The idea for my 30 Day Vitality Challenge was born after my body decided to teach me a lesson about where I was putting my energy and focus. After receiving it's message loud and clear, it was time to change things up!
After 4 days of rest and recovery, I decided it was time for me to go back to basics.
Now, that didn’t mean stopping all the positive habits I had already cultivated. But rather be more focused and purposeful on one specific area’s of my life.
I decided to set myself a 30 Day Vitality Challenge.
MY 4 PILLARS OF VITALITY
It may appear strange to embark on a 30 Day Vitality Challenge instead of a more defined area to work on. However, I believe a sense of vitality is the essence of all that I want.
There are of course several schools of thought about what vitality is. Because I like to keep things simple, my notion of vitality simply means harnessing your energy to live a sense of excitement, energy and liveliness.
“I want to wake up in the morning excited to start my day.
Have a body strong enough to carry me towards my adventures.
A mind open to the wonders and opportunities life brings my way.”
So, with my ‘wants’ in mind, I’ve categorised my vitality challenge into 4 core pillars.
- Sleep
- Nutrition
- Movement
- Mindset
The prospect of spending the next 30 days, solely focusing on the four things above is already getting me excited for how I’m going to feel at the end of the challenge! But what’s my actual plan I hear you say? OK, let’s take it one pillar at a time.
MY 30 DAY VITALITY CHALLENGE
Pillar 1:
A few years ago, I worked out my body needs a consistent 7.5 hours of sleep a day to get up feeling ‘ready for the world’. However, lock down badly effected my normal sleeping routine. I was still waking up early to work out, but going to bed later and missing out on the sleep I actually needed.
I was only getting between 5 – 6 hours sleep each night. Over a week, I had been loosing an average of 14 hours of sleep. Times that by 10 weeks of lock down, I’d lost over 5 and a half days of sleep!!
So my pillar 1, 30 day vitality challenge is to re-establish a proper sleep pattern.
My Action Points are:
- A 9pm reminder to prompt the start of my nighttime routine.
- No screen time from 9.30pm
- Be in my bed (not necessarily sleeping) by 10pm.
- Read or write with the hope of falling asleep by 10.30pm.
- Wake up at 6am. (I no longer wake at 5am – but that’s another story!!)
Pillar 2:
Despite the fact that I follow an intermittent fasting protocol, I know my body is lacking a lot of the nutrition it needs to feel fully functioning and energised.
Also, I’ve been experiencing a lot of bloating in my stomach, which could be down to stress or the food I’m eating. This bloating is so uncomfortable and I’m sure has played a big part in the way I am feeling. (If your body is not getting what it needs – it will always give you a sign!)
There are so many ways I could go about addressing this. However as you all know – I’m going to start simply and easily, by making a few tweaks and then seeing what results I get.
So, my challenge for pillar 2 is the following:
- Drink 2 litres of water each day.
- Increase my intake of vitamin and mineral supplements.
- Eat clean. (find out more)
- Adjust my intermittent fasting protocol.
Pillar 3:
I bet you didn’t expect to see this here! lol. But in all seriousness, although I do move my body almost everyday, for this challenge I’m changing it up a little bit from my current fitness routine.
I think my body has gotten used to what I’ve been doing, so it’s time to give it more of a challenge.
I want to follow a more blended approach to my physical heath. I’m planning to do this by increasing the intensity of my workouts and start pushing my body a little further than I have been over the last few months.
My pillar 3 actions to challenge my body are:
- Do at least 3k steps each day. (Hey, this may not sound like a lot, but I’m a car driver!!)
- Increase by endurance by doing 60 minutes of HITT over the week.
- Do 3 sessions of weight training across the week and slowly increase the lifting weight.
- Complete 2 full sessions of yoga across the week.
Pillar 4:
Of all the four pillars, this is probably the most important. It’s also the hardest to plan and monitor.
But, I’m up for the challenge. And if I’m honest, I’ve been giving myself excuses to indulge into the drama of the current worldwide situation we’re living.
However, there are some easy fixes I can do over the next 30 days to at least get back on track. Hell, not only do I know there are, I bloody wrote about some of them only last week!
So following some of the points I outlined in 9 Ways To Recharge Your Energy Right Now, here’s what I’ll be doing for my mindset during my 30 Days Vitality Challenge.
- Turning off all notifications on my smart phone.
- Unfollow accounts on social media that are not bringing me anything positive or helps my journey.
- Read before bed every night.
- Do 5 minutes of meditation and deep breathing each day.
- Instead of listening to the radio in my car, listen to a positive podcast.
- Smile – even when there is no apparent reason to. (It’s contagious!)
There you have it!
The 4 pillars and the actions I am going to take during my 30 Day Vitality Challenge.
My plan is to start on Monday 15th June 2020 and complete it on 14th July. I’ll be tracking my progress and completed actions along the way.
Of course I’ll also be sure to share and update you with my progress and let you know how I’m getting on.
