A new set of shared goals

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I watched a video that would become some kind of fuel to us. It ignited something within us that I find hard difficult to pinpoint, but that I would call inspiration for lack of a better word. Maybe motivation. Either way, we haven't stopped referring to that video when we mention wanting to do something.

The video is by Speeed, the channel James Pumphrey after leaving Donut Media, and it's about following viral health trends to see what works and what not. Literally called I Tried 30 Viral Health Trends For 30 Days to See What's Worth It it's as hardcore as you can go when trying stuff that health influencers recommend. They do 30 things in 30 days, starting with only one thing on day one and adding an additional trend daily, ending up following all the 30 health trends the last day.

The different trends go from five minute cold plunges to 100 push ups daily to trying a paleo keto diet, with the hardest ones lasting only the last 2 days. I would honestly say it's the equivalent of method acting for YouTube.

The whole point is...

If you found the time to see the video, you'll find out that obviously it's not an easy task and you can see their ups and downs –and struggles– through the days.

I think the core of what they do is where the magic happens. Setting aside the trends they tried, how they structured the challenge is where you get the secret sauce. They did it as a pair, holding each other accountable –even doing the challenges together– and motivating each other to follow through. I honestly think that if it was a one person challenge things would have gone pretty differently, surely quitting at the first sign of difficulty. I am, of course, not saying that James couldn't have pulled it off all alone, but I feel it would have been substantially harder.

Anyway, having a partner to share your struggles is what I found as the key to survive the challenge.

Inspiration / Motivation

Now, after finishing the video, I think both my wife and myself where pretty inspired to do something similar. Obviously, there's no point for us to do the whole 30 trends daily, but, as the ending of the video says, if you can stick to some of them and be consistent at doing them, they would prove to be beneficial to anyone.

My picks:

• Walk my dog daily. At least for 40 mins, more if possible. This has the added benefit of ensuring my 5K steps daily.
• Journaling. This I will try to do with a twist... Journaling in here, in Acento en la O. Added points if I include pictures. Not sure of the frequency yet, I think daily would be too rough but weekly is no different than what I try to do now. Maybe twice or three times per week.
• Reading. I still haven't caught up to the 12 books I challenged myself to read, so I want to improve/catch up on it.

Her picks:

• Eat salad three times per week. We all can benefit from eating more vegetables.
• Exercise more weekly. She's got into swimming classes 3 times per week and we're thinking on getting a treadmill for both of us.
• Not buying food during weekdays. Includes the added challenge of cooking more at home. Can help save money, too.

Starting today

Both of us are starting today, June 1st. The ideas is to sustain these activities as long as possible, so we don't have a clear goal as of today. I will update you if we find changes or if we eventually quit.

Until the next one!