November 24, 2013 (To Plank or Not to Plank!)

I have decided to try something new. I am going to take the 30-day planking challenge with some friends. According to the challenge, after the 30 days, this is supposed to strengthen my core and help me to tighten up and lose weight. At the end of this challenge there is another I am going to work my way up to. It is a series of exercises that you do every day. When this one is done I am going to take each of those exercises and work them into my daily routine, one month at a time.

I know I'm going to need the support of my friends to help me make it through these challenges. I need your prayers and your encouragement. I am going to push through my medical issues and force myself to push myself. The way I see it, I can only go up from here. At least these exercises are normal exercises and nothing like some of the crazy, push-yourself-to-near-death exercises that I've been seeing. Maybe one day in the far distant future I might feel the urge to try one of them, but for now I'm good with integrating a different exercise into my routine each month. I know it seems silly to only do one exercise a day for a month, but maybe once I get to the second month I will find myself just adding an exercise, doing two, then three, then eventually the entire challenge every day.

Along with integrating the exercises into my daily routine, I am going to try really hard to eat right and eat more often. I know I need to also boost my metabolism with diet as well as exercise. I have found a site that gives me recipes for smoothies that I am looking forward to trying. I will try my best to do better at updating my blog for those who are really interested in following my progress. I guess now is the time to also put my stats out there. I will get my weight in the morning (on my scale since that is the one I use the most) and I will see about getting my measurements. Just as an experiment I want to also measure my height. I know over the years I have lost about an inch from my height and I'm curious if I will gain that inch back as I put my body back together.

So, here we go!