Let’s not bury the lede. 🎆I completed my October 2020 Challenge 🎆. It was a moderate challenge for myself, pretty much exactly what I was looking for. This article discusses the October 2020 Challenge and how I’m adjusting and adding to these habits for a November 2020 Challenge.
Here’s what my tracker ended up looking like:
Let’s go through each habit/goal briefly.
Habit #1: Drink 24oz of Water Everyday
Total Water Consumed in October: 816 Ounces
This habit was shockingly easy for me but had a very negative side effect. Without the extremely tiny amount of “working in public” pressure that this website gave me, I never would have done this. After two weeks I became bored with this habit and wanted to spice it up and try to get to 36 ounces. That was a mistake.
My routine was solid at first. 12 ounces first thing in the morning. Then around 6 ounces at lunch and 6 ounces for dinner. A lot of the time I would skip the lunch 6 ounces and just do the 12 ounces at dinner. This was fine and doable.
However there were unexpected consequences when I ramped up from 24 to 36 ounces and I skipped that lunch dosage. I’d end up drinking 24 ounces in the evening and would then be forced to get up at least twice in the middle of the night. #smallbladderproblems
Most days towards the end of the challenge I was missing that lunch 6+ ounces. Sigh.
For this month instead of trying to make the jump from 24 to 36, I’m going to split the difference. 30oz a day everyday for the next four weeks.
My initial thinking is 12 ounces first thing in the morning. 12 at lunchtime. And 6 throughout the evening. Hopefully this’ll keep the 2:00 AM wake ups to a minimum…
This habit somehow became the one I was always scrambling to do at the end of each week. Like, it’s 10 minutes. I should be able to do that no problem…
Well, I was in my own way. I set additional “rules” that were preventing me from just doing the darn thing. It was always “10 uninterrupted minutes and I needed to be alone.” Why? Why did I set this unnecessary burden on myself?
I completed the habit in spite of this. But for this month I’m nixing these unneeded regulations on myself. And I’m upping the time. This month I’m going to do 15 minutes 3x a week. But those 15 minutes can be broken up into however many mini sessions I need. And I can do this if my wife is around or if the little man is crawling all over me. The point is to stretch. So let’s stretch.
Habit #3: Walk or Run 1 Mile 4x a Week
Total Miles Walked/Ran in October: 26.88 (that’s more than a marathon!)
This was my favorite habit for the month. Nearly every walk I did was with my son pushing him in his stroller. Every weekday when it was nice outside I’d throw my Teams away message up at 4:30 PM, put my son in the stroller, turn on the Nike Running App, hand him a cracker, and head out the door. For the 20 times I completed this habit probably 16 of them were with him.
If you’ve read someotherposts on this site then you would know how important I value time with him. I wasn’t expecting to take him out with me everyday but it ended up being the best option. He usually goes down around 7:30 PM. It’s too dark to go walking then, even though I ended up doing it a couple times. And if I’m waking up early it’s to focus on EVF. These afternoon walks made perfect sense.
Towards the end of the month it started getting borderline too cold to continue to take him for walks. That’s only going to continue in November. For this month the habit will be a 1 mile walk or run or a 15 minute workout in my basement. Similar to the stretching habit I’m going to attempt to not put any additional stipulations on these 15 minutes but ideally I’d like to do all 15 minutes in one session.
I did my first workout session this afternoon and it’s definitely more effort than the mile walk I was doing. I’m excited for this new adjustment and not feeling limited to only walking/running outdoors.
New Habits for November — #4 and #5 Focused Around EVF Content
For my November 2020 Challenge I’m adding two additional habits. Each week I will publish 1 new article on the EVF website and each week I will publish 1 new YouTube video on the EVF YouTube channel.
I already strive to do this currently but fell off the wagon in October. It’s time to get back on and keep publishing content.
That recaps the October 2020 Challenge and tees up the November 2020 Challenge. Wishing you good luck in whatever habits you’re working on.
– Josh // ready for another challenge
Related
2 thoughts on “November 2020 Challenge Start and October 2020 Challenge Recap”
2 thoughts on “November 2020 Challenge Start and October 2020 Challenge Recap”