month six: sweats and sweets

My month of mindfulness, in perfectly ironic fashion, lost most of its deliberateness about three-quarters of the way through. I stopped looking at my list of exercises because so many of them seemed to be guiding me in the same direction. Let go, they told me. So, I did. I let go of the formal framework and just did what I could, which was pay attention (to breath, to small things, to others). It has to be an ongoing practice, one not linked to a calendar.

So onward to the stuff that is linked to a calendar, my monthly challenge for June.

That’s the last M & M you’re looking at up there. Not forever. Good god, no. But for the next thirty days. I don’t think I’ve ever given up sweets. Ever. My sweet tooth was firmly established as a child when my father worked for a series of candy companies (oh the Cadbury bars, the Butterfingers, the boxes and boxes of fine chocolates). I don’t indulge as much anymore, but I never go more than a few days without something: a baked good, a piece of chocolate, a bag of bright candy. Knowing I was going to be rid of the stuff for a month, I went a bit nuts over the last few days, making sure I felt a little sick before I went into denial mode. My guess is this will be a million times harder than the no drinking thing. My sweet tooth is a mean motherscratcher.

I don’t know if adding a fitness challenge to this month will make the no sugar thing harder or easier. Back in January I started a squat/plank challenge one of my friends was doing. Then I went on vacation and the whole thing went to hell. I’m going to be modifying a beginner challenge I found on some silly app. Since I’m dealing with some ongoing tendonitis issues in my arm, pushups and the like have to be taken out of the mix. So it looks like it’s going to be a lot of jumping jacks, crunches, planks and squats. Ugh. That sounds horrible. The good thing is, even by the end of the month the workouts should only take about half an hour. If I can’t give my body half an hour of much-needed attention, then my priorities are screwy.

This challenge was inspired by one of my regular clients who, at a similar age as me, has taken on a whole new fitness regimen that has totally changed his physique as well as his life. Like me, he was never an athletic person but there he was on my table last week having just run a half marathon. So who knows? Maybe something will click and not just the tendons in my knees. Care to join me? Click here to get the free app then let me know you want to jump in and we can periodically text BUNS OF STEEL!!! at each other over the next thirty days. Cheers!