January Detox Challenge II
Happy New Year!
Was it really a whole year ago I embarked on my first Mega Detox Challenge? I guess it must be!
Those of you reading since last January will know I don’t really like making New Years Resolutions as they tend to be rather wishy washy, but I do like a good shorter term challenge with well-defined (-ish) parameters. They are great because you know they have a set end date, so if what you are doing turns out not to be worthwhile, you can still plough through to the end and then give it up without feeling like a failure. Conversely if it turns out to give you some positive life changing revelations, then hopefully some of that good shit will stick with you. So in the spirit of joining everyone in the country after having eaten and drunk far too much over the festive period, I will submit to another Detox Challenge!
The rules this year will be slightly different to last year, which was probably a little to harsh on myself, in the running department at least (read the rules from last year here!)
So anyway I am cutting back slightly on the running frequency, but upping the length on at least one run per week instead. I am also playing squash once or twice a week at the moment so don’t want to knacker myself out for that (although that is not part of this challenge, incidentally it is great way to detox as you end up sweating half your body weight out each game! 🙂 )
The Rules
- Run 2 x 1 mile run per week and one 2+ mile run per week.
- Eating – No Added Sugar!
- No alcohol 1
The challenge starts today, 5th Jan, and will end on 31st Jan as that is a Saturday and I will no doubt have a beer then 🙂
What’s the point?
As Mr 1500 explains well here when he took it upon himself to try eating Soylent 2 for a week, a reset is often necessary for any kind of natural system, including our own bodies and minds. I have also signed up (again) to two half marathons for late Feb/early March so the running part will hopefully get me back up to speed with that.
With the running part of last years challenge I looked at average one mile timings each week and got that down from 7:32 in week 1 to 7:04 in week 4. This time round as I am running less, plus feel like I am starting from a much fitter baseline, I’ll be looking to break my PB for a mile and two miles.
I’m not currently sure what they’d be(!), but I am going to pick the following figures out of the air:
- 5:59 for 1 mile – Although I secretly hope to do much better! This goal is not the least inspired by Huw who states one of his goals in life is to run a 4:59 mile in his millionaire post. I’m certain this is well out of reach for this particular challenge for me but want to see how far I can eat into the 5 minute zone!
- 13:00 for 2 miles 3 – I’ve not done much speed running (this kind of pace is very speedy for me at least!) over the 1 mile length so this one is a bit of an unknown. This could be harder to beat than the one mile one I think, to keep it going for the whole 2 miles!
In terms of the eating side of things, last year I tried no caffeine for a month and found it to be beneficial, but there is not much point in doing it again this month as I don’t drink much caffeinated tea nowadays. So I’ll try the alcohol thing again, and also a no added sugar challenge which I have tried on and off over the last year or so! 4 This one is going to be the hardest I think (there is sugar in everything!), or another way of looking at it – will require the loosest rules to achieve a pass!
The benefits for me on the no added sugar thing are numerous though:
- More consistent energy levels throughout the day (minimizes blood sugar level crashes)
- Less headaches in the morning (I tend to get “Sugar Hangovers” if I eat sweet stuff the night before, does anyone else find this?!)
- Better teeth and gums (getting a lot of bleeding after all the sweeties over Xmas… not good!)
- Numerous others as discussed by Zoe from Eco Thrifty Living here
Well that’s it for now! I don’t think I’ll do a challenge log this year unless something really amazing happens, so I’ll just keep some notes and write up a post on how I did at the start of February.
How about you? Fancy joining in? Any Resolutions or challenges regarding detoxing, money saving, or anything else going on in January? Let us know what you are doing in the comments! Cheers!
Notes:
- I was going to just say “try to not drink much alcohol” as I have a birthday to attend to mid january, but just realised I have to give blood 2 days later anyway so probably best I don’t drink! So have upgraded this option to a full no alcohol one. Mrs TFS will be doing this anyway so at least I have someone to be sober with 🙂 ↩
- No, I was never tempted to add this into the challenge rules!!! ↩
- We have a local Park Run which is 5km (~2.5 miles) which runs every Saturday, so I am hoping to take part in this at least a couple of times. It will be hard to get a PB as there are a lot of people and one track paths to contend with, but it’s a nice event to attend. Best of all it’s free!!! If you fancy it check out the list of events here, there are loads so likely there is one local to you! Even if you’ve never run before I would recommend it, there are runners of all abilities attending. ↩
- Astute readers may remember it was due to be a challenge last May but I never got round to it. January will be much easier month to attempt this in I think! ↩
Discussion (18) ¬
Hi TFS. Today is the natural day to be starting a “re-set” after the indulgences of December so I’ll be joining you in a healthier living regime in January. I won’t be going the whole hog with “no alcohol” but I will be cutting it down to no more than 3 days a week.
I eat fairly well most of the time but I have a tendency to snack on carbs (crisps, cereal and toast) if I stay up late at the weekend so my other rule for Jan is no food after 10pm.
Hopefully these two things combined with making an effort to do more walking will help me lose the Christmas pounds.
Good luck to you with your challenge.
Hi Cerridwen! Yea I wasn’t that fussed about the alcohol thing if we had social engagements that “required” it but seeing as we don’t I think I should be able to go completely dry this year for a whole 4 weeks… 🙂
Crisps used to be my achilles heel and certainly were again over xmas… lots of carb based snacks are about this time of year isn’t there!
Thanks and good luck to you as well.
Good work there bud. Health goals are always good!
