Post: #1

This is Day 11 of Live a Healthier Life in 21 Days Challenge, Jan 2012 run. Subscribe to the free newsletter for lifetime access of personal development articles and future challenge announcements like this one.

Hello guys! Today is Day 11 of our 21-day challenge to live our healthiest life ever. We are now at the mid-point of the challenge.

If you have made it this far, I want you to congratulate yourself. It's not easy staying true to your plan the way you have. It's consistently shown that many people tend to start off the new year with a new-found zest for healthy living, devoting themselves to proper nutrition and frequent exercising.

However, it's another thing altogether to stick to your declaration for real. Many people tend to drop off, or give up, after the first week or so. For you to be here - I want you to be proud of yourself for doing this. If you ask me, I'm very proud of you myself.

Now, many of us have times when we fall offtrack in our healthy living plan. I'm no exception. There have been so many times in the past when I detrack from my ideal diet/regimen, because of emotional eating issues, other priorities in life coming to a forefront, distractions, lack of availability of my desired food, poor planning, and so on. It's normal to get off the wagon - the most important thing is you understand what went wrong, then get back right on it after that.



Today's task is to identify your healthy living pitfalls, understand them, and identify steps to address them, so they don't recur again. Are you ready? Here we go!

Step 1 - Identify past incidences when you went offtrack

Write down the past 5-7 incidences when you went offtrack in your healthy living plan. It could before 21DHL - from as long as several years ago, to several weeks to, to even something that happened in the past 10 days, while you are doing 21DHL.

If you can think of more than 5-7 incidences, that's even better. Basically, the more incidences/examples to reference to, the better. If you ask me to list down times when I fall offtrack in my diet/healthy living plan, I can easily list more than 20 separate incidences. This also makes it easy for me to do the next 2 steps (and subsequently address my pitfalls).

Step 2 - Pick your top 3 pitfalls to healthy living

Now, look through those incidences you just wrote. See if there are any commonalities across these incidences. Group the ones that seem similar together - i.e. those that have a similar cause.

What would you say are your 3 biggest pitfalls to healthy living? Write them down.

Here are the most common healthy living pitfalls people have:

• Emotional eating
• Poor planning
• Lack of time to exercise
• No opportunities to exercise (i.e. bad weather, no nearby gyms, being busy with work, etc)
• Lack of healthy food options around you
• Prioritizing work over health
• Unhealthy influences from friends and family, as they do not eat/live healthily
• Among others

Step 3 - Identify steps to address your healthy living pitfalls

Now, for each of the 3 healthy living pitfall you identified in Step 2, write down your key action steps to tackle this pitfall.

For example, if your pitfall is that you have unhealthy influences from friends/family, your action plan may look like this:

1. Look for friends who share similar interests in eating/exercising right
2. Find accountability buddies among these friends. Stick to them.
3. Join communities where you can be around like-minded people, such as PE Forums and its 21DHL challenge
4. Make a commitment to engage in these communities often, in getting the best of what they have to offer

Day 11 of Your 21-Day Healthy Living Plan

What are your tasks listed for today? Do them with excellence and report them in your 21DHL Journal.

Also, read your group mates' 21DHL journals and cheer them along! Pick a few members' journals and make it a point to post meaningful replies there.

Are You Still Here? Fall In!

For those who are still here with us, fall in here! Reply to this thread to let us know how you find the challenge so far, what task you're working on at the moment, and how your 21-day healthy living plan is coming along.

Update Your 21DHL Journals

Once you are done for the day, update your 21DHL Journal. You are also welcome to update your 21DHL Journal multiple times throughout the day. Post all your results for today's task and your 21-Day Healthy Living Plan directly in your journal.

If you have any questions specific to today's task, post them here.

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #2

I'm still here! Really enjoying 21DHL so far, and feeling a lot better for it. Thank you, Celes!

Post: #3

We're still here! The vegan diet is great, and it means we're doing most of the 21DHL tasks almost automatically so far. We're both tempted to just carry on after the end of the 21 days (but it's only day 10, and the cravings may yet kick in...). At the very least we'll both be eating much fewer animal products after this.

