Free 30 Days of Healthy Habits Challenge

[Sinshroud]

Hi guys, long-time gamer turned health enthusiast here.

I work for a company called Sleekgeek SA where we help support people live a healthier life and achieve their health and fitness goals. This doesn't mean completely changing your lifestyle - you don't need to start eating chicken and broccoli 6 times a day and living in the gym. It's just getting healthier 1 small step at a time.

Recently we teamed up with Health24 to create a Free 30 Days of Healthy Habits Challenge and I would LOVE to get as many of you involved as possible.

Here's how it works:

Every day for the next 30 days you get 1 task to complete.

You only do 1 task each day (so they don't stack) - but each is a valuable lesson and you are encouraged to try incorporate as many of them as possible into your day-to-day activity.

If you fail to do one of them, then the next day you need to do that day's task and the task that you failed at.

You are welcome to scale them up or down to make them easier or harder - but it should still be a challenge. For example with 50 squats you can break it up into sets of 5 squats throughout the day. You can do box squats down onto your bed or you can throw a barbell on your back. It's up to you.



If you want to be emailed a daily reminder about your task for the day you can sign up here. There is also more description and guidance for each task if you feel you need more help or want to find out the reason behind each task. But you certainly don't need to - you can just interpret the above calendar and get started right away.

And for your time to read this, here is my own transformation from November 2010 to December 2015:

 

[Sinshroud]

Here's Day 1's write-up:

Research shows that people who eat slowly tend to digest their food better, lose or maintain weight more easily, and feel more satisfied with each meal.

On the other hand, those who rush their meals due to time constraints, distractions, or simply by habit tend to run into way more health-related problems such as eating more calories than they meant to, finishing their meals way before natural satiety signals kick in, ending up uncomfortably stuffed, and having poor digestion and nutrient absorption.

Getting into the habit of eating more slowly can provide enormous benefit at very little effort cost.

An example is you may often hear the recommendation to eat whole, unprocessed food because it is nutrient-dense and fills you up more. The problem is if you gobble down your food and overeat before your body realises it is actually full then you may as well have just eaten a box of donuts or a tub of ice cream instead. Either way you are going to be consuming too many calories and putting on or keeping on unwanted fat.

It takes about 20 minutes from the start of your meal for your brain to send out satiety signals and hormones.

How to do today's task:

Next time you eat see how you can slow down your meal by being a bit more social (eat at a table instead of in front of the TV), drink some water in between mouthfuls, put the knife and fork down now and then, don't start cutting your next bite until you have swallowed your current one, and so on.

If you currently finish most meals in 3-5 minutes, you don't need to suddenly take 20 minutes for your next meal. Just work on slowing things down. Aim to slow the meal down by 5-10 minutes or so and see what a difference it can make.

It also helps a great deal if you move away from your computer, put away your phone and focus on the act of eating for a few minutes. You have the rest of the day to be addicted to your phone.

 

[Avatar]

This is a really nice initiative. I'd fail quickly, though!

Day 1: Eat slowly.

Easy. My wife says I do this anyway.

Day 2: Walk 6000 steps.

Very do-able. I walk around enough during the day that this shouldn't be too far fetched.

Day 3: List 5 things I'm grateful for.

Also easy. I'm a very hashtagblessed man.

Day 4: No caffeine after 1pm.

I'm out.

I'm on my fifth cup of coffee for today!

Congrats on your transformation, and kudo's for sharing this.
Also, the colour on day 27's background is wrong, and my mild OCD alarm is going off.

 

[MalicE]

This is a really nice initiative. I'd fail quickly, though!

Day 1: Eat slowly.

Easy. My wife says I do this anyway.

Day 2: Walk 6000 steps.

Very do-able. I walk around enough during the day that this shouldn't be too far fetched.

Day 3: List 5 things I'm grateful for.

Also easy. I'm a very hashtagblessed man.

Day 4: No caffeine after 1pm.

I'm out.

I'm on my fifth cup of coffee for today!

Congrats on your transformation, and kudo's for sharing this.
Also, the colour on day 27's background is wrong, and my mild OCD alarm is going off.

yeah I'll have to quit on day 5....

