30 Tasks in 30 Days
Improve Everything in One Month
by Leigh Peele

A lot can happen in 30 days. For that matter, a lot can happen in one day. What would happen to your life if you decided to devote the next 30 days to becoming even stronger, smarter, and sexier than you are now?

Take the challenge and find out. While some of this may seem tongue in cheek, it isn't. Being strong requires being smart. Culture is sexy, honesty is daring, and the tools to gain it all are only 30 days away.

Day 1: Stick to One Lifting Program

Too often, our A.D.D. gets the best of us and we end before we really begin. Even 30 days is hardly enough time to recover from Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), but for some, it's a start. Pick a great program from the Article Library and stay with it.

Day 2: Make a Nutrition Plan, and Keep to It

It's just a month. This is what it used to take for old school teeth whitening. You might find that you gain some brilliant pride in yourself if you can stick to something for one straight month.

Day 3: Throw Out the "Back of the Closet" Clothes

You don't need the sweatshirt to the college you didn't even go to anymore. You aren't ever going to fit in those big jeans again, so toss them out. And I don't care how cute it is... no one needs a "worlds greatest" t-shirt. It lowers your sexy appeal by 10 points, easily.

Day 4: Listen to Patti Smith's Horses

Patti Smith is, by far, one of the smartest and most talented women there is. Filled with unedited passion and a unique lyrical point of view, Horses is sure to raise your musical emotional status.

Day 5: List Why You Won't Fail This Time

The average person knows their life, and they know what they're going to do in a day. Because you know your life, you know your weaknesses, your roadblocks, and your common fail points. Make a list of why these roadblocks aren't going to stop you this time, keep the list with you at all times, and check it often. The best offense is a good defense.

Day 6: Learn the Cable Hip Abduction

This is a highly under-rated exercise, but for some, it's very important. If you're sitting in an office all day long, and then you go to train deadlifts or squats, you may be setting yourself up for hip pain because you won't be engaging the glutes properly, or at all.

The typical seated hip abduction serves little-to-no physiological purpose. However, the standing cable hip abduction really allows you to get at the glute medius and minimus. If your glutes aren't activating properly, these muscles aren't usually targeted in your lifts.

Day 7: Read Jamie Hale's Knowledge and Nonsense

Jamie is incredibly thorough and cuts through all the BS to deliver loads of information. It's a great guide to what you need to know about nutrition, and what you don't. Amazingly enough, it's all supported with scientific fact.

Day 8: Walk Outside for 60 Minutes

Not only does this raise your activity level in a non-aggressive manner, but it forces you to spend time with yourself and gets you out of the daily grind for an hour. Pick a pretty spot and get to know yourself for a while. You might be surprised at what you find.

Day 9: Do One Thing You Fear

I don't care if it's as extreme as jumping out of a plane or as little as eating something you used to hate. Just step outside of that comfort zone. Don't tip-toe either. Stomp outside of that comfort zone, and tomorrow, you'll be a stronger person for doing it.

Day 10: Watch Jet Li's Fearless

Not only is it a breathtaking film to watch, but it teaches you about the value of honor and pride — two things many people in this world are lacking. As a bonus, most guys find it pretty hot when a woman can watch a martial arts film.

Day 11: Tell Someone the Truth

There's far too much lying and deception going on. Most of the time, dishonesty is just a cloak for being scared to be judged for your true feelings. Today you'll announce your true feelings about something you normally would've lied about.

Day 12: Learn the Ab Wheel Rollout

It may look like a crappy ab-training gimmick, but the truth is, this is one hard "core" movement. I've had countless people that were stalled with their pull-ups, push-ups, deadlifts, and squats. Once they started to get to a deep understanding of their core movement and weakness, they all saw an increase in other exercises.

Day 13: Have a Wonder Woman Shake

1 full glass of ice

8 ounces strong coffee

1 teaspoon psyllium husk powder

1 tablespoon sugar-free pudding mix, chocolate

1/2 cup fat-free organic yogurt, plain

1 tablespoon natural peanut butter

2 tablespoons Splenda

1 scoop Metabolic Drive protein powder, chocolate

1 serving Superfood

In a blender, combine everything except the ice. Give it a short stir before you hit mix, so the powders don't go everywhere. Hit the "whip" button for 5 seconds. Add all the ice and use the "crush ice" setting, until you hear no more ice being crushed.

Switch to low and hit the "cream" button, letting it churn for about one minute. You may need to give it a little shake and stir at first. It should end up thick and have a milkshake consistency, so add more ice or coffee if necessary.

Day 14: Shape Your Eyebrows

Nothing helps (or hurts) your looks more than shaping your eyebrows. If you don't know how to do it, go to a professional, pay a few bucks, and perform upkeep often.

