Challenge Accepted

A Challenge a Month in 2017. Are your up for it?

2017 is well under way. I cannot believe that it is already February. Tell me, how many new year resolutions did you set this year? How many new year resolutions are you still working on? It has been proven that, for most people, new year resolutions are not very effective. Have you ever considered taking on a personal challenge every month?

Last year was pretty special for me. I finally hit the big 3. That’s right, in December I turned 30 years old. Many describe this transition as the period where you stop dancing, your bones start creaking, your body clock starts ticking louder, your chances to find love goes even lower and many more negative comments. For me, this was an opportunity to celebrate my life and to look forward to a life full of opportunities. Aside from the various parties throughout the year, yes I had more than 6 celebrations, I decided to sign up to a gruelling program to beat negativity out of my system  and shape myself into the young woman I wanted to be.

I started the year with 12 challenges and a list of 30 things I wanted to achieve before turning 30. You are probably thinking that I am insane and that you will never be able to do something like this. Yes I am insane, and no you definitely can do something like this. In fact, I am challenging you to set up your own goals for 2017. Are you up for this? Continue reading →

Turn your subconscious into your personal coach

Positive thinking, is it a myth? With all the best intentions in the world, how can you remain positive when your brain is constantly attacked by negative and discouraging thoughts? Have you ever tried “literally” rewriting the scripts that play in your mind?

When everything is hunky-dory, it is somewhat easy to keep a smile on your face. However, how can you keep smiling when life keeps on throwing you curve balls? I started this year with a plan, a smile and a determination to challenge myself every month in order to become more resilient. In January, I worked on learning self control through veganism. It wasn’t long before a spanner was thrown in the mix. Yikes! In a nutshell, men! You think you can trust someone but then you find out that it has always been a lie. Needless to say that it was a struggle to remain positive, to smile. After the mandatory period of dwelling on what happened and feeling sorry for myself, I decided that enough was enough. As Gloria Gaynor said “I will survive”. But how do you do that when you lose your motivation and question your confidence and belief in yourself and the people that you have allowed into your life?

When I was at primary school, one of the punishments for misbehaving was to write a certain sentence a hundred times. Yeah that’s right, hundred times! The sentences were designed to reinforce positive behaviours such as “I will remember to bring my PE kit”, “I will always do my homework”, “I will not be rude to my teachers”. Trust me when I said that, at that age, this was worse than detention. Weirdly enough, when I was thinking about techniques to use to get me back on the positivity wagon, this once dreadful experience came to my mind. Would it be possible to change the way I think by writing down a positive mantra based on the negative thoughts that I have been fighting all day? Challenge Accepted! Throughout February, before going to bed, I will write down a sentence that will help me fight my negative thoughts and beliefs. Rather than hundred, I will write the same sentence fifty times. Continue reading →

Learning Self-Control through Veganism

If someone had told me that I’d go vegan for a month, I would look at them with eyes that say “Don’t be silly”. I have always wondered why people became vegetarian, let alone vegan. The world is filled with interesting food. Why deprive yourself of them? Most importantly, how do you wake up one day and say “No, I’m not touching this glorious steak and I won’t have that piece of cake either”? All I could say to that was: “Challenge Accepted”.

For someone who could happily have a pork chop for breakfast, I went through an entire month, 32 days to be exact, without a single piece of meat, no dairy products and no chocolate. The only thing that kept me going was the smell of BBQ chicken tapas coming from my friends plates whilst I was faced with a small quinoa salad that was barely enough to feed a toddler. Now I can describe myself as a recovering meat eater. In fact, I should probably join a CA (Carnivore Anonymous)  club to get the appropriate support during this transition period.

Many people have asked me why I decided to put myself through that. It was indeed a tough experience, but well worth it. The idea came to me last year in March. Whilst enjoying the eclipse in Reykjavik, I started thinking about what I could do to make my life more intriguing. There were a lot of ridiculous and fun suggestions such as “wear a sling on my right arm for a month”. Of all of them, being vegan was the one idea that seriously stuck to my brain. Continue reading →