On January 1, 2009, I made a commitment to do something good for my body. Now,.. don’t get me wrong… I exercise 5 or 6 days a week either running or walking with some girlfriends. But, the older I get, the harder it is to get back to that same level of fitness that I enjoyed at a younger age. And, I’m getting fluffier every day. (I’m SO FLUFFY!!!!!!) So, I decided to add just a little extra.
I committed to do 100 crunches, 30 squats and 25 pushups every day. I also made a promise that if I missed a day, I would do double the next day. Well, let me tell you that I only missed one time and figured out quickly that doing double was horrible. So, no matter what, I did them every day. Seriously, it took me 5 minutes to do all of this. And, let me tell you that there were days that I thought about quitting because my abs weren’t getting rock hard, and my butt was still laying down on the back of my legs. But, I persisted. And you know what… on December 31, 2009, I had completed:
36,500 crunches
9125 pushups and
10925 squats
100 a day didn’t seem like much, but when you look at the accumulation, I felt like I had definitely accomplished something great. So, I committed to 50 squats, 30 pushups and 150 crunches per day for 2010.
The 5 minutes that I take out of my evening to finish these exercises is really very little. And, I know that it may be years before I see any huge results. However, underneath this layer of fluff, I can feel a difference. Yep… I’ve got 6 pack abs, but you can’t really see them yet because they’re hiding behind a power keg. J
On November 10, I pulled my bicep muscle, so I had to stay off the pushups for a few weeks. I still continued with the crunches and squats. But, I missed a lot of pushups. I had to start back slowly and work carefully. Amazingly, I could see a difference in just taking a few weeks off. It made me realize that all this work was actually making a difference.
What I’ve learned over that last 2 years is that your daily routine is EVERYTHING. One simple good habit in your routine can make a huge difference over time. Likewise, one bad habit can take its toll slowly and unnoticeably. You may not realize how much impact a little change for good or bad can make. The change may be gradual, and unnoticeable, so you think you’re not making a difference. But, if you will stop and take a gut check, you’ll see how far you’ve come. You can’t always accomplish big goals in a hurry. But, you can make a commitment to move towards them EVERYDAY. Every step you take forward just puts you one step closer to your goal. You may have some setbacks, but you recover, and start again. You just have to keep going. You will never get there by sitting on your butt.
One small change can be huge over the course of time. If you told me 2 years ago, that I would do 91,000 crunches, I would have passed out. But at 100-150 a day, I got there. Good habits make good results… Remember, it’s all in your daily routine…
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