21DFC Day 3 – Turning it into a Routine

by Celes |
Filed in Health
, Challenges

This is Day 3 of the 21-Day Fitness Challenge held in Feb 2012. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hello and welcome to Day 3 (Feb 5) of the 21-Day Fitness Challenge! *dance*

Before we get to the challenge proper, here are some quick announcements!

Quick Announcements

1. Updates will only be sent to those who are signed up

I realized not all readers on the PE newsletter are participating in 21DFC, and there’s no reason to send the 21DFC updates to those not in the challenge. It’s just cluttering up others’ mailboxes with irrelevant material (to them, anyway – not us).

So as of Day 4’s update, I will only be sending the newsletter to the official participants of 21DFC. This means only 267 of you who are officially signed up will get the updates in your inbox. For those who don’t want to participate but you want to receive the updates, well – TOUGH LUCK! :p You need to be exercising together with us to be part of the loop. We’re working out as a community – bystanders are not allowed. ;)

If you still want to join in and rock your body to fitness land, today is your FINAL CHANCE. I’m closing sign-ups after today. ~~Sign up now: 21-Day Fitness Challenge~~. (Update Feb 6: Sign ups are now closed).

2. Renaming of 21-Day Fitness Challenge to 21-Day Fitness Challenge

Some of you are probably reading the new 21DFC acronym and going “Huh? Isn’t it supposed to be 21DEC? Did Celes make a typo or what?”.

Nope, after some thought, I’ve officially renamed 21DEC / 21-Day Fitness Challenge to 21DFC – 21-Day Fitness Challenge. I’ve been reading the participants’ comments for Days 1 and 2, and felt that the word “fitness” better represented the message I want to drive with this challenge. It’s all about getting fit, being healthier and rocking a stronger body at the end of the 21-days – and increased physical activity, or exercising for some of us, is what’s going to get us there.

So yes, sorry if there’s been any confusion! All the references and links on the site have been duly updated to reflect the change.

If you are using soft copy for the pre-work, simply rename 21DEC to 21DFC, and change “Exercising” to “Fitness”. If you’re blogging about the challenge and linking back to 21DFC, update the links accordingly. If you’re tweeting about the challenge, use #21DFC instead of #21DEC. When commenting, please refer to the challenge as 21DFC and not 21DEC. From now on, we’re here to rock 21 days of fitness together! ;)

3. Post your updates in the respective day’s thread

As I shared in the 21DFC announcement, please share your day’s progress in the respective day’s thread. Meaning post your day 1 (Feb 3) updates on Day 1’s thread, Day 2 (Feb 4) updates on Day 2’s thread, and so on. Some of you are posting your updates in the wrong places (some even posting updates in the announcement thread – WHY?!), and it’s making it quite painful for me to administrate the course.

If you are a latecomer to the challenge and you’re only starting today (Feb 5), you can either start from Day 1’s thread, and play catch-up with all of us, or you can join us directly in today’s thread. Doing the former will probably cause you to be out of sync with the group since you’ll always be 2 days behind in your updates, while the latter means your challenge will only be 19 days, and not 21 days, long. It’s up to you!

For the other challenges in the future, I’ll strive to correspond the days with the dates, so it’s easier for everyone.

4. Check back your previous comments

Many of you have been duly sharing your progress in the days’ threads, which is fantastic! :D However, some of you seem to be posting your comments and neglecting them thereafter – not realizing that other participants are replying to your comments and trying to engage a discussion!

Please bookmark the comments section for each day’s thread, check back regularly, and reply to the other participants who have taken time out of their schedule to write to you. Or an easier way is to subscribe for notification of new comments (the option is there whenever you post a new comment – simply tick the checkbox below the comment box). While you’re at it, drop a kind word or two for a fellow participant. Remember, we’re here to support each other.

Finally – done with the announcements! Ok, let’s now move on to Day 2’s review!

Review of Day 2

Can I say I’m so proud of all of you who have duly filed your progress update for Day 1 (and Day 2, for those in faster time zones), as you have pledged in Day 0’s pre-work? Seriously, you guys are GOLD.

Whether you did any physical activity for the day, the fact that you logged on to post your update is a HUGE sign that YOU are committed to improving the fitness aspect of your life. Give yourselves a big pat on the back for staying true to yourself and sticking to the challenge, vs. hiding / doing the fade-away/disappearing act, or abandoning the challenge altogether.

You know, reading the comments, I feel worried for some of you. I really am. You see, some of you are so friggin’ hard on yourself. I’ve seen more than one participant beat him/herself up over not doing/completing his/her desired physical activity for the day. And then for some of you, your comments open up with full-blown, lengthy explanations on why your desired activity was not done for the day, even though no one asked for any explanations to begin with.

You know what? IT D-O-E-S-N-‘-T MATTER. We’re not here to police each other or laugh/scott at anyone who did not do/complete his/her desired physical activity for the day. We’re not here to play the blame game. We’re not here to cast judgment. This challenge is not about perfection. This challenge is not about competition (with each other). This challenge is about improving the fitness in our lives.

