Sometime ago, back in mid November, my wife sent me a text telling me that she wanted to do a challenge for herself come January. She told me she didn’t have the same willpower I do, and wanted to cut some things out of her life for a month just to prove to herself that she could survive without certain things (sweets, mostly).

Immediately, I told her that I was all in. I know how much it sucks to want to lose weight and make healthy choices and not have support at home. So I said that whatever she wanted to do, I would support her and do it with her. We discussed it further, and I know that while I do have pretty decent willpower, there are still weaknesses that I have, and we worked together to come up with a list.

So January has arrived, and here’s what we’ve signed ourselves up to do for the next month:

• Vegetarian

  Now as I have previously written about, I consider myself a Flexitarian. Make sure to click that link to find out exactly what that means. I know that this one is not going to be incredibly difficult, because I already eat vegetarian about 3-4 days a week anyway. I do love my meat/fish/poultry, so to cut it out completely across the board for a month is making me slightly sad, but I know that it can be accomplished.

• No Chocolate/Candy

  We’re just exiting the holiday season, and I think we’ve both had enough chocolate in the past couple weeks to make up for the next month. Candy is one of my vices as well, so I’m looking forward to surviving a month without it, although I know at some point, I am going to find myself going mad for some candy.

• No Ice Cream
  
  This one was something that I have been struggling with for the past couple months. I love ice cream, and will often find myself failing to resist the call of the frozen tub. So we decided to throw this one on the list as well. I am usually successful at not having too much, but I think this is one that I would also like to prove that I can avoid.
• No Sweet Baked Goods (Cookies/Desserts)

  Once again, now that the holiday season has passed, it also means that I have been constantly eating plenty of baked goodies. My Mother-in-law makes amazing Christmas baking, and plenty of it. I often found myself skipping a meal of something substantial just to make sure I could eat a few pieces of baking. Now, I don’t regret it at all. It was delicious and I never found myself suffering because of it, but I definitely need a bit of a detox from it all!

  At work, one of my favourite things to do is taste the desserts and snacks. I never eat lots, but I really do look forward to the taste. Read about that here.

• No Alcohol

  Not going to be a difficult one at all, since I usually do this anyway in my regular life. Having a father who was an alcoholic took care of this issue for me, so it’s mostly just an additional thing to add to the list, just to make life that much healthier.

So there you have it. It’s going to be difficult for certain things, and easy for others, but we’re in this together. Andrea and I will come out the other side of this month having done something to make us healthier, and prove that we can avoid the unhealthy things in life. I’m not saying that all the things on this list should be avoided forever, because i’m very much a fan of everything in moderation, but I think this is the perfect challenge to do right between the holiday season and our upcoming vacation in February.

Even though certain things may be difficult to avoid, it’s always good to know that we are not alone. We are doing this together, and that’s the best way to do anything.