You’ve heard about these, right? These 10-day detoxes or challenges. People start them for a myriad of reasons which are usually exercise or diet related. Before I tell you about my experience with a 10-day challenge it’s important to tell you that I’ve struggled to get back to my yoga practice and my weight has once again become an issue that I need to manage.  For about 4 years now, I’ve slowly managed to gain about 10+ pounds.  Maybe that sounds like a lot or a little to you but I worked so hard to get that weight off by doing it the right way—-for me anyway. I was taking intense yoga classes 3x (or more) weekly and counted every calorie which usually caused me to make better choices. But then, for a lot of reasons, over the course of the past four years, I slipped into something where I could barely keep any sort of routine that included either yoga or smart food choices.  Time to begin again. And again, and again.

Yeah.  You can relate to that, right?  Over these past several years, I’ve made these little proclamations to myself that tomorrow will be the day that I start again, tomorrow I’ll take a 60-minute yoga class, tomorrow I’ll start to log everything I eat again, tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.  And yet, I wouldn’t and didn’t.  Or I’d log my meals for a day or two and then stop because I was feeling guilty about that bagel I ate for breakfast.  Or I’d register for a Saturday AM yoga class and hit the snooze button on my alarm one too many times and miss the class mostly because I was worried about how out of practice I would look next to all the other yogis.  So many times I’d make these promises to myself only to end up feeling worse because I kept breaking them.  

So somewhere in the middle of January, I promised myself that I would start small.  I vowed to a 10-day food diary with MyFitnessPal.  There were no rules about what to eat and not eat; just accountability.  Ten days.  I could do that for myself, right? It’s just ten days.  No dieting or avoiding this or that.  Just journal my meals and snacks for ten days.  And I did it —-for ten days I successfully logged what I ate.  I mostly ate like I had been for the past many months without guilt (sort of) and just committed only to logging all of it.  And I did it. It felt good to make it to the finish line and to keep that promise to myself. What did I learn? I wanted to keep going but with a new 10-day challenge. What else did I learn (or relearn) about myself during those ten days?  Clearly, I’m addicted to sugar.  Around the same time, I heard that J.Lo was doing a 10-day no-sugar-no-carb thing with her boyfriend A-Rod and saw that they even had a following of 10-dayers on social media.  So, as my 10-day food journaling was coming to an end, I rounded up my Hons (girlfriends) and my honband (husband) to join me for a 10-day sugar detox/low-carb adventure.  

It was just the right segue to keep things moving in a positive direction for me.  And surprisingly, the girls really, really enjoyed doing it together.  We all seemed to struggle at different times over the 10-days and were the best cheerleaders you could wish for as long as you appreciate sarcasm sprinkled with a touch of lewdness.  Oh, and I should mention that the never-ending stream of text messages began as early as 5:30 AM!  We shared sooooooo many food photos.  

Some people might not appreciate group chats the way we do it —-seriously, sometimes I would put down the phone to work or get on a call and come back to over 70 missed text messages—-and it had only been 45 minutes.  I didn’t and don’t care.  It was great to do this with them. In a day and time where all the experts are slamming the smartphone and constantly telling us to unplug, this is the magic of smartphones. Being able to, in real time, be in touch with your tribe no matter how far away or how difficult it is to show up in person. We were connected and bonded and committed not only to ourselves and the 10-day plan, but to each other. Here’s what they had to say at the end:

Nicole—“So grateful and 10 days was certainly a small enough timeframe to commit. Was much easier to have constant feedback, support, banter from my friends. Was inspired enough to keep it going!”

Leslie—“I feel better and more motivated to eat healthier.”

Katie—“Inspired!  Pants fitting better.”

Peach—”Well, having a group of best friends to hold you accountable made it a little more bearable!”

What did I miss the most?  My glass of red wine at the end of the day.  What did Steph miss the most, her coffee creamer (and her glass of wine).  

Did we all manage to stick to it 100%?  Hell no.  But one would fall and the rest of us would lift her back up.  Like when Leslie confessed to a piece of key lime pie she ate while out with her honband.  First we harassed her with a barrage of memes like this….

Then we encouraged her to begin again.

So what’s the one thing I’d like you to take away from today’s post?  Try the 10-day challenge.  Any 10-day challenge.  It doesn’t have to be about detoxes or food diaries.  What’s that one promise you’ve been making to yourself?  What’s that thing you want to change?  Where are you trying to make improvements in your life to be the best you but keep coming back to broken promises and starting over?

Maybe it’s more time for yourself to read, think, and pray.  Maybe it’s taking a walk when you get home from work, or quality-uninterrupted-fully-present time with your kids, or getting on that treadmill that’s been collecting everything except the people that should be using it.  Just commit to ten days.  Build it into your day for ten days.  It’s just ten days.  Even if you set a time limit to do that one thing.  Maybe you want to create a better morning routine, or set daily intentions, or create a meditation practice.  Maybe you want to break your addiction to diet coke.  Whatever it is, start small.  Don’t make a vow to yourself that you won’t keep.  Stop breaking the promises you make to yourself.  Instead, commit to ten days of meditation, or your new morning routine or no diet coke.  Commit to ten days. What happens after the ten days?  Shush!  Don’t even think about that —-don’t ask that question.  Just focus on ten days.  Ten days of keeping your promise to yourself.  You owe it to yourself to not let yourself down.  And at the end of that ten days I would imagine you will have become a slightly better version of you.

What’s your 10-day challenge?

xoTrish