Last November when I turned 56,  I entered this new year with a mindset of strength.  No doubt 56 is up there in the years category, but as a Christian woman with the Spirit of God alive in me, I knew I didn’t have to kneel down to all the woes of aging, but instead, I could look up to the God of heaven to increase my strength in multiplied ways, even as I age. Easier said than done right?  For sure!

See, January began, and with it came a myriad of troubles for me. Being a summer girl, I always struggle during cold weather.  The cold dreary days coming one after another can do a number on my overall wellbeing, and this year, they certainly did.

But in addition to that…  this new year was also a “Sabbatical-ish” season for me. For details way too many to describe here, a season like that is great in so many ways, but can be challenging, because a Sabbatical creates space for lots of pondering and thinking. Struggles, hurts, questions… they all come to the surface, and are ready to be dealt with. It is a challenge to the heart no doubt.

And then, I got sick. First Covid, but the real kicker was the pneumonia that followed. It was a wicked combination. All kinds of weird symptoms, the worst being I had absolutely no energy at all for weeks on end. And in addition to that, I was having more issues with my thyroid. Ugh!

So… my 56 strong year began with dreary days, challenging heart ponderings, and a lingering sickness.

But then… the most challenging of all, I had to say goodbye to my puppy.

You may remember last fall when I wrote in this blog about getting my puppy named Happy. He was so precious to me, and his little snuggle-self wove his way into my heart beyond what I could have ever imagined.  But, the longer he was with us, the more I knew that I couldn’t care for him long term… not if I was also committed to the calling of ministry life that God has placed upon me.

It literally broke my heart to release Happy to another family, but in early February, I did.  And its been a rough few months… lots of tears and waves of sadness that come at the weirdest of moments. I am so thankful for the time I had with Happy, and I know I made the right decision to rehome him, but my heart is still catching up to my head as I still miss him so much!

So, all that to say, come March, I wasn’t very strong.   

In fact I felt weak in every way. I could literally feel myself fading spiritually, emotionally and physically. I remember telling my husband, and a few friends that I needed a big kick in the rear-end to get going again!

Well, fast forward a bit, and God provided that big kick, and it came in the most unique of ways. I was speaking at a women’s conference and during one of the gathering times I heard a woman mention something she was doing called 75 HARD.

I had no idea what it was, but I set my mind to look it up when I got home.  Basically, 75 HARD is a self-discipline challenge started in 2020 by a Podcaster.  His idea went viral and as I listened to many stories and testimonies of people who took his challenge, I knew this was the kick in the rear-end God had for me too. But as I prayed about it, God took me back to my intentions of living my 56th year in strength, and how far away I had gotten from that plan.

So, with His direction, I took 75 HARD and made it my own… calling it 56 STRONG!

I began on Saturday, March 26th and now today, 56 days later, I’ll finish tonight!  Praise the Lord!

Want to know more about my experience? I’ll share more about it by answering some questions that may be running through your mind…

First, what is it?

Basically, 56 STRONG is a commitment I made to do 5 things every day without fail for 56 days. I based my 5 things off of the requirements for 75 HARD, but personalized them. You’ll see that some of the 5 things are quite hard, and some not so much, but the biggest challenge is DOING THEM ALLL FOR 56 DAYS STRAIGHT WITHOUT EXCEPTION.  

So, here are the 5:

1. DIET – follow a diet plan of choice, but whatever it is, it cannot include any alcohol or sugar.

For me, I chose a very low carb ketogenic based diet which also included a 16/8 intermittent fasting window. I committed to tracking my macros every day, eating only whole foods and only one natural sugar substitute per day. I also committed to eating no chocolate of any kind, even in flavor, or any kind of grain.  Now, if you know me, you know that I have basically been eating a ketogenic diet since 2018.  BUT, over the last year, I had really let the lines get fuzzy… I was eating more keto-ish and it had taken its toll.  These intense diet commitments in 56 STRONG were the kick in the butt I needed to get going again.

2. WORKOUTS – Complete two 30 minute workouts of choice each day, but one workout must be outside (no matter the weather) and the two workouts must be at least 3 hours apart. For me, most of my indoor workouts were Pilates, and most of my outdoor workouts were brisk walking. 

