ilikerocks

Well I must apologize to anyone following my thread on here. I kinda dropped the ball. Well no, I did drop the ball. I'm not sure exactly why, but here's my report... So according to my Joe's Goals chart and prior posts, I was pretty consistent for 18 days (up till Thursday the 18th). Friday I missed and I can't remember why. Saturday I did work out. Sunday I spend the day rock climbing. Then somehow my resolve evaporated and I've not worked out since. Now I do realize that I've only missed three days technically. So all is not lost. But it did make me consider something. I think as Americans we have this self-defeating mechanism known as the 'all or nothing' mentality. I imagine you know what this means. It means I must do it perfect or I flush it down the toilet or take it out with the trash. I am going to do my best to not let that MO creep in because I've actually learned a few things from the little of the 28 Day Challenge that I've been able to accomplish. The biggest lesson I've learned is that there can't be any hesitation. You have to commit. And this crosses over to all areas of my life. For example at my job I have to write up a lot of assessments. Often times I debate with myself about it, procrastinate it, or somehow find that there are other important things to do. Meanwhile my work stacks up, I get stressed, and I don't imagine it leaves a good impression on my bosses. Yet when I've found that I walk into my office with the determined mentality that I'm going to knock out a bunch of these assessments they get done and they get done fast. On top of that, getting them done makes me feel awesome! And the same goes with exercise. It does make me feel good to start my day by accomplishing some type of workout or stretch routine. I truly want exercise to become a daily habit that will be second nature. I want to get to the point that exercise is just like taking a shower every day. So enough of my rant. I just wanted to fess up and let y'all know where I'm at. Hopefully I'll get a workout done by the end of the day and be able to get back on the wagon. More importantly for me is that this isn't just about 28 days anymore. This is about making a life long habit. Thanks again Steve for the opportunity. And I did just read that article by Rollins. Great article! Breakdown since my last post... Day 19 - No workout :oops: Day 20 - Did complete a workout. I think I did the PT workout. Day 21 - No workout :oops: Day 22 - No workout :cry: Day 23 - No workout :cry: Day 24 - No workout :x

Well, I've not been the best with a daily track record of posting to this board. Sorry about that. Here's an update of the last few days... Day 15 - Core workout completed! Day 16 - PT workout completed! Day 17 - Core workout completed! Day 18 (today) - So I got up this morning and was really debating whether or not to do my workout. It was like pulling teeth. Somehow I managed to start and then of course there are several sections of my PT workout where I was also debating, "Why don't I just stop here and do the rest later in the day?" After arguing with myself for a few minutes, I'd convince myself to get through the next few exercises. Then pause, debate, and back to it. To my surprise I did finish my entire PT workout. It is less intensive than the core workout, but it takes twice the time. Anyway, I was very happy to get it done. As this 28 Day Challenge continues, I've been finding that the best way for me to get stuff done that I need to do is to do as Nike says and "Just Do It!" Hate to quote Nike, but the slogan stands on its own. It seems the more I let the mental debate enter, the less likely I am to get whatever the activity is done. So hopefully not only are my muscles getting a bit toned, but I hope my brain is too!

Day 12 - Core workout completed! Day 13 - PT workout completed! Day 14 - REST DAY!! Thoughts... Well, honestly you'd think I'd be able to see some tone development and unfortunately that's not the case. I recall Steve mentioning something about what you eat (or don't) as being a big factor in terms of how much weight one will gain. I think this is the one factor that I've not considered too much. I mean as a vegan I don't eat too bad, but I do think my diet isn't the greatest. Yesterday for example I ate pancakes for breakfast with orange juice. Lunch was lentil soup and a rice/broccoli casserole. Dinner was peanut sauce pasta with green beans and tofu. All in all I'd say that was a pretty healthy day, but I think that quantity is a big part of it. I'm not sure how to count calories when I'm making my own food. I think that might be a good thing to learn more about. Overall I'm probably staying the same rather than losing weight and toning up. I'll try to be more mindful of what I eat over the remainder of the 28 days and see what happens. Neil

Day 9 3/9/10) Completed my physical therapy workout! Day 10 (3/10/10) Completed my core workout! Day 11 (today, 3/11/10) Decided to start switching it up and completed 40 minutes of a power yoga workout. I followed the first 40 minutes of the Power Yoga Total Body workout DVD by Rodney Yee. This DVD is actually an hour long and kinda kicked my ass, but I like yoga so hopefully I can integrate this into my workout schedule somehow. Or maybe I'll get a few different yoga DVDs in order to vary up the practice. I also posted my Joesgoals.com badge onto my very first post -- take a look! I realize that this may be a bit confusing because I'm tracking other goals on there too, but you can see my exercise schedule there and I wanted to post it because I think its a great tool for keeping track of goals and for building enthusiasm and momentum for the goals your working to achieve!

