Choose a challenge that makes you grow: The Dirty Thirty Challenge
In March, I completed the 75 Hard Challenge with my personal trainer Heather Szarmach and owner of Bent Dog Yoga Agata O’Neill. The 75 Hard Challenge consists of 2- 45 minute workouts, one inside and one outdoors, drinking a gallon of water daily, taking a daily progress photo, reading 10 pages of a personal development book, avoiding alcohol, adhering to a specific diet of my choosing (I gave up processed sugar and limited my coffee to 1 cup a day), no cheat meals or rest days.
There were some harsh realizations that came to me during this challenge.
In my 20’s, if I ate a whole food diet and eliminated alcohol I would feel inflammation reduce and with that fluid retention would quickly drain off my body in 2 weeks. In my 40’s, it took me 43 days till I felt the same effect. In my 20’s, I used to be able to get over sugar cravings by abstaining from it for 4 days. Now in my mid-40s, it took me 3 weeks to get over my sugar cravings and I noticed a boat load of emotions tied to when and why I was eating sugar. I had created an unconscious habit of coming home from work and going to the freezer to pull out a dark chocolate bar. I would eat the bar while standing there leaning against the kitchen sink.
Having given up sugar, I would walk in the kitchen and put my hand of the freezer door before I realized what I was doing. Once I had the thought “you can’t eat the chocolate”, I was flooded with feelings of being overwhelmed, stressed out, sad, frustrated, and/or lonely. And sometimes feeling all of them at once. So I did what any normal 46 year old woman would do when she couldn’t stuff her emotions with chocolate, I stood in my kitchen and cried. Every night for 3 weeks I stood in my kitchen, hand on my freezer door and I cried.
It was uncomfortable to go through but I kept telling myself that I’m not afraid of doing hard things and this challenge was hard. It was unearthing a mental blinder that I was unaware that I had and as the veil was lifted and I saw the reality of my actions I was able to show myself some compassion and allow the process to unfold. To me, this is the benefit of doing hard things, the growth and self awareness that comes from taking on a challenge. The physical benefit was that after crying every day for 3 weeks my body had finally been able to release all those trapped emotions and big shifts really started to happen in my physical appearance. The mental benefit was that I no longer desired sugar and I felt unstoppable.
These realizations have me reconsidering my approach to the maintenance of my own health.
My take-aways from the 75 hard challenge are that my body works best on 96 ounces of water daily which is more than half my bodyweight in ounces of water that you commonly hear as the recommended dose. This was the first winter in as long as I can remember that my heels didn’t crack and I didn’t get a nosebleed. I associate this change to the fact that I was drinking a gallon of water a day. I noticed every day on the 75 hard challenge I felt good when I got to the 96 ounce mark and when I started to drink over that I felt my body start to feel overwhelmed by the excess of water. That’s how I determined that 96 ounces is now my daily goal for optimal hydration.
I have also decided that I would save eating sugar for something homemade or something that really looks delicious. And to be aware of my emotional state when I’m deciding to indulge in a sweet. If I’m feeling overwhelmed, stressed, lonely or sad, I can acknowledge those feelings and walk away from the dessert. But if I indulge in a sweet than for the next few days afterwards I have to intentionally abstain from sugar to make sure I don’t fall back into a toxic habit. This advice came from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. The idea that if you “fall off the wagon” with your exercise or diet, or have a cheat meal, that the very next day you have to get back on whatever health program you committed to in order to prevent yourself from creating a lazy or toxic habit.
I tend to have an all or nothing mindset, so this concept came as a relief to read. In the past, if I cheated or ate sugar when I was suppose to be “dieting” I would have said “oh well, I cheated”, I’d throw in the towel and go back to eating sugar every day. Now, if I slip up I’m intentional about saying “Ok, enjoy it today but tomorrow your off it”. It allows for us to show some grace towards ourselves and still allows for us to move forward towards creating a healthy habit.
Heather, Agata and I all had friends and clients who were intrigued by the 75 hard challenge but intimidated by the length of the program so as we came to the end of our own 75 hard journey we decided we would take what we liked about the program, change what we didn’t, and add our own specialties in creating a Dirty 30 Challenge that we are starting June 1st.
The Dirty 30 Challenge rules:
For 30 days you commit to doing, 2- 45 minute workouts, one inside and one outdoors, drinking 96 ounces of water daily, taking a weekly progress photo, reading 10 pages of a personal development book, avoiding alcohol, adhering to a healthy diet, no cheat meals or rest days.
The program includes:
Weekly Saturday morning outdoor workouts with Heather Szarmach, owner and personal trainer at Grit Fitness. Outdoor classes will be held at Potawattomi Park in St. Charles.
4 yoga classes at Bent Dog Yoga in St. Charles IL
7 day high fiber recipe ebook for weight loss designed by me.
Private Facebook group with daily yoga videos for muscle recovery with Agata, proper weight lifting form videos by Heather, healthy eating and mocktail recipes by me, and much more.
Dirty Thirty T-shirt
Value of the 30 Day Dirty Thirty Challenge is $255.
Registration is now open! Sign up by contacting our office at 630-945-3867 or email info@fromscratchwellness.com
Check out our promotional videos on Instagram @dirty.thirtychallenge