75 soft
This January I decided to follow a trend that I have been seeing all over social media, 75 soft. In the last two years I have successfully completed the 30 day yoga challenge hosted by Adriene Mishler of Yoga with Adriene on YouTube (highly recommend). I also completed Dry February last year to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society. So with the beginning of 2024 upon us I figured I can commit to 75 soft and set myself up well for a healthy year. But as with all well intentioned plans, it has not been going exactly as I imagined…
For anyone who is unfamiliar with the rules of 75 soft, they are;
Pick a diet to follow,
No alcohol except for social occasions,
Drink a gallon of water daily,
Complete two 45-minute workouts of your choice every day (with one active rest day),
Read 10 pages per day of a non-fiction book.
Take progress photos at your own desired interval.
I modified the rules ever so slightly, I decided to drink 2 litres of water a day as for me that was already a major improvement from the maybe 2 glasses I drink. Complete some kind of movement each day, could be a walk, yoga, weights etc. I also wanted to complete the Yoga with Adriene 30 day Yoga Challenge. My diet was just going to be counting calories and trying to maintain a balanced diet. I also decided I wanted to get into journalling more this year.
And so, January 2nd I began. That way, I figured, by March 15 I will be done and I can celebrate on St. Patty’s Day. Well January 3rd was my mom’s birthday so I had some wine, then on the Saturday following we went out for a nice dinner at Lucille’s and I thought, “I’ll have a cocktail it’s a social occasion”. With that, my mostly dry January started to turn more damp than dry. I began working out, I got up at 5:30 AM to do yoga before work and my body was not very happy. I tried again the next day and the same thing happened, I was nauseous and I didn’t find the yoga felt as good as it normally does. Later that week I took the morning off work for a hair appointment and I decided to let myself sleep until 8AM. It felt AMAZING. When I returned from my haircut, feeling fresh and happy, I got out my yoga mat and completed my daily yoga. And guess what, it felt sooooo much better than when I had tried doing yoga at 5:30 AM.
I was honestly pretty ready to give up on my 75 soft goal at this point. I was venting my frustrations to my boyfriend when he said, “What if its not about being perfect but about making the effort each day and progressively getting better?”. This got me thinking, what if instead of 75 soft being about following each rule flawlessly and beating myself up for not reaching my goals each day, I changed the challenge to “75 be soft with myself”? What if I gave myself grace and allowed myself to listen to my body, see what felt good and what didn’t and made adjustments along the way? And that is what I have decided to do. Don’t get me wrong, the perfectionist in me is having a very hard time with it, but I believe this is a better way to progressively develop better habits that will endure after the “75 soft” challenge is complete.
I did not make any real resolutions for 2024. I did however decide on a phrase to embody the mindset I want to have this year, that phrase is “give myself grace”. I am working on letting go of my perfectionist tendencies and accepting each day as it comes. Rather than getting hung up on what isn’t going my way or how I think things should be going, I am choosing to be grateful for each moment as it is. Last year I really tried to be present and I ended up really struggling with accomplishing that goal. In focusing so intently on being present I had trouble actually being present because I was in my head so much of the time. This year I have realized, the best way to be present is to just be. Live life, stop worrying about whats coming up next or what has happened. Stop curating “the perfect weekend”, “the perfect holiday”, “the perfect moment”. Be grateful for how life unfolds and be present by practicing gratitude even when things don’t go quite the way you imagined. Sometimes they turn out even better.
This mentality of giving myself grace and practicing gratitude is the reason I am writing this blog post. In 2023 I tried so hard to start this blog but I kept blocking myself from getting off the ground because I needed everything to be just so before it had even begun. The beauty of this new mindset is that it gives me the freedom to be imperfect and to enjoy it, to enjoy the journey as it unfolds. If you take anything away from this blog post I hope that it is to be soft, kind and gentle with yourself. To look at life not through a lens of scrutiny but with gratitude for all of the little every day things that make up our beautifully flawed human experience.
Here’s to 2024 being the year we can just be.