30 day fitness challenge - who's with me?

Caz

Repeat Offender
Well Christmas is over and New Year is nearly here. That means that the time of overindulgence is over (or needs to be!) and it's the time of new beginnings, new resolutions, new anything we want really. I don't know about anyone else but I do find that the New Year somehow makes it easier for me to start things, just not always carry them on! Anyway, I've decided to start a 30 day fitness challenge that I found online. You sign up and they'll email you the challenge each day, or you can just find it online.

It looks really good as it's got a few focuses and it says to feel free to substitute challenges that you don't feel are appropriate for you and gives options. Each day, you get five challenges:

An Active Challenge - these push you to be more active during the day, such as getting in an extra 20 minutes of walking some how, maybe walking instead of the bus or to do a short yoga workout or parking the furthest space away at the supermarket, work etc.
An Exercise Challenge - these are more set cardio and strength workouts but there's lots of options to choose from or you can just put your own in if you do something already.
A Flexibility Challenge - these are things like stretching, pilates, yoga etc. that help to increase flexibility
A Nutrition Challenge - these are things that look at your eating habits and try to improve them, this is the bit I think is possibly the most helpful. Examples include things like writing down your cravings and looking at what you're craving and why, eating veggies in every meal,
A Mind/Body Challenge - these are things that are meant to help you relax and focus, some of the things I've seen are doing nothing for 5 minutes or thinking about some of the things that you've accomplished that day.

You can see more and sign up here: 30-Day Fitness Challenge

I'm going to start tomorrow, anyone else fancy joining me?
 
I might try it. I'll sign up. See what it is like :)
 
Hi,

I've just signed up to see what it's like! Won't actually be starting until next Monday though! :)

Luvz,
D* xXx

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins
 
Well even if we're on different days it's fine as there's each of the challenges every day and I know I've changed a few of mine to suit me more
 
It suggests you do a little diary thingy. Might just do it in here :)

Day One - Preparing for Your Challenge - 29/12/11
- Not gonna put away the scale or all weight loss stuff like it suggests. Doing this alongside my calorie counting so ignoring all that!
- Might not do all the challenges. Wanna focus more on the nutrition ones. And I am already doing couch 2 5k. But if they show me how to do some yoga type stuff, might give it a go lol.
- Exercise: Walked to town today instead of driving - about 40 mins. Also done Week 3 Day 2 of C25K :)
- Food: Stayed within my calories :)
 
I've gone through and planned it out for the next 30 days and have changed things a bit. It does say that if you already follow an exercise thing, you can substitute that in for their suggestions so you could always do that, just do C25K instead of what they suggest, that's what I've done. Sometimes it's what they suggest, sometimes it's the exercise things that I already do like Turbo Jam. I'm LOVING pilates and yoga at the moment so I'll still be doing them. I decided to skip Day One as it didn't really apply to me so I did Day Two yesterday, Day Three today.
 
Oh didn't know you could get all the days. I think they just email me a new day everyday? Got day 2 today. Just about to check it!
 
I couldn't be bothered with that, I saw some of them when I searched but you can just change the address link at the top so it says dayone daytwo daythree etc to get them
 
Oh okay. Just been through day two. Done some stretching. Planning to walk up and down the stairs for 15 mins at some point. Dreading that!
 
Day Two - 30/12/11
- Active Challenge: Done 15 minutes of walking up and down the stairs...Ouch!
- Exercise Challenge: Didn't do the 30 mins cardio. Did c25k last night.
- Flexibility Challenges: Done the Seated Stretching Routine - felt weirdly good lol
- Nutritional Challenge: Ate vegetables with lunch and dinner
- Mind/Body Challenge: Done the 1 minute meditation.
- Food: Stayed within my calories :)
- The walking up and down the stairs was definitely the hardest challenge - a killer! Used to use the stepper at the gym for 5 mins at a time so thought I'll do the challenge in 3 sets of 5 mins throughout the day. Was struggling by 1 and a half minutes! So broke it down further. Ended up doing sets of 3-4 mins. Hard task! Sweating after each time I done it!
 
