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Read below about the challenge.
I talk a lot about making small, sustainable changes.
And I believe in that. I don’t think getting healthier in midlife requires living on salads, spending two hours at the gym, or completely rearranging your life.
But sometimes you don’t want to make another tiny change.
Sometimes you want to know:
What would happen if I actually got serious about my health for 30 days?
Not forever. Not through a crash diet or some ridiculous detox.
Just 30 days of doing the things we already know matter — consistently and all at the same time.
That’s the idea behind this challenge.
I’ve chosen 10 things that can make a meaningful difference in your nutrition, movement, sleep, and weight. None of them is particularly revolutionary on its own.
The power comes from doing all 10 together for 30 days.
And I created a simple 10 × 30 Health Challenge Tracker so you can check off every action, every day, and see just how consistent you can be. Fill in as many boxes as you can!
Let’s get into it.
1. Hit Your Protein Goal
If you’re trying to improve your body composition in midlife, protein deserves to be near the top of the list.
Protein helps you maintain and build muscle, supports recovery, and makes meals more satisfying.
Instead of simply trying to “eat more protein,” figure out an appropriate daily protein target for you and intentionally work toward it.
Build your meals around protein first.
Eggs. Greek yogurt. Cottage cheese. Chicken. Turkey. Lean beef. Pork. Tofu. Whatever works for you.
For these 30 days, don’t leave protein to chance.
Your challenge: Hit your personal protein goal every day.
2. Eliminate Added Sugar
This one is simple.
For 30 days, eliminate added sugar as much as reasonably possible.
I’m not talking about naturally occurring sugar in a piece of fruit or plain dairy. I’m talking about the sugar added to desserts, candy, sweetened drinks, pastries, sweetened coffee drinks, and packaged foods.
And yes, the first several days may make you realize just how accustomed you’ve become to having something sweet.
That’s part of the experiment.
What happens to your cravings when you stop constantly feeding them?
Your challenge: Go 30 days without added sugar.
3. Skip the Ultra-Processed Snack Foods
You don’t have to spend the next month eating chicken and broccoli.
But for 30 days, dramatically reduce the foods that are incredibly easy to overeat and don’t give you much nutrition in return.
Chips. Cookies. Crackers. Candy. Packaged snack cakes. Highly processed convenience snacks.
Instead, build most of your diet around foods that still resemble actual food.
You may be surprised by how differently you eat when you aren’t constantly surrounded by foods designed to be incredibly easy to keep eating.
Your challenge: Choose whole and minimally processed foods instead of ultra-processed snack foods.
4. Get 8,000–10,000 Steps Every Day
You don’t need to become a runner.
Walk.
Walking is one of the simplest ways to dramatically increase how much you move without beating yourself up with exhausting workouts.
Take a morning walk. Walk while you’re on the phone. Park farther away. Walk after dinner. Get up instead of sitting for another hour.
It all counts.
Your challenge: Get at least 8,000 steps every day, working toward 10,000 when it’s appropriate for you.
5. Exercise Intentionally
Your steps are your everyday movement.
This is something different.
For the next month, deliberately train your body. That should include strength training several times per week, along with whatever combination of cardio, mobility, stretching, or recovery movement makes sense for you.
You don’t need to destroy yourself in the gym every day.
In fact, don’t.
The goal is to finish these 30 days stronger and fitter — not exhausted and injured.
Your challenge: Do the intentional movement you planned for that day, including appropriate recovery days.
6. Eat Fruit or Vegetables at Every Meal
Instead of making this challenge entirely about what you’re not allowed to eat, let’s add something.
Every time you sit down for a main meal, include fruit, vegetables, or both.
Berries with breakfast.
A big salad at lunch.
Roasted vegetables with dinner.
An apple alongside your meal.
It doesn’t need to be complicated.
Over 30 days, that’s potentially 90 meals with produce.
That’s a pretty substantial nutritional change.
Your challenge: Put fruit and/or vegetables on your plate at every main meal.
7. Give Yourself a 12-Hour Overnight Eating Break
This isn’t an extreme fasting challenge.
It’s simply a boundary around your eating day.
If you finish eating at 7:30 p.m., for example, wait until around 7:30 a.m. to eat breakfast.
For many people, this naturally eliminates the evening grazing that happens not because we’re hungry, but because we’re watching television, bored, stressed, or simply accustomed to having something.
Your challenge: Leave approximately 12 hours between your last food at night and your first food the next morning.
8. Make Water Your Primary Drink
For 30 days, make your drinks boring.
And I mean that in the best possible way.
Drink water throughout the day and stop regularly drinking a significant portion of your calories.
You don’t necessarily have to eliminate unsweetened coffee or tea. The goal is simply to make water your default beverage.
It’s one of the easiest habits on this list, which means there’s really no reason not to do it.
Your challenge: Make water your primary drink every day.
9. Get 7–9 Hours of Sleep
We can’t talk seriously about dramatically improving our health while treating sleep as optional.
For the next 30 days, don’t just hope you get enough sleep.
Plan for it.
Work backward from the time you need to wake up and protect enough time for your body to get approximately 7–9 hours.
That may mean turning off the television earlier.
Putting your phone down.
Leaving something unfinished until tomorrow.
Do it anyway.
Your challenge: Give yourself enough opportunity to consistently get 7–9 hours of sleep.
10. Track Your Calories and Macros
For 30 days, I want you to know what you’re actually eating.
Use a calorie and macro tracking app and log your food honestly.
Not because I think everyone needs to count calories for the rest of her life.
But because there can be an enormous difference between what we think we’re eating and what we’re actually eating.
Tracking also helps you answer useful questions.
Am I hitting my protein goal?
How much am I eating?
Where are most of my calories coming from?
Are my portions larger than I realized?
For one month, collect the data instead of guessing.
Your challenge: Log everything you eat and drink every day for 30 days.
The 30 × 10 Challenge
Here’s where this gets interesting.
There are 10 actions and 30 days.
That gives you 300 opportunities to follow through.
I’ve created a printable 30 × 10 Health Challenge Tracker with all 10 habits down the left side and Days 1–30 across the top.
Every day you complete an action, mark the circle.
That’s it.
Your goal isn’t necessarily to finish with a flawless 300/300.
Your goal is to look at that page at the end of the month and know that you gave your health an unusually consistent 30 days.
GET THE FREE 30 × 10 HEALTH CHALLENGE TRACKER
Print it. Put it somewhere you’ll see it. And start filling in those circles.
What Could Actually Change in 30 Days?
Thirty days isn’t enough time to completely transform your body.
But it’s absolutely enough time to change your trajectory.
Depending on where you’re starting, you may lose some weight. You may feel stronger. Your clothes may fit differently. Your fitness may improve. You may notice changes in your energy, appetite, cravings, digestion, or sleep.
But there’s something else I think could be even more valuable.
You may get to Day 30 and realize:
I actually can do this.
You don’t need another Monday.
You don’t need another January.
And you don’t need to wait until you feel motivated enough to completely change your life.
Give yourself 30 days.
Do the 10 things.
Fill in the circles.
Then see what happens.
