Here is the way I’m sure you wouldn’t expect the last day of my 30 day challenge to start:Yesterday I gave in to many many demons. No I didn’t go on a sugar consuming binge, I just didn’t have as much restraint.
It all started out with me not feeling very awake when I did get out of bed (late). The game said today was supposed to be a day of rest. The way I felt, my frame of mind, I figured EA Sports Active knows better than I do so sure I’ll spend a day at rest. I was still determined to weigh in though. End result? No weight change. Well, at least I didn’t gain (didn’t do much for my state of mind however).
I didn’t have as much water as I usually do and I finally snapped on the “turkey vegetable sandwich” that I usually have for lunch. Went to the grocery store and picked up some Lean Cuisine meals instead. Tasty, more sodium than I would like, but OK.
Dinner was healthy and delicious, however I had another half of a chicken breast that I shouldn’t have had and didn’t need. Tasted too good and to be honest I didn’t care (at least that is the lie I told to myself). After dinner had a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich. Tasty. For some reason chased that with a peanut butter sandwich. 300 calories I didn’t really need.
When I woke up this morning on time I was excited to get back on track and complete my 20th workout for the 30 day challenge. Even though there was jumping and lunging and squat holds I still had a great workout. This one finally broke out the Wii Fit for all of the sports games and for once I didn’t absolutely detest the Inline Skating because I was raising my legs rather than having to do jump squats again. Wonderful all-body workout.
Spent the day eating as right as I could and had at least 64 ounces of water during the day. With dinner I plan on keeping my consumption in moderation and drinking lots of water prior to dinner and during dinner to try to fill myself up.
I don’t think that I can say this enough: I truly feel that the EA Sports Active is the one fitness based game for the Wii so far that can DRASTICALLY change the lives of the people that use it. It focuses on key exercises, core exercises, and in its sports games it tricks you into having fun when you are atually working out. It provides you the tools to get a great workout with almost no exercise equipment and it provides you the tools to succeed. I can’t say enough how much I like this product, I’ve been telling all of my friends and family about it and I am not going to stop either. I’ve lost 11 pounds while using this and it has helped give me motivation again to get serious about leading a healthier lifestyle.
Tomorrow is my lovely wife’s birthday. If I can wake up enough ahead of her I’ll get a workout in. If I can’t so what. I’ll be doing some regular workouts and starting another 30 day challenge on July 1st so I can keep up the pace in a quick and easy-to-understand method. That’s the way I’m thinking now, let’s see how I’m thinking tomorrow.
If you’ve been reading this, thanks for joining me on the journey. Hope you’re living healthy and active.
-Will
Day 29, the day before the last workout. I can’t believe that I have actually done this consistently for nearly a month. I’ve only stuck to an exercise regimen like this once before. I had great results last time and it really looks like I’m going to as well with this one. I feel better about myself, that’s for sure.
After the fact I realized that I may have made a very poor choice when it came to eating lunch today. I made my home made chicken noodle soup. I make it with as little sodium as possible, I make my broth as fat free as possible, and I use whole grain rotini noodles. Even with all of this, however, the sodium still is probably more than you want to have and I plan on weighing in tomorrow. Bad idea if I don’t plan on trying to flush my system with over a gallon of water (and to answer, no I don’t plan on doing that).
Tonight the family went to Round Table for dinner because of the all-you-can eat buffet. I had two helpings of salal and one slice of cheese pizza. I left pretty darn full, don’t recall having anything else. The only thing that I regret is drinking the fountain lemonade and ice tea because I just know that the sugar content is probably off the charts. Again, bad for tomorrow’s weigh in.
I’m set on the idea of using measurements next time to track my progress over weight. In the even that I actually build muscle it will give better results.
Day 30, here I come.
-Will
Had an interesting fluke happen this morning when I woke up that is going to potentially impact my my 30 day challenge.
Last night when I wrote off finishing my work out I paused it. I woke up this morning and figured I would finish up the workout. Because this was the next day the workout was credited to Tuesday (naturally). I have two workouts left, I have two days of my 30 day challenge left. The system is going to force what should be the last day as a day of rest. I just know it.
Great workout today. I really, however, need to find a way to make more time in the morning so that I can stretch more before my workout. My left knee is really getting annoying to the point where it is damn near interferring with my workout. I should also spend my evenings stretching/doing leg lifts to try to strengthen around the problem. I don’t know exactly when I started having knee problems but I really wish I didn’t. They really are the focal point of movement.
-Will
Today was a very interesting day however it was not a good day as far as it came to sticking with the challenge.
I woke to go through the motions of my workout but I woke late. Knowing this I decided I would do 10 minutes of the workout and then this evening I would do the entire workout. This way I actually get 10 more minutes of exercise time on top of the regular workout.
Regardless of what I intended to do it didn’t play out that way. I got home and did another 10 minutes of workout. Family took a priority for the rest of the evening and I never returned to the workout.
Since there are three days left and three workouts left I’m hoping the game will adapt the same way that it did with the taking of Father’s Day off. Oh, I didn’t mention that, did I?
As you read yesterday I was shocked to discover that the game had given me Sunday off and I figured I needed to look closer at my calendar the next go around. I did a little research and it turns out this wasn’t actually the case. Because there were more days than workouts left the EA Sports Active simply re-tailored the workout for me so that the day that I took off was a day of rest rather than an actual workout day. I have to say that this is a wonderful feature since it allows me to take guilt free days off if things get in the way. If you keep up with things and come right back after taking an inadvertent day off the game will adjust the schedule for you. The only thing you can’t do is make sure that you try to take more than 10 days off since the program schedule is 20 days of workouts and 10 days of rest. Mind you I’m not saying that you can’t take that time off, I’m just saying that you will cheat yourself at that point.
So, I have enough days left. Tomorrow I should be given the workout that I was supposed to get today and Monday will probably be labeled with Rest. I’ll still input the activity that I did however and I will get some credit for it.
Man I wish this game had a supporting web site and iPhone app like the LIVESTRONG one so that you could actually track your calories too. I think this would help a lot of people greatly in achieving greater results. Than again calorie tracking is only good if you also track/estimate how many you are burning. I have the benefit of my Bodybugg to tell me how many calories I’m burning, not everyone else does. I know there are ways you can do it with a pedometer though. I’m wandering in thought aren’t I?
Going to go to bed early(er) tonight to try to get up when the alarm goes off at 5:48 AM.
-Will
I suppose I should look at the challenge calendar a little bit closer the next time I spend part of my day feeling guilty for not exercising. I’d been so used to the 2 day on, one day off pattern that I thought I was set to exercise today. To my surprise, however, I discovered it was a rest day. This is welcome news since it is also Father’s Day and it was nice to have another day off.
After I thought about it more I can understand the logic. If the pattern kept up the way that it was than I’d be finishing up the 30 day challenge on a rest day. “Woo Hoo! I worked just completed my 30 day challenge by waking up this morning and doing nothing!” Not a stellar way to finish things up right?
Four more days until weigh-in. Excited and nervous.
-Will
