Fitness Update #4

Week 3 of the 100 Push-up Challenge is really kicking my ass.

3 things are probably conspiring against me. Maybe 4 things.

1: The starting amount and the total push-ups done in week 3 compared to week 2 have increased by 50%.

2: I haven't been getting as much sleep as I should, 5-7 hours instead of the standard 8. Also, I drank on two of those nights so I didn't get good sleep. It's been a busy week so I've also been doing the push ups later in the night and that's probably why I keep waking up on those nights.

3: I've increased the time, from 20 minutes to about 40 minutes, that I've been walking on breaks. I also did a 4 mile walk on Tuesday that also kicked my ass. The ankle (facebook profile required) is doing fine though. In addition to walking, I've added bicep curls and crunches to the mix and perhaps that's taking it's toll on my recovery between push-up secessions

4: All of my focus has been on tracking my diet (not making changes per se, just tracking), making sure I'm walking and doing the push-up challenge... I'm feeling a bit ragged.

I haven't cut back on drinking, I still drink regular pop once a day, and not everything I've been eating is healthy (McDonald's for dinner tonight). I have to keep reminding myself that I've made good progress, and yes there's more progress to be made, but some progress is better than none.

So, I'm going to stop tracking my calories in/calories out for a week. I've been guessing too much on the calorie content of alot of meals and snacks because I'm having a hard time figuring out how much is a serving. I'm going to stick with eating when I'm hungry and eating light on break and lunch. Drinking the water all the time has helped and is still helping because half the time you feel hungry you're really more thirsty.

I'm going to repeat week 3 because I struggled so much. The first day I couldn't do the minimum on the last set, the second day I couldn't finish the last 2 sets by 2 push ups each, and today I couldn't complete the sets, save one:
20, did 19
15, did 13
15, did 10
12, did 12!
do at least 16, did 10

That's 64 push-ups total... that's 3 times the push-ups I was doing in week one. Progress, gotta keep telling myself this, progress.