 

[Sinshroud]

Day 4: No caffeine after 1pm.

I'm out.

I'm on my fifth cup of coffee for today!

How about no coffee after 4pm? Then next week try for 3pm. Then 2pm. Then 1pm. Or incorporating decaf.

Also it's worth knowing that lighter roast coffees have more caffeine whereas darker roasts have less caffeine.

Coffee is great (I LOVE it, 3-4 per day quite regularly) and it actually has some amazing science-backed health benefits. The problem is when it is consumed in excesss, and particularly when it is consumed later in the day. While some people can drink a cup and fall asleep within 30 mins - their quality of sleep goes down significantly. Same with alcohol. It may help you get to sleep, but you stay in a very light sleep with not enough deep and truly restorative sleep.

Coffee contains a small amount of some vitamins and minerals, which add up if you drink many cups per day. It is also high in antioxidants (in fact it's most people's biggest source of antioxidants).

The main active compound in coffee is the stimulant caffeine. It can cause a short-term boost in energy levels, brain function, metabolic rate and exercise performance.

Studies have shown that coffee drinkers:
- Have a much lower risk of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease in old age.
- Have a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
- Have a significantly lower risk in cirrhosis and liver cancer.
- Have a lower risk of becoming depressed and less likely to commit suicide.
- Live longer.

However, caffeine can have various negative effects, such as:
- Causing anxiety.
- Disrupting sleep.
- Addiction, dependency, and withdrawal symptoms like headaches, tiredness, and irritability.

Decaf is made by extracting caffeine from the coffee beans using chemical solvents. Decaf doesn't have all of the same health benefits as regular coffee.

Loading your coffee up with sugar and chemical-laden creamers can turn something healthy into something really unhealthy that adds up over time with each cup of coffee you have.

Using paper filters, interestingly enough, can get rid of a cholesterol-raising compound called Cafestol. The paper filters also filter out certain oils in the coffee and can change the taste quite significantly (usually more to people's liking).

While many studies show that you get the most benefit out of consuming 4-5 cups of coffee a day, the more you consume the greater the negative effects are too.
If you do drink more than 2 cups of coffee on a daily basis, try consume the majority of your coffee intake before lunch time (ideally all of it) to get higher quality sleep. Also consider taking 1-2 week breaks from coffee (you may need to taper down your intake first) to reduce tolerance.

 

[Avatar]

Snippity

Oh, I'm very well informed about my dependency and it's effects. The thing is, I genuinely don't want to change it. I love coffee, as does my wife. I'll typically have my last cup of the day before 8, though, and my bedtime is usually 10-11. If I have a cup later, I might have a bad night's sleep, but usually there are other things that'd cause this before caffeine.

 

[BeoTeK]

I have coffee just before I go to bed.... though I have cut down to maybe 4 cups a day.

 

[MalicE]

/coffee facts

my wife drinks an average of 10 cups a day EASY... each with 3 sugars.....

 

[MetalSoup]

Sheesh, Sinshroud comes here to give health advice and all the replies are people making excuses and trying to justify their bad habits. :wtf:

 

[BeoTeK]

Sheesh, Sinshroud comes here to give health advice and all the replies are people making excuses and trying to justify their bad habits. :wtf:

I'm actually seriously considering taking the challenege tbh

 

[Sinshroud]

Sheesh, Sinshroud comes here to give health advice and all the replies are people making excuses and trying to justify their bad habits. :wtf:

That's pretty normal among any demographic, but coming from a gaming background all my life I know what kind of lifestyle is typically lived and all the things needed to fuel those late night gaming sessions after a heavy day's work.

Like I said in the original post, realistically health isn't about making dramatic changes and total lifestyle overhauls. It's more about trying to get 1% better every day. In the long run that's more sustainable and can produce some phenomenal results over a long period of time.

James clear wrote a great article on the power of marginal gains.

 

[Sinshroud]

I'm actually seriously considering taking the challenege tbh

The cool thing is the challenges are only for ONE day.

You don't have to cut out coffee forever. You only cut down on coffee after 1pm on Day 4.

You don't need to drag yourself to the gym every single day for the rest of your life. You only need to do 50 squats on day 6.

You just need to do 1 good thing for your health each day. It adds up!

