Back in December of last year, I decided to try a lifestyle challenge called Project 50. Heard of it? If not, let me fill you in really quick.
It’s a wellness/lifestyle challenge where for 50 days, you have to complete the following habits every day. If you miss a day, you have to start the challenge over again from day 1.
The Habits:
- Wake up before 8am
- 1 hour morning routine (no distractions)
- Exercise for 1 hour
- Work on a skill for 1 hour
- Read 10 pages of a book
- Eat healthy (whatever that means for you)
- Journal your progress
Unfortunately, the first time (or two, or three…) I started this challenge, I couldn’t commit. I’d be going strong for a week or two, then take a full week off because “I didn’t feel like it”.
I knew I wanted to give it another shot, but kept making excuses. We had the honeymoon, then people coming to visit, then traveling home for a week, then a potential work trip… The list goes on.
Yesterday it hit me: there’s never going to be a perfect time to start this (or anything for that matter) and we’ll always have things going on. Especially when you’re looking at a 50-day period of time, it’s going to be nearly impossible to find 50 days straight where you don’t have anything planned.
So if there’s no perfect time to start – what better time than now?
Day 1 of Project 50
I slept like absolute shit last night and turned off my alarms in the middle of the night, planning on giving up on the challenge before I even started it.
Luckily, I’d told Jeremy I was planning on starting Project 50 again and wanted to be up before 8 am this morning. So at 7:59 he came in and woke me up. I won’t lie, I was not happy about it at the time. But ended up being so grateful for it.
Overall, today has been so productive and I’ve felt proud of myself all day for completing all my habits (even if it meant going through the day sleepy and grumpy af.)
Today looked like:
8-9am: morning routine (go on a walk with Simba, who we’re dogsitting, prep breakfast and coffee, journal, stay off my phone)
9-11am: self-care and chill (I’m working on self-care as my “new skill”. I tried to do a more “official” skill the last few times: photography, working on the blog, etc., and always ended up feeling burnt out and giving up. I decided to loosen up the definition of “new skill” this time and focus on something that I know will benefit me every day: taking care of myself.)
11am-12pm: get ready to run: mobility, stretch, get everything together and head to the park
12-2pm: run routine at the park, stretch, foam roll, refuel with a burrito bowl afterward, shower, etc
2-4pm: watch videos and read blogs I love for inspiration; start working on this blog
4-6pm: spend time with J once he gets off work
6-8pm: cook dinner, eat with J, clean, etc.
8-11pm: hang out with J and relax
11-11:30pm: read my book (currently reading The Checklist Manifesto while waiting for my Book(s) of the Month to come) and head to bed
Going Forward…
I’m excited to progress with this challenge and have faith in myself that I can complete it this time!
It’s not perfect timing by any means. We have a lot going on the next couple of months (traveling home in a couple of weeks and spending the week in IL, dogsitting, work events, friends visiting, bachelorette party planning, and work of course). But I truly believe there’s no better time to start than the present.
My intention going into Project 50 is to build discipline and a better overall routine.
I’ve moved far away from having any amount of discipline in my life for years now. I never believed it was a problem because I still try to exercise, eat intuitively, etc. (because I truly enjoy those things) but when it comes to doing anything when I don’t feel like it – it’s just not gonna happen.
Being too disciplined (like I was in my school years) is not healthy and I don’t want to get back to that by any means. But having no discipline I’ve learned isn’t good either. I need to find a happy medium: a balance between discipline and living intuitively/in the moment.
Hopefully, Project 50 will help me to find that. 🙂
And also help me to be more of a morning person! Which is a goal I’ve had for literal years at this point and have never been able to actually accomplish.
Day 1 down – 49 to go. Wish me luck! 😉
[…] Project 50: Day 1 […]