30 day challengeA popular social media trend these days is the 30-Day Challenge. Participants are challenged to take on new activities or give up old ones for exactly one month. The goal is not only to meet the challenge each day, but to adopt permanent, healthy changes in daily living.

A 30-Day Challenge online poster began making the rounds at Perry Wellness Center last month. The challenge promotes mindfulness of the foods we need to eat less or avoid altogether for better health and wellness. On October 3, information on the challenge was formally presented. Phyllis Smith, a PWC wellness coach specializing in nutrition, described the purpose of the challenge and provided examples of food that were allowed or prohibited on the challenge.

Miss Phyllis notes that a blanket plan such as the 30-Day Challenge is not what she usually recommends, but she decided to encourage this project as a way to promote increased awareness of the need to avoid certain foods to improve one’s health.

“To try to suddenly stop eating so many different foods we often crave is simply setting ourselves up for failure,“ she states. However, with so many peers at our center with physical health conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, digestive issues, and chronic pain, individuals can benefit from daily opportunities to increase awareness of the role food plays in these conditions. The goal of this 30-Day Challenge is to increase awareness of healthy eating practices and encourage new habits to enhance wellness.

Several peers and staff decided to attempt the challenge, which is now underway. Participants are being encouraged daily by their coaches in their efforts to follow the plan. Focus is upon success rather than failure, with a daily question being, “What did you do today to follow the 30-Day Challenge?” It is recommended that each participant have a partner, in order to provide accountability and encouragement. For example, one peer has recruited her daughter at home to do the challenge with her.

As added encouragement, healthy eating prizes will be awarded weekly through a drawing which all participants can enter. At the end of 30 days, a gift certificate for $30 worth of healthy food from Rudy’s Happy Patch Market will go to one lucky participant in a drawing of all peers who complete the 30-Day Challenge.

Good luck to all!

In the photo above, Debra Clayton, Tamika Brown, and Phyllis Smith review food no-no’s in the Perry Wellness Center 30-Day Challenge.

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