Half Way Through!

Those of you who have taken the 30-day challenge with me you are now half way through! Congratulations, for creating a new habit! Reaching the half-way point is quite an achievement.

What has been the most difficult part about creating this new habit? If you have stuck to your goal so far, how does that make you feel?

If you did not try the challenge because 30-days was too overwhelming, perhaps you want to join us for the second half for a 15-day challenge.

Is going through the challenge together helping you?

If you tried the 30-day challenge but had problems sticking to your goal, I really want to hear about what made it difficult.

Sharing your struggles will help me help you… and I never want you to feel alone or frustrated.

Remember, you haven’t failed, you have just created a result. It may not have been the result you wanted, but it will tell you what you need to do to move forward.

Here is how the second week went of my challenge went:

Tuesday, I made 5 trips up and 6 trips down but I did my best run ever on Thursday… 6 trips running up and 6 trips walking down in 30 minutes!

Now, I am in North Carolina for the weekend visiting my family. When you write down your goals, especially when you are sharing them publicly like I am on this blog, the accountability factor is HUGE!

You just don’t want to have any “blemish” on your record. Being out of town, it would have been easy to skip my run on Sunday.

These excuses for not doing my challenge for Sunday actually went through my mind… I don’t want to take time away from my family, the hill was different so I couldn’t accurately measure the progress, I don’t want to pack my running shoes…

What ended up happening however was a great experience. I managed to find a similar hill because it took me 5 trips up and 5 trips down in the 30-minute time frame.

My brother-in-law ended up going with me on his bike, and he was very grateful to have someone to “encourage” him to ride AND not only is Chapel Hill, NC indeed “hilly” and beautiful, it was 10 degrees cooler than Dallas, even starting 4 hours later (11:30 AM instead of 7:30AM).

By the way, I tried out my brother-in-law’s recumbent bike. If you think knowing how to ride a bicycle is a talent you never forget… and you have never tried a front wheel drive recumbent bike… think again! It is a completely different experience!

Your center of gravity is completely thrown off. All the weight is in front of you. If you have never tried it, you should. It is very hard to stay balanced. After a while you can get the hang of it, but how fun that was!

If you are having trouble with your 30-day challenge or even getting one started, here are 6 tips that might help you:

1. Always set up an environment where you can succeed.
2. Remove foods from your home that are not supporting your goals.
3. When you get a craving, do something active like take a walk, call a friend, or post on this blog.
4. If exercise is your goal, having a partner who meets you at the gym or outside for your walk or run will help keep you accountable.
5. Have a new song or audio download to put in your iPod that you can’t wait to hear, but you can only listen to it when you go for your workout.
6. Write it down in your planner. You have an “appointment” to make your goal happen. At the end of the day, checking it off because you did it feels good.

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