Challenging Myself

With the new year comes resolutions and new challenges to help meet our goals or push ourselves just a little bit further. Completing a challenge helps to keep me motivated and feel accomplished, and this time of year they are popping up all over the place. I know I have more drive now than I will later in the year, so I'm trying to pace myself but there are too many I don't want to miss. I'm already doing the plank-a-day challenge in January, and it looks like I'll star the push up challenge in February because I think I bruised my wrist/palm. I'll be looking for other challenges to help me cross training during the coming months before I begin the next marathon training cycle in May.

Below are a few of the challenges that I came across today that I am considering. Whether or not I decide to join them, I wanted to share them in case others are interested. What I love about most of these is that they are not just focused on physical activity, but also healthy eating and other healthy habits for body and mind. I hope someone finds them useful.

Have you found other challenges you are participating in or have you joined any of the ones below? Let me know in the comments. I'd love follow your progress, encourage you, and maybe join you.

Daily Challenge by Me You Health

The Daily Challenge is a social well-being experience that gives you the opportunity to positively impact your life every day by doing simple daily challenges and sharing the experience with your personal connections -- all while you earn points, collect stamps and achieve new levels.

I joined this site last year and kept up with it for a couple of months, but then I seemed to lose interest. The tasks are usually really simple and touch on every aspect of your life. I revisited it recently and noticed that they have now added tracks so you can focus on a specific area for 28 days at a time. I started the Fit at Work track today to give me ideas for little things I can do to take a quick break from sitting at a computer all day.

2012 Challenge for a Change by Moms RUN This Town and Green Plate Rule

Each month we will offer you a list of “Healthy Eating” challenges and a list of “Fitness / Running” challenges. You will be required to complete AT LEAST one challenge from EACH LIST. If you complete your challenges you will be eligible to win some pretty awesome prizes!! If you complete more than one – you earn extra entries. There will also be bonus challenges each month which will earn you TWO extra entries into that month’s prize.

I love the idea of this challenge because it forces you to focus on both aspects of leading a healthy life: exercises and nutrition. It's pretty cool that they provide a list of tasks for both of these areas and you just do one of each to qualify for the monthly prizes, but can do as many or as few as you want. I'll be checking the list each month and see if I can fit them into my routine.

30 Day Challenges by Run to the Finish

This is the site that hosts the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge each year. This year she decided to offer a different 30 day challenge each month that focuses on a different area of health without having to commit to the change for too long. It's a great way to explore some healthy habits and see if they are right for you to incorporate into your life permanently. The tentative list of challenge topics include: Food Journals, Appreciation, Vegan, Running Streak, Yoga, Creative Writing or Journaling, Cross Training, Meditation, DVD or other program, and Unprocessed Eating. I don't think I'll participate in all of them (I've already missed the first one), but I'm eager to try a few of them in the coming months.