Undoubtedly, you’ve decided to change something today. You’ve decided to accomplish something.

‘Tis the season, after all.

Regardless of the nature of your goal, you would do well to commit with more than mind. You’ll need to change your environs and alter patterns.…

The post Commitment: The 3 Hard Choices for Success appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This Week, Take Time Each Day to Connect with a Friend

Simple Instructions:

1. Each day this week, reach out to a friend.

…

The post A Friend Indeed: Off-Season WLC Skill Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Take a 10-Minute Walk Alone Each Day This Week

Simple Instructions:

1. For the next seven days, take a 10-minute walk each day (with no particular destination in mind).

…

The post A Walk Alone: Off-Season WLC Skill Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

We’re Taking 7 Days Off From Drinking

Simple Instructions:

1. Each day this week, abstain from drinking alcohol.

…

The post Booze Free: Off-Season WLC Skill Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Print

Fresh Chicken and Sausage Stir Fry

Rainbow-colored veggies, butcher-fresh sausage, and air-chilled chicken combine to make the perfect one-pan dish.

Course Chicken, Dinner, PaleoCuisine Kickstart, Lifestyle, Performance

Prep Time 15 minutes minutesCook Time 20 minutes minutesTotal Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Jon Gilson

Ingredients

Instructions

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The post Recipe: Fresh Chicken and Sausage Stir Fry appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Here’s the formula:

…

The post Body Fat, Consistency, and Understanding the Whole Life Challenge appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

In no particular order, here’s some of the misinformation you’ve been subjected to:

Each of these is wrong (or incomplete) in its own special way, and in this series, we’ll deal with them all, but today, we’ll further our case by addressing the number one thing you should be doing beyond diet.…

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Fat Loss, Part 2: The Shortcut appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Turns out this isn’t a joke.

It’s a research-supported finding you’d do well to understand — how long you sleep directly influences your energy, hunger, and body fat levels. In other words, those late nights and early mornings are royally screwing up your fitness plans. Here’s why.…

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Fat Loss, Part 1: Sleep and Your Appetite appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The magazines are lying, your friends are lying, and the morning talk shows are lying. They’re telling you where fitness comes from — and they’re dead wrong.

It’s time to set the record straight. We’ll do it for the sake of our friends, our loved ones, and our own health. We’ll do it because fitness can only be enjoyed when the truth is known.…

The post The 3 Lies of Fitness appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

I apologize for the mess. Still, I’ll carry on for your sake, as you’re going to want to make this steak ASAP.…

The post (An Epic) Cast Iron Ribeye Steak Recipe appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

If you’re not familiar with the 50/50 Bacon and Beef Burger, you’ve likely never been to Slater’s in San Diego.…

The post 50/50 Bacon and Beef Burger Recipe appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

In this workout, you’ll be doing quite a few long jumps. This activity that comes with a caveat: things will get more difficult as the clock marches onward, but you’ll still want to work for good, solid jumps (rather than simply skipping along to “get it done”).…

The post Bodyweight Workout: “Leap Year” appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

There’s one in your car. It makes the headlights work, the dashboard illuminate, and the spark that keeps your engine going. Without it, your vehicle wouldn’t work — the battery would quickly drain and you’d be stuck calling for jumper cables.

Like your car needs an alternator, you need your heart to keep working — it keeps the lights on and the engine running.…

The post Bodyweight Workout: “Heart Alternator” appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The catch — you’ll stop every sixty seconds and do a set of air squats. The clock continues, though, so you’ll need to get through the squats as quickly as possible and get back to your run.

The clock only stops when you’ve covered one mile. …

The post Bodyweight Workout: “The Long Mile” appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

In this bodyweight workout, you’ll do a set number of burpees every two minutes (and rest for the remaining time), alternating periods of hard work with recovery, thereby allowing you to put maximum effort into each set.…

The post Bodyweight Workout: Build Your Stamina appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

It is an outstanding movement, and it’s time to incorporate it into your routine.

The Challenge

This week, a simple bodyweight challenge. You’ll do 10 sets of push-ups in one day.

Space them out as you see fit, but you must complete all sets between the time you wake up and the time you go to sleep.…

The post The One-Day Push-Up Challenge appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Simple Instructions:

…

The post Pre-Game Lifestyle Practice: 20 Air Squats a Day appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Athletic ability, strength, and performance all come from a strong core. Your abs and lower back are the glue that connects your upper and lower body. When they’re strong, you’re strong. In fact, if I was to advise anyone on the single best thing they could do to enhance nearly any type of physical performance, that advice would be simple: build your core.…

The post Bodyweight Workout: Build Your Core appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Simple Instructions:

Why Is This Practice Important?