I'm happy to say that while I've not been great about daily posting to here, I have been good with keeping up my end of the 28 Day Challenge. So far I only missed the one day (Day 4). But days 5-8 went according to plan. Day 5 - Completed my core workout. My core workout consists of the following (taken from the Thrive Fitness book): 25 double crunches 15 jackknives (20 second rest) 20 hip rotation bridge things - I'll get the right term in here later... (20 second rest) 20 side crunches - 20 each side (20 second rest) 20 swims (20 second rest) Do that circuit three times and that's my core workout. Takes maybe 30 minutes. Day 6 - Completed my PT workout. Will put in the exact terms of my PT workout in the next post. Otherwise you're gonna get all kinds of creative terms in here! Day 7 - Rest day (according to plan) Day 8 - Completed core workout. This is today! Though I must say I forced myself to do it today. I really wasn't feeling it. Even now, its been a bit shitty of a day. Had a first date yesterday and was totally into the girl. Texted her and haven't heard back. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but seems no interest on her part. Sucks. Thus today's NF article came in handy. Thanks Steve! Overall, I'm 6:7 (only counting workout days, not rest days). So I'm happy with that. I also took photos on day two so I'll try to get those posted in the next post as well. Good luck all! I hope you're doing well on your challenges!

Uh... yeah. That's kinda what was goin on! And while that's all good, it wasn't part of my 28 Day Challenge!

Well kinda dropped the ball today. Today was the PT workout and I missed it. Had a girl over last night till the wee hours, missed my alarm, yada yada. Told myself I'd do it after work and it didn't happen. On the up side I did climb for 3 hours so that's a good workout, but its not my plan. Climbing is fun for me, not so much a workout and my workouts are aimed at toning up in a balanced way because climbing isn't always a balanced workout. So... Day 4 didn't work out so well. But at least I can go to sleep and get up and get my abs workout in tomorrow!

Nice job Steve!

Hey Porkle. Steve tells me you're a climber too. Cool! Where do you climb primarily? I see your goals and lead climbing is awesome. I'm sure you'll get that down. Let me know if I can be of any help. I'm doin the 28 Day Challenge thing too. Neil

Above is my joesgoals badge that tracks the goals I'm working on, which include the workout goals listed below. Click the badge for more information. It's a great resource for helping to build momentum for positive habits! Ok here's my plan... I realize this note is 3/3/10, which is a couple days late. However since I've already been trying to implement a workout plan and I've been doing it sporadically in the past (including the last two days) I figure I’m still in with the 28 days. So here's my background physically: I'm vegan. I'm also an avid rock climber. But these days in New Jersey it’s a bit too cold to be climbing outside. For some time I’ve wanted to develop a regular physical routine, but have only made a half ass effort in my approach. I’m using this 28 Day Challenge to develop some healthy exercise/workout habits. Due to the physical activity that I do regularly engage in – climbing in the gym, and exercise/stretching here and there, I’d say I’m not in bad shape. But I do have this small spare tire that manages to hang on. I can actually see some abdominal muscle there, like my six pack is trying to reveal itself, but it’s still eclipsed by a slight layer of blubber. So time to dig in and get rid of that! Otherwise, I’d say that I have a pretty good muscle tone. But I do want to increase my core strength in order to help boost my climbing abilities. So the details of my workout plan are this. Thus far I’ve been doing a core strength workout in rotation with a physical therapy (PT) workout. I plan to do these on an every other day rotating basis and take Sundays off as a rest day. I’m not including my climbing days as part of my workout, but I’ll note them down because they’re also strength related. FYI, the core strength routine can be found in the book Thrive Fitness by Brendan Brazier. I’d also like to add in power yoga (from the Iyengar school) and eventually replace the PT with the yoga. So there you have the blueprint of my 28 Day Challenge! Thanks for the push Steve, and I do plan to buy a scale and start weighing in and maybe I’ll even get all fancy like you and take some measurements, weigh in, and even do some caliper checking@! I may also add in some related workout/dietary info for all y’all. Day 1 (3/1/10) – Core workout completed! Day 2 (3/2/10) – PT workout completed! Day 3 (3/3/10) – Core workout completed! Best of luck to everyone!! Keep me honest!