I enjoy exercise, but it was quite challenging and annoying on some days to get my workouts in 3 hours apart, and let’s just say walking outside in the cold rain isn’t my idea of a good time. But I did it!  It was hard as well to exercise EVERY day.  Some days I just wanted a break, but 56 STRONG meant there weren’t any.

3. WATER – Drink 75-100 ounces of water a day. For me, I love water, drink it often and was under the impression that I drank a good amount each day. That was until I started to keep count, and I realized I wasn’t drinking nearly as much as I thought.  During the first few weeks as my body was adjusting, all this water sent me to the bathroom way too often, but eventually my body settled in and thrived with the added hydration. I used this water bottle. The rubber bands were my indicators of how many times I needed to refill it to meet my daily goal. Simple, but it worked and kept me on track.

4. READ – Read from a non fiction book for at least 10 minutes a day.  For me, because I read my Bible everyday, I didn’t think this would be hard, and it wasn’t. But the Lord gave me a great reminder on my journey… see I typically don’t read many other non fiction books, because I find that once I give my time and meditation to my Bible first, I just don’t have the time.  But, in the early days of this challenge, I continued to read my Bible, but also started another book along with it. Well, about two weeks in, I started to wonder why I wasn’t feeling as connected to the Lord, why I wasn’t hearing from Him as much? So when I asked God this question, His Spirit immediately revealed that my mind was divided in its meditation. It wasn’t that the book wasn’t good for me, it was that His Word was better! I knew that, but on this journey of growing stronger, I needed to be reminded. Since then, I put that book aside and dove into my Bible even more, and let’s just say the Lord has been speaking so much to me through His Word. That is priceless to me because His Word builds strength like nothing else!

5.  PROGRESS PICTURES – Take progress pictures daily.  For me, I wore the same sports bra and shorts and took my pictures in the same place every day. About 5 days in I thought, this is really annoying.  But I knew I said I would do it, and that I couldn’t change the rules just because I didn’t like them.  So, I took the pictures, every single day.  Now will I share them?  NO! 😊 I made that personal decision a long time ago based on this principle… there is no good reason for me to ever post a picture of myself in that manner. But I will say this… the pictures have proved to be beneficial, because even though I only lost 8 pounds when I wanted to lose 12, I can definitely celebrate the progress I see in the pictures. And, I wish there was a way to capture progress pictures of the inside, in my heart and mind, because that is where the real change took place!

So those were my 5!

I made tracking sheets to make sure I completed all 5 of them each day. 

Because here is the final dynamic in 75 HARD that I also adopted in 56 STRONG… if you miss something, you have to go all the way back to Day 1 and begin again.  I don’t think so. This girl was not starting over.

I finished one day at a time…and today is Day 56!

So much good has come from this journey and you might be wondering…

Why would you want to do this?

Well, like I said, I needed a kick in the butt! More tastefully said… I needed to strengthen the grit of self-discipline and Holy Spirit discipline inside my soul (my mind, will and emotions). Why? Because in the midst of my struggles I had become quite permission giving to myself.  Never good. See I know this Truth from Scripture, “All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial.” So over the years I have learned how beneficial it is to listen to the Holy Spirit and discipline myself unto His ways, how wise it is to intentionally do hard things…  not only physically, but spiritually too.  But in the midst of my challenges, I had become weak in living that Truth. The Lord calls us to deny our flesh, and put our beings in submission to Him.  But if I’m not nurturing self-discipline, I won’t have the strength of heart and mind to yield to Him. 

I also fully believe, that even though I am aging, by God’s grace and being a good steward of my spirit soul and body, I can enjoy many more fruitful years here on earth before I go to heaven.

I love what it says in Proverbs 13:5b… “The soul of the diligent shall be made prosperous.”

Why did you wait until the end to share about it? 

I did that on purpose. I considered following the path of many who post on social media throughout their journey through something like this.  But I decided against it, because I wanted it to be an experience between God and myself.  I am glad I did it that way.

What was the hardest part?

There were several parts that were quite hard, like:

  • Before I began, my view into the calendar informed me that during my 56 days, we would celebrate multiple special days… two family birthdays, Easter and Mother’s Day and 8 Sundays… see Sundays are special for many reasons, but Sundays most often always included an ice cream date for me and my husband. That wouldn’t be happening during 56 STRONG. 

