Gymshark 66 challenge – Reflecting on completing the 66 day pledge

I did it, I completed the Gymshark 66 challenge!

Its been a week since I finished and completed the challenge and I thought I’d take a minute to reflect on it and talk about my experience during this two month challenge.

The challenge ended on the the 7th March 2021 and it’s really crazy how fast those 9 weeks went. I remember sitting at home on my Christmas break thinking whether to enter the challenge or not and when I was convinced by two very good friends, I remember planning out my workouts, diet, new things I wanted to try and think of the pledges I was setting myself as reason to take part in this challenge. Thinking back to my first pledge card, I set myself four different goals/pledges which would be my foundation and motivation to push myself in the next 66 days that would follow. The pledges I set myself were:

1. Workout 4/5 times a week
2. Build on my own self confidence
3. Focus on workout form
4. Try mediation and breathing techniques

With these goals I’d set myself, I’d also set a side challenge to work on myself physically and mentally while trying to beat some personal bests with weight and rep counts on this journey. I think the reason I was hesitant about signing up and taking point was down to how toxic and negative social media can be, as with this you used your Instgram as a fitness journal so that made me feel a bit anxious. In the end, I just threw caution to the wind and thought “screw it” so I signed up on New Year’s Eve last year. I’m pretty think skinned so even when there have been negative comments or messages, I don’t dwell on them as it just comes with the territory of the internet. The people I got to meet through the Gymshark community are some of the nicest and supportive people I’ve come across and before this they were strangers. Some of them I’ve become quite good friends with and even though the challenge is over, I keep in contact with them and that was something I didn’t expect would happen!

In a nutshell, I loved taking part in the challenge and it really did help me having something to focus on during the third lockdown. I’ve been really consistent with my working out since the whole pandemic started in March last year and I’ve stuck at it continuously and with the Gymshark challenge I just amped it up and managed to hit a new level of commitment and dedication that I didn’t think I had. Having something to work on and dedicate time to really helped to keep me sane, I felt motivated and it helped to give me a sense of purpose to work on myself both physically and mentally. I imagine with a lot of people, we’ve all been going through the motions and everyday has felt like groundhog day but having something to work on was great to distract me and not think too much about what was happening with the pandemic. I’ve found the whole thing a great experience and being able to share my journey since the 1st of January has been great to see my progress and at the end seeing how far I’ve come.

I never went into this challenge thinking “I want to loss x amount of weight or I want to look a certain way”, to be honest the whole losing weight idea wasn’t something I’d planned to do as it was more about just working on myself and trying different things out from a workout/dieting perspective. That being said, I managed to drop a hell of a lot of weight from what I weighed at Christmas was just came as a result of the training. I tend to not weight myself as in the past that has been something triggering me and made me feel bad about myself. I’d say I’ve never big “fat” or “big” but in 2017 I was bigger than I had ever been and I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror. So against my better judgement, I weighed myself just after Christmas so I knew what I was and at the end I’d jump back on the scales to cure my curiosity to see if I had lost any weight. At the end of December I was weighing in at 95kg (14 stone 95′) and now after completing the challenge my current weight sits at 87kg (13 stone 70′) which I’m so over the mood with and it shocked me too! I thought that if I could maybe get around the 90kg mark then I would’ve been satisfied with that, but the fact I’ve gone 3kg under that did blow my mind a little bit. This is the lightest I’ve been in probably the last 4 years so on a mental and physical level, it’s the best shape I’ve been in. I never had the intention to be one of those shredded, six pack guys, not that I have anything against that look but I know my body and I know what is a realistic body type for me to achieve. That has been one of the most important things I’ve learned that what may work for one person may not necessarily work for you. Take my body frame for example, I know that my arms have gained size and my shoulders are more broader. I don’t think I’ll ever have a six pack but I have noticed some definition in my abs and to me, that is something I never thought I could achieve so I’m so happy with myself in that respect for at least gaining some definition.

