What I read:
The basic idea:
You “lock in” your new good habits before the new year. Starting three months before January 1, the idea is that you’ll have the strength, resilience and routine to start the new year right by the time January comes around.
What are the habits?
- 9 hours sleep a night
- 3 litres of water a day
- No sugar
- No fast food
- No smoking
- No alcohol
- Daily cold showers
- Workouts 3-5 times a week
- No screens one hour before bed
- 10k steps a day
My thoughts:
That’s a lot of NOs.
I might add one, NO COLD SHOWERS. For me, anyway. You do you.
What’s wrong with the usual 8 hours sleep a night and 2 litres of water a day?
Seriously, it feels very restrictive and unsustainable to me.
Is there anything about it I like? I’ve always liked focusing on health and fitness in the fall. As an academic September feels more “new year” to me than January. And I’ve never liked thinking of December as binge month and January as the Big Change.
But for more thoughts about making sustainable changes, read the article from The Independent, linked above.
Happy Friday?
How do you feel about challenges like this one? Anything in it that works for you?
Nope. If I sleep 9 hours one night, I won’t sleep well the next night. 8 is about right for me. I was once taking a medication that made me want to sleep 9 hours. So I did. I got off it when the time was right, and was quickly back to 8.
Too Puritanical. Too one-size-fits-all. Too rigid – no room for error. Too tough to ask for 10k steps every day even if I’m riding my bike 50 miles. Basically doesn’t look very likely to inspire anyone who takes it literally.
And I sure agree about cold showers. No way unless I’m in the tropics with no AC!
I like challenges but this one is too prescriptive and extreme. I don’t even think I can sleep 9 hours regularly and I’m on Team NO COLD SHOWERS. Unless someone is already doing most of these things, they seem like awfully big changes to do all at once. That’s a recipe for failure. But I like the idea of instilling new habits before January 1–new routines can start any time and they’re sustainable if they’re reasonable and amp up incrementally.