Friday Push-Up Challenge: Week 1

Last night my brother stopped by unexpectedly with red velvet cupcakes from Starbucks (he works there) and corn fritters from a restaurant in our neighborhood. In case you aren't familiar, corn fritters are fried balls of doughy deliciousness covered in powdered sugar. I'm telling you, they are amazing.

They look like this (source)

Seeing as I had already spent an hour last night looking up cake recipes and pictures of cake online (fighting a major craving), I was pretty much powerless against them.

However, I'm not going to feel bad about it. They were delicious, and obviously exactly what I was looking for - cake craving is gone! I also scraped the frosting off the cupcake I ate because it wasn't that good. I will put that one in the 'win' column for me.

I often feel bad when I think I have eaten too much, but I am really working on trying not to feel guilty, because it usually just leads to a cycle of binging. If you ever feel this way too, you should read this article. So, today is a new day, and I am moving on!

Plus, I think that the carb-loading was beneficial because I had an awesome workout today! Here's the lowdown:

First up: The Friday Push-Up Challenge Week 1

I announced yesterday that I am challenging myself to to as many consecutive full push-ups as I can each Friday in March. I am working on using alternative metrics, other than the weight on the scale, to track my weight loss and fitness progress. I'm excited to see how my strength will progress over the course of this month!

I will post my scores each Friday for you to follow along. You should join me! Post your scores in the comments. If you can't do full push-ups right now, do them modified! It's all about pushing your own limits and seeing what you can accomplish!

This morning I got up, had a quick breakfast of brown rice microwaved with a splash of almond milk, a chopped apple, and a spoonful of peanut butter. I was a little nervous to do my push-ups, so I played 'Eye of the Tiger' on YouTube to get me motivated. Ok, this was a little pointless, because I only got through about 30 second of the song before my arms gave out....but here is my score:

Week 1 score is: 16

This is really exciting for me, because 6 months ago I don't think I could do a single full push-up. Pretty cool! My goal for the end of the month will be 20 consecutive push-ups. I think this will be a challenge, but still do-able.

What is your goal going to be?

After push-ups I set out on my long run for the week. I did 7.5 miles in 80 minutes. Not too bad! It was a really great run; not too hard, no music, nice temperature. Perfect start to a Friday. Also, this run puts my weekly mileage at 22 mi. Next week I am going to try for 25 miles.

I got paid today, so we finally did another big grocery shopping trip. I love having a kitchen stocked full of healthy food! I have some fun ideas for recipes this week!