The beginning of a new year always seems to spark a bit of enthusiasm. Even the most cynical among us, if honest, have a twinge of “what if” when the clock strikes midnight in a new year. January is also my birthday month, so there is that. Ever since I turned 40, I promised myself I would make 40 fit and fabulous. Now that I’m a bit past 40, I think it’s finally time to see if the old girl has any tricks left up her sleeve.

I’m a huge fan of the Whole 30. HUGE. I love the discipline it takes to plan and stick to the program for an entire 30 days. I’m also a fan of my friends. I have a group of individuals I met while in law school who I have the pleasure of seeing nearly every day because we now work at the same place. One of the members of our group was bitten by the Advocare bug and she infected the larger group with her enthusiasm. I mentioned my friend group’s interest & a generous benefactor provided me with a 24-Day Challenge kit as an early birthday present.

Because of some of the ingredients in some of the components of the Advocare challenge items, I cannot say that I am doing the Whole 30. Things like sucralose are no-nos on the Whole 30 and if you know you are ingesting them, you’re out of bounds. I totally understand that. So, I’m not doing a Whole 30.

What I AM doing at the moment is the 24-Day Advocare Challenge while only eating Whole 30 compliant meals. So. Wait. I guess I’m not technically doing the challenge religiously either given that the nutritional guidelines provided include things the Whole 30 prohibits.

For someone who is rule governed, OCD and risk averse, this whole breaking the rules things is kind of enthralling. But, the way I see it, the Advocare Challenge wants you to eat clean. There is no cleaner eating, in my humble opinion, than what is prescribed by the Whole 30. So, the supplements provided by the Advocare Challenge coupled with the non-icky food of a traditional Whole 30 should be fine. Yes?

Today was a good day and I even had a chance to complete some non-traditional exercise. Usually, I prefer a brisk walk or a slow run, but it’s frostbite weather outside this week. Given that my personal optimal running temperature is between 38-42 degrees and the coldest weather I’ve run in is 23 degrees [and I was in much better shape then], I decided against having a heart attack on Day 1.

I did, however, have the occasion to move boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of books off shelves and onto a cart. Said cart was then pushed and pulled to a classroom on the 2nd floor and then unloaded. I did this times two. I broke a sweat. Those boxes were HEAVY and I was under time pressure, so it upped the ante a bit.

So far today, I’ve consumed 128 ounces of water. For some people, I’m sure that’s par for the course and they scoff at my gallon of water. But, I’m a person who routinely becomes dehydrated to the point of a headache because it doesn’t occur to me to drink water during my day–even though I know it’s good for me and my body needs it. If nothing else, the Challenge has made me more mindful.

More than that, this has my friends and I hanging out, texting, Facebook messaging and encouraging each other. I LOVE that part the most.