These days, it’s impossible to scroll through your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter feeds without seeing regular mentions of month-long health and fitness challenges. You know the ones I’m talking about – some have you perform higher numbers of squats and pushups every day, others challenge you to remove sugar or certain foods, and still others involve practicing yoga, gratitude or mindfulness. I often see my friends debating the merits of one challenge or another. Will this one help me achieve X result? Can this one finally kickstart my motivation to achieve Y goal?
Many of the 28-day challenges floating around contain good advice. The problem lies in the implicit promise of these challenges, which is that you can go back to your old habits after finishing them. This would be like saying you’re going to stick to a budget for just one month. Chances are good that after the month is up, you will go right back to your old spending habits and maybe even blow the saved money on a treat you feel like you earned.
You don’t need a month-long challenge, you need lasting lifestyle change.
The wrong mindset
One of the biggest problems with short challenges, especially those related to food, is people start them under the mindset that they are making changes only for the short duration of the challenge. Elimination diets often cause you to spend the entire time fantasizing about all the forbidden foods you will eat after completing the challenge.
For example, let’s say you pledge to remove added sugar from your diet for an entire month. You start the challenge super pumped about how you’ll have more energy, fewer cravings and less bloat. However, as the days pass, you start to get even more excited about all the foods you get to eat after finishing the challenge. You make plans to go to your favorite ice cream shop, bake cookies, and generally be a bit more relaxed because “you earned it.”
Do you see how this is counterproductive? Rather than helping you conquer your sweet tooth, the anticipated end of the challenge is fueling your cravings and giving you a false sense of accomplishment. A few days after the challenge, you have eaten your weight in sweets and feel terrible. You then conclude that “diets don’t work” and your self-esteem takes a hit because you weren’t able to control yourself.
Do This Instead
I encourage you to take a different kind of 28-day challenge. From the start, your intention should be to make small changes you can manage right now with the plan of building positive change momentum. Take an honest look at your exercise and eating habits and identify your one or two biggest challenges. Be as specific as possible for best results.
Next, brainstorm ways you can improve your biggest problem area using habits, tools or strategies accessible to you right now. You don’t need to pick options that completely solve the problem; rather, focus on noticeably moving the dial forward. The best solutions involve things you have to do every day. For example, someone who is sedentary may be better suited to go for a 15 minute walk every day than to attempt a challenging gym workout 2-3 times per week. Someone who never cooks should focus on just one meal per day for which they already know some healthy recipes. Finally, the best solutions are those you can actually stick with. Scale back your commitment if you aren’t sure you can do everything you want to all at once. The most important thing is to take some action right away.
Now that you’ve done the work to honestly think about how you can improve your situation, commit to nailing that habit every single day for a month. This is your customized version of the 28-day challenge.
The most important difference between this challenge and the ones you see on social media is this way recognizes you are making this change for life. Once you master the one or two most important changes, then you can take the next steps and address more challenges. You may even find you are so inspired by your success in the first 28 days that you can add more to your plate than expected. However, this isn’t necessary. The important thing is you are moving forward and building a growing snowball of permanent, positive habit change.
Change Takes Time
Improving your health and changing your body takes a long time. Rather than looking for a quick-fix, practice patience and accept that you are in this for the long haul. It’s pretty uncommon for people to experience dramatic body changes in just a single month (with the exception of people who are significantly overweight). After a few months of consistent, sustained effort, however, you can start to see real progress toward your goals.
By all means, if you are inspired by a short challenge you see on social media please take action and start it right away. I certainly can’t predict what might spark lasting change in your unique situation. However, don’t be fooled by false promises of rapid results with little effort. It likely took you a long time to get out of shape, and it will usually take just as long if not longer to get back into shape.
If you want help determining which behavior changes will make the most difference for you, please fill out an application for my online coaching program.