Like, that your taste buds are very easily changed. After not eating any of the sugary sweets that’s I’ve spent a lifetime conditioning myself to believe I needed, I found that once I did again, everything just tasted too sweet. I had re-trained, or perhaps, even reset my palette. This allowed me to continue to move forward with making much better decisions and broke me free of that sugary hold.
How can you benefit from a 30-day challenge? How can you make sure to be successful at one? Set yourself up for success. Pick something manageable to start with. Set a goal, know why you’re doing it, and figure out how you plan to execute it. Sure, it’s a challenge, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. So why not start with something fun!
So, are you up for it? What will your 30-day challenge be? What do you hope to gain at the end of it? When do you plan to start?
I would love to hear from all of you on this! Let me know how you plan to challenge yourself and how it’s all going once you get going!
-Porsche