#summerstrong

This is a 21-day challenge with a focus on discipline and consistency. This is super hard because we are busy, unpredictable humans. However, we can keep the promises that we make to ourselves because we are also strong humans!

Your job is to think of 2-3 gritty habits—habits that you believe will have a positive impact on your life if you were to do them every day, but also ones that are a little challenging for you. That means you shouldn’t choose something that you already do every day.

These habits may be within any realm of self-improvement that you want to focus on for the next three weeks. Just make sure to choose habits that are important, meaningful, and challenging for you, regardless of the perceived level of “difficulty”. This is YOUR chance to get Summer Strong.

Then, make a daily post to track your progress. This could be as simple as a checklist showing you checked off your goals or as specific as a detailed progress report with pictures. Make sure to tag your posts with #summerstrong. Tag @maddygoesthemiles if you want to be sure I’ll reblog it! The goal is to spread motivation and positivity within our community, but also to stay accountable.

Under the cut are this week’s daily prompts. Do these if you want to! Don’t do them if it stresses you out! Do the ones you care about and don’t do the ones you don’t!

✨Summer Strong Challenge Day 2✨

Working out in humid 30°C/86°F heat in my room is... a real fun experience 😅 I’d created a literal sweat angel on my yoga mat by the time I was done omg.

Day 2 (7/20): How do your habits relate to your long-term goals?

My habits (as listed below) are about creating a good momentum for myself! I love to try new things to challenge myself and change my perspective, and tackling difficult things and pushing myself to make time for things I want to work on is really good for my brain and body. 

1. Choosing one of the tasks from my ‘tough list’ each day 💪 (Today was dealing with the new fridge delivery (we had to haul it upstairs ourselves because the delivery guys weren’t allowed in 😭))

2. Reading for 20 minutes/day (I... haven’t managed this one yet today, but there’s still time!)

3. Pick 3 yoga moves to try to improve (tested out a bunch this morning!) 🦵

Stumbled upon this challenge, after waiting for a sign to kickstart some long overdue changes on my road to a healthy lifestyle. So count me in #summerstrong community and thank you @maddygoesthemiles for starting the challenge 💪😁🔥

Day 0, Week 1, Introduction

Hi there, I'm Van from Germany.

I started my journey towards a healthier lifestyle on September 2019 after binge eating three whole packages of chocolate bars. Binge eating candy was a daily thing by then and it made me feel at my very lowest. I was weighing 96 kg (211 lbs) at that time. The only consistency I had in my life was sport. Sports played always a big role in my life. As a kid I was mostly into biking, skating, hiking and soccer. Now I added Taekwondo, Wing Chun and the gym to the list. But I hardly had any day off for regeneration, thus overworking and exhausting body. So on September 2019, I decided to change my lifestyle. I made a list including

☆ a healthy diet

☆ sports & regeneration

☆ mental health

☆ mindfulness

I slowly stopped consuming sugary food and drinks. I made room for some regeneration days and added more veggies and fruit to my diet, meditated regularly and went to therapy for my anxietyand depression. But it wasn't a piece of cake. I had (a lot of) bad days and setbacks were I was eating sugary foods again after giving in to withdrawal symptoms, neglecting veggies and fruits, stopping therapy etc. But I continued nevertheless.

Until now it's an up and down journey but I mostly stick to my new plan. I healthily lost a lot of weight (now weighing 74,8 kg / 164,9 lbs).

Unfortunately for four months I neglected some of my goals, that's why I'm adding the following to my #summerstrong challenge:

☆ cutting sugary food to a minimum

☆ 2 l water income

☆ daily meditation and stretching

Some other facts about me 😋

☆ I love reading, especially Stephen King and fantasy novels

☆ I am a INFJ-T according to a personality test I took months ago

☆ I am extremely shy around strangers but totally bubbly around my close circle

☆ I love languages, speaking German (C2), English (B2-C1), Italian (B1) and French (A2-B1). On my list are: Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese

☆ I struggled with body dismorphia since my teenage years

Favorite motivation quote

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a challenge, and an even longer time since I’ve done a full challenge, but they often help get me on a track when I feel like I’m just randomly floating so I’m gonna try out @maddygoesthemiles​‘ Summer Strong Challenge for the next few weeks

Day 0 (7/18): Make a post to introduce yourself. (name, picture, hobbies, roles in life, favorite things, etc.)