There has been this social aspect to the challenge as well and sharing my progress on social media, like I’ve mentioned earlier on I have met some really amazing and supportive people during these two months. The way we’ve all supported each other, motivated each other and helped give a morale boost even if we were having down days and not feeling too good in ourselves. I’ve enjoyed seeing peoples journey and things they’ve tried with their journey that I wouldn’t have necessarily managed to think of my own. Its been great exchanging ideas for workouts, commenting on each others posts and just having this great support network. That is something I didn’t think I’d have in this challenge and it really helped me keep going as well, both from my current friends and new ones I’ve met through Gymshark 66.

One thing I can honestly say about myself is during this whole experience, I stuck to my pledges I set in December last year and even on the days when I wasn’t feeling 100% I managed to power through and commit to the training aspect. I did the minimum of 4 workouts as week, some weeks I manged to increase to 5 which is one of the pledges I set myself so knowing I did that I felt this sense of achievement and accomplishment. I also got to try new things and even dip back into hobbies I used to do and it helped rekindle the fire for those. There would been weekly challenges which included making small changes whether that be drinking more water, thinking of how to help the environment or just working on yourself and giving some time just for you. As part of this, I managed to try mediation which I found really enjoyable and helped on those days when I was feeling stressed, tired or just needed 20 minutes just to try and calm myself and zone out from everything around me. I got back into drawing and even blogging again, which are things I love to do and from just doing them as part of the challenge I’m sticking to them again. In a way, it helped give me that inspiration to want to go back to both hobbies and I realised how much I enjoyed them an wish I hadn’t stopped all those years ago.

I’ve shared my journey on my Instagram page for my Gymshark 66 challenge and don’t get me wrong, there were some days when it was brutal and so tough both mentally and physically but I managed to power through and find that source of motivation and encouragement to complete each day. I’d say that every week there were instances when I had moments of doubt and I was telling myself I couldn’t do it but it’s like I had an inner conscious that was telling me I can do it and to just believe in myself. It sounds really cliche and something from a movie or comic book, but I found that inner strength which I channeled to push myself to the limits. I’m really glad I did as this helped me prove to myself that when I put my mind to it, I can do anything and even reach a new level that I wouldn’t have thought I had in me say a year ago.

I can honestly say that for the first time in a long time, I feel really happy with myself and it’s the best shape I’ve been in easily within the last 4 years. I think back to where I was at the back end of 2020, I’ve come so far in just 9 weeks and any doubt I had in myself at the start of the challenge was easily put to bed. This is the most I’ve enjoyed the fitness and workout side of my personality and even thought Gymshark 66 is over I don’t plan on stopping. I’m going to continue working out and using the things I learned to put into practice going forward. The idea of the Gymshark 66 challenge is that is can take 66 days to form new habits, so my mindset is why stop just because the challenge is over? I didn’t spend all that time planning and learning new things just to not use it after the challenge so I’m continuing to workout and focusing on myself. I’ve always been critical of myself and that maybe I don’t deserve certain things or that I’m never going to get to where I want to but I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and accept that. I’m going to try and keep working hard in all aspects of my life to achieve the goals I want and even if I fail, at least I can sit there in 30 years and say I may not have achieved what I wanted but I gave it my absolute all trying!

I just wanted to share my experience and my thoughts on the Gymshark 66 challenge and just reflect on an experience that has been priceless and have achieved way more through it than I ever thought i could. I think the lesson here is not to sell yourself short and if you fear doing something, that’s even more reason to do it. I think fear does cripple us but I take that fear and use it as a motivating factor as if to say well if I’m scared of doing this, then maybe that’s a sign I should do it and even more reason to try. I will 100% sign up for Gymshark 66 again if there is another one as it really gave me a sense of purpose and working on something that I know will benefit me moving forward.

I received so much support from loads of people along the way and it meant a lot knowing I had people encouraging me and supporting me along the way. It doesn’t go unnoticed and all those people you are awesome and I thank you for being my rock during these last 9 weeks. So here’s to moving forward with the year and taking any opportunity to we come across as we only come this way once.