By Vicki Scott
January marks the start of another year of writing articles for The Messenger. It is an honor to have written this long for this newspaper, and I praise God to everyone involved in making this possible. It is hard to believe the amount of people who read my gibberish, but I praise God for each and every one of them.
January also marks the second annual Hard 75 Challenge that my two competitive children love to do. The challenge consists of taking a selfie and drinking a gallon of water every day, doing a 45-minute exercise twice a day, reading a non-fiction book and following a diet plan. The program lasts 75 days.
Our daughter Eva discovered this program last year and tried to get her brother Joseph to follow it with her in order to keep her accountable. They went back and forth about it, with Joseph denying any desire to do the challenge. In the meantime, I’m watching them, learning and trying to figure out if it’s possible to do the program myself. I did put a gallon of water in the refrigerator to monitor my water intake.
Joseph looked in our refrigerator (like most people in our home do) and saw the water. He asked me about it, and I explained, so he decided to do the challenge. After some thought, he volunteered to walk with me after work for one of the 45-minute daily exercises. It turned out that Joseph not only did the challenge for the full 75 days but also started over and did it again.
He lost 21 pounds that he did not even need to lose! On the other hand, Eva lasted maybe two weeks. I did the daily walking with Joseph and drank some water.
After his first 75 days, Joseph said his clothes were loose and stepped on our scale. That was when I decided to get more serious. I never took a selfie and did not finish my non-fiction book.
Nicholas Sparks’ new book, Dreamland, came out, and I could not wait to read it. I‘ve read all his books. I would be in a dreamland if I got to visit New Bern, North Carolina, and see all the places he describes in his books. They sound amazing! Anyway, I do not remember which non-fiction book I was reading.
Because of Joseph, I did my 45-minute walks and drank some water. My diet was known as “see food,” since I ate all I could see until I decided to get serious! My weight continued to rise as Joseph was eating healthy like I did before.
It finally came over me one morning just before my time with God that I could do this challenge, with God’s will, of course. The wheels started turning. With almost 45 pounds down and some ways to go, Hard 75 is back on the table. I accept the challenge with all I have. I still will not do the selfies, however. Joseph took the photos and it was impressive, but I’m older. The challenge officially was supposed to start last Sunday but as I write this column, it is Monday.
Joseph did not call to walk one day, so I walked by myself. He finally called as I was finishing up, so I did another walk as we spoke. According to my new watch, I ended up doing over 14,000 steps that day. I was pumped!
The next day, I got on our treadmill, which was very dusty. I was determined to get at least 10,000 steps in, so my husband Alan had to help me turn the thing on. Our treadmill has different walking programs, and I may have finished the 21-minute option a couple of times. The treadmill has speed-up, slow-down and slope options to keep things interesting.
It took over an hour to get my steps in. I had music on my phone, which took a significant amount of abuse during my determination. This particular program had a 10-minute running session, and I did it! It made me want to finish even more. I tried to synchronize my watch with my phone at one point, and I fell off the treadmill. Alan asked (well, yelled) if I was okay. He could not see me, so I guess I was. That was a hard 10,000 for my Hard 75, for sure.
After telling Eva about all my hardships, I found out that she did not know we were starting the challenge again. She asked what non-fiction book Joseph was reading. I do not know how Eva feels about her mother’s hardships. She does not want me to tell Joseph, but she is planning on trying the challenge this year. At any rate, I do not know what book either one of us is currently reading.
It is times like these that help me understand why we moved away from Glencoe. Time with family is priceless, especially when challenged.
Stay safe, y’all!
Vicki Scott may be contacted at lily200383@yahoo.com.