100 Days: Day 1

Today is Day 1 of our experiment, our 100 days of adding new body practices to our lives.  Welcome aboard, all of you who are joining me for this grand experiment!  Thank you for agreeing to be my fellow travelers on this trip.

With that, a few items of interest…

Every 5 days or so I’ll be blogging about the experiment, and my own experiences.  Here’s what I’m doing for my own private participation in this experiment, so you’ll be hearing more about those two activities as we go along.

Here’s what some of you said you are doing:

…my chosen body practice is to return to my leg lifts and my back exercises and playing the piano.

I am going to ice my knees every other day, and drink six of my contigo water bottles-worth of water each day. I feel as though I “should’ be more fitnessy, etc etc. and I’m having a hard time with the project, but I WANT to get to the place where I’m moving my body, feeling strong, feeling well and powerful…but my knees are in a lot of pain at the moment, and I think this hundred days needs to be about babying them.

My body goal is to resart my physical therapy exercises. There’s no way I’ll be able to jump into tackling all dozen at once in the beginning but I can work on building! And realizing that doing even ONE is better for my body than doing NONE.

My first reaction was “That’s a great idea, but ohhhh, not for me. I can’t do that. Too much” but the idea has rattled around in my head. 100 days…100 days…100 days. And the (very small, often not engaged) adult part of my brain whispered ‘What would be so bad about trying? What if you *do* fail? How bad would that really be? What can learn?’ So, while my inner toddler throws a fit about having to do something I don’t want to do, I am committing to doing one kind thing for my body every other day. That might be yoga, a massage, a nap, dancing – anything that I can honestly say is a kindness.

I commit to (at least) do my Hittleman yoga (Google: Richard Hittleman 28 day yoga plan) every day. If I’m feeling frisky, maybe I’ll toss in a splash of light kettlebell on top, maybe.

I’ll be cycling 20 minutes a day every day, or at least every second day, for 100 days, starting February 1st. It will absolutely not be about results (I am resolved to challenge the thoughts and expectations that will try to arise), it’ll just be about doing a new thing with my body every day to see what that feels like.

I’ve been planning/wanting/postponing/half-assing this forever. Three sun salutations. EVERY F*ING DAY. For a hundred days. I’ll do it. Even when hung over/stressed out/tired.

I want to practice squatting. I cannot squat down to, say, talk to a small child or look in the bottommost drawer in the kitchen. I need to bend over. At least every other day I’m going to practice squatting down (there is a pole in the basement I can hang onto to support myself). I reallyreallyreally want to reclaim this functionality for my body!

My goal is to move for at least 30 minutes every other day – walking, elliptical, weight training, stretching – whatever form it takes, but in the way of a regular practice and not a haphazard if-I-have-time, bottom-of-the-list priority.

I will dance every day. I’ll at least run through the three pieces I want to retain. And I’ll include a move that’s difficult for me in my warm-up.

I can do yoga, at least once every other day, for a hundred days. I like doing yoga, it makes me happy and I’m actually pretty good at it, this should not be a hardship. This should be fun.

Don’t wanna say what, but I’m in, and I’m with you.

Seriously, y’all?  How are you so freaking awesome? Your plans, and especially your attitudes, just make me smile.  (Note: the ones above are just from folks who posted their plans publicly in a comment on this blog… I know that there are many more of you out there, and some of you have told me your plans privately, and every single one of them has given me a grin.)

Do you have a blog?  Are you planning to write about your 100 Days experiences?  Every 10th day (day 10, day 20, and so on) I’d like to link out to a blog or two in which someone has written something about their experience with this experiment.  Please let me know in a comment or via email (myfirstname dot mylastname at gmail dot com) if you happen to post something about your 100 Days experience that you’d like to share with a wider audience, and chances are good that I will share them along.

Knowing that today would be Day 1, last night I went and took stock of my gym clothes situation… and had a moment of appalled OMGWTF. I had been noticing that some of my gymwear had gotten pretty worn, but apparently it had been a while since I really sat down and assessed the state of my exercise wardrobe.

Boy, am I glad I did!  All but one pair of my gym leggings were suffering, or are on the verge of succumbing to, chub rub related hull breaches in the upper-thigh region.  All but one of the sports bras I actually like are entering advanced elastic poop-out.   My favorite gym t-shirts have become downright ratty around the collars and hems as well as stained and stretched out and thinned with age and wear.

I thus ordered some replacements, one of which, on a whim, was this :

I don’t typically buy shirts with words on.  But you know what?  I think this shirt is absolutely right.  (To get your own, click on the photo.)

Enjoy Day 1, everybody!