To All Who Suffer, Lend Me Your Ears!

Week 3. Week. F*cking. 3!! Life’s been throwing my schedule curve balls left and right. I can’t even keep track of what day it is right now I’m juggling so much. And that’s really the challenge isn’t it? It’s not about how many push ups I can do, but that I can find a way to maintain the discipline to continue doing them at all.

Life is rarely constant. Especially in an economy where you may be forced to work odd and inconsistent schedules to make ends meat. For some of us that involves working multiple jobs, and for others it’s just a matter of working a job where the hours vary from week to week. Consistency and routine are two of the rarest commodities we’re afforded anymore. That’s one reason it can be tougher than a vibranium shield to stick to the plan to stay healthy.

So, pondering aside, let’s get to the review of how things have been going: Pretty damn good!

I’m now actually doing MORE than 100 push ups per day. Not a lot more but in the neighborhood of 110 to 120. Because…I can do more at a time!!!

When I started, I was barely able to get 30 out of my body before meeting the floor face first. Now, I’m in the 35-40 range, and last night I made it to 42 for my final set.

I’ve started the clapping push ups. OUCH! Holy f*ck balls, ouch. It’s that kind of divine pain. I can get somewhere from 12-15 per set of them. I’ve also been doing 3-point push ups, which is where you put one leg over the other, thus you only have 1 toe supporting you. It’s kind of like upping the incline on the treadmill.

Despite experimenting and integrating the new kinds of push ups into my routine, I’ve also been making sure I have one set that’s still the good ol’ fashioned, as much to keep up my morale as anything else. Staying motivated by feeling like progress is being made, that’s as important as any other aspect.

Still breaking them up into 3 sessions throughout the day. However, due to exhaustion, my first set is usually around noon in my office and my boss gets some entertainment out of it. Because he’s a cool boss that is amused by randomness.

1 more week and the challenge ends. Can I keep up the momentum? Can I add more claps? Will I be brave enough to attempt a 1 arm? Tune in to find out!

Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel,

The Dude

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. Last month it was Samantha and her valiant attempt at going man-free. This month, we're hanging out with Jill as she faces her greatest fears head on.]

When I thought about what I wanted to do for my one-month challenge, so many things came to mind: I could go on a social media diet, I could go on a vegan diet, a debt diet… and on and on it went until I decided I wanted to do something out of the box (and not including the word diet). My birthday is coming up this month (ten days! Woop!) and for the past year, I realized not much has changed. I’m sort of in a rut; in a routine of sorts. I wake up with the intention of working out but hit snooze, go to work, work out, watch bad reality TV, spend too much time on Facebook, go to bed, repeat. It’s boring, yes, but it’s comfortable. And like that sweatshirt I have from freshman year that I still won’t part with, comfortable is sometimes a lot easier and more convenient than the other option.

So to shake things up a bit, I decided this month would be all about living outside my box, confronting my fears and living outside of my comfort zone. I have a list a mile long of things I want to be bold and daring enough to do – some big and some not so big – and I’m sure as the month goes on, things will just pop up forcing me to be uncomfortable for a bit but happier in the long run. I’m hoping facing my fears will get me out of this sticky spot I’m in and force me to embrace the world with some new gusto.

And this week I started small. Very, very small. To you this may not sound scary or uncomfortable at all, but to me it was one large step for mankind. Well for me-kind, and I’ll take it. Read More »

I basically live my life by the phrase “go big or go home.” I’m an extremist in every way. I either love something or hate it, am obsessed or utterly disinterested. So after last week’s Rollerblading success during spring break, I returned to campus with the goal of exercising EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Now, for someone who hasn’t exercised consistently in four years, that’s quite the lofty goal. I would venture that it’s relatively impossible. But my intentions were good–I wanted to come out of this One Month Challenge with exercise as part of my daily routine, a regular part of my life, rather than a series of one-time attempts at athleticism.

Needless to say, I didn’t exercise every day this week. I exercised one day. So I’m going to throw my “go big or go home” philosophy out the window right now, because I’ve found that in exercise, sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference. Maybe this is just an elaborate attempt to prove to myself that I didn’t fail this week, but let’s just go with it for now.

Following the tips of fellow College Candy writer Jill, I set out this week to make a series of small changes to my lifestyle. I stretched every morning when I woke up and every night before I went to bed. I ate breakfast every morning, bypassing the Reese’s Puffs for fat-free yogurt, a bagel and veggie cream cheese, half a grapefruit, a banana, oatmeal. I took the stairs instead of the elevator at work. And I set a more reasonable goal: to attend a fitness class in our campus rec center. Read More »

I’m pretty sure I don’t have OCD, but sometimes I really convince myself that I do.  And by “sometimes” I mean “every time I watch Obsessed on A&E.” Although my habits don’t come nearly as close to those of the people on that show who have to touch the fridge 46 times before they can get some milk, I do have some quirks that make me go hmm…

I know a lot of people have weird things with numbers, but my thing with numbers is just wacky.  For example, when I’m on the treadmill planning on going for a run, I make sure I walk for exactly half a mile before.  The treadmill must say exactly .50 before I can start running.  .49 is not okay, and, to be honest, I’m not sure what I would do if it went to .51 and I wasn’t running yet, but I guess I don’t have to worry about that because I won’t let that happen.

Now, is that just routine or a blatant obsession? Read More »