30 day challenge ideas for better health

Why not start with one (or a few if you’re up for a bigger challenge!) of these 30 day challenge ideas for better health.

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”

Emelia Earhart

Workouts for your body

1. Endorphin boost morning run

I’d be lying if I said I did this but I’ve always admired people who can get up super early, go for an early morning run, then return home for a healthy breakfast of fruit and muesli, before facing the rest of the day refreshed and full of energy.

It just seems like such a nice way to start the day off. Depending on how used to running you are, start off small and increase your running time by a minute or so each day. And every five days, give yourself a hard earned break.

2. Hot yoga challenge

There’s plenty of hot yoga studios around the world that offer £30/$30 deals where you can go to as many hot yoga classes as you like for one month.

I gave this a go (well, it was more like a 20 day challenge) and felt amazing afterwards, but I’m still not sure how much was down to drinking much more more water than usual and drinking more fresh fruit smoothies after classes.

Still, you’ve got nothing to lose. Just make sure you keep yourself hydrated throughout the day and use electrolytes in your water during the class.

2. Stomach workout

Do 10 situps and 10 crunches to begin with, then every three days increase the amount of situps and crunches by five. Again, if you’re new to this, you may want to go at a gentler pace or if you’ve already got abs of steel, you could try adding on an extra five to ten sit ups every day.

4. Headstand challenge

This is one of my personal favourites as it’s a great workout for your arms, stomach, bum and head. If you can’t yet do a headstand, practise the dolphin exercise. First go into a downward facing dog position but rather than resting on your hands, rest your forearms on the floor and clasp your hands together. Then,  bend up and down as if you were doing a press up. See the photo below.

This is the strengthening exercise that’s needed for a headstand. If you do 20 dolphin exercises a day,  there’s a good chance you will have built up the strength needed for a full yogic headstand.

5. Firmer bum in 30 days

There’s just three exercises to repeat for this one: squats, lunges and half bridges. Set the intention to start off doing 10 squats, 10 lunges and 10 bridges on day one of your 30 day challenge.

Every three days, you can then increase the amount of squats, lunges  and half bridges you do by five. Or,  depending on how fit or unfit you are, create your own routine. The key here is consistency.

You will, however, be amazed by how firmer your bum will look after just one month of these simple exercises.

Workouts for your mind

6. 10 minute Meditation and mindfulness

Try the Head Space meditation and mindfulness app for free and practise 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation every day for 30 days. This is great if you’ve always struggled with meditation or you just didn’t get it. It takes after all, approximately 30 days to break bad habits and create new more positive changes that will last.

7. Lucid dream preparation

If you’ve never heard of lucid dreaming (also called dream yoga), it’s a way of being conscious in your dreams. Many athletes use the lucid dreaming technique to workout in their dreams as the mind can’t tell the difference.

It takes people approximately one to two months to induce a lucid dream so chances are, it should take you 30 days. Read more about lucid dreaming and how to do it

8. 30 gratitude lists for 30 days

Every day write down 10 things you’re truly grateful for. They don’t have to be big things — just simple, everyday pleasures that make you feel happy. Then spend a few minutes reflecting on your list. You’ll soon find yourself feeling much happier in life and more open to noticing opportunities.

9. Stress free challenge

Put aside at least 10 minutes every day just for you. Do something that calms you down and makes you happy.

Take a soothing bath, read a book, meditate, play an instrument. Whatever it is, make sure you find the time to do it, especially if your workload is high and you’re feeling stressed or out of your depth at work. There are no excuses for not being able to find 10 minutes!

10. Eat well challenge

Set a day for your eat well 30 day challenge and the day before go shopping for only healthy food. You might want to plan out some healthy meals before hand.

Forget fad diets and don’t try to go to cut out all bad food — the key here is balance. Just set the intention to eat three balanced meals a day, preparing as much food as you can from scratch rather than relying on cheap packaged meals and takeaways.

11.30 day water detox

One of the reasons I felt so great during and after my hot yoga 30 day challenge was because I drank heaps more water than I usually do because if I didn’t I’d get terrible headaches after the class. Until you start.

According to the European Food Safety Authority, you should be drinking 1.6 litres of water a day if you’re a woman and 2 litres if you’re a man. This is the equivalent of about eight and ten 200ml glasses of water each day. If it’s too much, try decaffeinated herbal teas or adding sliced lemon to hot water in the winter.

12. 5 a day for 30 days

Buy yourself a weekly fruit and veg box and there’s no excuse not to have your five pieces of fruit and veg a day. Or you could mix up some delicious fruit/ veg smoothies and drink one a day for breakfast. Yum!

13. 30 colourful meals

I’m a big fan of colourful food and love displaying food on my plate in lovely bright colours. For 30 days, aim to eat one colourful meal a day. Maybe It’s just me, but I think eating colourful food just feels better.

Break bad habits

14. Go booze free for 30 days

This one pretty much speaks for itself — cut out all alcohol for 30 days. It’ll be easier if you do it with friends and/ or people you live with then there’s no temptation!

15. Stop smoking for a month

Perhaps buy Alan Carrs ‘Easy way to give up smoking’, set yourself a giving up smoking day and go smoking free for 30 days.

16. Early to rise challenge

I would love to get better at this one. Just make sure you don’t go to bed really late, move your alarm clock to the other side of your room so you have to get up and don’t press snooze.

Perhaps combine this one with another 30 day challenge idea such as the meditation and mindfulness exercise or one of the body workouts. It’ll give you more of an incentive to get up. Even if you’re not a morning person, you’ll soon feel so much better once you start waking up earlier.

17. Healthy snacks for 30 days

If you’ve got a regular snack like crisps or chocolate, that you can’t seem to live without, give them up for 30 days and replace the unhealthy snack with dried fruit, fruit, nuts … It might be hard at first, but cutting out fatty snacks has got to be better than going on a restrictive diet.

Want more 30 day challenge ideas?

Read my list of 100 30 day challenge ideas

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