My name is Ann. I live in a pretty small town in the Pacific Northwest (technically the Inland Northwest actually, we’re about six hours from the ocean) with my dog and two cats where I work as an analyst at a tech company.

In terms of hobbies I play Sims 3, read, create art, ski in the winter, and have been “gonna start running again” for like three years. 

Things are a little hectic for me right now. I’ve recently found out I have to move in the fall (my apartment is falling apart in ways my landlord can’t figure out so he’s just gonna tear it all up) so even though it’s about a year ahead of when I was thinking I’d do it, trying to buy a house. Luckily one of the good things about living in a small town is having strong connections so I have a great loan officer (a friend of many of my friends, also my dad was his dad’s high school wrestling coach) and a fantastic realtor (the wife of a coworker/friend) who both live about half a block away from me. I’m early in the process and don’t know for sure if it’ll work out right now, but it’s looking good so far.

I’ll try to make this brief, I’ve been having trouble making a post for this. I’m going through it right now. I had a blow up fight with my mom and sister last week over something they have no business having an opinion about, and I REALLY let it get to me. I’m using this challenge as a way to brush myself off and try to get back to me. I haven’t been me for a very long time, and now is as good a time as any.

My goals: daily yoga. More steps. Daily reading.

I feel great today. I haven’t accomplished my goal of my steps because my other cat has actually been giving me lots of health scares this week, but I’ve done the yoga’s, and I’ve read a little bit. I’m going to read a little bit and then I’m taking my dog for a walk tonight when it cools down. My goal is to possibly walk all the way to Starbucks and back in the mornings to start my day (it’s not too far from me) because I’ve really been dragging getting up before 11, I just lay there awake. I need a kick. Then do yoga. Then read a little. And depending on when I get done and the weather, maybe throw a little suntanning in there. I laid out for an hour today and I feel so GOOD. I’ll try to skip a day or so in between so I don’t burn myself to a crisp, but just being outside and soaking it in was so nice. We might be making time to take a day trip to the beach next weekend and I’m so happy I could cry.

I know this is kind of a crappy intro post, but I’ve started so many posts and then gotten in my own head and deleted them. Hopefully I can get myself straight. I’ve said this before, but I just want to feel good about myself again. Be able to walk far and not feel tired.

My name is Justin, workaholic lighting designer, (sometimes) fitness fanatic. I enjoy spending time with my cats and fiancé, plying Battletech with friends and reading fantasy. Starting out with this summertime challenge to post more and get more on line with my goals.

Today’s workout includes dips. Oh god, dips…

I was ready to stop after the first set but I was able to maintain form and finish all my sets. I followed these up with…

I included this into my routine after having been inspired by @jacqattacq and bought a pull-up bar. I’m also determined to not let it become additional space to hang my clothes. Speaking of which…

What social media do you use and how does it influence your goals?

I abandoned Facebook long ago and only use Messenger when I absolutely have to. I have Twitter and Instagram but neither feed truly “sparks joy” so they’ve been languishing in the bit bucket in recent months as well. I’m not sure how I landed on Tumblr but watching people decide to make a lifestyle change and then witness their journey and the many paths taken to get to their transformation is magic to me. That’s a game I gotta get in on. So I started my own to track and share my own progress in the hopes that it might help and motivate someone else. It took years to get as far as I did. It wasn’t easy and I complain frequently (especially giving up sugar - oof, that was tough), but when I look back on my own progress, I’m reminded of the words of one Steven Rogers:

Day off from the gym but I still got my steps in!

My internet is out which means no TV so I got out of the house after dinner for a nice 3.3 mile walk around the area. It wore me out (in a good way) so I’m going to head to bed early for a good night’s rest!