Some 30 Day Challenges No One Should Ever Try
Please Do Not Even Go There
Ah, thirty day challenges are such a thing here on Medium and elsewhere! Goodness, there’s even a whole publication devoted to the 30-day writing challenge. And why not? Thirty days is a nice even number and is really the normal duration of a month. If you devote to a goal, habit, or task for thirty days then it is likely to become all the more natural for you.
But when thinking of 30 day challenges, isn’t it conducive to also explore 30-day challenges no one should ever try. These challenges would include destructive habits, horrible behaviors, or even things that are okay in moderation but if done too regularly would bring egregious results. The irony of many of these things is that they are so easy to adopt as habits or parts of lifestyles because they are so tempting or alluring with false promises of health or simplicity. For the sake of promoting good health and happiness — or simply just because it makes for an interesting article — let’s consider some 30 day challenges not one person should ever try. Just to keep it simple, we will start with 5 such negative challenges that we should beg anyone to “not even go there” if they were to take seriously doing such things in excess or at all!
#1.) Going 30 Days Without Adequate Sleep
No, please! Do not even try going one or a few nights without adequate(or any) sleep if you can try it. It may be understandable if college students or coffee-guzzling professionals sometimes go a night without sleep. But even then, they will probably have to catch up on the lost slumber later. Health experts recommend the average adult gets at least seven hours of sleep per night. This is needed for the brain to process new information received during the day and to simply recharge. Sleep deprivation(from just not getting those needed 7 or more hours of sleep per night) can increase the risk for depression, memory problems, irritability, and a weakened immune system. So please do not even consider cutting out a good night’s rest or no sleep altogether. If you were to even seriously push yourself to go days with little or no sleep, it would not take but a few days before serious effects start to occur like hallucinations.
#2) 30 Days Eating Only Fast Food
It is just not a good idea to include only fast food in one’s diet, even if just for a few days. Imagine if you live in the U.S. and decide to eat at your local McDonald’s for just one day. You eat a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit for breakfast. It has 460 calories and 26 g of fat(34% of daily value). For lunch, you grab a Big Mac Combo with a large soda. This carries an estimated 1080 calories with 45 g of total fat (58% of daily value). And at dinner, you go with just a Spicy Deluxe Crispy Chicken Sandwich that has 530 calories and 26 g of fat (33% of daily value). So, you have received 2070 calories from these three meals and 25% more than your suggested daily value of fat. I know this is just a general reading of nutrition facts, but it shows eating too much fast food is just a bad thing. Once in a blue moon is fine(or even a few times a month perhaps) for fast food, but you need your arteries for the long haul! Besides, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock already completed this challenge in his 2004 documentary Super Size Me. As a result of eating only McDonald’s for thirty days, he gained 24.5 pounds, increased his cholesterol to 230 mg/dL, and started accumulating fat on his liver. It took him 14 months to lose all the weight afterwards. So, not a challenge anyone needs to consider again!
#3) Going 30 Days Without Moderate Exercise
Medical experts recommend the average adult gets 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. This does not have to be anything too robust like climbing a mountain or swimming the English Channel. In fact, simple activities like walking, running, or biking might be some of the activities that bring best long-term fitness. Also, the time frames can be broken up. If you want to hit the gym for 45 minutes three days a week, or if you want to just go on a 15 minute walk every day, then these would be methods to get you to the recommended exercise amount. The benefits of any exercise just speak for themselves — managed weight, positive mental effects, and prevention of heart conditions, diabetes, and many forms of cancer are just a few to name. So, why would you challenge yourself NOT to exercise? It just doesn’t make sense for anyone to even consider.
4.) Going 30 Days Without Self-Care
This one is more general and broad in meaning, but self-care generally means taking care of yourself and also setting aside time for yourself. And with so many demands that each of us faces on a daily basis — whether from school or jobs, responsibilities in our relationships with family and friends, and just the daily obligations involved with “getting by” — it seems the default position can be to put off the essential practice of self-care. “Oh, but I need to stay at work late to finish this project.” “Before I go to bed I have to bake those cookies for the kids’ class treats.” “I need to get up early tomorrow to get those clothes ready for date night with my spouse” These other priorities are all key, but you have to balance yourself in there also. And if you don’t give yourself any self care time for days, weeks, or longer at a time you are going to face consequences to your health and well-being. Regular self-care is proven to help boost physical health, eliminate stress and anxiety, and lead to greater levels of spiritual well-being. While it may seem hard to include self-care time, there is nothing that says you cannot balance it in with all those other essential priorities. Maybe before you dive into that project after work hours, you go on a brief walk or reward yourself with a special treat. As you bake those cookies for your kids, maybe you could play your favorite music in the background or catch up on your favorite podcast. As you make that date time with your spouse, maybe seek a new destination or past time that you both will each individually enjoy to have the most fun possible. Balance self-care in with other activities to find greater fulfillment. But please, do not go too long without some sort of self-care time and activity. Especially not as long as thirty days!
5.) Staying In the Same Boring Rut For 30 Days(or Longer
Similar to self-care, don’t take up a challenge to get bored with life and stay in the same rut for days, weeks, months, or even years. You know, following the same routine day-to-day life that easily leads to monotony and despair. In our digital, smart app, overstimulated world of work, chores, family events, errands, carpool, or the like, it can get easy to get in the habit of “living for the weekend” when you will finally get away from the office or be able to sleep in. It is tempting to just go through the motions on a daily basis and then wake up the next day to “rinse and repeat.” But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are many things each of us can do to make life more interesting and fun. They don’t have to include some international Antarctic cruise or going sky-diving(though these can be great activities or pursuits if you have them on your list of life goals). Performing fun tasks or shaking up routines on a daily basis can bring great satisfaction, such as listening to new music on your morning commute or reading poetry on your lunch break. And more long-term activities like taking up a new hobby, volunteering, studying a new subject, learning a new skill, craft, language, or art form are all ways to bring new excitement and fun to your everyday life and find immeasurable enrichment.
We Can Certainly Name More
We could certainly name many more negative or destructive 30 day challenges that no one should ever seriously consider trying. Many such hobbies or activities may make false promises of positive or enriching results, or even be beneficial in small or moderate quantities. But no matter what the deceptive allure, it is best just to not even go there. Life already promises a whole unlimited array of habits or lifestyle activities that are genuinely healthy, positive, and immeasurably enriching. How do you know the difference between positive or negative habits and lifestyle activities or what things can only be done in moderation(like fast food perhaps once a month or so)? Well, if you go too far with many of those potentially negative or destructive things, you will soon recognize the negative effects and desire a quick change of course.
