February’s Challenge: Daily Exercise

My New Year’s resolution was to come up with twelve different month-long challenges for myself.  Oh, and to follow through with them.  Things that I know will help me be happier, healthier, and more balanced.  In case you somehow missed it, January’s challenge (technically three weeks rather than a month) was to stick with a clean eating/ detox plan.  If you’re going to be a stickler about it, I fell 1.5 days short of my three-week goal.  But then again, if you’re going to be a stickler about it, go away.

I have a handful of challenges I’m planning to use in the next few months, and it was hard to decide which one to pick for February.  While not all of the challenges are focused on my physical health, I am choosing to keep my momentum going and build off of this past month’s healthy eating.  As I’ve mentioned before, I know that eating right is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to being healthy.  I also know that I find it easier to stick with one piece of the puzzle when the other pieces are also there.  Thus February is going to be the 30 Minutes of Exercise for 30 Days Challenge.  Yes, I know that February only has 29 days.  It’s a good thing I’m doing this on a leap year.  Then I’d be short-changing myself 2 whole days.

Actually I was going to give myself a head start this morning.  But I woke up feeling like I was fighting a cold, so it didn’t happen.  So, this 30 Day challenge will run from February 1st to March 1st.  While my throat is still feeling a little funky tonight, I am determined to start tomorrow.  In the event that this cold knocks me out completely, I am allowing for some flexibility- if I miss a day I will tack those 30 minutes on to another day or two.  After all, it’s important to have a contingency plan for pushing past extenuating circumstances.  At the same time I don’t want to get into the habit of doing that too much (e.g., exercising 45 minutes/day for two days and then skipping a day).  The purpose of this challenge is to make exercise a part of my daily routine rather than just trying to accrue a certain number of minutes over the course of a week or month.

What am I counting as exercise for this?  I thought about strictly focusing on yoga, but then I realized that if we are lucky enough to get another sunny, unseasonably warm day in the next few weeks and I want to take advantage of it, taking a brisk walk should count.  Most likely there will be a lot of yoga and yoga-related things.  Maybe the occasional dance party.  Don’t expect to hear me talking about running.  I don’t believe in running.

This whole thing scares me more than the January challenge.  I am back in school now, so my days are busier.  On Mondays and Tuesdays I don’t get home until 8 pm, so I will have to get myself to exercise first thing in the morning.  That alone will be a challenge.  Plus I am way better at abstaining from things (like caffeine or sugar) than I am at actively adding something to my day.  Maybe if I think about it as abstaining from laziness that will help.

My intent is to keep a daily log and then give you, my dear readers, a weekly update.  It is quite possible there might be some extra Exercise Challenge-related entries, but if you don’t hear about this for a couple days, don’t fret.  I (hopefully) have not quit; I am just assuming that you aren’t interested in reading daily updates consisting of “Woke up at 6 am.  Did yoga.  I hate sweating.”