5k Every Day -- I'm doing what? Why?

A little bit of history here:

Two days ago I completed day 30 of my first ever round of Whole30.  I didn't do it out of concern for food allergies, or anything like that, but because I moved in with my fiancé, Paul.

See, Paul is that guy who can have his favorite food in front of him and eat exactly 1 serving and be 100% satisfied.  I, on the other hand, just don't buy the food -- I'd rather just not have it around than trust my willpower.  But now, here we were, living together, and I'm surrounded by the kind of food that I would never buy.  Plus, I love to bake him his favorite treats, like the beer bread he toasts for breakfast every day.

After a few days of living together, I realized that my willpower was not in condition to handle this.  My friend Dustin had just introducted me to Whole30 as he completed a round, so one Monday night, as Paul and I sat at Pei Wei for our normal Monday night date night, I told him about my scheme to start Whole30 that night at midnight.  I'd do Whole30 -- I'd reset my body's cravings while making self-control a habit at the same time.

The look on his face was a little skeptical, but hey, can't blame him -- Whole30 is a huge lifestyle change.

But you know what?  I did it.  30 days of no legumes, dairy, sweeteners, grains, soy, etc.  And the part that worked for me was the zero-tolerance -- there was no "I can just have a little" about it.  Zip.  Zero.  Zilch.  None.

So I completed Whole30, 11 pounds lighter and physically craving very different foods than I was mentally (my brain and tongue still think they want the cookie dough in the fridge, but my stomach is asking for fruit), and what I enjoyed the most out of it was flexing my willpower muscle.

This is a thing, y'all.

Neuronal connections in the brain strengthen and increase the more you use a thought path.  That's why repetition helps you learn things.  Willpower is just like that -- the more you get used to the thought pattern that you have to do something hard/you don't like/inconvenient/against your cravings, the better you get at being able to do that in the future!

So what now?

Okay, science aside . . .
My Whole30 is over, but I'm finding that practicing willpower/self-control in one area of my life really did carry over to other areas of my life.  Also, it was a great feeling of accomplishment at midnight on day 30 knowing I had set out to do something hard and I had done it.

So I decided this 30 day challenge would become a thing for me.

This time -- 5k a day for 30 days.

I've completed 3 half-marathons, most using a run/walk ratio method that I really like.  But I don't find myself getting faster and my running has been inconsistent lately.  And the scientist in me would absolutely love to track as many metrics as possible.

The Plan:

So for each of the next 30 days:

• I will complete a 5k 
• I can walk, jog, run, or a combination of any of the above.
• On days 1, 7, 13, 19, 25, and 30 I must run the whole 5k non-stop
• This will allow me to compare times/paces throughout this process
• On other days, I can walk to provide an active rest day, run the whole thing, or do interval/speed work.
• I will complete a core workout:
• squats (increasing by 2 daily)
• plank (increasing by 5 seconds daily)
• push-ups (increasing by 1 daily)
• Things I will track:
• Weight -- I'm debating how frequently I should measure this
• Times per distance
• Heart rate:
• Resting, post-meditation
• Peak, at end of workout
• Measurements
• Hopefully I'll get some pictures up too

Whelp, here I go.