Mike (and Jess)

Post: #4

Hi, I’m still here although I joined late, so it’s actually Day 6 for me. Everything is a struggle, especially yesterday with no coffee, but I’m getting there and my exercising and eating habits are so much better than a week ago. I can’t wait until it all becomes a bit more effortless. I still need to get into a proper sleep routine and I think I’m going to cut down to 1 coffee in the morning to help wake me up (hopefully until everything else is sorted and then I’ll cut coffee). I’ve found that sharing the updates with everyone is really powerful. It felt awfully uncomfortable and vulnerable at first, but now I’m getting used to it and really enjoying it. Also, the info you provide is amazing – so many things I never knew, so here’s and big THANK YOU for everything, Celes!

Post: #5

Still here! Its going really great! There's something to look forward to everday!
Knowing that there are many others doing the same task with me, motivates me a lot and keeps me going.
The first few days didn't go so great and i wasn't feeling good, but people kept me motivated!
Feeling better and better everyday!
Thankyou, Celes!!!

Post: #6

Still here! My plan is working well at the moment, and I'm still motivated even though I had some minor pitfalls along the way. I am enjoying the journey and am eager for the next tasks.

Thank you so much, Celes!

Post: #7

Still here and going on strong!!! I'm getting better and better at this. The encouragement and support is helping quite a lot!! I love this opportunity!
Thank you so very much Celes!

Post: #8

I love this task. It's probably something people don't really do. And then it all goes wrong again and again every time...

Definitely still on the challenge. A little distraction by uni exams but that will be over tomorrow!

"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable."

Post: #9

Still here.. So far things are going very well.

Post: #10

Still here! I'm working on Day 11 after recently catching up. Not too happy with my diet but I'm exercising and meditating daily.

Follow me on Twitter: @TranquilityNow1
http://tranquilitynow.blog.com/

Post: #11

Still here Diet is on some days still a problem, but I excercise, journal and meditate daily! Never got this far before in any of my new year resolutions, so I want to really thank you Celes for making this possible!

Post: #12

I'm still here! Diet is going very well but it is just too hot and humid to exercise. It's expected to be 33 deg C tomorrow.

No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

Post: #13

Aw, thank you everyone for your kind comments. I'm glad you're finding the challenge helpful. I'm personally very glad that all of you are committing to your healthy living goals and showing it with action. You are inspiration and role models to the others who want to but aren't doing it yet.

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #14

I'm still here.
I'm caught up with all the tasks except for today's. I really want to catch up on other people's journals though.
My 21DHL experience has been great so far. My diet isn't as good as I would like it to be but I have made massive improvements.

Post: #15

It is day 14 for me as I jumped into the healthy living at the 21DHL preparation stage. Still here and enjoying it very much with full commitment to my goals.

Journalling is making a huge difference in honouring my word and sticking to my promises to love my health more than temporary oral satisfaction. Now I do not even crave the sweets anymore.

Plus the likelihhood that even 1 person may be watching helps in curbing the urge to sneak out towards the fridge.

Thank you Celes for all your wisdom and thank you all who took their time to leave a word in my journal.
You are all awesome!

Post: #16

I'm still here! I'm behind a little in the writing because I don't have internet at home but I've been doing the tasks!

I'm really enjoying this, it's quite beneficial

Post: #17

Awesome, everyone! I understand that some of the participants in your group may have "disappeared" / dropped out, and that's very common. It happened for last year's 21DHL, and it happens for all the challenges every time - it takes commitment and integrity to your goals to push through in the long haul. In Week 3 (next Monday), I will be creating a 21DHL Final Lap forum, where all the members who are still active in the challenge will be put together. I will move all your journals there, so it's easier to push each other forward and to keep track of those who are still in the course.

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Post: #18

To Infinity and Beyond!

I'm still here and always will be

My top 3 pitfalls to healthy living:
1. My parent's resistance
2. Social invitations
3. Lack of exercise

More details in my journal (:

Good luck everyone

Post: #19

I'm still here too! Just crazy busy so not having as much time to write every day as I would like. Thank you for creating this challenge Celes. Like others, I have learned a lot so far!

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Find me at My Studio Blog or My Facebook Page

Post: #20

I'm still here. I've been following the exercises, but not really updating my journal. The diet part has been relatively easy, but I have not been keeping up with the exercise part. It's been really hot and humid here.