Afternoon All, Just letting you know about a personal physical challenge I’m going to be starting tomorrow. It’s called Challenge 71 and it’s been set up by an organisation called Bristol Women’s Voice which aims to advocate for women’s rights in Bristol (in the South-West UK where I live). The name “Challenge 71“ relates to the statistic that at least 71% of women have been sexually harassed in public in the UK. This is obviously not unique to Bristol or the UK and something that sadly happens worldwide.
As some of you know I completed a challenge from April to July called “75 days of Daily Exercise” and after a summer of increased pain from endometriosis, lack of routine and incredible amounts of bread eating (but still no sweets!) I realised I missed the discipline, expectations and focus doing the challenge gave me. I donated £75 to Endometriosis UK at the end of the challenge because in all honesty I didn’t know if I’d complete it until I actually did. This time I feel like if I say I will, I will and therefore feel more able to take part in something where other people have organised it and we are actively fundraising.
I was toying with the idea of doing the 75 DAYS HARD challenge and realised it was probably a bit TOO HARD for me ( possibly because I ultimately don’t want to take pictures of myself in my underwear every day and post it on the internet). Although there were days where I did 2 workouts a day during every week during the last challenge, I definitely lost muscle mass over the 10 weeks through never having proper recovery days and I definitely want to build muscle and lose some body fat this time around.
So I’m creating a programme which includes “exercise” as being a workout at the gym, a pilates class, a personal training session but also a daily walk of 45 mins or a rehab session for my wonky hips/knees/ankles. I’m still finding my way with managing my fluctuating energy levels- something that I know many people with chronic/ remitting conditions suffer from and after having the summer “off” from exercising every day, not taking my basic supplements reliably and eating refined white carbs (hello bread!) I think my health has suffered. As illustrated when I went to Edinburgh over the summer and pretty much missed the gloriousness of the city because I was in haze of pain the whole day (I’ll talk about this some more in a blog post soon because it was spectacularly awful).
So I’m using this challenge to get me back on track and into better health and this time I’m going to create a plan for afterwards so I can work out what stuff is working and what isn’t to help maintain the best possible health afterwards… FOR LIFE!
I’m also doing it because I am one of the 71% women who has been sexually harassed in public. Part of me thinks “Well, every woman has, what’s the big deal?” and another part screams “this is not ok and we should not be accepting of these things”- but if you are a woman it is often what you come to expect when you step outside your door and living with this extra threat (where will this lead?) is pretty unpleasant. Yes I know hashtag not all men but I also know a lot of young girls who still get things shouted at them by boys their own age so it’s clearly not filtering through in a way that makes women feel as safe as they deserve (ie. as safe as man feels which is no way connected to his gender). Creating better awareness within our communities to call out this behaviour when you see it and to be an ally where you can is important. A lot of behaviour goes unchecked because we are fearful of the consequences but women and girls should not be subjected to unwanted attention and the more we champion this message and stand together the more likely it is that there will be change. Eventually.
I will be making these 7 pledges to myself:
1. TO DO A DAILY WORKOUT OR EXERCISE OF SOME KIND
2. TO DRINK 2-4 LITRES OF WATER A DAY
3. TO GET OUTSIDE EVERY DAY
4. TO MEDITATE FOR 10 MINUTES DAILY
5. TO CONTINUE NOT EATING SWEETS
6. TO NOT BUY ANYTHING ON AMAZON
7. TO GO "ANALOGUE" MORE (LESS PHONE MORE PAPER/BOOKS)
I'll just to go over these pledges I'm making to myself and the reasons why:
Daily Exercise- because my instinct with pain and low energy levels is to hunker down and not move as much as possible but as with many people who experience chronic or remitting pain this can mean you "hunker down" a lot and only expend energy when you feel you can which realistically could be one day out of a month. So although doing more physical activity does not seem intuitive I found when I gave myself the expectation that I needed to do something every day in the knowledge that by doing this I cumulatively felt better and could do more (because when I sit and stagnate it makes it harder for my body to function optimally) then I was able to do it.
Drinking water- I've slacked off on this for various reasons over the summer- being away/ camping/ out of the habit but we all know everything works better when you drink plenty of water.
Outside- I can still stay indoors for days at a time and although I definitely don't do this as much as I did before I need another little push to remember this- outside is good!
