That is the minimum number of days it takes to form a habit or break one, according to Maxwell Maltz. Maltz, a plastic surgeon in the 1950s, noticed the phenomena after watching patients heal after surgery. His observations, born by watching people adjust to their new faces sparked a book, Psycho-Cybernetics, and plenty of bastardized versions of his view. The minimum of 21 days became the norm.
In health and wellness, getting up and going to the gym or working out and eating healthy can seem like a full-time job. Two Houston fitness bloggers, Karinn Andrea (@FeedTheCurves) and Cori Scherer (@CoriScherer), have taken on a specific challenge that maximizes beyond the usual 21-day rhetoric. They want to hit the full 30, right in time for the holidays.
Calling their challenge #FindYourSweat, the purpose of their month-long excursion is for Houstonians to tap into their inner them. Beyond going to the gym, beyond adhering to strict diets and carb related shortcuts, the duo has made it clear that their challenge is not only about getting fit for the holidays but a more extensive discovery of self as well.
“Initially, we spoke about making a round-up list of our favorite post workout meals at local restaurants, but then we got to talking about our fitness routines and how we were feeling uninspired and lacking motivation. Both being active in the fitness world, we felt that Houston had too many classes to offer for us to feel this complacent,” Andrea says.
She continued, “So we shifted gears to cover fitness instead of food. I mentioned that back in May, I had started a 30-Day Challenge where I'd review classes, but after a knee injury, I had to stop. It only made sense to team up with someone as streamlined as Cori to execute an idea like this. We both had the resources and work-ethic to make this happen. We got to work immediately and contacted every studio
Thanks to a mutual appreciation of one another’s work, Andrea and Scherer became fast friends. They found common ground on a myriad of topics from their passions, dating, how to empower and uplift women, not conforming to societal decisions and more. “Just like that, we formed an organic friendship,” Andrea says. “You don't just click like that with women off the bat. We started bouncing ideas off each other and knew we were about to do something great together.“
A former athlete, Scherer openly says she's never gone through a full-blown fitness challenge but playing “every sport imaginable” kept her in line. “I grew up playing volleyball,” Scherer says. “When I quit, I gained some weight and realized the importance of a fitness routine. I didn’t commit to working out until my third year in school.” Joys from boxing and dishing out punishment on the heavy bag helped build her consistency to a point where she’s determined to feel balanced and ultimately happy.
Andrea, on the other hand, has traveled through many an uncharted water to reach her current destination. A former Navy member, she was a competitive swimmer from age seven until her sophomore year of high school. Quitting one of her first loves pushed her to develop a new appreciation: weight-lifting. Add on the pressures of Navy boot camp and the fitness blogger wound up making a passion out of the previous failure. “A couple of years after the Navy, I competed in two NPC bikini competitions which were pretty extreme and strenuous,” she says. “That’s where I set off to explore different workouts other than lifting. Now? I do everything.”
One of those very things? Two 40-day yoga challenges where she and a group of other individuals practiced one-hour every day for 40 consecutive days.
Although Andrea found a newfound respect for yoga, the two of them determined that the #FindYourSweat challenge needed to be all-inclusive. However, the first barrier to fulfilling the problem: defining the parameters of it. A simple 30-day trial wasn’t enough for the two fitness bloggers. It had to touch diverse situations and escapes, similar to how Houstonians power through their own fitness goals on a daily basis.
“We spent hours thinking of a good name and knew we wanted something proprietary, motivating, easy to remember and something we could envision taking off,” Andrea says. “Find Your Sweat means to find what makes you happy and not to be afraid to find something new. There is no right or wrong when it comes to your preference for physical fitness. Some people swear by yoga while others love a heavy lifting session.”
So for all of November, Andrea and Scherer are pushing not only themselves to experiment with unique sessions such as cycling, boot camp, HIIT, boxing, and pilates, but also sleeker and more distinctive alternatives such as pole dancing and rock climbing. 30 workouts. 30 days. 30 ways to find your sweat. They’ll be documenting and showing off behind-the-scenes footage of all of their experiences via Instagram’s stories feature, Facebook, their blogs and a weekly YouTube recap. At the end of the #FindYourSweat challenge, both Andrea and Scherer will be doing a giveaway with sponsors to be announced.
Not just limited to Houston, #FindYourSweat wants to be a viral challenge where both men and women can reach potentials they thought were once unavailable to them. “We want to see how people are committing to a healthy lifestyle by hashtagging #findyoursweat and tagging us in their social media posts,” Andrea says.
Joining a challenge may seem ordinary but the result, even in the midst of a busy holiday season should reap nothing but positive rewards. For everyone. “Our goal after all of this? To inspire those around you but also to inspire yourself and see what happens when you just try,” Andrea says. “Have the courage to do something you've always wanted to but that you've written off due to fear or embarrassment. Either fall in love with or fall back in love with fitness."
"Don't compare your Chapter 1 to someone's Chapter 27," she says. "Working out shouldn't be a daunting chore but an activity that makes you feel better from the inside out.“