Improve Sleep

According to the Sleep Foundation, adults should have at least seven hours of sleep each night. For kids, it’s around 10 hours, depending on age. Sleep helps boost immunity, improves cognitive and mental health and lowers risk for serious health problems like heart disease. If you’re not getting seven hours, challenge yourself to add 15 minutes each night until you reach the goal.

If you have trouble falling (or staying) asleep, avoid caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime, disconnect electronic devices and adjust the temperature to make the room cooler.

Apps That Can Help

• Headspace
• Stella
• Calm

10,000 Steps

Walking 10,000 steps daily offers physical and mental health benefits. It can support healthy weight loss, improve joint health, boost mood and brain function and aid recovery. If you’re not already making time for walks, start with a 20-minute walk and expand on it until you get to 10,000.

Apps That Can Help

• Map My Walk
• Charity Miles
• Step Up

Drink (and Eat) More Water

According to the Mayo Clinic, eight cups of water a day is a reasonable goal, but the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine suggests that more daily fluid intake is needed for healthy adults. In addition to the daily eight glasses, eat vegetables (celery, cucumber, spinach, zucchini) and fruits (strawberries, watermelon, oranges) with high water content.

Apps That Can Help

• Water Llama
• Daily Water
• Water Balance

Eat 30 Plants a Week

Eating a variety of plants creates a more diverse gut biome, which helps you properly digest food and fend off disease. Thirty different plants a week might sound impossible. Yes, it is a challenge, but it’s doable. It equates to fewer than five a day. The good news is the plants also include beans, grains, and nuts. To create a diversity in your diet and reap the benefits of this challenge, you can only count each plant once (if you eat carrots three times a week, that counts as one).

Apps That Can Help

• Food Monster
• Eat Five
• VegEze

Get Outside

The 1,000 Hours Outside challenge suggests people spend 1,000 hours outside in a year’s time. It was created to counteract screen time because some children spend 1,200 hours a year in front of screens! That’s 19 hours a week (under three hours a day). If that seems like too much, how about an equal number of screen hours to outdoor hours?

Apps That Can Help

• 1000 Hours Outside
• Nature Dose
• Pl@ntNet

Digital Detox Challenge

Americans average more than four hours per day on mobile devices (and seven hours a day on screens in general). To check your screen time report on an iPhone: Open Settings > Screen Time > See All Activity. On an Android: Open Settings > Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls. Could you challenge yourself to cut usage in half for a period of time? Consider removing social media apps from your phone to support the cause.

Apps That Can Help

• Opal
• Roots
• OffScreen

30 Days Alcohol-Free

Research shows that abstaining from alcohol for 30 days can provide health benefits. Among the biggest benefits, your risk of cancer and heart disease may decrease. You may also experience improved sleep quality. Some people also lose weight and gain mental clarity. And think of all the money you’ll save!

Apps That Can Help

• Drink Free Days
• Sunnyside
• Reframe