Join the 21-Day Fitness Challenge! #21DFC [Sign Ups CLOSED]

This is the announcement post for the 21-Day Fitness Challenge (21DFC) 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.

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Note from Celes: You asked it and you got it! Here comes 21-Day Fitness Challenge for Feb 2012! ;) Let’s go guys!!

Ready to exercise your butt off in the month of February? Want to lose fat and build muscle? Want to shave inches off your hips, thighs and tummy? Want to get a 6-pack, washboard abs? Want to get those nice and toned legs? Want to get those excess pounds off once and for all?

Well buckle up, because we’re going to have a 21-Day Fitness Challenge this month! :D

Introducing: 21-Day Fitness Challenge for Feb 2012!

Starting this Friday, Feb 3, we will be doing fitness activities for 21 days straight – with the 21-Day Fitness Challenge (21DFC in short – hey, every new challenge means a new acronym to acquaint ourselves with! ;) )! This is the first time we’re having an fitness-specific challenge, and I can imagine it’s going to be an action packed 21 days! ;)

Why 21 days, and not 28 or 14 days? Those who have taken the past 21-day challenges (21-Day Journaling Challenge, 21-Day Meditation Challenge, Live a Healthier Life in 21 Days) would know the drill. As I’ve shared before in 21 Days To Cultivate Life Transforming Habits, 21 days is the optimal period to cultivate new habits. When you can do something for 21 days straight, without fail, that means you’ve already laid good foundation to continue with the habit later on.

21DFC is meant as the platform for you to cultivate exercise into your daily regime, so you can effortlessly continue on with your daily exercises (or every other day) after the challenge is over.

What’s Going To Happen?

The plan is simple.

1. Starting this Friday (Feb 3), which is Day 1 of the challenge, we are to exercise for 21 days straight.
2. The exercise plan is totally up to you. Do not join this challenge expecting any exercise tasks, tips or group regime to be provided, because there will NOT be any. I’m not a fitness trainer or a fitness expert and I have no plans to become one. We are all here to work out together and enjoy the benefits of increased physical activity in our lives. Besides, everyone has different objectives for their exercises and hence preferences on what exercises they want to do, and I hardly see any merit in having everyone conform to one exercise plan. You are to create your own 21-day fitness plan, which is the pre-work before the challenge.
   1. Physical Activity. You can do whatever activity you want. Stairs climbing, walking, jogging, running, swimming, badminton, tennis, frisbee, rollerblading, cycling, rock climbing, aerobics, dancing, resistance training, etc. As long as you’re working out and doing some physical activity, it counts. It should be a physical activity which you normally wouldn’t do, if not for 21DFC.
   2. Duration. You can exercise however long/short you like. 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours – it’s your call. While I’m leaving the duration totally in your hands, because I trust your judgment and I don’t want participants to psyche themselves out about having to achieve a certain target a day, please try to exercise at least 10 minutes, because I really don’t know what good an exercise session is if it’s less than 10 minutes.
   3. Variation. You can vary your exercises, and I recommend you do that, because it can be quite boring to stick to 1 same exercise for 21 days. Do whatever makes you happy.
   4. When to exercise. Whatever time of the day you want. Just make sure you finish the exercise within the day itself. If you don’t do Day 1’s exercise by Day 1, it doesn’t count. You can do double the exercise for Day 2 and count it as a double on Day 2, but basically Day 1 will be a cross.
3. Engage in physical activity for 21 days straight. While the fitness plan is completely up to you, there is 1 rule in 21DFC – you have to exercise every day, for the 21 days. Before you start screaming in terror and run in the opposite direction, I want to say that exercise here is loosely defined by any physical activity. Meaning you can walk from your home to the local supermart, for 20 minutes total (back and forth), and that can count as physical activity – provided it’s something you normally wouldn’t do due to the challenge. If it’s something you always do anyway, it’s not a challenge anymore! Push and challenge yourself in 21DFC – we’re all here to get the maximum results!
4. Report your progress every day. From Feb 3 to Feb 23, I will post a new post every day on the Challenges section (i.e. this very site you’re reading now).
   1. In the daily post, I will share my progress, rally the group together, and post the group progress chart for the week to date.
   2. Fall in with the group by replying to the day’s post with (a) Your exercise progress (What exercise you did, the duration) (b) Any reflections (c) Your plans for the next day.
   3. Only post your day’s progress in the respective day’s thread – i.e. Day 1’s exercise in Day 1’s post, Day 2’s exercise in Day 2’s post, etc. Do not clump all your updates in 1 reply – it messes everything up and makes it hard for other participants to follow through. I will not hesitate to delete such comments.
   4. Feel free to read other participants’ progress reports, reply to them, and push each other forward. Remember, this is a community effort, and we’re all here to support each other! Soloist mentalities are not welcome. If you’re short of time, simply pick 1-2 participants to reply to each day. A little bit makes a huge difference.
   5. In the event you do not do your fitness for the day (for whatever reason), please fall in anyway. It’s more important that you learn from what happened and get back on track. Perfection is not the goal here. Consistency (in falling in) and integrity (by being accountable to other fellow participants) is. No one will be judged here – that I promise you.
5. The challenge will end after 21 days, which is 23 Feb, Thursday. I will post a round-up and feedback post on 24 Feb, Friday. All comments will be closed on 26 Feb, Sunday.