Technology is a good thing.…

The post Pre-Game Lifestyle Practice: Unplug for 15 Minutes appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

You turn to stimulants, downing coffee and Red Bull to get through your day. Your brain calls for glucose, and your diet goes out the window, everything in the vending machine now fair game.…

The post Sleep Hacking: 5 Methods for Getting More Sleep, More Often appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

More should (including you). Sprinting is one of the most effective exercises you can do, bar none.

As a sprinter, you’ll build speed, burn fat, gain lean muscle, and have fun doing it. On top of those benefits, you’ll increase your aerobic ability, even while running distances far short of a mile. Sprinting may be the ultimate bodyweight workout.…

The post Bodyweight Workout: Sprinting appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

My stovetop holds four (highly temperamental) electric coils, and my pans came from TJ Maxx. Every time I go into Williams Sonoma, I’m reminded of my tax bracket, left to wonder who shops there without first taking out a substantial home equity loan.  

Nonetheless, I manage to eat well, thanks largely to a one-pan method that hides my lack of culinary skill behind a wall of fresh ingredients and a can’t-screw-it-up technique that requires almost no training of the preparer.…

The post The One-Pan Method: Eating Well Without the Celebrity Chef appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The best part: it requires no equipment at all—just a few square feet of floor space.

Your Bodyweight Workout:

1. Set your clock for 12 minutes (a cell phone timer or alarm works great for this)
2. Do 5 Burpees, 10 Sit-ups, and 15 Squats
3. Repeat as many times as possible until the 12 minutes is up

Movement Tips:

Burpees: A burpee is performed from standing.  …

The post Bodyweight Workout: 12-Minute Cardio Blast appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Motivation and Reward

The first step, as with all habits, is to find the appropriate motivation. …

The post 6 Steps to Building an Exercise Habit appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

You’ve likely experienced this (along with a subsequent dose of guilt) — a brief argument with your partner turns into a consolation drink, a late night slice of pizza, and a three-hour Netflix binge — all things that felt necessary in the moment, but all working directly against your health and fitness goals.…

The post How to Build Willpower: A 4-Step System to Fight Temptation appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get the benefit of an intelligent, well-designed program. In this article, I’m going to teach you how to create your own. You’ll learn to think like a trainer and build an effective workout routine, one that gets you the results you want (without the need to spend thousands of dollars at the gym).…

The post How to Create Your Own Workout Plan: A Guide for Beginners appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Still, I lack the patience to spend days seasoning cast iron, running through eighteen hours of oiling, rubbing, baking, and cooling.…

The post How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet Quickly appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Here’s the sequence:

1. 10 Walking Lunges
2. 10 Tuck Jumps
3. 10 Mountain Climbers

Repeat the sequence 5 times if you’re a beginner athlete, 7 times if you’re an intermediate athlete, and 10times if you’re advanced.…

The post Bodyweight Workout: Prep for Skiing and Snowboarding appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Before you get down to the real business of Thanksgiving, grab a quick workout: You can do this one anywhere, and you’ll rev up your metabolism before dinner.

It’s a “Fartlek” (don’t laugh), which is Swedish for “speed play.” The idea is to mix near-maximal sprints and kicks with your normal endurance running pace.…

The post Thanksgiving Running Workout appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

But wait — it does get even better when the ingredients are boneless short ribs and bacon, and the output is transcendent enough to make you moan involuntarily (especially when served over sweet potatoes).

Here’s the recipe. Grab your slow cooker and your friends — and try not to eat it all at once.…

The post Recipe: (Tasty Tasty) Bacon Shredded Short Ribs in the Slow Cooker appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

If you’re on this website, odds are you already know this: good food choices determine general health. Likely, you also have a basic understanding of foods to be avoided and those to be selected for various purposes: controlling biomarkers, changing body composition, feeling energetic and attentive.  …

The post How to Help Your Family Eat Right (Without Starting a Fight) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

They taste like you’re cheating on your diet (even though you’re not).…

The post How to Make Crispy Lemon Pepper Chicken Drumsticks (Recipe) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

While exercise for its own sake is admirable, it’s hard to maintain.…

The post Setting Athletic Goals: A Primer for Normal People appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

They drop in unbidden, leaving our intentions scattered, our priorities re-organized, and our convictions questioned. They feel implacable and unstoppable, the new permanent state.

You’ve experienced this at its highest magnitude: the request from your landlord that you vacate your apartment immediately, the sudden end to your long-term relationship, the loss of your job.…

The post Getting Past a Bad Day: 4 Steps to Moving On appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

We have emotional needs that go unmet, casualties of a world that de-prioritizes our mental state in favor of our material welfare.

This is a full-blown cultural phenomenon, rooted in bias. We pursue financial stability and economic wealth (the outward expressions of success) as a proxy for our ability to provide, to take care of our loved ones, to contribute to society.…

The post Love, Friendship, and the Time/Money Tradeoff appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

(And if I’m honest, Trader Joe’s wine.)

