Lower My Blood Pressure: Update

It's been seven months since I finished this challenge, but I thought it deserved an update. By the time I'd finished this challenge, the journey really only just begun, and it's not over yet.

As of today, I've lost 62 pounds and a bunch of inches off my body. I ran a 10k in September and finished right in the middle of the pack at 1:07:04.55. I exercise every day. Every. Single. Day. I count my calories. I go to bed early. I stretch every night.

In short, I am quite a nauseatingly healthy and boring person.

But today, I went to see my doctor for the first time since we talked about me changing my lifestyle habits to check to see what my blood pressure was like. I was nervous about it, because it was at the end of the workday and I'm always a little hyped after that. I was sure that I was going to hear him say, "You've done well, but there's still so much more to do."

But he didn't. In fact, I didn't even get to see him at first. I saw his medical intern first.

She said, "What can we do for you?" I told her I was there to follow up on my blood pressure problem. She looked up my file and saw all my tests and asked if I was on medication, to which I said no, I was changing my lifestyle habits instead.

"What have you been doing?"

"Exercising, watching what I eat, and losing weight."

"And how much have you lost?"

"Sixty-two pounds."

She did a double-take, blinked twice, and said, "Ww-ow." And when I explained that I didn't want to go down the medication road, and that I wanted to try to change my habits instead, she sighed and said, "Hearing that makes me so happy."

And when she took my blood pressure, there it was:

I am normal.

After that, I saw my own doctor because I wanted to give him something: a photo from me running in the 10k. On the back, I wrote, "Thank you for helping me to learn to live a healthy life." He thanked me and said, "When I drive to the hospital, I always see you walking and running up the path there. Keep it up!"

And well, I have to keep it up, because I'm 16 pounds away from my goal. There have been plenty of days when I just wanted to give up, but I haven't. I have mixed feelings about today, because it feels like I don't have to keep going now, but I know I can't stop yet. And maybe this will always be a struggle... which is a bit depressing. But I've been living like this for seven months, and it won't always be so hard. It's certainly much easier than the alternative.

And that's the point: I am fortunate to get great health care, but I've chosen to try to focus on "care of health" instead. And it's paying off.

Keeping on keeping on...

Drop and Give Me Twenty: Days 26 to 30 and beyond...

It's been way past Day 30 for me. Life has a way of changing plans on you. The challenge, though, has been completed... or rather, it continues.

I did this challenge because I wanted to see how I would change if I did push ups every single day. And here's what I learned:

• It's pretty difficult to do push ups every single day. Sometimes, it's best to let yourself rest so that you can recover and do better the next day.
• The only way to get better at doing push ups is by doing push ups.
• The only way to stop hating doing push ups is by doing push ups.
• Everyone will tell you how to do push ups and that the way you're doing them is wrong.
• Push ups are best done privately.

I was hoping I'd like my arms better after this challenge, and well... I do a little. I mean, they're better, but I think I'll have to keep doing what I'm doing for a long while before I'll actually be happy with them. I'm far better off than NOT having done it. Here's how I know:

• A dress that was too tight around my chest and arms is ALMOST wearable now.
• An abs circuit that was impossible for me to do two months ago is achievable now.
• I am now on hole two of a belt that I could only get to hole one last month.
• I dropped a bra size quicker than I've ever done throughout my whole weight loss journey.
• If I hold my arms just so I don't mind wearing a short-sleeved top.
• I can hold a plank for a whole minute and a side plank for almost a minute.

What's really nice is that I've worked in a couple of sets of push ups into my evening yoga routine. Even if I think I'm too tired to do them, after I do a few poses, I find myself saying, "You can do them. Go ahead and try a set." I usually end up doing at least two. And I'll just keep doing them now.

So, while it's true that you can't spot reduce, you can focus on one spot and find that MANY spots improve. Weird how the fitness people are usually right, huh?

Drop and Give Me Twenty: Days 18 to 25 - And Suddenly...

I've been plodding along here, doing my push ups as often as possible, at least two sets of twenty a day. Often, I do a couple of sets in the afternoon and then another set of two during my yoga sessions in the evenings. And I'm still working on doing a full set of twenty with straight legs, going all the way down and all the way back up again. I usually manage about ten, and then down I go onto my knees to finish the set... and sometimes I pump out a few more.

And suddenly, yesterday, I realized that, even though I don't think my arms look any different, other bits of my body were. My torso in general feels tighter. And clothes that used to fit me are all of a sudden feeling too big. And yeah, I've been losing weight all over for the past few months, but there's something very... sudden... about this change. As though I woke up in someone else's body. And it's better than the one I had a few weeks ago.

And it means I have to go out and get some new clothes this weekend.

The only thing is, I kinda wish the arms were better, but I suppose that will happen sometime. With only five days left, I'm not all that confident that things there will change. I guess that's the point of all these challenges: to see what happens after thirty days.