How to Sign Up

Guess what – the challenge is 100% FREE! ;) All you need to do is complete all 3 steps below to fully signed up!

1. Sign up for the Personal Excellence newsletter and RSS Feed. So you will receive all the tasks for the challenge – The daily tasks will be delivered to your inbox every day as they are posted. Signing up for the newsletter will also get you 2 members-exclusive ebooks, 101 Things To Do Before You Die and Inspiring Quotes of All Time! Not only that, you’ll get a life-time access of free personal excellence articles from PE! ;)
2. Spread the word about the challenge via emailing to a friend, liking on Facebook, retweeting on Twitter, voting on Google Plus and/or even posting on your blog if you own a blog. The more people we can get to join the challenge, the more powerful the experience is for all of us!! There are the convenient share buttons at the bottom of the post for this purpose.
3. *After* you have completed the first 2 steps, post a comment here with your intention to sign up. Make sure your email is the same as the one you used to sign up for the newsletter in step #1.

Once you do the all 3 steps above, I’ll update the participants list with your name within 24 hours!

Stay Connected!

This is not compulsory, but staying connected with the community will enhance your experience of the challenge. Many readers are on my social media pages, where I post latest updates on my life, including real time updates about challenges and more.

1. If you have Facebook: Join my Facebook page (over 4,500 readers to date!!)
2. If you have Twitter: Follow me on Twitter @celestinechua. Use #21DFC in your tweets so other participants who look up the hashtag can see your tweets too.
3. Site comments: This is where all discussion on the challenge will take place. Bookmark Personal Excellence and check by the comments section on the sidebar – that’s where you’ll see the latest comments of participants. Join in the discussion, support other participants, give your 2 cents on fitness, and more!

Spread the Word!

The best way to make this challenge a real success is to get as many people on board as possible. Those of you who have been in previous challenges would have experienced this – When we have more people doing the tasks with us, we generate more positive energy, we gain momentum, and all of us benefit together. We get more people sharing their results, their insights, and we learn so much more in the process.

Hence, I need your help to share this to as many people as you can. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Email, etc (all share buttons can be found at the end of the article, if you’re reading this at the blog and not your email reader). Get all your friends, family and acquaintances to join. The more people who sign up, the more powerful this experience is going to be!

Get Ready for the Pre-Work on Feb 2!

Are you excited yet?? Because I am!!! :D Stay tuned for the pre-work this Thursday on Feb 2, where we will work on our individual 21-dayfitness plan! And in the meantime, share this challenge with all your friends and family and get them all onboard in this fitness challenge!! The more, the merrier!!

Update Feb 2, ’12: Day 0, Pre-Work task is up!

Update Feb 6 ’12: Sign ups are now officially closed – we have 296 official participants ready to rock their fitness this month! :D If you missed the sign ups, you can still participate in your personal capacity. Follow my 21DFC progress as well as the progress of other participants via the 21DFC updates.