I’d order a bunch of takeout wings, quaff a bottle of red, and generally descend into a buffalo sauce-driven coma. And then I’d pay for it, because Two Buck Chuck and sugar-filled wing sauce is the world’s most effective hangover recipe.…

The post How to Make Crispy Paleo Buffalo Chicken Wings (Recipe) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

A trope, an aphorism of self-improvement, sure. “It changed my life…”

But perhaps I can give you some context.

When I found the WLC, I found it like most everyone else — during a chance web search. And I was so taken with the concept of its completeness, its focus on a constellation of habits, that I called one of the co-founders (Andy), and told him it was great.…

The post Why I Believe the Whole Life Challenge Works appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

The Well-Being Practices span categories throughout your life, including improving your personal relationships, increasing productivity, doing more of the things you love, serving others, connecting with your thoughts and feelings, expressing gratitude, and examining your relationship with technology.…

The post What Is a “Well-Being Practice” and Why Would I Do One? appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Given this daily scoring, you’d be forgiven for thinking the score itself is the point of the Challenge. That line of thinking goes something like this:

…

The post Why We Keep Score (and How to Do It Like a Pro) appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Foods to avoid come in packages and bottles, and they’re found in the interior of the grocery store — among the chips, crackers, cookies, candy, cereals, sodas, and frozen foods. They also dominate the takeout menus tacked to your fridge and the menu at your local restaurant, where manmade oils (like canola and vegetable) are the primary cooking substrate, and salt and sugar are added to everything.…

The post The Rules for Healthy Eating Made Simple: How to Choose Your Whole Life Challenge Nutrition Level appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Let’s prevent that.

Below, seven tasks you can perform in the next seven days to ensure you’ll always have compliant, healthy food ready to go (while facing as little temptation as possible).

Go through the steps one at a time, and by the end of the week, you’ll be ready to tackle the Whole Life Challenge’s Nutrition and Hydration Habits.…

The post How to Prepare Your Kitchen for the Whole Life Challenge appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This Week’s Mission: Virtual Moving Day
The Idea

Borrowed from Gretchin Rubin and her wonderful Happiness Podcast.…

The post WLC Mission: Virtual Moving Day appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

And if you know what I’m talking about — the wafting steam from that cart, the sweet smell of fried peppers and onions, the umami of the sausage, the vibration of excitement in the air, and the sound of a thousand Boston accents bouncing off the brick walls of Fenway — you’re going to love this recipe.…

The post Paleo Sausage, Peppers, and Onions appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This Week’s Mission: Fitness Field Day
The Idea

This week, you’re going to enhance your love of physical culture by taking your fitness where it’s never been before — to a new class, outdoor pursuit, or team sport.…

The post WLC Mission: Fitness Field Day appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This Week’s Mission: Travel the Hard Way
The Idea

When you go somewhere this week, add as much human-powered motion to the trip as possible.…

The post WLC Mission: Travel the Hard Way appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Iskiate (IS-kee-ah-tay), also known as chia fresca, is a water-based chia drink that supposedly confers huge amounts of energy and endurance on the drinker, bolstered by the superfood status of chia, a squeeze of lime, and a hit of agave.…

The post “Born to Run” Iskiate Chia Energy Drink appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Try a Week Without Dairy Products

Simple Instructions:

1. For the next seven days, you’ll avoid dairy products completely — a small experiment to see how it makes you feel, both mentally and physically.

…

The post 7 Days Without Dairy: Weekly Habit Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

But I’m not really down with beer-battered anything. Or this week’s “white fish.” Or chipotle-flavored, vegetable oil-based sauces.

And so I build my own.

This recipe is the result of that effort, and it’s Whole Life Challenge-compliant on any level that allows corn tortillas. If that’s not cool with your current plan, you can always make the fish as directed, slather it with salsa, avocado, and cabbage, and enjoy.…

The post Fish Tacos for People Who Love Fish Tacos appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This Week We’re Going to Stop Procrastinating

Simple Instructions:

1. Each day this week, you’ll do one thing that you’ve been “meaning to do” for a long time.

…

The post Stop Procrastinating: Weekly Habit Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

A Week of No Alcohol

Simple Instructions:

1. Each day this week, abstain from drinking alcohol.

…

The post Go 7 Days With No Alcohol: Weekly Habit Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Take the Push-up Challenge by Doing Push-ups Every Day

Simple Instructions:

…

The post Push-up Challenge: Weekly Habit Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

While we’re not super surprised (because change can be difficult), we’ve decided to help alter the pattern with a very simple solution — a downloadable collection of recipes and smoothies to help people get back in the groove of healthy eating, created to go hand-in-hand with Evolution Fresh’s National Green Juice Day.…

The post Evolution Fresh and the Challenge: 8 Recipes to Restart Your Resolution appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Go Bread Free Every Day This Week

This week, we’re leaving flour-containing foods behind.…

The post Flour Less and Bread Free: Off-Season WLC Skill Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Here, we’re going to learn those things.

