May – The91Rewind

So it’s May. We are beginning the fifth month of 2018. To some of us it’s like WOW where did the time go? For others it may seem to be dragging along. At this point, spring is in full swing and we are finally coming back to life after a long and strange winter. As the summer draws near, let’s shake off the cold and make this new month a-MAY-zing!

There’s a revitalizing quality about this time of year. The newness of flora and fauna, the longer days, and there is SO MUCH LIGHT! It’s amazing, and if you notice, it energizes people. Look around. People are taking dogs for walks, they are out jogging. They are drinking on porches, dining on patios, and playing cornhole. This time of year is a great “goldilocks” time to take advantage of outdoor activities; it’s not too hot or too cold. It’s just right.

Having that said, I want to invite you to join our 91 Rewind a-MAY-zing Challenge! Crystal and I are going to kick off this month by doing something that scares us a little. We are going to challenge each other to make a new habit. We’ll pick something and try to do it every day for an entire week. After the week, we will report back on the good, the bad, and the ugly. Who knows? May-be we will a-MAY-ze ourselves? (haha I can’t quit with the May puns!)

For the first week of May, I’m going streaking. RUN STREAKING that is. I’ve been hearing a lot about these everyday runners and I’m intrigued. Some people have run every day for multiple years. This astounds me. I mean, I run all the time, but certainly not every day. I’m kind of afraid my legs will fall off, but a dear friend of mine @run_rhea_run gave me a bit of advice on the subject. She said to start small with a short period of time, and check in along the way. Rhea is a streaker, a 4X Boston Marathoner, speed demon, and general badass. She said she started with a week and just kept going with it. Now over four years later, she is still streaking and running stronger every day.

It is nearly impossible for me to imagine running for 1500+ days in a row, but I’m sure Rhea felt that way too when she began. I don’t necessarily have the same expectations for myself, but it’s really cool to see how a small idea can evolve into something really awesome. If you just stick with it and allow yourself to be a part of the process, transformation will occur. She has had good and bad days, but she’s run through them all. Maybe just a mile at a time, maybe slowly, or around an airport terminal, but she just sticks with it. It’s inspiring to see such determination.

So that’s what I’ll do, too. I’m going to run every day for seven days in a row. This is scary because I may not make it through the entire week..I am telling you all about it so feel free to ask me how it’s going. If I do make it through the week, I will have a choice to make on day eight: end the streak or keep going…I have no idea know how this will go, but I’m excited to give it a try.

People say you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time. While we do not advocate or support eating elephants at the 91 Rewind, we do hope you have elephant-sized dreams and goals. We support your efforts in making them a reality and invite you to take a step—or maybe a week’s worth of steps towards making this month A-MAY-ZING! Persistence pays off, so as long as you can get started, your on your way.

P.S. – Crystal is also taking on a challenge for the first seven days of May…stay tuned for her post later this week!

Namaste,

Time is everything; it’s money, it’s irreplaceable, it’s of the essence. It’s free, but priceless. You can make it, spend it, but you can’t own it. Time is one resource that is rarely in abundance, so we have to manage it wisely.Many people tell me that they don’t work out because they don’t have time. Well, I’m here this month to dispel that myth. We do have time, I promise! We just might have to get creative in our quest to find it. For the month of May, I invite you to try something new with me. I believe that 5 minutes each day MAY just change your mind about exercise and results.

Take five little minutes each day to focus on you, to give back to yourself, to start progressing towards your healthy and happy future. No fancy equipment required, no gym memberships needed, no running, no burpees. It’s simple: five exercises, 1 minute each, once a day for a month. Ready join me?

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Let’s do this! Here are the exercises:

Roll Ups – lay down on your back with your legs out straight and arms extended overhead. Take a deep breath in. As you breath out use your abdominal muscles to roll yourself off the floor into a seated position. Try to lift one vertebrae off the floor at a time without arching your low back. If you dont get all the way up, stop where you get stuck. Roll back down and repeat for 1 minute

Goddess Squat – standing with your feet apart. Make sure they are just outside shoulder width distance and your toes are pointed forward. Bend your knees as far as you can without lifting your heels up. Return to standing while squeezing your quads and booty on the way up. Repeat for 1 minute.

Arm circles – start standing with feet slightly apart. Raise your straight arms up to the sides so your hands are even with your shoulders. Keeping your arms straight, make circles forward and backward. Size doesn’t matter, make them big or small, make them big and small, just keep moving those straight arms for 1 minute.

Crossover toe touch – start standing with feet wide (slightly wider than goddess squat) and arms out to the sides like in the arm circles. Keeping legs and arms straight, reach your right arm towards your left leg by bending slightly at the waist and twisting your torso. If you can make contact with your knee, shin, or ankle GREAT! If not, just reach as far as you can. Return to standing and repeat on the other side, again taking care to keep legs and arms extended straight. Repeat on each side as many times as you can for 1 minute.

Plank – start laying on the ground. Place your hands (with fingers pointed forward) directly underneath your shoulders and flex your feet so the balls of your feet are in contact with the floor. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, lift your body off the floor by pushing into the floor with hands and feet and straightening your arms. Maintain the body alignment by squeezing your thighs, booty, and core.Hold as long as you can, lower carefully back down with control. If you can’t straighten your arms and come all the way up, that’s okay! Try to push yourself up while keeping your knees on the ground. Again, make sure to squeeze your legs, booty, and core to keep the back nice and straight. You don’t have to hold plank for a full minute, just hold as long as you can and repeat as many times as you can in that 1 minute.

That’s it! While this will not transform you into a body builder in a single month, these are total body exercises that will challenge you. As you work through the month you should find that it gets easier to complete these moves. You should see an increase in the number of reps you can complete in each 1-minute round. All of this is progress – a sweet affirmation that your effort and time are well spent.

Now that you have the moves, the plan is totally up to you. You can do these moves pretty much anywhere and adapt the schedule to fit your lifestyle. Let’s say that you have a hectic day and forget your workout one day. Fear not, just double up the next day. Maybe you’re going out of town for the weekend and know you won’t have the time. Feel free to work ahead! Let’s say you’re like me and you sit at a desk all day, why not use the 1-minute rounds to take a break from being seated? Just so you know, I’ve been caught doing squats or planks in an empty conference room many times…If they ask, I just tell people I was getting tired and needed to wake up – they buy it EVERY time!

There will be good days and bad days, but they are all important. There will be days that we don’t get our workout in, despite our best efforts. Keep at it anyway. It will be hard – that’s why it’s called a challenge! Starting small, dedicating roughly 5 minutes a day, we can develop great habits that will stay with us in the long run. This challenge will prove that dedication and consistency, even in small doses, can bring us closer to our goals.

Will you join me this May in the 5-minute challenge? I sure hope so. Think of all the positive feelings you will enjoy after completing it. If you can make progress with 5 minutes a day, imagine what you can do by giving just a little more.

Best of luck to you my fierce fabulous femmes!

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Tag: May

Make it a-MAY-zing!

five minutes MAY change your mind