The month of April has been spent appropriately by celebrating my birthday and the coming of the Spring season in California. I say “in California”, because I know my family and friends around the rest of the United States have not seen much of Spring. Don’t worry, we will share our sunshine and warm weather with you all soon! I’ve spent this month busy with the usual school/work during the week but on weekends, I’ve been celebrating my birthday in some way. With every special occasion I had, an additional amount of calories were welcomed by my body that has been longing for sugar and fat. As one could expect with this kind of gluttonous behavior, I ended up gaining eight pounds.
Like Alyssa and the number on her scale, I initially was feeling incredibly upset at myself. I have been working out more than ever in my life and have been feeling my strongest yet. I knew I ate probably too many pieces of cake and drank too many beers, but I wasn’t being THAT out of control! Plus all that exercise surely had to count for something!
After talking it out with my sister, we both felt better as we realized that a number is truly only a number and we need to learn to measure our success in other ways.
On Monday I got the opportunity once again to measure my success in a different way by taking my third Pilates fitness test.
I was SO proud of myself when I was able to improve my flexibility and strength in so many different ways. Check out my log for how well I did!
I knew that I would be able to do a four minute wall sit because I’ve been practicing often. I didn’t expect to add on an additional minute to my plank and I definitely didn’t think I would be able to 13 more push-ups in a minute than I did a month ago. I credit taking tennis for that extra arm strength!
If you would like your own blank chart, just send us a comment or message and I will email you one!
Pilates sadly ends in less than a month and I am nervous whether or not I’ll be able to continue to improve without my amazing teacher, Kim Becker. She does teach at the Yoga One studio here in Petaluma, so hopefully I can check her out there sometime.
I know some of you were doing a wall sit challenge, how did that go? Do any of you do planks on a regular basis? I hate them, but I feel they are one of the best strength creating exercises out there.
Enjoy your Wednesday,
Wow, great job! You’ve improved so much! I can barely hold plank for a minute, I should practice that more! Great inspiration 🙂
Good job!!
I love fitness NSVs! Great job on all those improvements.