In review: My 30-day health challenge

Last month, after receiving some marginally concerning results on my blood tests, I decided to adjust my lifestyle. Given the success I had with NaNoWriMo–the 30-day challenge to write a 50,000-word novel from scratch–I wanted to give myself another 30-day challenge to improve my health.

Here’s a summary of what I took on and the results:

Focus Area	Challenge	Grade
Sleep	– Wake up at 4:30 a.m. every morning – Go to bed at the same time every night – No electronics in bed – Keep my phone (i.e., alarm clock) in another room – Don’t hit “snooze”	C-
Water	– Drink at least 4 pints of water daily	A
Alcohol	– No more than 2 drinks on any given day – Don’t drink every day	A+
Diet	– Follow the Mediterranean diet (lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes; keep sugars, processed foods, and unhealthy fats to a minimum)	A

Sleep Assessment

Week one went pretty well. As planned, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. every day, got up to turn off my alarm, and did not go back to sleep. The first few days I had to take a nap or two to recharge, but it got better as the week went on. I went to bed by the same time every night, although I didn’t always fall asleep right away. By the end of that week, I would say my energy level was about as low as it had been when my sleep schedule was more erratic, but at least it wasn’t any worse.

Then I got sick. For another week, I had some combination of chest congestion, a cough, post-nasal drip, sneezing fits, and increased fatigue. The illness made it harder to fall asleep, and I opted not to set an alarm because I needed rest to recover. I’d sometimes bring my phone or laptop to bed with me just so I could distract myself from the discomfort.

I started feeling better after a week, but the cough persisted for at least another week.

I never got my sleep habits back on track.

This behavior isn’t unusual for me. I psych myself up to build a new habit, stick with it for a while, and as soon as something disrupts my progress, it’s hard for me to get “psyched” again.

However, I know I can do better.

A week of consistency was long enough for me to believe I’m capable of maintaining the habit, but not long enough for me to judge whether it improves my quality of life. I’m going to try again.

Water Intake Assessment

The idea of “habit stacking” is to try to form multiple habits at once by doing them back to back. I tried to apply this by keeping a pitcher of water and a pint glass next to my phone. When I heard my alarm, I got up, shut it off, saw the pitcher, drank a glass of water, and was 1/4 of the way to my water consumption goal. The pitcher remained in my peripheral vision for much of the day, so it was easy to remember to drink water.

The process worked flawlessly. Then I got sick and started taking my phone and laptop to bed with me. For a few days, I slept without an alarm. Then I used the alarm again but didn’t have to get up to shut it off. As a result, the chain between the alarm and the pitcher of water was broken.

I probably still managed to get at least four pints down more than 90% of the time, but I know I fell short at least a few times.

Since I plan to try to rebuild my sleep habit, I’m hoping the rest of the habit stack will fall back into place.

Alcohol Assessment

I impressed myself with my discipline around alcohol. I experience social anxiety at times, and alcohol is the perfect antidote. So while the old me didn’t drink much on most days, when I went out socially, I had no set limit. I never drank to the point of getting sick, but I could visit several establishments in one evening and have multiple drinks at each.

Over the past 30 days, not once did I exceed two drinks, and there were many days when I didn’t drink at all.

Perhaps the biggest test came just a few days before the end of the month. First, my drinking buddies paid me a surprise visit. We went out to brunch and then to a bar. I had one beer. The bartender asked multiple times if I’d like another and I declined. My friends suggested we continue to another bar and I declined that as well.

Then I had dinner at the house of another friend’s family. There was beer and wine a-plenty. I had sparkling water.

Later that night, my friend and I went to a concert. I ordered one beer before the show, then tore off my over-21 wristband.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t even that hard. Once I accepted my constraints, they simply became non-negotiable. I expect that trend to continue (although I might give myself a pass on my birthday).

Diet Assessment

Not only did I switch to a Mediterranean diet right away, but I went above and beyond my original plan. Since I’ve also been going to the gym to try to gain muscle and lose body fat, I decided to track and adjust my macronutrient (carbs, fat, and protein) intake as well. I normally find it tedious to document what I eat, but I created my own tracking spreadsheet with some fancy formulas and color coding and other features. I think using something I built rather than an app made it more rewarding to see the results.

I was very consistent about eating the right foods, only splurging a little bit on two special occasions. I was better about tracking my intake when I ate at home than I was when I went out, but I was still careful about what I ordered.

If the recommendations I’ve read are to be trusted, even though I thought I was “eating healthy” before, my macronutrient ratios were way off–too much fat, not enough protein and carbs. Now I have a pretty good sense of what I need to consume to find the right balance.

The Results

I had another blood test done about four weeks after I started making these changes. I was disappointed with the results. While some of the problem areas had slightly improved, the changes were negligible. With such dramatic lifestyle changes, I expected to see more dramatic results. In addition, my physician didn’t test my cholesterol again because she felt it was too soon–she wants me to wait about three months to get tested again.

But even though it’s hard to quantify the impact of these new habits, I still think it was worth it. I know I’m capable of more consistent sleep habits. I know drinking more water and cutting back on alcohol are good decisions. I’m more conscious about what I eat, and I expect it to not only improve my health but also give me better results at the gym. I’ve lost a few pounds, and while weight loss isn’t necessarily my goal–I want to replace fat with muscle–my mom recently told me my face looked thinner, so I must be doing something right.

The 30-day trial wasn’t a complete success, but I feel like all of these habits are feasible and worth pursuing.

In fact, I’ve decided to take on another 30-day trial next month, albeit unrelated to the last one. I plan to spend at least 15 minutes per day listening to Spanish and 15 minutes per day speaking Spanish every day. This will be the subject of next month’s post.