With communal accountability, i was able to make some very gentle adjustments to my habits over the past 30 days. Re-discovering my ability to focus on reading honest-to-god BOOKS, I’ve cleared three and a half from my reading pile, while re-wiring some of the focus-neurons in my brain.
In addition, this “seven hours sleep/night” thing has worked wonders – except when it hasn’t (largely driven by opportunities to stay out too late playing with my little friends). i can now go to bed before 11 pm, and awaken without too much drama at 6 am – and as a result, not wind up dragging my sorry ass to the office late.
Thanks to bob for orchestrating the “accountability” portion of the game – a very clever experiment. We’re going to do it again! i enjoyed tracking the progress of my partners in self-improvement across the globe.
The idea came from a TED talk, which is really about trying something new, not just doing little bits of self-improvement tweakage. But it also emphasizes small, sustainable movement…. So i kept it small…
Round 2 starts on Monday, 15 August, and if any of you are so inclined, stop by our tracking blog, and let bob know you want to play along!
With another bit of travel in the middle of this one, i needed something portable again. Not yet ready to tackle learning a language, or anything of substance, i’ve decided to target something that has simply started to annoy the shit out of me.
My arms. They are starting to look like Mom’s. Which used to whap me in the head when i was a little girl, scampering* around the kitchen.
Call them what you will – “Bingo Wings”, “Auntie Arms”, “Nanna Wobble”, “Sugargliders” – they suck. And i am declaring war on mine.
Using The 100 Push Up Challenge as a model training program, i am committing to 30 days of the program. Also committing to posting a weekly photo of my flaps. Not in a corset, mind you. There is nothing sexy about arm flaps.
Since that’s a 3 day/week activity, i’ll throw in something for alternate days for my ass. Squats, that is…. Not “sitting on it”. No photos of the backside, however… even i have my limits, and will spare you the arse shots.
Rather than count on just the communal accountability this time, i did something quite stupid last week. i have a young engineer on my team who is a former Marine. He is a rabid distance runner, and is in great physical shape – always encouraging the rest of us to “Move!” He also shouts “Drop and give us 50!” when someone shows up late for a meeting…
At a group meeting i mentioned to him that i would be starting a push up training program – and that by Christmas i would be able to drop and give him at least 40. On my toes. And asked him to hold me to it…
Let’s hope my shoulder holds out…
pic found here
* “Scampering”? Did i ever scamper? Even as a small child?
Trailer Park Refugee 
You are completely nuts but I love you anyway!
Thanks, baby! Imagine how much fun this is going to be as a bar trick? You can point at me and say “I bet that old broad can do more push ups than you, pussyboy” and then sit back and collect the cash!
Surely he’s informed you there’s no such thing as a “former Marine”…. once a Marine ALWAYS a Marine 😉
You are correct! “Semper Fi” is in his signature block!
you know the indoor soccer season starts Oct. 4th for me, maybe i should attempt to get in on this one, something to help the wind in my lungs, besides drugs that is.
that would be fun! didn’t realized you still played – and i would LOVE to come watch a match!
It’s not still, i just started playing, better late than never as they say, i’m the goalie with the cigarette dangling and the water bottle full of beer.
that’s pretty much what i look like when i’m bowling. easier than soccer. requires bigger balls, too… i really need to get to the ‘burgh…
I love it – I’m going to participate too. Thanks for the inspiration! xoxo
Yippee! Another
conscriptchallenge team member!I’m joining in too. And pretty soon I’ll make up my mind what it is I’ll be doing. Hmm, so many possibilities…. growing my fingernails, wearing deodorant, not killing my kids….
e4? you need to try that sleep thing… i think your accomplishments are pretty phenomenal, and you seem to be pretty good at chasing dreams!
At the beginning of June I joined our local wellness center—yoga on Tues., Thurs., elliptical and rowing machine on every other day except for Sun. This week I’m going to try Zumba on Wednesday. “Bingo Wings”–great description. I refuse to go quietly into Medicare next year.
i’ve lost over 20 pounds since the beginning of May, but haven’t really worked weights, or done anything to tone up the floppy bits… feels good, doesn’t it?
Oh heck! I am so wrapped up in other stuff I forgot about it!
I fell off the wagon after two days due to a small celebration so I figured I could change horses and spend the month trying to sort my photos. But I never did get to post progress reports.
Would I be any better if I tried again this time?
Slack! That’s me. (easily identified by the slack arms! If I stood on a hill and flapped in a good breeze I could save an air fare!)
Wondered if you’d kept up with the game! Giving up wine is probably a bad idea!
Ha ha ! At first glance I read that poster as ‘Let’s give a big hand job’.
i believe that was the intention of the graphic artist! cracked me right up! now i want a Shake Weight!
OK, conscience pricked! I’ve signed on for this round and will do it. 🙂
That conscience can be quite a prick, can’t it? DELIGHTED you’re joining up! i will cheer heartily for you!
Thanks. My challenge, by the way, is 30 minutes (minimum) a day on my exercise bike.
