Resolutions

I hesitate to call them New Year’s resolutions, because really there’s no need to wait for an arbitrary date to improve yourself.  But since everyone is making them this time of the year, here are mine as well.

1. Get in shape - Yes, it’s the stereotypical New Year’s resolution. Yes, everyone quits it a week into the new year. Yes, it’s damn near the most ambiguous resolution you can possibly have. Here’s why it’s going to be different this year:

I have a plan. Countless other times I’ve failed at this resolution because I get about a week or two in and realize I don’t know where to go from there. One Hundred Push Ups solves that problem. It contains a six week program after which (you guessed it) you should be able to do a hundred pushups, or so they claim. While I am heavily skeptical of the time frame they’re giving to be able to perform 100 consecutive pushups, the routine of gradually increasing intensity seems at least plausible, albeit difficult. And I have to say, being only halfway through the second week I already do feel stronger than when I started. Whether that’s just me wanting to believe in this actually working or I’m already seeing results remains to be seen, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic about this.

One Hundred Push Ups also has a couple of daughter sites focusing around sit ups, squats, and pull ups. I’m going to focus mainly on the former two after push ups, which would cover most of the “core” that means so much for strength. These three programs should take me 18 weeks (at least) into the year, after which it will be warm enough to start running, after which I should be in pretty good physical shape. So assuming everything goes as planned, it’s possible that I can achieve this goal as early as the end of June, which is pretty exciting! I’ll keep updating on this as I progress through each week.

2. Don’t make another resolution until the first one is done – This has been my downfall so many times, trying to make dozens of changes at once and not accomplishing any of them. So I’m going to keep it simple this year – after I’ve gotten in shape to my satisfaction, I’ll set another goal to work towards. That’s not to say that I’m not going to try to do anything else during that time, it’ll be more like prioritizing my goals so that one is clearly above the others.

So even though it’s only 3 days into the new year, I’m already a week and a half towards achieving my resolution and I have a solid plan towards achieving the rest of the resolution. I’d say that’s a pretty good start to the year.

Push Up Count
Last Week: 105
Cumulative: 147