Day 2-4 of Nerd Fitness Challenge

After the first day of this adventurer's quest, I learned an eye-opening lesson. On my first day I had been so eager to begin my journey that I over-exerted myself. I had accomplished too much in too little time and rushed through everything. Although I didn't know it then I would pay the price the next day.

On the second day of my journey, I had to rest. I pretty much camped in just to regain strength and stamina.

On my third day, I was very much prepared and could truly feel the weight of the journey ahead. I had slowed my pace with my strengthening exercises to actually feel the muscles beginning to come alive again.

Although, parts of me are burning and sore from yesterday--I managed to complete a jump-rope cardio challenge for myself. I originally aimed for ten minutes but could only manage five. And I went for a hike later in the day to Towsley-Wiley Canyon Trail.

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Lucky for me, my husband is a former fitness instructor. When I finished my exercises on Monday he looked very concerned. "You're done already?" "Yeah." "How much did you do?" "3 sets of 5 reps on pretty much everything" "You need to sit down ...take tomorrow off from cardio too." "Why?" "You can't do all that in twenty minutes!"

He was right. I was too eager to complete all my exercises that I didn't break between each set. I didn't notice anything wrong until about two hours later when my whole body felt like it had been slammed into concrete. He said I was lucky that I didn't injure myself.

I took Tuesday off, though I had planned a special jump-rope challenge for myself. I knew better than to risk it.

Wednesday, I did pre-cardio stretching followed by cardio and then my strength workout. I took my time and it with 1-2 minute rests between each set my whole workout ended up being almost an hour. I finished my workout with stretching. Then I had a chiropractor appointment, which ended up being more needed than I realized.

Prior to this 6-week challenge, I tried to complete a 2-week practice run but stopped after the first week. My hip felt like it was out, which sometimes happens from the stupidest thing I do at work. My chiropractor informed me that my hip was out and my neck was as well. So --now I'm fully aligned correctly and have better knowledge in how to not shock my body, so I can work out properly.

So here's what's been going on:

Tuesday; April 16th:

1. cardio: refrained from any activity since overexertion of previous day's workouts (pts: 0/0)
2. strength: refrained from any activity since overexertion of previous day's workouts (pts: 0/0)
3. diet: refrained from sinful sweets and other scrumptious treats (CON: +1)
4. life: left work on time...and watched the newly purchased 3rd Rock from the Sun (season 1) dvds with my husband (WIS: +1)

Wednesday; April 17th:

1. cardio (STA:+1)

• March in place (25 reps)
• Jog in place with knees high (25 reps)
• Jumping Jacks (25 reps)
• Body Weight Squats (5 reps)
• Hip Rotation on each leg (5 reps)
• Forward leg swings (5 reps)
• Arm circles forward (5 reps)
• Arm circles backward (5 reps)

2. strength/ personal circuit (STR: +1)

• Lunges (3 sets, 5 reps/no weights)
• Straight Leg Dumbbell Deadlifts (3 sets, 5 reps/5 lb weights)
• Military Dumbbell Press (3 sets, 5 reps/5 lb weights)
• One Arm Dumbbell Rows (3 sets, 5 reps/5 lb weight )
• Crunches (3 sets, 8 reps)

3. diet (CON: +1)

• refrained from sweets but man oh man am I craving chocolate!

4. life (WIS: 0/0) --no points possible today, had the day off from work

Thursday; April 18th:

1. cardio (STA:+1)

• 5 mins of jump rope (no weights)--KILLED! I originally wanted to do 10-minutes but p**sied out after 5-minutes with 1-2 minute pauses between. Boy am I out of shape! Hahaha
• went for a walk/trail with the husband. We took the 1.9 mile hike up Towsley-Wiley Canyon Trail. I'm thinking it was probably close to 2.5-3 miles given that we looped back to the parked car. Boy are my legs smoked! I was nearly out of breath a couple of times at the beginning just because this is a fairly moderate hike with steep uphill areas. Then the nerd in me came out and just pretended I was on a quest in Skyrim. My character doesn't pant...she takes deep breathes and takes her time up and around sharp bends! I took pictures of the scenery and had a good time.

 

2. strength/ personal circuit (STR: 0/0)

• no strength workouts scheduled for today

3. diet (CON: 0/0)

• I decided as a process for weaning myself off of crap food for a while that I will allow myself one day for one naughty food item a week. This is to prevent binge eating later...so I originally aimed for Sunday to be my weekly one day for a treat. However, my husband was sweet and knew I'd been craving chocolate. He bought these organic peanut butter cups from Whole Foods. On the plus side there wasn't any corn starch or stuff like that...but still...no points gained in the Constitution department for today.



4. life (WIS: 0/0)

• no points possible today--no work

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Total Points Earned this week: 10/10
Total Points Possible for entire week: ___/20