And yes, we'll see what happens...

Drop and Give Me Twenty: Days 11 to 17 - All the way, multiple times.

The thirty days are flying past, and I feel like I should be further along than I am. Perhaps I am further along... the push ups are not killing me, my arms still work, and I don't have broken wrists from being on them all the time.

I decided to concentrate on form for the last few days, making sure my body was truly going all the way down, because in truth, it wasn't. I may as well do this right, so I'm back to ten push up sets, going as low as I can. It's hard, there's no other way to describe it. I'm dropping to my knees a lot to do double the difference when I can't finish the set. I'm hoping it'll pay off. It's got to, really, because that's the point of this whole challenge.

I've also been trying to do a couple of sets at work and then another set or two at home, because that prevents me from procrastinating all day until it's so late in the day that the thought of more exercise makes me want to cry. So, all the way down, multiple times a day.

I do feel stronger, and I feel like my core and back muscles are stronger. I often feel as though I've been doing lots of crunches, and I think it's because I have to force my body into a straight line for these exercises. Plank pose, but up and down. And plank is my least favourite position.

Day 17, and still pushing up...

Drop and Give Me Twenty: Days 4 to 10 - Progress

One week later, and I'm pretty happy with my progress. Since I was away from Saturday until today on a conference, it was a bit tougher for me to remember to do my sets. I completely forgot to do them on Saturday, but come Sunday, my roomie and I were watching Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, where a man named Jarvez was transforming himself from behind a 548-pound man to a 263-pound dynamo.

Directly after his first weigh-in, he was given his first challenge: get down and do fifty push ups.

What? He's going to do fifty push ups? I said to myself. That's impossible, even if he was a football player in college.

But dammit... he did it. His belly and his legs got in his way, but he kept going. He stopped and fell a few times, but he kept going. And he did it with straight legs. And he finished every single one.

Well, I said to myself. Time to get down and do it, then, eh?

So, I got down onto the floor and did sixty push ups, six sets of ten, all straight leg. Heh, I guess I can do this...

The next day, I did a bunch of work on the elliptical machine and then went for a vigorous swim, so I didn't do my push ups that day. I think that "rest day" must have helped, though, because I did a set of twenty on Tuesday night before I went to sleep (it was after a barbecue, so that's about all I could manage with my full belly and weary brain).

Tonight, during my circuit workout, I did a few sets of the medicine ball push ups I mentioned in my previous post. I still haven't been able to do those with straight legs, but I'm hoping I can manage at least one set soon. I did notice that the plank exercises (and there were several) and the burpees were way easier than they were even a couple of weeks ago. Like, WAY easier.

Wow.

So, Day 10, and things are looking up. Yay me.

Drop and Give Me Twenty: Days 1 to 3

I've learned three things about myself over the last three days:

1. I'm not very good at push ups.
2. The later in the day I wait to do these push ups, the less I want to do them.
3. I'm not very good at push ups.

On Day 1, I procrastinated until the evening to get down and do them. I actually did three sets, but only one of them consisted of the straight leg push ups I wanted to do because, as I said, I'm not very good at them. I figure the strength is bound to come... sometime...Yesterday, my push ups were part of the workout I did on Nike NTC App.

It started well... I did the medicine ball push ups no problem, but I did them on my knees...

And the modified tricep push ups only lasted one set (of a total of three). For the next two, I had to switch to chair dips, because I was simply not strong enough to do them.

And today, well... I guess I'll have to get up from this computer and give them a shot. I must say, this is not the most inspiring of challenges. It's terrible to be reminded every day of how weak I am.

But!

During my swim this morning, I noticed that my arms were not fatiguing as quickly as they used to. This might be a result of my overall fitness improving, but I'm hoping that, as I continue with this challenge, my stamina will improve even more.

Right, off the couch and on the floor. Here I go...

The Drop and Give Me Twenty Challenge

In case you were wondering, I am a girl. Like most girls, I have hangups about certain parts of my body. I am most insecure about my arms. In fact, I don't think I've worn a sleeveless top in public since I was about 10 years old.

Bring forth the challenge.

For the next 30 days, I am going to try to do at least one set of twenty push ups every day. And since there are so many ways to do a push up, I've decided to do these:

The biggest challenge for me will be to do them using this technique, because it's only recently that I've been able to do a straight leg push up (I usually do the "girly push up" on the knees). My plan is to pump out as many straight leg push ups I can and then double the number I have left and doing it on my knees. Thus, if I do 10 straight leg push ups, I will have 10 left in the set, so I will do twenty more on my knees.

Or something like that.

And no, I do not have a "before" photo to share... at least not yet. I've taken one, yes, but I'm not sharing it unless there is a real difference at the end. Let's just see what happens...