(And you’ll leave with a skill that will be very useful during your next backwoods adventure).

//
While this recipe is a bit further along than just iron and fish (we’re going to use lemon, butter, and thyme), the essence stays the same — you could cook this dish over an open campfire with any whitefish you choose — trout, tilapia, bass, cod, or halibut — with no loss of fidelity or flavor.…

The post Cast Iron Fish: Halibut Edition appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Simple Instructions:

1. Each day this week, contact a good friend (or someone you’d like to be closer with) via phone call.
2. You can choose an activity to do together, have a conversation, or just check in.
3. Contact a new friend each day or a few friends multiple times, but strive to contact at least three different people over the course of the week.

…

The post Call Your Friends: Pre-Game Lifestyle Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Simple Instructions:

1. This week, don’t consume alcohol — beer, wine, or spirits.
2. You can choose to avoid environments where alcohol is served altogether (such as bars and restaurants) or you can practice making alternative choices, such as club soda rather than a cocktail.
3. Regardless, we’ll learn firsthand the effect that alcohol has on our wellness by temporarily omitting it from our lives.

…

The post Booze Free: Pre-Game Lifestyle Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Simple Instructions:

1. Each day this week, you’ll replace habitual television, movie, and digital media time with reading.
2. Instead of flipping on the TV, your laptop, or your phone in the evening, grab a book, find a comfortable chair, and read for at least a half hour.
3. Be sure not to turn on your devices afterward — we’re looking for uninterrupted calm before bedtime.

…

The post Books Over Pixels: Pre-Game Lifestyle Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Simple Instructions:

1. Each day this week, spend at least a half hour outdoors in a natural setting.
2. Forests, mountains, beaches, fields, and parks are all fair game — you’ll want choose a place that is as untouched by civilization as possible, given your location.
3. Once there, you can exercise, meditate, or just sit still.

…

The post Visit Nature: Pre-Game Lifestyle Practice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

In the process, you’ll build your stamina and lung capacity, while simultaneously challenging your mind — this workout is for time.

The “Track Star” Workout

3 Rounds for Time:

Start a timer, and run 400 meters as rapidly as possible.…

The post Bodyweight Workout: “Track Star” appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This workout will help — a maximum velocity blast that will build your speed, endurance, and bear-dodging abilities. Give it a shot. All you need is a patch of level ground and a couple of markers ten yards apart.

The “Bear Attack” Workout:

Set up two markers approximately 10 yards apart (30 feet/9.1 meters).…

The post Bodyweight Workout: “Bear Attack” appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

To start, just set up a couple of markers 10 yards apart (30 feet/9.1 meters). No equipment is required — you can use anything you have lying around to mark your start and end points (and if you don’t have a tape measure, feel free to estimate the distance).…

The post Bodyweight Workout: “10-Yard Hero” appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Combining the strength requirement of a classic push-up with the flexibility (and core control requirements) of yoga’s downward facing dog, the movement is novel and fun, and provides a hard-to-match physical challenge.

The Bodyweight Workout

In 20 minutes, you’ll do as many rounds as possible of the prescribed inchworm push-ups and lunges for your fitness level.…

The post Bodyweight Workout: “One Inch at a Time” appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

Why we changed the Habit: Sleep has a profound influence on your overall health and well-being, and deserves a place among our 7 Daily Habits. Supplementation is important, but does not have the same overall impact on your wellness as sleep duration and quality. Therefore, we decided to switch them out, giving Sleep a permanent spot in the Challenge.…

The post NEW Whole Life Challenge Habit: Sleep Replaces Supplementation appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

A 38-year old Australian, Kyle holds several mountain climbing records of his own devising, none of them entirely logical.

In late 2013, he climbed all twenty-six of Australia’s 2000-meter peaks in forty-eight hours, covering more than 130 kilometers. During the effort (which he dubbed the “A2K”) Kyle suffered profusely, with sleep an impossibility and the weather non-cooperative.…

The post Unreasonable Things: A WLC Thought Leader Profile of Kyle Williams appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

This has the obvious benefit of immediately incentivizing all parties: when our Partners engage as many people as possible, it allows us to create an exceptional Challenge environment for the Players while keeping the lights on at Whole Life headquarters.…

The post Why Partner with Whole Life Challenge? Cash and the Second-Order Effect appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

I skip exercise, I forego sleep for work, I ignore meditation (even though I know it works). I eat badly for days, I have too much to drink, I forget to say thank you. I choose coffee instead of water. I don’t stretch, and the fish oil stays in the fridge.

What pulls me out of the downward spiral, every time, is one good move.…

The post Solid First Choice appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.