This is Day 5 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 5 (Feb 7) of the 21-Day Fitness Challenge! :D
The past updates took quite a bit of time to write, so I’m keeping today’s update short. Firstly, check out the updates by participants so far if you haven’t:
- Day 0 – Pre-Work: Create Your 21-Day Fitness Plan! | 76 Comments
- Day 1 – It All Begins! | 101 Comments
- Day 2 – Building Up the Momentum… | 122 Comments
- Day 3 – Turning it into a Routine | 77 Comments
- Day 4 – Loving the Sweat, the Pain, and the Aches! | 93 Comments
Secondly, our lovely participant, Raymond, recorded a video to cheer us on while he was doing his walk on Day 4! Thank you, Raymond! :D I’m sure everyone will get a boost in their 21DFC after seeing how you managed to keep up with your commitment to fitness, despite the cold weather over there in Holland!
My 21DFC Progress, Day 5
I walked for a good 2 hours today, all done while running my errands. Climbed the stairs as usual. :D While it was more activity than my more sedentary days in the past, it wasn’t as much fitness as I would like, especially not in light of 21DFC. Kind of disappointing, to be honest. I definitely look forward to tomorrow (Day 6) to get back into gear.
One thing I noticed is that if I don’t start my day on my desired note, it kinda leaves me with a sour taste for the rest of the day. For example, I wanted to jog in the morning as I had done in the past 4 days, but I didn’t in the end because I woke up later than usual (8+am) from sleeping late yesterday.
Since I didn’t get to jog in the morning, I didn’t feel like jogging in the evening either. A part of me was waiting for the day to end so I could start the next day on a fresh note. I also observed myself eating more than the past few days, probably to offset my dissatisfaction with how the day was turning out – remnants of my emotional eating issues at work. This is obviously a very bad all-or-nothing mindset.
My learnings?
- Let go of rigid expectations on how I want the day to unfold, and instead creatively manifest my day based on my highest intentions. For example, I could well have gone to the gym after waking up and gotten my fitness fix for the morning, instead of letting the dissatisfaction of not being able to jog hang at the back of my head and affect me subconsciously.
- Less listening to the side of me that imposes/forces, and more connecting with my higher self. Even if the initial steps may seem counter-intuitive, go with the flow and allow them to play out – with no expectations of what they should be (as per #1).
- Last but not least, sleep earlier so I can wake up earlier.
For tomorrow, I have my first kickboxing class tomorrow evening, so I can’t wait. :D I hope to get to swim too, as my period just ended. An ideal Day 6 would be if I can manage a jog, a swim AND going to the kickboxing class. XD I’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
On a semi side-note, because my phone was misplaced when I was in the States, I’m looking to buy a new phone now. That was part of my errands today – to check on new phones. I believe they will be handy for achieving my fitness goals (for example, tracking my distance/calorie burnt/time taken during my jogs, music player with podcasts and music to make my jogs even more enjoyable, etc). Will keep you guys posted!
How About YOUR Day 5? Share Your Progress!
How did YOUR 21DFC Day 5 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 6 tomorrow! ;)
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I’m not sure if I posted anything for Day 5, so here I am!
So I promised myself I’d try to do yoga after work, and I managed to do a few pilates from youtube, but I made a mistake doing that so quickly because I got tired really fast. It was probably only for 10 minutes. Which is kind of sad.
I planned to take a Yoga class yesterday, but I was so tired and sore from skiing, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to handle an intense flow class, so I skipped it and slept in a little bit. I did however clean my entire house, which is quite the workout. I also did a lot of laundry, which requires running up and down a flight of stairs several times throughout the day. Last night, I took my dog for a short walk.
It wasn’t the day of fitness that I planned, but I still managed to do more than sit on the couch all day, which is what my body was begging for, honestly.
Today, I was going to go to Yoga for a gentle Hatha class, but dinner plans with a friend were switched from last night to tonight, so I am not going to make the class. I will either go to the gym after work to spend some time on the elliptical, or I will take the dog for a long walk early this evening. I’ll check in tomorrow to let you know how it went!
Day Five
Well it was a wonderful day!
My fitness plans were derailed by unexpected company, but still made very healthy food choices when we went for lunch!
Did my 1 hr walk with our dog again, and included two steep stair sets. These sure get my heart rate going!
I also had many errands to do, laundry etc, so got my exercise there! I do laundry at a laundromat and it means taking it from home and putting into the car, lugging it into the place and lugging it back! Imagine doing that with a week’s worth of your laundry, including bedding. With the increase in energy and the sun shining, I decided yesterday morning that it was time to do spring cleaning, which I confidently feel burnt some calories!
