Do Life Challenge
Oh look…an hour past my bedtime, and I’m finally getting around to this post. (Bonus: can you find all 9 links?)
- Write down five quantifiable goals for yourself. Emphasis on quantifiable. And they must be realistically achievable within one month (more on this below the challenges).
- Assess yourself and write down your current stats in all five areas. Do you want to lose six pounds? Find out exactly where you are now. Do you want to run a 35-minute 5K? Write down your current time. Etc. You might need to get creative with assessments. That’s okay. There is no requirement on your goals or your assessments.
I’m combining the first two - goal in regular text, assessment in bold/italics:
- Lose 1 lb per week in January; weigh 194 lbs by Feb. 1st by counting calories and running at least 4x per week. January starting weight: 198
- Only consume ONE soda per week. (I had kicked it before, and it is trying to creep back) I’ve been having at least 3-4 sodas per week (pretty much every time at a restaurant)
- Track all calories consumed and burned on MyFitnessPal. So far I have tracked every calorie consumed burned (since 12/28/11).
- Do a minimum of 15 minutes of exercise every single day. As of now, my routine has been to run 2-3x per week, with no other activity on the “off” days.
- Don’t miss a day of the 3650 Challenge - read 10 chapters of the Bible every day following Professor Horner’s Reading Plan. Prior to starting the plan on 1/1/12, I was getting 5 or 6 days a week of reading a few verses based off of the Daily Bread book.
- By Monday night, get on the floor an do as many pushups as you can. Modified (from your knees) or regular. It doesn’t matter how many you can do. Write this number down in a notebook or word document. Pushups will be a “fun” recurring litmus test throughout the 12 weeks.
Well, I wasn’t on the interwebz much on Monday, so didn’t see this until Tuesday. Therefore my pushups are a Tuesday number, but I went a little overboard and did a video to make up for it!
- Beginners: Do 120 minutes of exercise this week. The exercise can be anything physical as long as you’re working that heart rate. Walking, running, cycling, rollerblading, yoga, weight-lifting, anything.
- Intermediate/Advanced: Add 30 minutes to your average week and push the intensity during those 30 minutes. It doesn’t matter if it’s five intense minutes during six different workouts or one extra intense 30-minute session.
Well, I guess I’m considering myself “Intermediate” since I’m not starting from scratch. Since I’m starting my half-marathon training plan in 5 days, that will definitely add a lot of time per week for me, but for this week I will do a mix of P90X, elliptical, SixPackShortcut workouts, etc.
- Identify your biggest excuse. Write it down on a wall in your house. Then in your notebook write a way to eliminate that excuse. Not enough time in the day? “Eliminate American Idol and Glee.” Sorry.
My biggest excuse? I think it’s some of the self-talk where I say things like: “Meh…I’m good enough where I’m at.” Those times when settling for 30 lbs overweight, low on energy, being all weak-sauce and such is more “desirable” than the hard work to get better.
- Each night before bed, write four things you did well that day.
4 Things for Mon, 1/2/12
- Kissed my daughter and told her how beautiful she is half a dozen times
- Ran 4 miles and felt good
- Made some excellent progress in organizing mics/cables/storage/etc. in the tech booth at church (I’m the tech director)
- Played four rounds of a game (“Dominion”) with my wifey. (we tied at 2-2, so no one got to gloat!)
- Had IsaLean smoothie for breakfast
- Left work early to celebrate my son’s 8th birthday
- Got caught up on DoLife forums after a 2-day break (who knew it would pile up that quickly!?)
- Ended the evening by doing some strength/core workout stuff that I found on Runner’s World
4 Things for Wed, 1/4/12
- Stayed engaged and contributed my best during all three difficult, mentally-/emotionally-/physically-draining meetings today.
- After 4 hours of sleep last night, I really just wanted to go to bed after dinner, but I helped my son with his new lego set and did a little strength-training workout.
- Intentionally sought opportunities to encourage people in some small way (online and IRL).
- Barely wasted any time on Facebook.
4 Things for Thurs, 1/5/12
- I had one PB&J sandwich for lunch. This is embarrassing to admit, but that’s the first time in months that when I’ve had a sandwich, I had ONLY ONE, as opposed to the two I usually do.
- Encouraged my son (in 2nd grade) to do his math homework without counting on his fingers, and he did well!
- Emptied the dishwasher on my own initiative (without being asked/reminded to)
- Had a number of reasons to postpone the time trial I had planned, but did it anyway and killed it! :)
4 Things for Fri, 1/6/12
- Made it through a 4-hour meeting on a big project of mine that went well
- Laughed a bunch; had an impromptu game night with friends (I astonished everyone with my killer score in the first game)
- Caught an error on a Fox News tweet and sent them the correction (They should call to say thanks and/or send money soon)
- Went out into the cold and moved my car so someone else could more easily move theirs.
4 Things for Sat, 1/7/12
- Got up at 5:30 on a Saturday morning. Seriously, how many people do that? (Had to make sure I had time for Daily Reading Plan and run before son’s bday party)
- 2 guys were at the Nielson Challenge (monthly 2-miler with my run club, Pikes Peak Road Runners) as a result of ME…my running has inspired others to run? Whaaaat?
- Surprised myself with an 11:05 pace. (Same route a month ago was at a 12:15 pace) Also was neck-and-neck, leap-frogging with another big dude who said he was pushing himself to keep goin’ because of me.
- After morning run, proceeded to spend entire day with wife and kids: birthday party fun, board games, card games, visiting with my brother, dinner together…all that good stuff.
