Day 23: New Challenges

Believe it or not, April is almost here. And with the new month come some new fitness challenges.

I hope anybody and everybody will join me in as many of these challenges as they can, so we can help motivate and share our successes with each other.

My challenges in March helped me to stick with my exercise regimen because I knew I was pushing toward a goal, so hopefully that same stickwithitness* will apply as I continue to challenge myself to go above and beyond what I've done in the past.

ONGOING CHALLENGES

There are a couple of challenges I started this month that will continue into April. The Great Outdoors Challenge was intended to last for the entire spring. The Conquer the Couch Potato Challenge on the other hand, was supposed to only last through March, but I have failed royally at it. So I would like to extend this challenge into April and see if I can actually do it.

The Great Outdoors Challenge
Spring is here and I am sick of being in the house! I think I need to spend some time being active outside. With this 3 day per week challenge for the entire Spring, I want to look at the weather forecast, make note of the predicted High for that day, and spend that many minutes outside, doing something active. This may be going for a walk with a friend, riding a bike (which may be difficult considering that I don't have one), or taking my iPod as my companion and enjoying the scenery in my neighborhood. This outside time may or may not coincide with my daily workout routine. I just want to get more fresh air.

The Conquer the Couch Potato Challenge
Nobody enjoys commercial breaks unless it's the Super Bowl, right? So why not make the most out of those 3 minute breaks between segments of your favorite show and incorporate some movement? I want to challenge myself, and whoever else wants to participate, to get up and move during commercial breaks. This challenge was supposed to last through the month of March, but since I didn't succeed at it, I am extending it to April...with a little bit of a modification. I started out wanting to get up and move any time a commercial came on, any time I was watching TV, but I think that's an unrealistic goal to expect myself to get up for every single commercial break as I'm watching TV throughout the evening, especially considering that most days I've already gotten in my workout for the day before I ever sit down to watch TV in the evening. I would like to modify this challenge to say that for 1 hour of TV watching every day, I will get up and exercise during the commercial breaks. If I'm watching an hour long television show, I will get about 20 minutes of commercial break exercise time in. I am going to get up and do something to get my heart rate going. It may be that I do some jumping jacks, or take a flight of stairs a couple of times...or even go downstairs and get the laundry. I'm going to get up and make use of those couple of minutes of commercials.

Walk to Jog Challenge
My mom and I are still following our walk-to-jog plan we started over 3 weeks ago. It's a 12-week program to transition from walking to jogging. Next week is the week we begin to incorporate a little bit of light jogging into our workouts. It's not to late to join us! If you're interested in participating or you want to see the plan we're doing, just let me know and I'll direct you to the information. Note: it may take us more than 12 weeks to complete this plan as this week is totally kicking our butts! Next week Weight Watchers is supposed to be launching a Walking Challenge, too, so we may participate in that along with our walk to jog program! I'll pass along that information as soon as I get it.

NEW CHALLENGES

The Park and Walk Challenge
For the month of April, I would like to incorporate some more walking to my normal routine. So I plan to park at the BACK of the parking lot and walk to the door as often as possible. This does not mean I'm going to park at the back every single time. If it's raining, for example, or if I'm running late, I'm going to make an exception for myself. But as a general rule, I will use the month of April to park far away from my destination and walk. Yes, even in the huge parking lots like Wal-Mart. I can't wait to see how much additional distance I track during the month just by enforcing a little bit of a good habit every day.

100 miles Challenge
Because I'll be getting so much additional distance with my Park and Walk Challenge, I would like to also challenge myself to walk a total of 100 miles for the month of April. That sounds like a lot, but let me explain: the average sedentary person takes about 1,000-3,000 steps in a day. For most people a mile is right around 2,000 steps, which means a sedentary person (a desk worker like most of us) walks only about half a mile to a mile and a half every day. I want to strive for more, though. It seems that most health guidelines recommend walking 10,000 steps per day. So I want to reach at least 10,000 steps a day for most days in April...which is 5 miles. I've figured that if I can log 10,000 steps (5 miles) a day for 20 days in April, I will have easily reached the 100 mile marker for the month!

So will you join me in one or more of these challenges? It would be great to get a bunch of people on board to share our struggles and successes! Comment below to let me know which challenges you're going to participate in for April!



*Yes, I did make up this word. And I'm proud of it!