Day 6………open ended! :dance:
45 min total body conditioning class at gym
25 min walk
Day 6 is spin class
Today I went swimming. Actually, I had wanted to go yesterday, but the indoor pool was closed. I practiced my butterfly stroke for an hour, and it was tiring but rewarding. I feel like I’m slowly but steadily improving my technique. After I got out of the pool, I felt really happy about myself (I have noticed that I feel happy and almost euphoric every time after a good workout).
I’ve been thinking. If exercise can make me happy, and I think it works for others as well, then should we promote exercise as a way to treat stress and even depression? I know a friend or two who could use more exercise.
Hi Arnold,
There have been several medical studies on the link between exercise and depression, and it is a proven remedy — sometimes combined with medication or therapy as needed. I know for me personally exercise is a great way to lift my mood and get me out of the dumps. It’s a release for sadness, anger, stress and several other negative feelings.
Encourage your friends struggling with depression and stress to get out there and move… in whatever way makes them happy. If the depression is severe, however, I would also gently encourage them to talk to a therapist.
I run ten laps and hope to do ten tomorrow and also swim.
Its looks like everyone is really getting on well. I run 10 laps today in a field. it was not a full run, I run the lengths and brisked walked the the width of the filed.
Tomorrow I plan to get to the filed early and run for 10 laps and then wswim. Thanks for all the encouragement.
I am at least 8 hours ahead of all of you.
Greetings from Kenya.
Good for you – I’ll be cheering you on!
This was not my best day, but I still managed an hour of practicing golf at the driving range and a tiny walk.
42 minutes on the stationery bike today. another workout from cardio.coach.com
Good mix of sprint, endurance and strength. Plan on doing workout #3 tomorrow. Too much snow to run outside and I can’t stand treadmill running.
Ross
i just looked up cardio coach. what has your experience been? Do you like the product enough to recommend it? Curious do you use it on a stationery bike or other equipment? if so what types of equipment?
right now as a special they have 5 cardio workouts for 16.00 dollars…no downloads but you can rip them to your computer and then load to itunes. seems like a really good deal to me….
appreciate your feedback. and congrats gfor being on the 21 day challenge!
also if possible …. zap me back on here so folks can see your response and also on
ssugarbread@yahoo.com that would be really helpful
I dont want to miss your reply.
Hey stuart, recommend to bookmark this page and check back for new replies, or to check ‘subscribe to replies’ option at the bottom of the comments box which will notify you of new replies to this post. Leaving your email address openly is equivalent to inviting spam – there are a lot of spam bots that crawl the site (or any other sites online for that matter).
Celes
thanks for the heads up.
i may be doing somehting wrong
i have checked the box you speak of
but my inbox is flooded with notifications so ic ant really tell which one to open
i would prefer to only get notices when someone replies to one of my posts
is that possible?
Hey stuart, unfortunately the notifications is only on an overall post level. :( If you don’t want to get a notification for every comment reply, the best option is to bookmark the comments page in your browser and check back regularly throughout the day. Hope that helps. :D
Lack of time is striking again…
I came back from school today at 3pm, I had tons of home-works and had to do some blogging tasks. Before I know it, it’s 9pm and I have to sleep early so I could wake up at 5am tomorrow.
I did complete 30 minutes of walking though, in addition to the daily physical activities I reported earlier.
Seems that day 5’s curse has affected me too. Maybe day 6 will be better (:
Day five – awoke with a sore throat. I seem to be fighting something that just won’t make an evident appearance. But I was determined to get my fitness in today. Did my yoga breathing and meditation this morning – up to 25 minutes without even thinking about it. Then before tutoring I went for a walk in the park – half an hour, just enjoying the gorgeous weather. Normally when I am feeling poorly, I stay in bed and try to fight off whatever is ailing me. Today was a case of embracing it. I was going to walk, regardless. And I did.
Tomorrow – yoga class! :dance:
Congrats; that’s encouraging. Keep it up. greetings from Kenya
Thank you! Today will be the challenge, as I am fighting strep throat, but I still want to go to yoga class!
What physical activity did you do (if any), and for how long?
– My brother and I went out and did this quick workout that involved sprinting up these two inclines (one after another), run back down, then sprint back to the top. We would then take a minute rest and then repeat. After 10 minutes of this we went for a 10 minute walk and then stretched for about 10 minutes inside. Altogether, about 30 minutes.
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?
– I was able to do some physical activity.
What physical activity do you plan to do tomorrow?
– I plan to do some kind of body wieght workout, maybe another walk, and then stretching.
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