Day 15: Activate Your Buns

You don't get a perky bum if you aren't activating the glutes. A good bum is more than just not having flab... a good bum has a perk and curve to it. You don't get that from jogging on a treadmill and starving yourself. You have to work for it.

But you can do squats and deadlifts 'til the cows come home, but if you aren't feeling anything in your glutes, then it's a waste. Try to focus on movements that force more glute-firing like wide-stance deadlifts, single-leg bridge raises, and cable hip abductions (see Day 6).

Day 16: Get Some

I don't care if you have to give it to yourself or get it from the hot gardener, Desperate Housewife-style. Decreasing sexual frustration lowers cortisol levels. That's always good for fighting muscle loss. If you actually don't want any, have your estrogen ratios checked. A low libido not only means you aren't much fun, but that your fat loss is going too slow.

Day 17: Give Some

No, I'm not talking about volunteering at your local soup kitchen (but that's not a bad thing). Today, go find a misguided female in the gym, and either show her a new movement or give her some pointers if you see she's doing things wrong. Women, help your fellow ladies. It's the only way to break the cycle.

Day 18: Rest

Really... rest. Give your hormones and body a break from vigorous training, hard dieting, stress, and running around. Move as little as possible. Sleep as much as you can, and maybe even take in a nice Epsom salt bath. It reduces water retention and can help sooth those sore muscles.

Day 19: Get Boobs

Okay, so maybe you can't get a boob job in one day. But you can get a bra that actually fits, or get chicken cutlets that give the illusion of being more stacked than you are. Sure, some may be disappointed to find out the truth, but you can't trade the confidence you get from a smaller waist due to a larger top.

Day 20: Write Five Reasons

Write five reasons why you are better now than you used to be. Remember that becoming a better person shouldn't be about an external competition. Don't get me wrong, if that helps you get started, then hey, all the better. What you need to focus on right now is five physical or mental changes you've made that have lead you to become better than you used to be.

Day 21: Learn the Swiss Ball Push-up

This gives you more bang for your buck by challenging your stability and your strength. Doing a push-up on an unstable service forces you to fire your stabilization muscles more. Instead of making this your primary chest exercise, use it as a pre-firing movement, and do it before your regular chest work.

Day 22: Listen to "Laid" by James, as Loud as Possible

Whether you recognize it or not, everyone's heard this song before. Not only will it give you an instant activity-level jump, but it's going to start your day off with a good mood and intensity.

Day 23: Read Simone De Beauvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity

You get existentialism, passion, ethics, culture, and a better understanding of your own essence. This was written by a woman who's as flawed as she is brilliant.

Day 24: Stretch Your Chest

A tight chest leads to a lot of problems, and most of them make you look unattractive. To give the chest a good stretch, I'm sending you to the corner.

Face the corner of a room and place each forearm on a wall. Place one foot in front of the other, and slowly stretch by leaning forward towards the corner. Make sure not to raise your arms above your ribcage, or you'll just stretch your armpit. Hold the stretch for 20 seconds and repeat five times.

Day 25: Laugh at Yourself

Taking yourself too seriously isn't sexy. People like to be around people that make them feel good about themselves, not those that suck the will to live from their bodies. We're all flawed, and sometimes it's just funny to realize how much.

Day 26: Watch "The Biggest Loser"

... and throw something large at the TV screen.

Day 27: Lift Heavier

Make this the day you test a new one rep max (1RM). Remind yourself how strong you've gotten this past month, and how you're coming close to achieving another one of many goals.

Day 28: Eat Real Food

I know we all use supplements, but remember that there's no substitute for real whole food. Make today a "whole food-only" day, and recharge on nothing but fruits, vegetables, and meat... or beans for you non-meat-eaters.

Day 29: Learn the Zercher Good Morning

Place the bar in the nook in your elbows. This may take some practice. It never really feels comfortable, but it shouldn't be painful. Stand with your feet at hip-width, with a slight bend in the knees (but don't lock them out).

Push the hips back while trying to maintain optimal spinal curvature, without rounding the back. As you lower down, you should feel firing in your hamstrings. As you rise up, you should utilize your glutes and really squeeze them.

Zercher good morning: start/finish position

Zercher good morning: mid-point

Day 30: Buy a New Outfit

"Buy a new outfit" doesn't mean you should go to Wal-Mart at 3:00 A.M. to get some more sweats. It means you're going to get something to wear in public that shows off your hotter, smarter, sexier self. The new you that you worked so hard to become in 30 days. Good job!

About the Author

Leigh Peele is an NASM-CPT and nutritional consultant, a leader in the field of fat loss, and an innovator in metabolic repair and dysfunction. She's also a nationally published author and speaker. You can find out more about Leigh's work at www.fatlosstroubleshoot.com and at www.leighpeele.blogspot.com.

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