Much easier than giving up wine.;-)
Hmmm. Thinking, thinking, thinking. (while I still can).
it can be anything! last time, my blogmate jimmy decided to drink and smoke more!
Hey… wait a minute…. didn’t you give a marine a run for his money once before? I seem to recall you doing push ups with a lusty young male in Lesbos last year
you have a very good memory, my dear! yes, i was explaining the training program to that lovely young man at the apartments, and he felt compelled to see how many he could do… the little show off had already been doing chin ups on the grape arbor…
“Drop and give me 50!” Doesn’t anyone want to hit him over the head with a shovel or something? I used to work with a bloke who drove a tank in the 1st Gulf affair and was always coming out with stuff like this. In the end we locked him in a cupboard for a few hours to remind him of the tank and why he left the army in the first place. He took it quite well, considering.
mostly, he’s an inspiration, but there have been times when we’ve considered offering another “jump” off the rooftop for him… in general, though, i don’t think any of us could catch him, let alone capture him. he’s fast. i think your treatment of the army bloke was pretty spot on!
Wonderful news on the 30 Days redux. See you over there. There are some good cheap apps for toning workouts which I have used. Another good way to tone the triceps is to carry a surfboard around. It attracts hot young surfer dudes while toning the bits behind the biceps.
love the surfboard idea – but in my landlocked world, it might attract more crazies. full up with those at the moment… will be taking applications in late fall!
is that shake weight battery operated or plug in? just askin’…
and “drop and give me 50” could have multiple connotations.
Bad form to make a lady laugh while she’s imbibing! 😉
he’s a funny, funny boy! adept at making wine shoot out of my nose…
Oh, please. You’re unflappable.
thank you! i’ll try the veal, and be sure to tip my waitress!
You go girl! I need to do the pushup challenge. But what I really need is a pushup bra. My arms are good.
it bothers me that i’ve lost strength, too… that’s as much a part of this as the ‘trimmings’…
When I saw the latest season of South Park cartoons and ran into the one about Stan Marsh’s mom and her little adventure with the robot-voice-enhanced Shake Weight device, imagine my surprise to be fiddling around at Walgreen’s last week and discover that these devices actually exist…though the Walgreen’s version probably does not moan like it’s getting a handjob and then squirt some water out one end ‘to cool the sweating face’…
When I ran across the Real Thing at the Walgreen’s store, I’d mused over how its regular use could indeed likely help someone become more adept at giving better handjobs – or what Mr. Marsh called the ever-reliable “old-fashioned”…
Mrs. Marsh: “You’re not really just an exercise device, are you?”
Talking Shake-Weight: “One can never underestimate the value of a good ‘old-fashioned’ in their marriage…”
(I’m 46, and still watch South Park. No doubt it’s typically symptomatic of my syndrome of “growing older and older, yet refusing to grow up”.)
If only there was a Shake-Weight for my damned hangdog-flabby belly, sticking over the front of me like an extra ass on the wrong end of my body. Females at my age usually either get the Fat Curse, or the Curse of Facial Wrinkles, and I got the former.
Both are gross, I’ve faced it and come to accept it though not without a battle–and though I don’t think it’s healthy to focus on my ugly parts to exclusion of all else in and about me that is NOT gross, I just cannot bring myself to use foolish-sounding euphemisms like that inane ‘BBW’ term – and tendencies to get fat or wrinkle-skinned are usually more genetic in origin than most seem wlling to believe…at least in part, not merely a punishment for “letting oneself go”. Diet and exercise are all good and well, as long as they’re done right for health reasons, since if they’re only done as a way to lose weight and look younger, if they DO NOT end up causing this, they tend to be given up, and THEN you get the heart problems and all the other shit. I’ve been eating like a monk and climbing Frisco hills for years and the most I ever lost was fifty pounds…but only because of the immense depression post-relationship, which screwed my whole body and mind up so badly that I’d go days without food without even remembering I was supposed to eat.
Both fatness and facial wrinkling involve the makers of ridiculously overpriced and dubiously-functioning items, loudly claiming, in adverts and packaging, to be solutions to youthfulness-loss if only they’re bought and paid for–they promise to leave the lucky lady who buys into it looking 20 years younger…all in a matter of months. But having lacked the requisite gullibility to be seduced by them, my disappointment never had that glimmer of hopefulness that the less-wise at least get a taste of…but at least, this temporary bliss of ignorance didn’t end up costing me hundreds of dollars. I can only pity those who fell for it, and were left just as fat as ever…all while their wallets on the other hand got all the slimness their owners desired so desperately.
welcome to The Park, Psychaotic! this isn’t entirely cosmetic – i need to gain my strength back, and push-ups are a fab way to get started with that, plus, i can do them anywhere (which takes away the ‘i’m traveling’ excuse). i choose to live alone, and have a large animal, which means heavy lifting of dog food, etc. it’s as much for strength, as appearance…
like you, i still enjoy South Park at 49… there is absolutely no need to ‘grow up’, so long as the bills are paid, and no innocents are harmed along the way!
cheers!