For 2015 I am going to try and uo my savings rate to 60% and increase NW by 40% across the year (although this is dependent on Mr market cooperating.
Also looking to cycle 200 miles a month on average and exercise at least 4 times a week. Blimeh
Good luck with the detox, first week will be the toughest! May end up walking about in a rage and shouting at wheelie bins. Good luck!
Those are some lofty goals Mr Z, good luck to you too!
200 miles a month sounds ridiculous to me but I’ve yet to set foot in any serious way on a bike since I was a teenager. Planning to by one soon for local errands but running is my form of “enjoyment” exercise so going to stick with that, it amazes me how people can cycle for so long a distance!
Haha, I’ve been known to rage and shout at inanimate objects before but that is normally when I’ve had too many beers so hopefully I’ll be ok for this month at least 🙂
Yeah, its going to be tough! And it’s based on trying to beat the last few month of 2014 where I didn’t have any surprise expenses!
Cycling’s ok once you get into it. A nice road bike properly fitted, some cracking music (heavy metal preferably) and the miles will fly by 😉
Every year I do the no alcohol for Jan so will be joining you on that one. I might perhaps consider going past a single month.. depending on how things are going by the 31s. Cheers!
Nice one guy! Good luck in getting way past the 31st, shouldn’t be too hard for you I don’t think 🙂
I only drink alcohol at weekends so I would hate to deprive myself by abstaining totally lol!
Good luck with your challenges TFS!
Cheers weenie, yea me too “normally” but there is always the odd midweek night out here or there I find. It catches up on me too easily so am looking forward to a few weeks off to be honest!
Good luck with your challenges! I think it makes all the difference having short term realistic goals. Thanks also for the mention!
Cheers Zoe, I know you love a good challenge 🙂
All the best for the new year to you
My husband and I stopped bringing processed foods into the house earlier this year and we both lost weight. The only sugar we keep at home is from 70-90% dark chocolate and we don’t eat any processed flour foods, which is basically mimicking the impacts of sugar. It has totally reset our palette, so that now fruit tastes like dessert. If we want junk food, we have to make ourselves go out for it instead of having it within easy reach. That usually deters us 95% of the time. If we want something sweet, we go to a local spot for a homemade dessert and savor it.
Green Girl’s Don’t Get Fat recently posted…Why I Try to Avoid GMOs
Yep, cutting out anything with added sugar (which is most processed foods as you point out) will generally lead to weight loss. And great point about floury/carby processed foods as well! I’ll be trying to stick to a couple of slices of brown bread per day on that front and not much else (I realise this has probably got some added sugar in it, but I’m not going out of my way to make my own bread. I should have probably added some “rules” for the challenge in fact to fully point out what I am trying to achieve on that one!)
Yep… a big part of eating healthy is just to not buy junk food, then it’s not on hand. Unfortunately we have loads of sweeties and crisps leftover from Christmas so it’s going to be quite hard on that front for me, but I like the extra test of resolve this will bring. 🙂
Love the site and have been lurking for a while but have you read this article on the guardian?
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/05/detox-myth-health-diet-science-ignorance
Sounds more like a fitness challenge than a detox but it’s one that’ll certainly boost your health and bank balance. Good luck!
Hi Kev, glad you like the site and thanks for delurking and leaving a comment, please continue to chip in whenever you can.
Yea… Detox is a pretty loaded word nowadays and possibly not the best one to use here but I thought it sounded more eye catching for a post title 🙂
From that article:
“The ultimate lifestyle ‘detox’ is not smoking, exercising and enjoying a healthy balanced diet like the Mediterranean diet.”
And it also mentions about not drinking alcohol to give your body time to get rid of the toxins from that, so this is what I mean when I use the word detox. Of course the running part of it is just purely fitness and I don’t expect to literally detox my body of anything by doing that.
I really like the comment at the bottom of that article in fact which sums everything you really need to know up nicely:
“Ride a bike, cook from scratch, go easy on the booze. That’s all you need to know really.”
Thanks again and good luck and good health to you as well sir!
Happy New Year TFS!
I like your Detox Challenge. All the very best with it.
My running goal is on the back burner for now, as I want to focus more on strength and muscle building at the moment. I will be running, but more to keep bodyfat down rather than for time.
If you want to bring you 1 mile and 2 mile time down, I would recommend sets of 400m and 800m sprints. Eg. 5 x 800m Sprints or 10 x 400m Sprints, resting in between sets the same time it takes you to run the set. Don’t do them ‘all out’ but 80% sprinting. Trying to maintain the same time splits across all 5 or 10 sets if possible. They are brutal sessions, but hugely effective for increasing speed for longer distances. If you’re interested I would only do one session a week too until you’re used to it. It’s a different experience to running 1 or 2 miles straight.
Anyways good luck!
Huw
Happy New Year Huw!
Thanks for all the tips. Ah shame about the running goal… I thought we could have a race to see who gets there (or nearest) first and spur each other on… 🙂
I will definitely try the sprinting methods, this makes perfect sense to me and I kinda did a similar thing by getting my 1 mile speed down as far as I could last year and this made it easier to run 13 miles at a fast pace more comfortably when I came to do my halves, so that is proof enough to me that this method will help. I assume you’ve heard of fartlek (lol, childish but always makes me smile) training as well where you say, sprint for half a minute then jog for 2 mins, repeatedly, but there is no resting in between. Very similar in outcome I would have thought but I will try both with rests and without and see what one seems to fit me best.
I’ll see how I get on with my 3 times a week goal in Jan and give that a pop in Feb 🙂
Cheers again!