The scale, of course, is not budging, and I'm not so delusional that I'd believe I've replaced fat with muscle mass. So I'm working to jump-start the actual weight-loss and toning aspect of my goals. I'm especially hoping to get shapely arms and a trim midsection, since these seem to be the areas that make me look heaviest.
Last night I did the initial evaluation for the One Hundred Push-Ups challenge. I've been talking about doing this since December, but I never actually got down to it. A friend of mine who is also working to get fit challenged me to a contest online last night, and while he smoked me, it did make it more fun.
At first I did 10 "regular" push-ups then 5 more modified "girly" ones (using my knees). I realized that these were not done with good form, as my lower back was sagging forward and I couldn't keep my upper body straight.
So I tried again, competing with my friend, and I did 23 consecutive, good-form modified push-ups. I wanted to give myself a lot of excuses, that I'd just gotten home from swimming a particularly challenging work-out, that I had already kind of done 15 before that 23, that I could have done more if my knees didn't start hurting etc, but 23 is a fine starting point, putting me at level 3 of 7 for the program.
I have to decide which days of the week I'll do the work-outs, but I can tell already from the soreness in my abs and shoulders that this is going to be a beneficial addition to my fitness regimen.
I think I'll start Two Hundred Sit-Ups soon too!
