On this, the last day of the November Challenge, I went for a walk in the rain.

It was glorious.
I felt great!

I got soaking wet, but it didn’t matter. I felt energised, I felt fit, I felt 10 years younger than my biological age. (Which is 71, by the way.)

What’s my November Challenge?
Towards the end of October, I set myself a challenge for November. That I would:

– Take a walk of no less than 45 mins each day.
– Put no added salt on my food.
– Eat no processed sugar – chocolate, sweets, ice cream etc.

I set myself this challenge because I had, for a long long time, added salt to whatever meal was put in front of me regardless of how the food tasted. It had become a habit I couldn’t break. Similarly, chocolate after dinner at nights. It was not uncommon for Jennifer and me (mainly me!) to demolish a whole block of Whittaker’s whilst watching telly of an evening.

Not good.
Good, but not good!
Things had to change.
Hence, my November Challenge.

Well, the good news is that I’ve broken the salt and sugar / chocolate addictions.

During the month I’ve had no chocolate, no sweets, no ice cream or gelato. None of it. And I’ve not put salt on any of my food, And coming into December, I’ll hold fast to these mandates.

I was in the supermarket yesterday and I noticed that the particular type of Toblerone chocolate that I used to crave – honey and nougat – was half price. I had no desire to buy it. Normally if it’s half price I’d have bought two.

Not yesterday.
Nup.
No way.
And not tomorrow either.

As for my exercise – you’d think a minimum of 45mins walking a day for 30 days straight would be no trouble for a Camino walker such as myself, however because I’m now 6 ½ years into Parkinson’s, walking for any stretch has become difficult. But other than time off whilst I was travelling this month, I managed to keep to my schedule.

Lately I’ve been doing 4.5km walks at an average of just under 5km/hr – which for me with this PD, that’s good going. I used to be able to do 6.25-6.5km/hr before I took on this condition, but hey, I’m also getting older. There’s that too.

Some days during this November challenge I mixed up my walks with sessions on my indoor bike, and that was useful because on the bike I could push more into my cardio zones. There’s no doubt that at the end of this month, I feel way fitter and way healthier than at the start of the month.

I haven’t lost that much weight (see chart below), but that’s okay – this wasn’t about weight loss. This was about taking back control of my mind. Which I’ve done.

So I’m going to continue my November Challenge into December – which will be harder because of Christmas and the holiday period – but I’ve decided I’m going to add one more thing to my list: 45 mins of exercise and meditation before my walk. Ten minutes of weights, twenty minutes of yoga, and mediation for fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes of yoga isn’t much, nor is 15 mins of meditation, but it’s a start.

I’ve found the trick to these challenges is to keep the bar low – make the goals achievable. You can always outperform if you have the time and/or the inclination. Set the goals too large, then it becomes an impediment each day to even try.

They say it takes roughly 66 days to establish a habit. That’s a bit over two months. So if I can continue this through December, come the start of 2025 I’ll be in a good place.

All up, this November challenge has been very worthwhile!