The challenge is complete. I minorly mastered this thing. Below are the stats:
Morning Meditation: 100%
No Dairy: 90%
Daily morning writing: 86%
Daily movement 30 min or more: 80%
BINGO Cards complete: 1
Daily morning waters chugged: 100%
Lessons Learned:
Morning meditation will stay. This has been a key to victory.
Mediation book. It's sorted by day and is just one paragraph to read and reflect on for the day. Will tote this buddy around with me forever. I really did think about the words in those sentences and tried to stay on track for the day. It was a good daily reminder.
No Dairy. This was fairly easy. I will likely practice a light dairy regime from now on. I felt less bloated, less congested, less inflamed in all my injured parts (knee, ankles, neck, elbows) and I loved making all those non-dairy recipes. The days where I blew it was when I was traveling and one evening, when I was drunk from day drinking and the only way out of it, was a rolled taco combo meal from Sombreros. That was only 3 of the 21 days which wasn't a bad stat. I can see if I stayed consistent how the no dairy health benefits would really make an impact. Of course, now, it's Thanksgiving week, and we are on the road again and I've had dairy for the last 2 days so I am headed for a no dairy cleanse by Saturday this week again.
30 minutes of movement/workout daily: Once I got into a groove with this it was easy. When things got into the way of the workout, I just moved it to a later part of the day. When making a class didn't work in my schedule, I did weights in the backyard. When I didn't feel like backyard weights I did a 3 mile or more walk. I will keep this practice in place. It was easy and made me feel good.
Daily Water: easy--I went to bed with a bottle of water next to my bed so I chugged it when I woke up. When it was all gone from the night before I refilled as soon as I awoke.
Daily Writing: The morning pages AND the blog posts were both hard to do in the morning. That was too much to cram into a morning routine. But...once I eliminated the morning pages and just stuck with the blog posts, we were smooth sails. 85% of the time I did this in the morning. If I missed the morning, it was on the weekend when my husband and puppy were a part of the morning party and I didn't have as much time to myself or if I decided to sleep in past 5 a. But, I always managed to get those posts in even if I had to double up a couple of times. I do love daily writing. It's just a muscle to move. Not every day is going to be a masterpiece but the act of doing it daily or semi-daily is important. It clears the decks of dreams I've had, cobwebs in my brain or thoughts I needed to iron out and made me more clear and focused for the day. I'll keep this one in place.
I liked this 21-day challenge. I'll create another one in January maybe involving my bike OR traveling since I have a lot of that coming up. I encourage everyone to try a 21-day challenge of some sort even if it's just one small habit. It feels good to complete and it's a good shift for the soul.
Mandi Graziano is the author of best-selling book: Sales Tales: The Hustle, Humor, and Lessons from a Life in Sales which can be found on Amazon and The W Marketplace. The only place where you can find SIGNED COPIES of the book is on The W Marketplace. And, from November 25 - November 30, 2021, the signed copies are 30% off. Mandi Graziano is a public speaker, sales coach, and conference specialist. If you'd like to engage with her visit her website at www.mandigraziano.com.