See! That weirdly good feeling is how I feel about yoga and pilates, because it's that same kind of stretching. I did all of Day Three except for parking furthest away from the door because I didn't go anywhere! I'm working all day today from 10am so I won't have time to do things probably. I did get up early so that I could do 10 minutes of yoga/pilates though and I'll do more if I come home for a few hours in the middle of the day. But I'll save day four for tomorrow.
 
Haha, I'm doing day 3 today. Gonna do the yoga stretches after my C25K today. I've read what they are. Things like cat stretches and stuff lol. Gonna try and get through them!
 
Welcome guys! It's actually quite motivating :)

Day Three - 31/12/11
- Active: Parked further from the gym lol
- Exercise: C25K Week 3 Day 3. Gym is closing early today so I actually woke up early to get there and do this! Wow lol
- Flexibility: Yoga (did 5 reps of cat stretch, pelvic tilt, bridge and side stretch) - umm kinda hurt. Maybe cos I was on wooden floor and no mat? I dunno. I don't think I'm very flexible though anyway. Will try it again next time there's a challenge, but dunno if I like it yet.
- Nutritional: Ate my meal with no distractions and paying attention - I'm getting a lot better at stopping eating when I'm feeling full and not eating something for the sake of it when I am not hungry just cos it is on my plate :)
- Mind/Body: Lol didn't set a 'worry appointment'. My minds too hectic to worry about appointments :p
- Food: Stayed within calories :)
- I found doing the yoga most challenging today cos I ain't done it before. It was a bit strange. And hurt my knees on the hard wooden floor. But I'll give it another go in another challenge.

Caroline - Did yoga hurt a bit or feel a bit uncomfortable when you first started?
 
How did you find the yoga stuff Bostik?
 
Dunno. Was a bit uncomfortable. But I definitely think it's cos I'm doing it in my room on a wooden floor. Cos today I done stretches and it hurt my knees a lot. I think if I had a mat it might be better!
 
Ah yeah, I can't imagine wooden floor would be good! If you wanted a mat, sainsburys are selling them half price at the moment.

Sorry I didn't see the yoga question until just now. Umm I don't think so, not really. It was a little uncomfortable I guess in that I didn't really know the moves or how to do them, once I got used to them they definitely started to feel a lot better and I definitely enjoy it a lot more now.
 
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Day Four - 01/01/2012
Active Challenge: I was meant to set an alarm to go off every hour and stretch or move but I forgot! I've been pretty up and down all day today though, so moved every hour anyway.
Exercise: The challenge was to do the strength workout (Total Body Strength for Beginners- Exercises for your body- Exercise) which I did, wasn't too difficult so I might move up to the intermediate one for that next time or maybe add a few more reps
Flexibility: Should have been stretches but I swapped it for 10 minutes of yoga and then did a couple of the stretches too
Nutritional: Today's challenge was to research a staple item of my fridge and see if I can find a healthier alternative. This was pretty difficult as I've done that already, swapping out a lot of things. One of the things I have a fair bit is chicken tikka slices in a wrap or roll for lunch, especially when I'm at uni. So I'm going to try making it myself, that should hopefully be tastier, healthier and maybe even cheaper too.
Mind/Body: 3 minutes total relaxation, I'm going to have a bath in a bit, so I'll probably have the first 3 minutes of that just completely relaxed without reading or anything.
 
Hmm might look at getting one. Dunno if I'm gonna keep doing it though! See how I feel doing a bit more :)

Day Four - 01/01/12
- Active: Set an alarm to go off every hour and stretch for a minute. That was annoying lol. I woke up really late today cos slept badly. So it kept interrupting everything I was doing!
- Exercise: Didn't do today.
- Flexibility: Done stretching exercises (Hip Flexor Stretch, Hamstring Stretch, Lunge Stretch and Full Stretch). Simple enough.
- Nutritional: Meant to research one staple food item in your pantry or refrigerator and determine whether it's healthy or if you need to find a substitute - I do this everytime I go shopping! But I have been looking at recipes today and making changes to them so I guess that counts!
- Mind/Body: Done the 3-Minute Total Relaxation
- Food: Stayed within calories :)
- I found the relaxation thing hardest strangley! A whole 3 minutes just relaxing. Felt too long and never ending lol. Kept distracting myself!
 
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