Meditation- I'm most excited about this one- if you can get excited by meditation- I have wanted to build a meditation habit for so long and can never sustain it so I thought building it into this challenge would help me develop this practice. I'd like to work on my focus and ability to deal with thoughts passing through without dwelling on them or getting carried away by them.
Sweets- Since I started the previous challenge back in April I have not eaten any sweets and by this I mean Haribo type jelly sweets which I used to eat every week if not every day of my life previously. I was literally a slave to them and I still feel addicted to them now so I don't want to jinx it too much by talking about it- because like any addict I'm taking it one day at a time. I've been "tested" several times recently and I still haven't eaten them even though sometimes I automatically picked them up to buy out of habit but on the whole I've shifted to "those are not for me". However, over the past few months- to help me with my sweet addiction I switched to eating natural cereal bars or dried fruit bars so I'm still getting a sugar kick but not the zero national value ones from eating sweets. Despite being proud that I have so far kicked my specific sweet addiction it is my dearest wish that I move beyond my sugar addiction and try to phase the need for sugar out of my life. This is partly why I want to kick my bread habit too which has gained traction during the summer- all white carbs give me the "gimme gimme gimme" more sugar vibe and I want to feel way more neutral about the food I'm eating rather than seeing it as an exciting thing to unwrap or a sugar/salt/fat hit I'd like to feel good about what i'm putting in my body nutritionally and finally treat my body with the respect it deserves. I know it's how we are built- to want high impact foods for survival but this approach to food has probably been shortening my life and I'm ready to move on. So this part of my challenge will be continuing with not eating sweets which is very important to me but also moving towards reducing refined sugars so they no longer feature heavily in my diet. This is a lot to do with my sugar addiction but also a lot to do with my endometriosis because as an inflammatory condition it is made worse by eating high carb foods so... it's time.
Amazon- I confess I'm an amazon prime addict. If me and my girlfriends are talking about anything (could be a broom, a book, a bin) I'll hop onto and amazon and just... buy it. I know a lot of people do and I'm not the only one but I remember I had a stint back in November 2019 where I didn't buy anything on Amazon over Christmas and I was so pleased with myself...until it got to February 2020 when the Pandemic started and then all bets were off. I remember buying Bread flour on Amazon and eBay because it was so hard to get stuff... but that time is over now. We are about to launch back into our routine again and I can definitely make time to pick things up locally I just haven't been making it a priority so in adding it to this challenge I hope to make it a thing that I stick to and stop the "I think I need it now so I clicked a button and it's arriving in a few hours, go me". I think it's probably addictive because I have definitely felt that sense of achievement from buying stuff from amazon which is ridiculous but you know, it clearly works. I actually think I'll find this one of the hardest because I literally use it all the time- if I can't find something I know I bought recently my initial reaction will be to go and buy another one rather than look for it properly... I know. Terrible. But I'm just trying to be honest- If I'm doing it I know some of you are too! I loathe the idea of making billionaires richer and I'm super lucky to live in an area of Bristol that has incredible independent shops and businesses so I don't need to give Amazon my money any more... Ok so no Amazon purchases. I can do this.
Analogue- Before I went away over the summer I had some problems with my wrists, forearms and hands, like RSI type pains, I started to wonder if I had arthritis for cripes sake. When I was away on holiday and not using my phone daily much at all I started to realise my hands and wrists were recovering and felt better. I mean when do you have even a day when you don't use your phone these days? I've got an iPhone 11 pro and it's massive. It made me realise- I need a smaller phone and I just need to use the phone less. I need my hands for work and if I can't use them because I've been texting or scrolling to within an inch of my life then that would be kind of ridiculous... So I'm going to use paper and pen more for notes and use my computer more for typing as well as reading things in books more including reading last thing at night for relaxation. I might also try using the voice texting thing although I've always found it doesn't work that well and it's more frustrating than anything. But I'l give anything a go to save my hands! Generally I need to learn to disconnect from my phone- I know they make it so you don't want to but I'm going to try to give my hands a little rest throughout the day by including it as part of this challenge.
I'll keep posting updates on my stories on Instagram and will try to provide weekly updates here on my blog with a bit more info than I included in my last challenge- maybe what I'm eating and what successes/ failure I've had.
Wish me luck! Day 1 tomorrow!
No need to donate- I'm doing this for me and and to raise awareness of public sexual harassment but feel free to chip in if you're feeling generous!
My Just Giving Page for Challenge 71