 

[MalicE]

I'm actually seriously considering taking the challenege tbh

yeah I can do it if I can skip day 5

 

[BeoTeK]

The cool thing is the challenges are only for ONE day.

You don't have to cut out coffee forever. You only cut down on coffee after 1pm on Day 4.

You don't need to drag yourself to the gym every single day for the rest of your life. You only need to do 50 squats on day 6.

You just need to do 1 good thing for your health each day. It adds up!

The challenges don't worry me at all. I actually really miss being fit and the way I used to feel back then.

 

[InSanity]

Im keen to try this the coffee before 1 I agree with the before 4 i generally have a cup at 2:30ish(not a heavy coffee drinker) i jsut find that the best time for me

 

[MetalSoup]

Im keen to try this the coffee before 1 I agree with the before 4 i generally have a cup at 2:30ish(not a heavy coffee drinker) i jsut find that the best time for me

 

[Blazzok]

8hours of sleep per night, I wish.

The wife and I did start with a no sugar, no carbs thing from the beginning of this week. I went from 2 sugars in my coffee to nothing, I haven't had a drop of Coke (or any fizzy drink or juice) this whole week, and that is coming from drinking 500ml of Coke per day, easy.

I've been nursing a headache for 3 days now, I really hope it goes away soon.

 

[FarligOpptreden]

I actually want to do this. No electronic screens 2 hours before bed, no snoozing and no caffeine after 13:00 will be the most difficult for me. By the looks of it, all the sleeping challenges wil, erm, challenge me.

I'm looking forward to the moving, eating and thinking challenges. I need to rewire my head for some positive thoughts these days - I've been way too toxic recently and I keep blaming it on my circumstances.

 

[HavocXphere]

Skipping coffee is actually not that difficult. Just make sure you can sleep a full 8 hrs during the first few days to compensate for the initial feeling of tiredness.

I also found drinking lots of rooibos helped me - zero caffeine but still a warm drink/distraction.

 

[Sinshroud]

8hours of sleep per night, I wish.

The wife and I did start with a no sugar, no carbs thing from the beginning of this week. I went from 2 sugars in my coffee to nothing, I haven't had a drop of Coke (or any fizzy drink or juice) this whole week, and that is coming from drinking 500ml of Coke per day, easy.

I've been nursing a headache for 3 days now, I really hope it goes away soon.

Reduced sugar intake may also mean lower carbohydrate intake in general. There is a phenomenon called "low-carb flu" or "ketoflu" and you may be experiencing mild symptoms of it.

See: http://paleoleap.com/low-carb-flu/

Best suggestions are to 1) Drink more water, 2) Increase intake of electrolytes (especially salt and potassium) - lower insulin levels makes the kidneys excrete excess sodium from the body, 3) Eat more healthy fats (coconut, avocado, olives, fish, dark chocolate, nuts, etc).

You should start feeling better any moment now - well done for cutting out sugar.

If you find it's too difficult to maintain, rather look at slowly reducing your intake rather than going cold-turkey.

I actually want to do this. No electronic screens 2 hours before bed, no snoozing and no caffeine after 13:00 will be the most difficult for me. By the looks of it, all the sleeping challenges wil, erm, challenge me.

I'm looking forward to the moving, eating and thinking challenges. I need to rewire my head for some positive thoughts these days - I've been way too toxic recently and I keep blaming it on my circumstances.

Reducing blue light (from electronics) at night has been an absolute game changer for me in improving my sleep. Growing up as a World of Warcraft addict (playing on US servers too!) my sleep was wrecked and I never thought I would be able to get back into a proper sleeping routine until I started blocking out as much light at night as possible.

See: http://authoritynutrition.com/block-blue-light-to-sleep-better/

Skipping coffee is actually not that difficult. Just make sure you can sleep a full 8 hrs during the first few days to compensate for the initial feeling of tiredness.

I also found drinking lots of rooibos helped me - zero caffeine but still a warm drink/distraction.

Rooibos is great. It's funny how so many nutrition information sources online go on and on about Green Tea being so healthy, when Rooibos just about blows it out of the water in terms of health benefits (although I feel the health benefits from tea are a bit overstated in general).