Hair, Health & Heart: Welcome to Fitness Friday!

With age comes not only the certainty of death and taxes but a slowing metabolism and increased risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes; as I've learned in these past few years. I kissed my size zero days goodbye the moment I graduated from high school, and I have accepted the fact that I'll never be that size again. Eventually, I realized that I could not eat the same massive amounts of food I did as I teenager, and remain healthy forever. Something had to give.

I have a love-hate relationship with exercise for the mere fact that I know what I eat plays a huge part in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. While exercising and maintaining a healthy diet is not always fun, it's necessary. While eating a handful of granola is not as fun as eating a pint of ice cream, it's necessary. My goal is to adopt healthy, beneficial habits while I am still young and relatively healthy.

That is why I came up with Fitness Fridays. It sounds pretty self-explanatory, but this series will include fitness regimens and challenges, meal prep/planning and eating habits such as portion control.

At the time I wasn't really exercising but when I did, my main form of exercise was Polynesian dancing. I eventually tried the Plank Challenge after a relative shared the post on Facebook. The challenge totally dominated me but by the end of those 30 days I felt stronger and I was able to do a plank for an entire two minutes without breaking a sweat. In that same year, I would utilize the public gym at my university after class. I looked forward to doing the squat challenge in the following month... but that was 2 years ago and I had not exercised since then.

Last Sunday, however, I officially completed the last week of the Complete 10 Week No-Gym Workout Program. I first discovered this program on mamabee.com and decided that it was the perfect challenge to get myself back on track. I like the idea of challenges because it sets a goal for me to accomplish and the bar is raised with each day that passes. I ended up creating a chart for myself to keep track of each week, and because I like checking things off. If you're interested in doing the Complete 10 Week No-Gym Workout Program, you can check it out below.

Complete 10 Week No-Gym Workout Program

Like any other exercise challenge, this one was no easy feat. I am not someone who keeps track of my weight, and perhaps the last time I was weighed was a few years ago at the doctor's, and I was told that I was 110 pounds. My goal with this challenge was not to lose weight, but rather to get my body toned and stronger. And I realized just how much I needed that challenge when I could not even do one sit up or no more than four push-ups on the first day of week one. By the end of those ten weeks, I was able to do at least 30 sit-ups with ease as well as 15 push-ups without having to take a break. I would complete each workout by using my aunt's SimplyFit Board,

which was quite fun. I believe that I also lost a little bit of weight when my jeans began to feel slightly loose. What changed the most for me was that I had become so used to the habit of exercising every morning that I simply could not start my day without exercising, and that was exactly what I wished to happen. I began the workout program on December 19, 2016, and completed it on February 26, 2017. Here's how my chart looked. 💪