I am excited to share how our August challenge went!
If you didn’t know about our August challenge – we spent the month making small lifestyle changes in order to get us into the mindset of possibly making these changes long term! The challenge seemed small, but was extremely hard sometimes. I missed lemonade more than anything!
Our challenge was:
1. Only drink water
(+ one cup of coffee a day for us – I’m rough without coffee and I would like my marriage to last).
How it went:
We did pretty well with this! We had no alcohol (that was a huge win) and the only thing we had other than coffee was tea if we needed something else. I drank quite a bit because I enjoy summer drinks and wine. We are 8 days into September and I still do not want alcohol. I had my first beer in over a month last Saturday at a wedding! Lyall does not drink as much because he isn’t into the taste like I am, but he loves soda unlike myself. I stopped drinking soda years ago back in 2014. We both agreed that we felt better with no alcohol or soda though! Total refresh.
2. Wake up before 6:30 am.
How it went:
We were about 50% on this. Lyall and I woke up earlier than normal, but I would say at the beginning we were 5:30-6:00am and then slowly that turned into 7:00am. I still felt like it was easier waking up and usually we switch every other day waking up with Cal, but we both would get up. Coffee in the morning is nicer with the whole fam.
3. 4-6 days of a workout activity each week.
How it went:
This is another 50%! I think we did so well the first two weeks and then we tapered off. We ended up not doing as many at the end of August mostly because Lyall started back at TCU and teaching + his thesis took up a ton of time. I didn’t have as much time when I was home with Cal all day so I just tried to get in a workout during his nap time. The hard part was I also wanted that time to blog or work on LTK. We want to work on this going forward.
4. In bed by 10:00 pm.
How it went:
I am such a night owl but we did so well at this! The only times we didn’t go to bed by 10:00pm was because of a deadline or because we saw friends. We were so tired by the end of the day anyways that it was easy. I used to go to bed at 1am so the transition was huge for me!
5. No fast food.
How it went:
We didn’t have any fast food! I wanted Raising Canes so many times, but we did it! We did have Raising Canes and CFA the moment September hit though. I was excited for the fries and dipping sauces. We aren’t big fast food people anyways but we wanted to make it a no-go. I’m proud of us!
6. Two hours of undistracted work.
How it went:
Working for two hours undistracted was so much easier when we didn’t have a child! Calihan sure makes it hard to do this, but we did make it work! The hard part is Cal decided he also wanted to wake up at 6:30 every morning and by the time he went down for the night we would want to be in bed. The best time was during his nap time. This was mostly for me though because Lyall has thesis work and goes on campus – so realistically he had more than 2 hours every day if not most. I needed this more for me so I could focus better! I know that if I had Cal going to daycare part time it would be easier, but it’s just him and I during the day and my family lives in Michigan so my days revolve around him. I’m not upset about that though 🙂
Overall, we worked really hard at this challenge! The tasks we thought would be the hardest were in fact the easiest and I consumed more water in the month of August than I am sure I have my entire life. I did end up losing weight and that wasn’t really the goal, so I know that sleep and alcohol are game changers. (I just really enjoy a glass of wine at night!) We are sticking with only drinking during social occasions and also waking up early. We want to work on our workout plans and make more time for being active!
Thank you to those that helped keep us accountable!
