A Tacky Invitation to my 30-Day Exercise Challenge

This post is akin to me hosting a party and calling you from said party to say I meant to invite you.  Really.  But I forgot.  Yes, the party is already underway, but I really want you to come.  So do you mind dropping what you're doing and coming by?

Tacky, tacky, tacky.

My apologies.

It is Day 7 of my 30-Day Exercise Challenge.  On June 1st, well really, it was June 2nd, but my sense of time was all messed up by the Memorial Day holiday, I began a 30-day challenge.  The challenge:  I will exercise in a concerted fashion for a minimum of 15 minutes every day for 30 days straight.

That's it.  Pretty straightforward, right?  By concerted fashion, I mean something other than housework or running errands or even playing with my kids, unless we're in some type of athletic pursuit like basketball, tennis, swimming or such.  Mostly I use the treadmill, exercise bike, and free weights.

Please feel free to join me.  (I know, I know, but I've already apologized for the tardiness and tackiness of my invitation.)

How did this come about?

You've probably noticed I haven't blogged much about my weight loss efforts in the last, uh, year. That's because I lost 23 lbs last year but gained about a quarter of those back by year's end.  My gaining continued into 2010, even while I went to a free 12-week Weight Watchers At Work program where I went up and down and up and down, finishing at about a +3 lbs, I think, but ultimately up nearly 50% of last year's loss.  Shortly after that, I noticed my hands and ankles were retaining water, and my knees were starting to ache.  Oh, boy.  Not good.

I jumped back on the weight loss bandwagon.  (Yes, I know yo-yo'ing is not healthy, but isn't it yo-yo'ing only when you have a period in which you completely forget about losing weight and don't even try?  I never forget.  Not even in the middle of an all-out snack binge.  It's an ever present thought, 365 days of the year.)

Anyway, I have since lost all of the weight I had regained.  I am firmly back at last year's low and this time, I'm continuing on my journey.  For me, that means exercise and nutrition working in tandem.  I've learned that when I'm exercising, I tend to eat better.  The same is not true for when I'm eating right.  I do not necessarily exercise better, or more, or at all.

So to keep things interesting and moving forward, I decided to challenge myself.

30 straight days of exercise.

So far, it hasn't been too difficult.  My average time is 35 minutes per day, and the only major obstacle I had was the night of my son's prekindergarten graduation, when I found myself exercising at 11:30 at night, something I never would have done without this challenge.

I foresee some challenges on the horizon, like beauty parlor days.  I typically get my hair done on Fridays and don't even think about exercising again until the following Monday.  I need to get the most out of my newly coiffed head, and certainly want to look cute for church on Sunday.  I'm thinking I'll have to exercise the morning of my appointments which means getting it in before work, and then Saturday evening.  Since I vary the intensity of my workouts, trust me, Saturday and Sunday after a hair appointment will be lighter workouts.

So that's what's going on with me and my weight loss woes.  Feel free to join me in this challenge.  Unlike other bloggers, I don't have a cool prize to offer you other than the satisfaction of getting it done, and the glow you'll feel when you weigh yourself on July 2nd.  (The challenge began June 2nd and runs thru July 1st.)  After all, all this exercise has to result in reduced tonnage, doesn't it?

I'll be really impressed if you start your own 30-day challenge, a full 30 days.  If exercise isn't the bane of your existence, try something else, like forgoing dessert for 30 days or boycotting dairy or drinking more than 8 oz of water.  How about it?

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia