5/100 Challenge Week 2

Week 2 consisted of these exercises
40 Jumping Jacks
40 Squats
40 Push ups
40 Sit ups
40 Burpees

Day 1- I am writing this, just having finished Day 1. My legs are shaking and my arms are a little tired. I chose to do the burpees at the end since I thought I'd be able to finish the rest better if they were done before these. My stomach rumbled during sit ups, I think out of the exercise. Push ups were Ok. Squats and Jumping Jacks were the easiest of the lot. I fully suspect my entire body is going to scream tomorrow!
Day 2- Actually much better. Muscle groups that I'm sure I don't the name of proved their existence.
Day 3- Today burpees were actually easy. The sky is going to fall down. Sit ups proved challenging today. Like The Daily Sequin told me the other day, "it hurts when I laugh."
Day 4- Much easier since my son was around. I was distracted enough to not feel the pain. He even did a few burpees (or his version) along with me. He was a sweetie-pie when he stood on my legs during sit ups! :P He did think it was fun to jump while doing so...
Day 5- I ran today. So my body was kind of deceived with the pain already. My thighs are a little numb now during the squats and burpees went on like I was in a haze. Jumping Jacks continue to be my solace but I guess it will change in the coming weeks too.

5/100 challenge Week 1

I heard about this challenge and I was like this looks interesting. I was also looking to complement my Marathon training (more on that later). So I started this challenge with a buddy of mine- The Daily Sequin.
Now this 5/100 challenge is simple. 5 exercises, 5 days and 5 weeks. The numbers increase every week. The things to keep in mind was:
1. No breaking it into sets.
2. Completing one entirely before moving onto the next.
3. Doing the exercise in correct form.

The first week exercises-
20 Jumping Jacks
20 Burpees
20 Squats
20 Push ups
20 Sit ups

Now when I saw burpees, I knew I was going to have a love-hate relationship with the challenge. I dislike burpees right from when I used to go to Bootcamp. But then this was just another challenge and I knew we could do it.

The first day was easy, although I was sore on Day 2 which made it harder. I took a day off between Day 2 and 3. Day 3 was OK,4 &5 easy. My main challenge was burpees. I do the version with my legs crossed for push-ups. I think I may get a knee brace too.

Motivation

If I have to pick one thing most essential to staying active, I would pick motivation. I am no different from anyone when I say I'd rather warm my couch than get out there and take the first step to exercise. Be it a walk or a run, the key is to want to do it.
I understand that buddy system works quite a lot of people too. It did for me too. But there was always this nagging wish that the other person would cower and say no to the day's workout. And I could escape working out too! This is a vicious cycle. In the end both of us were not really putting our 100%. So it comes back to us to motivate ourselves, to really want to change something.This applies in any walk of life!
It is the hardest thing to determine to start exercising. It is harder even to continue to do it day after day. It's nice if there is an external motivation. There is nothing better than someone actually telling us our hard work paid off. In the end it is always up to me to decide if it's worth it. To sweat it out everyday and gather all that energy in the end to do stuff that I truly do enjoy.

The beginning

For the longest time I have debated on this. If I wanted to blog about my health, lifestyle and body image. Opening yourself always brings critique. There will be positives, there will be negatives.
Fran Drescher said, "My whole life has been about converting negatives to positives."
This is also a journey of self acceptance. Pregnancy did to me what it does to others to varying extents- change my perception of beauty- external and internal.
Now my goal is pretty clear. To do what I can to stay healthy and active. If I become more active, more energetic, great! If I manage to look better in my clothes, hell yeah! But my main priority is to stay true to what I have come to believe-my body is a temple. It is a gift. And it is my duty to keep it working well and efficiently.