Tis the month where we all start 30-day challenges!
What is it about January that makes us all want to start 30-day challenges about something that most people will fail at and then have to carry that guilt around? I know that it’s “a new year” insert major eye roll here, but is that the only reason? Who cares that the last digit (or two) changed when we write the date. A new year starts for me in April. That’s when my years began! Not in January.
By that statement above, you’d think that I would be the last person to do a 30-day challenge! I did one before, 30 days of squats. I did 100 squats every day for 30-days! It wasn’t actually that bad. I also didn’t do them all in a row. I did them before lunch. Easy peasy lemon squeazy.
Maybe I could challenge myself to post every day for 30-days in January! HA! I would already have failed on that one, but at least it would be a little bit of a better writing record than I have right now. But I won’t. I want to get back into blogging in a natural way.
Paul, over at The Captain’s Speech, did a 30-day plank challenge. Peeps and Meeps, have you even tried to do a plank?! Like really?! They are like torture dipped in poison. I mean WOW. But I was also intrigued! So ya know what? I tried one! THAT’S RIGHT!! On January 2nd I started a 30-day plank challenge! Like Paul’s, at the end of the month, I would be attempting a 5-minute plank. I used this as my tracker:
I mean, it seemed easy enough, just 10 extra seconds every day until I was done. I guess you’ve already figured it out that I’ve given up since I’m writing in the past tense. I have decided on another challenge that I’m going to do instead.
Ya see, unlike Paul, I am actually a potato and have no physical strength in order to even attempt a plank challenge. I did the 10 seconds on day 1 and it was like DEATH. I did the second day, and the first 7 seconds were ok. I pulled out my yoga mat and it made it easier, but that last 13 seconds were even more DEATH than the day before. There was no way I would be sticking that out for an entire 30-days.
So I lasted a whole two days. YAY go me!
But my bestest R mentioned she is doing a yoga challenge. I love yoga! I haven’t done an actual routine in probably a year or more (I did one neck/shoulders routine about two months ago but that doesn’t count) so it’s a good place for me to start, and I get to support my bestest by joining in. She is doing one by a youtuber that I already follow, Yoga with Adriene, and love. I am also telling y’all about it so I have some extra accountability! If I tell no one, I get to give up with no consequences because no one knows!
SO! For the next 30-days (I’m a day behind on the uploads but that’s ok. It makes me feel better not having started on January 1st like everyone else in the world doing a “new year new me” thing), I will be yoga every day. On Saturday I’ll make a post with some thoughts on the past week.
Since it’s Saturday, here are my thoughts on the videos:
Day 0: WOO no yoga?! I love her dog. He’s adorable. Super excited for this!
Day 1: Should not have done my plank before, I’m starting tired….43 minutes is going to kill me!! It didn’t! It was actually a really nice introduction. My legs hurt all night but in the good “I’ve been stretched out for the first time since I stopped running” way.
I’m not going to link all the videos. You can find them on her youtube page easily enough. If you’re going to jump on and join in this 30-days of yoga exploration, let me know! You don’t need any equipment and all her videos are free.
She finished off Day 1 with this cute saying, which I love so I will pass it along to you:
The awesome in me acknowledges the awesome in you.
Have a great Saturday!
No Love for Fatties 
Yes…LOVE yoga with Adriene. I too am doing this challenge. I did Dedicate last year and enjoyed it so much 💕
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Ooo so happy to find someone else doing it! I’m doing day two this evening! I’m super excited to do it! My best friend did dedicate last year as well ☺️
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I do it first thing in the morning to get my day started on the right foot. Did Day 3 at 630AM 😊 Adriene has a way of making me feel comfortable and loved.
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Oh wow! Haha I’ve always been an evening exerciser, shower right after and relax into bed. She is a great leader for the sessions! I know some people don’t like how she talks through it all but I like it. Keeps me connected to it and I can focus on her voice instead of how much my muscles are hurting lol! Silence is too much for me during yoga!
