It’s that time again folks, time to wrap up one challenge and move on to the next. Before I reveal December’s lent, here’s a quick wrap-up of November’s Sweat Once A Day challenge.
Overall it was really fun and surprisingly not that difficult to keep up with. I ended up trying a few new workouts, I kept up with my yoga practice, and I definitely logged more physical activity than I would have if I wasn’t pushing myself to, so I consider it a win for that reason alone. Here’s my final tally for the whole month:
- 10 yoga practices
- 5 swalks
- 2 runs
- 5 Pure Barre classes
- 1 kickboxing class
- 1 Real Ryder class
- 1 Barre-dio class
- 1 Hampton Inn fitness center session (elliptical and free weights)
- 1 dune climb at Sleeping Bear Dunes
That makes 27 workouts, and since I was sick for the first few days, I’m going to go ahead and give myself a gold star. Not bad Dzenawagis, not bad…but alas, it’s December now and time to move on so I’ll get right to it and introduce this month’s challenge: the Holiday Survival Guide, Part 2.
Remember last December when I gave myself a set of self-care guidelines to follow to make it through the holiday season unscathed? Well, it worked so well that I’ve decided to do it again, changing a few little things from last year’s list.
The basic gist of it is this: it goes without saying that as wonderful as the holiday season is, the stress of keeping up with it often drives you to abandon your regular healthy habits in favor of overworking, overdoing it, and overindulging. Sound familiar? But while you can’t control how hectic everything around you is, what you can control is how you respond to it, which really boils down to creating and committing to a self-care practice designed to help keep you physically, mentally, and financially healthy.
This year happens to be extra crazy for me too, because in addition to the regular stress of working retail during the holidays and preparing for Christmas in general, this month I also have to contend with moving, a trip back home to the east coast—which includes flying Fanne back home in an airplane with us, oh boy…and turning 30 (which I’m 100% in denial about). So yeah, there’s a lot going on, and to help me make it through to the other side somewhat resembling a sane version of myself, this is what I’m committing to in the month of December:
- I will practice yoga (asana) 3 times a week.
- I will meditate every day.
- I will practice yoga nidra or another yogic relaxation technique 2 times a week.
- I will do some sort of cardio workout 2 times a week.
- I will abstain from eating all sweets (candy, cookies, cupcakes—basically any type of dessert), but allow myself exceptions for my birthday (because eating an entire birthday cake will definitely make me feel better about entering the next age bracket) and Christmas (because it would just be mean not to, right?).
- My credit card will not come out once. Everything I buy and do will be paid for with real money.
- I will have all my holiday shopping done by December 18th, a full week before Christmas (if I can pull this one off it’ll definitely be a first).
Does it sound like a lot? It is. But it’s the kind of work that’s worth doing, and the kind of work that pays off, I promise.
Anyone care to join me? If you made your own holiday survival guide, what would it look like? I’ll be blogging about this challenge over on the lululemon blog this month too and inviting their community to jump on board as well—join us!
12 Months of Lent 