For the last five weeks and some change, dozens of the students at CrossFit No Boundaries as well as members of our extended community have dug deep into the Whole Life Challenge and applied themselves with a consistent effort to modify, clean up, add, and remove a variety of lifestyle habits aimed at improved performance, health, body composition, and all around well-being. The effort has been undeniably challenging, but the rewards are tremendous. The coaches have had the fortune of not only being able to participate with our community, but of watching them make tangible positive changes right before our eyes. That’s what we live for.

The question remains, though: what do you do when the challenge ends?

The easy answer is to resume what you’ve always done, to sigh in relief that the challenge is over and now you don’t have to take off points when you snag a handful of your kid’s french fries, or spend that extra ten minutes every night working on your mobility, or get up a few minutes earlier every morning to practice mediation before you have to get to work. But as you may imagine, the easy answer isn’t the best answer. You took a handful of steps forward, and we’d rather not see you take just as many steps backwards now that you’ve finished out the 6-week game.

On the flip side, though, a challenge like the WLC is intended to be a temporary effort. While the practices themselves certainly are doable for longer than six weeks, we (and the creators of the WLC) are also believers in balance. Sometimes, it’s perfectly fine to indulge. Some practices don’t need to be done every day. Some days, it’s just not realistic to expect eight solid hours of sleep.

The best suggestion I can provide is to harvest the cream off the top of your experience. Look for the handful of practices that gave you the most bang for your buck, add those to your regular repertoire, and set the rest aside, or wait to revisit them in the future. We can roughly apply the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule) -- that about 80% of the effects come from about 20% of the causes -- and walk away with a handful of new tools in our toolbelt that set us up for continued progress even after the arbitrary dates of the challenge end.

It’s a powerful thing to become a new version of yourself by your own efforts. Relish in that change and carry it forward!

- PS

3/1/18

• 16 min EMOM

• Min 1: 4 clean & split jerk (135/95)

• Min 2: 40s max cal row

*record reps + cals