Welcome to my 100 Days Of Fitness Journey! At the end of December a funny but embarrassing thing happened. We were on a walk with Rambo and he got tired, when this happens he just sits still and waits to be picked up. He’s 13 now so of course we pick him up and carry him like the Prince that he is.
On this particular day I bent over to pick him up and as I did I heard ‘Rrrrrrpppp‘.
I’d split my pants!
(Yes you read that correctly split) ?
There was a family of four just behind us on the same beach walk. I’m pretty sure they heard the rip, which thankfully wasn’t visible to them. I let out this out of body laugh and picked up my dog. Because of my jokey nature of course I thought it was hilarious and after Ernesto reassured me that the rip in my pants wasn’t visible, we just laughed it off and forgot about it.
But I didn’t forget about it. As I looked down I realised that I was looking bloated and the once comfortable tracksuit pants were not as loose as they used to be.
Kidney Probs
You may or may not know that I have kidney health issues. I have an illness called Nephroptosis or floating kidney. My right kidney has fallen from it’s position and is hanging lower than it should. Because of this, bloating is a symptom which I have to deal with anyway (along with pain, high blood pressure and decreased kidney function).
At the time I was drinking 1 can of San Pellegrino lemonade daily and inhaling Snicker bars like there was no tomorrow along with just not caring about my diet at all.
I realised it had to stop.
Because of my illness I have to be very careful not to cause any more trauma to my kidney but at the same time eating like a pig and not getting enough exercise was going to give me other problems. There was just no excuse!
100 Days Of Code
Where does learning to code fit into this equation you might ask? Well I’d signed up to learn to code online at FreeCodeCamp.org and on 28th December their newsletter dropped in my inbox. I’m currently taking part in the 100 Days of Code challenge!
There was a link to this article about 100 Days of Code which was the brain child of Alexander Kallaway who had created a coding study group in Canada.
Alex created a challenge in which people would code for 1 hour a day and then tweet about it using the hashtag #100DaysofCode. A wave of people began to use the hashtag on Twitter to show how they were progressing and to encourage others on the same journey as them.
100 Days of X
Due to the success of the 100 Days of Code challenge, Alex decided to set up 100DaysOfX.com where people could commit to other habits and challenges such as #100DaysOfFitness.
There are 3 mains rules for the challenges:
- Work on your habit for minimum an hour every day for the next 100 days*
- Tweet your progress every day with the #100DaysOfX hashtag and the hashtag of your chosen challenge
- Encourage/help at least 2 people in the challenge every day
I must note that after the 100 days is up, it doesn’t mean you have to stop. You can continue if you like in what would be called Round 2. I’ve found some great people to follow on Twitter who are taking part in the same challenges as me, I’m also doing #100DaysofSpanish using Duolingo and Babbel which I will go into more in a post about my 2018 goals.
100 Days Of Fitness
My 100 Days of Fitness guidelines I try to follow each day are:
- Start the morning with 15 mins on my exercise bike
- Hit my daily steps goals on Fitbit (at the moment it’s set to 7,500)
- Drink more water
- No fizzy drinks at all
- No chocolate at all
- More fruit and veggies
- Healthy snacking only
These are the guidelines I feel comfortable with at the moment and are personal to me and my limits. The fizzy drink ban is definitely helping get rid of the bloat. Who knew that just one can a day would affect me that much?
My Fitness Goals
At the moment I weigh 70kg which is too much for my height of 5ft 3″. The goal is to get down to 63kg but I’m taking it half a kilo at a time.
While weight loss is important to me, I’m also concerned with building some muscle (not crazy body building muscle but nice muscle) which should help me with my back pain to a degree and tone up my tummy.
I want to feel strong and full of energy.
At the time of writing this post I’m on day 30 of the challenge. Have I lost any weight? No. In fact my weight has been up and down, mainly up. But I think what a lot of people do when taking on a lifestyle change like this, is to expect everything to happen overnight. It doesn’t work like that. Not for me anyway.
My guess is that I’ve gained muscle and that the weight will go down in the next couple of weeks. I know for a fact that I’ve lost inches from my waist and back, which is great. I need to get the tape measure out as this is a much more positive way to see results.
This was taken on Day 21 when we took Rambo for a little run at the local football pitch on the astro turf. He’s partially blind so he loved running off lead without obstacles as I ran along side him. He got tired and needed carrying back to the car, which is a workout in itself as he weighs 6.5 kilos. ☺️
I also didn’t want to reset back to day 1 every time I had a slip up with my diet or couldn’t exercise because of my illness because that would be so demotivating for me personally. Yes I’ve had a couple of Happy Meals in the past 30 days, yes I had a couple of donuts. But, I’m not a professional nutritionist and I’m learning as I go.
One of my favourite ‘stick it to the man’ things to do is hike up a mountain that is not far from where I live. Because of it’s proximity I can be at the top in no time at all, with an amazing view. So although my step goal might be low compared with others, you can bet that I’m getting in 30 floors of elevation as I climb!
Here’s how dirty my Skechers get after a hike. They look destroyed but after a quick rinse and a quick wash in the machine, they are good as new again.
Let me know in the comments: Are you taking part in any challenges this year? Maybe learning some new skills or a language? What would you like to learn that you have been putting off?
If you decide to join in let me know and make sure to check out the origins of this challenge.