So as I began, all of these days made me nervous because I knew it would be really hard to say no to sugar, chocolate and bread on these special days.  I also knew that others might not understand. And I wasn’t sure I would have the strength to say no.  But you know what, I did. And because I had decided ahead of time, these days were really not that hard after all.  I’ll share more on that later.

  • The longevity and consistency of 56 days was also hard, and I knew it would be.  But you don’t really know how hard that feels until you are in the middle of it and still have 30 or so days to go. Then you really feel the hard, and you have to pray for self-discipline to keep going. 
  • Two workouts a day being at least three hours apart was not as much hard as it was annoying, to my schedule that is. But I understand why the maker of 75 HARD arranged it that way.  See, we are all prone to omit annoying or inconvenient things from our lives.  But sometimes we need to embrace them and do them because they are good for us.  It develops character and self-discipline.
  • And this was hard too… I didn’t get all the results that I wanted from this journey… meaning I didn’t lose as many pounds as I wanted, and my hopes for the positive effects this could have on my thyroid issues are still not resolved.  As the days of commitment wore on and I realized these disappointments, I started to get frustrated and lose motivation.  That was challenging, however, my commitment kept me from quitting.

What have you learned?  

I’ve learned so much! And, I’ve been reminded of so much I had already learned, but had let myself forget. Too much to write here, but I will share a handful of things…

  • I’ve learned it is good to do hard things.
  • I’ve learned it is good to give myself boundaries.
  • I’ve learned it is good to challenge myself.
  • I’ve learned the fruit of discipline is sweet.
  • I’ve learned I can say no and yes even when I don’t feel like it.
  • I’ve learned I lean into Spirit discipline by practicing self-discipline which leads to true freedom.
  • I’ve learned when I make a  commitment, there is no wrestle, and victory follows.   I will share the most about this one because this is a big learning curve for me. See so often, I tend to go into situations without making commitment, and then I end up in a wrestle which can lead to poor choices.  Like for instance, when going to a party, I might say, “I am going to try to eat well.” But I have learned that “trying” leaves room for giving up and doing what I feel like in the moment.  But commitment is different… commitment secures victory ahead of time.  For 56 STRONG, I committed to absolutely no sugar, chocolate or grains, and sticking to specified macros in my nutrition. There was no flexing, no exception, even for the special days.  So even when the special days came, what I found is there was no wrestle and it actually wasn’t so hard because I had already committed ahead of time.

What are some ways you benefited?

Well, I lost about 8 pounds, I lost multiple inches in various places, gained energy and focus and also developed a renewed sense of confidence. As the days went on, I also saw myself grow in physical and spiritual strength.  I am back to memorizing Scripture which is always so good for me, and one cool thing… I was finally able to progress further in this really challenging move in Pilates called Snake. 

Actually, this still needs alot of improvement, but for the first time, I was able to accomplish this movement with my feet up on the Reformer foot bar instead of the lower platform.  In the Pilates world, that is a big deal and I have been working on this for a long time! I’m getting stronger!

Would you do it again?

YES!  In fact, I am excited because in the midst of this journey, the Lord began to speak to me about ways to incorporate this idea in with an online Bible Study… a whole spirit, soul and body experience. I’m praying and working on the plans now, so keep your eyes open for that in the next year! 

What now?

Well, in a couple of days I am headed on Vacation to celebrate some work accomplishments for my husband and also our 35th wedding anniversary… woo hoo! I am excited to have a break as we finish out the month of May.  Let the celebrations begin!

But I know myself, and know that in vacation mode I can quickly lose the self-discipline I gained in this experience, and turn my freedom into a free for all.  That wouldn’t be good, not at all.

But the Lord knows me too.  So, several weeks ago He prompted me to make some plans before I leave, and I did. First I typed out some very important things to remember when I am on vacation,

and I already have some new boundaries set up for June, and tracking sheets printed to go with them.

See just because I finished 56 STRONG doesn’t mean I’m finished developing self-discipline.

Or that I accomplished all my goals. No there is more to be attentive to… much more! More kicks in the butt are needed for this 56 year old woman who loves God and wants to steward the life He gave me well.

So on June 1st, I’ll begin again, with some fresh challenges, commitment and leaning into God’s strength. Hard things are good things, and the fruit of them is sweet!

Thanks for reading, I hope you are encouraged!