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Best of luck on the challenge. Planks are the devil’s playground.
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Lol thanks Rob! Planks are from the devil 😂😂 yoga is much better suited for me lol
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I feel like I need to do HITT again. I was doing it until I gave up Instagram and lost interest with my calendar since I couldn’t brag to anyone I was exercising. And since I didn’t really give myself time to see results, I gave up with HITT 2 months later. I’m impatient and give up easily if I can’t see a difference right away.
I can only keep a plank for 30 seconds since push ups kill me. In the HITT routine, I replaced some of the push-up time with planking. Right before I gave up, I did try yoga but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did with Pilates combined with HITT.
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You should get back into it! I did Pilates when I lived in Korea. The school I worked at was in a fitness centre and literally right across the hall was their Pilates/yoga studio. One of the Korean teachers I was friends with had me go since the company was offering 50% off for all building employees so we jumped on it! $35 for the month and there were 3 classes a week?! Awesome!
I bought an exercise ball and have it here to do what I remember from the routine. But it’s been deflated since July when I moved 😂
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That sounds fun! I saw a few of my friends are also doing her challenge. I’m doing a January yoga challenge too, but it’s my own challenge and it’s 21 days. I needed a bit of a change (and a lot of stretching) after my 1000 miles so I thought it’d be fun… I hope you enjoy yours!
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I’m so proud of you for getting your 1000 miles!! I honestly can’t imagine even attempting like 200 in a year! You are amazing!!
Good luck with your challenge! I’d love to read a post about it when you’re all done!
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Aww, thank you, that’s so nice of you! I’m quite proud to have reached 1000 miles, and a bit relieved too. I’ll try and write a blog post about it maybe… And maybe about the yoga challenge, if I complete it!
Good luck with your challenge as well. I look forward to your updates!
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💛💛😅
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Ugh, planks are the absolute worst but they really do work!
But OMG I love Yoga with Adriene, I just sent my mom her account like last week or something! I’m not doing the 30 day challenge but I’m just trying to get back into yoga & aiming for once a week to stretch everything out!
YOU CAN DO IT!!!
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Awesome!! And she is the best isn’t she?! I love how she gives alterations to the poses because I can not do a lot of them the same as someone who is flexible or doesn’t have the stomach I have 😂 yoga is so amazing to do on the regular! I hope you get into a routine that works for you!
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She’s amazing, I like how she does that as well!
You’ll get there! Yoga is easy to modify which is amazing, plus its gentle on the body as well, but really gets you moving!
it really is, my body misses the days I was doing it everyday lol! Thanks for the yoga motivation 🙂
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Good luck! I was doing planks for a while and got up to 3 minutes at one point. They definitely are killers.
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Oh WOW 😯 three whole minutes?!? I don’t think I ever could do that lol that’s amazing!!’
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Well, according to my daughter I wasn’t going low enough but let me tell you my stomach hurt!
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Haha yeah I judge it on how much my abs hurt lol
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I despise 30 day challenges! They’re so intense and pointless. I did attempt Yoga with Adrienne once and failed, now I’m thinking I might give it another go!
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I definitely agree! Yoga with Adriene usually is so nice and calm and relaxing. Yesterday’s was definitely NOT! haha! But I’m looking forward to moving on with the challenge. Just to get my body used to some activity again.
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I’m proud of you for trying planks! They are a killer. I’m glad you found this yoga program, it sounds so much better and enjoyable! Good luck!
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Dude I only lasted two days with the planks LOL but my yoga yesterday had 6 of them or 8 or something crazy! just short ones though. Usually just like a 5 second hold before going into a different pose, so for me, I’d get into plank and she’d already be moving on lol I have no idea how you managed to do a whole month. You are now, and forever will be, Superman. There it’s decided. Get a journalism job and wear your glasses full time.
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Yoga broke me 😦 (in its defense, I break really, really easily)
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Haha! The first yoga class I ever took broke me too! But it was a proper class and I felt like I had to keep up with everyone else
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