Scr*w it if you didn’t get to your desired physical activity today – simply learn why, and move on. Focus on understanding why, over justifying the occurrence. Focus on identifying the lessons learned, over turning a blind eye to the slip-up. Think in terms of how you can make it work out tomorrow onwards, over mulling “what if?” (Principle #10 of 10 Timeless Principles To Be Happy). Must I remind everyone of our 21DFC Pledge? “I shall not beat myself up if I were to miss my exercises – but instead learn what got me offtrack and not let it happen again.“

Let’s make the best out of our 19 days ahead, shall we? ;) With that said, here’s my progress for Day 3!

My 21DFC Progress, Day 3

Day 3 morning – I woke up at about 7:15am, and automatically thought – “It’s jogging time!” This was in spite of a sore body (still), from Day 1’s running/jogging and swimming, and Day 2’s jogging and workout at the gym. And normally I wouldn’t jog after 7am because the sun is coming up and it gets progressively warmer by the hour.

But for some reason, those didn’t seem to be of any concern to me. I just truly felt like getting my workout for my day. It almost felt like this is turning into a routine, even though it’s only Day 3! (I guess with the dual exercise sessions I’ve been doing, it feels more like today is Day 5, not Day 3!)

Again, I went to my usual jogging route, and gave myself the option to brisk walk if I wanted to. No forcing, no self-pressurizing, only a desire to increase physical activity in my life and to enjoy every moment. But nope, I felt like jogging, so off I went!

Off we go! Seems like others are already up and getting their morning exercise before me. Next time I will be earlier!

Enjoying the sights as I slowly jogged along the path

I bet the other joggers must be wondering, “Why is this person taking a camera with her for her morning jog?”

The sun rising over the horizon ♥

At the end of it, I completed 3.6km (2.2 miles) without walking, just like yesterday! Hurray for a personal victory – jogging when I could have walked the distance! :D

Oh, because I haven’t exercised for a long time prior to 21DFC, I got a couple of blisters from my 5.5km barefoot run/jog on Day 1. Hence, I decided to go jogging with my track shoes for the time being, until they get better. It’s also more jogging-friendly as it’s the rainy season now, and the tracks are partially wet whenever I jog.

Anyway, I could have called it a day where fitness is concerned, but I decided it wasn’t enough. I knew I could do more, even though my legs were aching from all the jogging/exercising I had done in the past 2.5 days alone.

So when the evening came, I decided to go for another jog. *dance* Am I on a roll or what?! I’m telling you, this fitness thing is addictive! Once you start, you can’t stop!

The park connector at night. It’s not as dangerous as it looks – there are people jogging/cycling/walking by me every 5-10 minutes

It was another 3.6km (2.2 miles) jog for me, without stopping to walk. I ended Day 3 on a fully satisfied note, knowing that I made the best of the day where fitness was concerned. :D A big “YES!” for exercising twice a day when I can only be exercising once!

For those attributing my 21DFC progress to a good fitness condition or background, I can assure you it’s definitely not. I have a non-existent fitness background. I was never an athlete in school. I hated exercise with a passion and I was so glad when I graduated from high school because it meant no more regimented exercise sessions. Prior to 21DFC, I have not exercised for 1 year (after my fast in February, I didn’t exercise since I wanted to focus on regulating my diet post-fast first, and then when I began traveling in June, it blew my fitness plans out of the water.)

If anything, this is the first time in my life I’m exercising so regularly/intensely! AND I’M LOVING IT! No self-pressurizing, just sheer enjoyment. I’m telling you, it feels awesome. I’m already seeing benefits from just a few days of proper workout, too – more on that in tomorrow (Day 4)’s update.

Also, I took the chance to link up with a friend today (whom I used to play badminton with) to let him know I’m back in Singapore. I suggested getting together/forming a group to play badminton again, like in the past. Turns out that he’s been playing badminton regularly with his work colleagues (they just played last Thursday, in fact), and he will invite me the next time they have a session (likely soon). Here’s another big “YES!” for combing fitness, fun and socializing all in one activity! :D

That’s it for my Day 3 – Stay tuned for Day 4 tomorrow! :D

How About YOUR Day 3? Share Your Progress!

How did YOUR 21DFC Day 3 go? Did you get to complete your scheduled activity? Did you achieve any personal victories? Did something unexpected crop up, which made you learn some valuable personal lessons?

Regardless of how your day went, we want to hear it all. 21DFC is not about sharing ‘flawless’ fitness progress, but about sharing everything our journey towards a healthier, fitter life – obstacles and all. Post your day’s journal in the comments section! If you have any images to share, simply upload them to Photo Bucket or Imgur first, then include the link(s) in your reply.

What physical activity did you do (if any), and for how long?
If you didn’t get to do any physical activity, why? And what can you do about it such that the same thing doesn’t happen again?
What physical activity do you plan to do tomorrow?

Check out other participants’ responses and join in the discussions!

Looking forward to Day 4 tomorrow! ;)

(Image: Girl jogging)