May Health Challenge

I recently signed up to participate in the May Health Challenge which is being put together by some local friends of mine, Mark and Julie. The idea is a simple one, and I'm hoping it will succeed where other challenges I've undertaken have failed (i.e. yoga challenge) in that the steps that I'm planning on taking for this challenge may seem like small ones in the grand scheme of things, but for me they will make me be and feel healthier.

Here are the goals I'm focusing on for this month:

Have a bedtime: Getting back to work three days a week and having school on the go means that I have a bit of a variable schedule, and I'm just not getting enough sleep and staying up late on the days where I don't have to work the next day. Hopefully trying to get to bed around the same time (I'm aiming for 12 in bed and 12:30 lights out) will help to give me a bit more energy.

Drink more water: My new office is an oven, and I'm not always getting to drink enough water. I've  also gotten out of the habit of always having a glass on the go and bringing a water bottle with me everywhere.

Do some yoga: Unlike the yoga challenge I tried to do, I don't want to say anything unrealistic like that I need to start off doing yoga every day. Some days, I really just don't have the time, and those 14 hour days at school some days of the week were largely responsible for that failure. However, since I haven't been able to take a yoga class, I also haven't been doing any yoga. At all. So my challenge for this month is to try to do some yoga where I can, and rediscover my practice at home, hopefully on somewhat of a regular basis.

Julie's story, as well as that of another local Steve, are super inspiring. You can also follow all of our progress on Twitter at #mayhealth. If you're inspired at all by this post to take on a few healthy goals of your own,  I'd love to hear about it!