theFIREstarter

Proof of my first run. Don’t worry, I won’t be posting one a day! That would be a major yaaawn!

To view the Challenge Log click here

To check out the Challenge Hub with details of all previous challenges click here

Well, it is January isn’t it? That means that everyone and their dog is either going on a diet, giving up alcohol, quiting smoking, or any other number of self imposed detoxing measures from those sinful and previously cherished substances and activities.

Now I have nothing inherently against making resolutions but I do tend to agree with Johnny Moneyseed when he wrote in his recent article that most of time they are doomed to failure, mainly due to the vagueness of the goal, lack of conviction, and improper planning. He also mentioned about doing too much at one time, which kind of spurred me onto doing something completely counter-intuitive and try to do 5 common resolutions all at the same time, albeit only for 30 days.

I’ve already laid out my aspirations for the year and I’m hoping most of them are more “revolutionary” than “resolutionary”, but in the spirit of self-experimentation have been lightly sprinkled with a few one month long challenges.

In the spirit of the official detoxing month that is January then, here are the rules of the mega-detox challenge:

• Run one mile per day
• Do 50 press ups per day
• Do 50 burpees per day
• No alcohol drinking allowed
• No caffeine drinking allowed

Each item on it’s own is not really too hard in my opinion, especially just for a month, and especially when you see what other nutters hardcore mofos out there are up too. But I think all five at once comprise a pretty decent challenge.

I type this having just completed day one and I’m hoping this will have been the toughest day, as the old advice goes: starting something is often the hardest part. But we shall see!

The only other thought I’ve had on the challenge is that I’ve never given up caffeine for more than about 24 hours since I was about 10. I’ve been through various periods of not bothering with alcohol since reaching “adult” age, maybe even a whole month before (wow!) without really trying, but at least one cup of tea a day, everyday, has been a part of my life for so long it is a deeply ingrained habit. I don’t think I will struggle with this as such, but it will be interesting to see if I notice any effects, good or bad. And saying that, I nearly absent mindedly made a cup of tea this morning, so maybe it is something I will have to watch out for!

Anyone else got any crazy January challenges then? Anyone up for joining me?

And as always, suggestions for more challenges are more than welcome 🙂

Good luck with whatever your challenges/goals/aspirations for 2014 are.

TFS.x

______

Some more challenges to follow and inspire:

The Great Detox Challenge For 2014 @ The Simple Economist

Are you ready for a challenge? @ 1500 Days to Freedom