Month of Challenges

This month I have decided to do some challenges with a few of the weight loss communities that I am part of.  Usually, I commit to a challenge and then I never start it. I always say, "Oh, I will start it tomorrow."  Tomorrow comes and I end up saying the statement again, never committing.  This time, I am very committed to doing the challenges and I can feel them in my body. I am only on day three and my body is letting me know that I am working.

While I am committed to a challenge, there are some pros and cons to these challenges. The pros are the following:

• They give you an exercise plan to follow.
• If you do them with a community, you have an added bonus of support and encouragement while you do them.
• They keep you focused on exercising.

Great pros and that is why I really like them.  They do keep me from cheating, especially if I am being accountable to others.  But there are some cons:

• They can push you too hard.
• They can be difficult to do to the end since the last few days have high numbers of one exercise.
• They may be too difficult for your fitness level
• They can leave you feeling defeated if you don't finish them.

That being said, there are a lot of pros to the challenges in regards to health benefits that are not seen if you do not do them. However, it is important to look at a challenge realistically to determine if you can see the challenge through.  If you have a doubt, either do a simpler challenge or water down the one you want to do.  Also, if there is an activity that you don't think you can do, find out alternate ways that you can do it for your fitness level.  Trust me, every exercise has an alternate way to be done.

For me, I have given myself a personal challenge.  Every day, for the summer, I will be swimming laps in the pool. One there and back equals 64 feet and I count that as one lap.  Day one, I swam 22.5 laps in 10 minutes; day 2, I swam 25 laps. I realized that timing isn't working that well so instead, I am just going to increase my laps every day until I am swimming the equivalent of a mile in a session.  22.5 laps is a quarter of a mile so my target goal will be roughly 90 laps.

The other challenges that I am doing are the Ab Challenge and the Buns, Guns and Ab Challenge, which I posted below. I will update the charts weekly as I cross off the days.

During the month, I will periodically update you on my progress regarding the challenges but to focus on other things on this blog, I won't be doing it every month.  So if you are doing the challenge, let me know.