21DFC Day 7 – Celebrating 1 Week of Fitness!

This is Day 7 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 7 (Feb 9) of the 21-Day Fitness Challenge! :DIt’s been 1 week since 21DFC started – can you believe it??? Feels like I’ve been doing this forever – in a good way! After 7 days of crazy, intense exercising, I now feel like exercising such a natural part of my life. Additionally, I look forward to my exercise sessions, whereas I used to dread them in the past. It sure has been a big shift for me.Not to forget, the benefits of my workouts have been aplenty, as I shared in my Day 4 update. I still stand by every single one of the benefits I cited there.Seriously, forget about fad diets, slimming centers, surgery, medicine that drugs you and treats only symptoms, circular therapy, coffee/caffeine/red bull, etc. An increased level of fitness not only ushers in a plethora of benefits which many of us seek external sources for, but best of all – it’s all free. Engaging in physical activity and workouts regularly for a better life, a stronger, more attractive, and healthier body, a clearer mind, a happier self, and a more aligned you. I say it’s a worthwhile investment.We now have 2 more weeks to go. :D In these 2 weeks, let’s make every day count, shall we? :DI’m now going to share my update for Day 7 – which will be my last blog update for the challenge (I’ll still be working out daily and posting my progress in the comments sections of the daily posts, so not to worry!). I hope you’ve found my detailed updates, photos and daily musings in the 1st week to be helpful in spurring you forward in your fitness goals. :DIn place of that, I’ll be turning Week 2 of 21DFC into a different format – which I’ll be sharing tomorrow. Stay tuned! ;)

My 21DFC Progress, Day 7

So today I woke up later than expected, because I had turned in pretty late yesterday from working. (Busy putting together my latest project, which will be a videos channel – Very excited about it! Stay tuned at PE for future announcements. ;) )Hence I didn’t get to fit in my morning jog as I intended to yesterday. But having learned from my experience on Day 5, I did not let it dampen my day. Instead, I headed to the gym for my 1st workout for the day.

Walking to the gym over taking the bus, as I did on Day 2 and Day 4.

As it was noon when I set off for the gym, it was FLAMING HOT. My neck was burning in the 30 minutes walk. Don’t let the picture above fool you. Refer to the image below instead:

Don’t mess with the sun in Singapore! It’ll burn you alive!

Jokes aside, I really like the warm and sunny weather here. Give me warm any day over cold. I was freezing my butt off half the time when I was in US during the winter season. I’m definitely glad to be back in the tropical climate.When I reached the gym, I promptly applied for my gym membership. I wasn’t able to do so on Day 4 because they needed a passport-size photo of me, so this time I came prepared. :twisted: I came, I applied, and I got my 6-month membership right away (at a crazy low cost of $30USD for the full 6 months, because it’s a non-peak membership and it’s in a public sports center). There’s NO stopping me from using the gym as and when I want to now, MU-HA-HA-HA! I digress.

Using the recumbent bike.

This time, I worked out for over an hour, compared to 45 minutes in my previous 2 gym visits. Having a smartphone during your workout really makes a difference! I just bought a phone yesterday (a HTC touch screen), so today I was busy checking my emails, sending messages, installing applications, listening to podcasts, listening to music, and watching Youtube videos as I did my workout. The result? The time flew by like a breeze! I was already having fun with my gym workouts prior to this, but getting this phone is a godsend to maximizing my time at the gym. YAY for combining productivity and fitness in one go!Since my smartphone is proving to be a highly valuable entertainment and educational device, I definitely intend to use it for my jogs as well. Apart from listening to podcasts and music as I jog, there are apps to forward my jogging endeavors. I’ve already installed this jogging application (Map My Run) which I’m going to use to track my jogging route, time taken, and calories expended.As next step, I will be getting a shoulder-strap thingy to hold my phone in place as I jog. Probably sometime this weekend. In the meantime, I’ll continue to jog solo and enjoy the morning/evening breeze as it stands.Evening came, and I went for my usual 3.6km / 2.2 mile jog. Since my blisters have healed, it’s back to barefoot running again for me. :DCaught sight of the lovely moon in the night sky as I was running just now. I didn’t realize it’s the full moon tonight!

The beautiful full moon against the dark sky and several high-rise buildings

And that’s it for my Day 7 update. ;)As a quick round-up, here’s my fitness chart for week 1 of 21DFC:

Week 1 of my 21-Day Fitness Chart

Apart from not completing my desired exercise sessions for Day 5, I’m quite happy with my performance for the 1st week. I’m also happy that I have sufficiently challenged myself in my fitness (as I had pledged to do in Day 0’s pre-work), by pushing myself to go for 2 workout sessions over just 1. This is quite frankly the first time I’ve ever worked out so hard in my life, ever. And I’m very proud of it.Moving forward for Week 2, I plan to continue my workouts in a sustainable manner, as I want to make this a life-time habit. While working out twice a day, every day, in the past week has been amazing, it’s not exactly sustainable in the long haul, unless I’m planning for a professional career in fitness (which I’m not).Rather, I’m planning to do at least one actual exercise session (40 minutes – 1 hour long) each day – with 2 sessions for every 2-3 days, depending on my schedule. I’ll be embarking on new personal goals in Week 2 (I had sort of been putting them on hold during Week 1 as I wanted to solidify my fitness habits first), so it’ll be interesting to see how I maintain my new-found fitness as I manage new commitments. I’ll continue with the “default” basic activities such as walking over taking the bus (for short-medium distances), climbing the stairs over taking the elevator, and so on.Really looking forward to how Week 2 will unfold. :D I’m really excited, guys!!! Let’s continue to cheer and support each other in our quest for a fitter, healthier lifestyle!

How About YOUR Day 7? Share Your Progress!

How did YOUR 21DFC Day 7 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.

1. What physical activity did you do (if any), and for how long?
2. 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?
3. Now that Week 1 is over, what is your fitness plan for Week 2?

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

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