Wednesday 18 April 2012

The good, the bad and no excuses

Ok, I took a slight hiatus from the fitness blogosphere since school started. I challenged myself to 100 days of 30 minutes of activity a day, and as real life carried on, I didn't always make the time. Some might be quick to say I failed the challenges and I'm okay with that.
For me, the 100 day challenge was about creating new habits. Taking my bike to work instead of driving my car. Taking time out for me and my health. Improving my running endurance. I can't be 100% all the time. I have my slip ups. I get lazy. But I refuse to beat myself up about being human. I make bad choices and mistakes in all areas of my life... And I learn from that. It's how I grow and know I'm getting better.
So I didn't complete every day - I did make an effort MOST days - far more than I had been.

I also realized that it wasn't fitting in the exercise that I really struggled with; I kind of got put off blogging when it came down to crunch time. I could get out for my run when I got home from work, but I just couldn't be assed writing about it afterwards. I felt like I was writing kind of the same thing over and over and boring myself. I put pressure on me to make itteresting, and add photos and eventually I just didn't have the time or energy to put into that. So it took the back burner.

My accomplishments
-I ran the Whangarei Beach2Basin 9.4km run on 4 March in 1h 13m, while I was sick (lungs were on fire!) and still took 7 minutes off my previous time in September
-I've been improving my short run stamina and time, running more and walking less.
-I discovered I'm way better at maintaining a steady pace if I run on the beach
-I ran 3.3km on the beach without stopping
-I ran 5km on the beach without stopping!
-I got up on Good Friday morning and went went for a 9.5km run by myself and made it
-I finally broke out of my 84kg plateau, and am down to fluxating between 80 and 81 ( next goal= get into the 70s!!!)
-I gave up eating chips and hot chips (fries) for 40 day - however long Lent actually is

What's next?
P90X!!!
I have done the first t days already. I'm not going to kid myself and say I'll blog about everyday because there's no need to set myself up to fail again, right. My priority is the physical activity!
So far it's not as scary as I'd hyped up in my mind. I started doing the LEAN version, which is more cardio based DVDs rather than muscle building, but there's a good chance I may switch to the classic programme. I just wanted to ease myself into this, especially since I was so intimidated. I'm not following the nutrition guide to a t, which is naughty I know. But I'm making clean, healthier choices. I know nutrition is the key part of the equation. I'm working on it. I am a work in progress.