Have you ever met a challenge you did not accept? What about those New Years Resolutions? Don’t forget about the online challenges, #waterchallenge #condomchallenge #plank #21day____ . What made you accept this challenge and how far did you make it?

I am part of a wellness group named “Afya”. It is mainly based in Rochester, NY but we have a growing membership of people from other cities. Beginning March 1st we started a 21 day self-care challenge. The challenge is a personal challenge that you create towards your self-care. The group is there to support you throughout your 21 days, and at the end we will have a celebration and reflect on how the challenge went. I decided to go light this time. My challenge: no meat, no whites (white sugar, white salt, anything bleached white especially bread and rice), and plank for 1 minute three times every night. Now, you may not think this is light, but let me run you down some of my past challenges.

The challenge game started for me about ten years ago during lent. I never participated as a youth, but I decided that I was going to look into it and add it to my life. I decided since I was addicted to caffeine that I will give that up, along with sweets since that was the common sacrifice during this season. Day one and two were good. I woke up feeling good about this challenge that I had accepted to draw closer to the Lord. Day three I hated everyone, including the inventors of coffee and Snickers. I had the worst headache ever. See, during that time I did not know caffeine was addicting. I was Biology/Pre-Med and I thought caffeine was a tool just like my pencil and calculator. I could not see, I could not hear, I did not want to breathe, I just needed a dark room with no sound for the next 36 days. By the next day the challenge was over. I felt like a failure. Not only was I missing class, I felt like I failed God (we will talk about that in another post). Fast forward to two years ago and many failed challenges later. I was presented with The Master Cleanse. I thought giving up caffeine and Snickers was a beast. This challenge gave up everything… On this cleanse, the only thing you are consuming is water and a lemonade mixture. The mixture consist of water, fresh squeezed lemons, cayenne pepper, and grade A or B pure maple syrup that is not found in every store seeing it is not a favorite to pour over pancakes. With the exception of a sea salt water mixture to clean out your system, that combo was all you had for a minimum of ten days. What did I do? I was like every challenge meme out there. Challenge Accepted!!! I would go above and beyond too. I set my challenge for 14 days. Day one and two, I gagged the whole day every time i opened the bottle to take a sip. Day three my tongue was fuzzy as a reaction to the cleanse since it was cleaning out all of the toxins in my liver due to my liver not having to process all of the food I usually consume. Day four five and six, I was full of life and energy. I felt like I could go the whole 14 days, maybe longer. Day seven, eight, and nine I was back to gagging. By day ten I started to prepare to ween myself off the cleanse as suggested by preparing a soup that I would consume in steps beginning day eleven. This was challenge number 3,23… pick a number, that I had failed. I was like, you know what “I’m a Black woman in America” challenge enough.

I write this piece on day ten of yet another challenge. How have I done? Well, I have not had meat. Sugar and salt is in EVERYTHING! It is in the ranch peppercorn dressing I poured on my salad because I didn’t have all the ingredients to make my own dressing for a salad I threw all the green and mostly tasteless vegetables in. It is in everything I consumed when my period came on because, game over when that beast rolls into town. But, the challenge is not in complete ruins because I have not had meat. I also have not have nearly as many unhealthy foods that I usually eat. I have gone back to meal planning, and my creativity for eating better is back.

Bottom line, it is okay to accept challenges. It is okay to fail challenges. The main point here is you are challenged. You are challenged to step out of your comfort zone because being unhealthy or negative is an easy default to fall into. You are opening your awareness to some of the habits your body may not have liked but you ignored because there are so many other challenges throughout your day that you did not sign up for. I am going to continue to do my best on this challenge and every other challenge that I sign up for. If you are doing a challenge or are preparing for one, remember that everyday is a new day. Everyday of your challenge that you signed up for, is a day to better a life that you can take ownership of. One day of failing does not mean you failed altogether, and any day of achievement is a necessary drop in the bucket of self-care.

When it comes to self-care. Challenge always accepted.