So, we are over half way through the first 30 day challenge I have posted and I know some people are giving it a go. I thought I would share a couple of things I have come across during the last couple of years I have been doing them.
I hope you are enjoying it or considering having a go.
Pasta – I eat it and count with it! I know it seems odd, but there are always some exercises that are harder than others in each month’s challenge and it can help to achieve your goal by being realistic. I am really impressed by Martyn’s honesty and openness about finding press ups impossible. I’m sure he can get to them in time. I have always found chin ups or pull ups really difficult too. What has this got to do with pasta?
I like pasta and it became a low fat staple in my house when a family member had a medical condition requiring them to eat very low fat meals. I’m no nutritionist, so this is just my unqualified opinion, and whilst pasta and carbohydrates in general provide energy for a workout I understand that if you take in carbs and don’t use them they turn to fat.
So, don’t follow my advice on nutrition and I am pretty sure I’ll be learning lots from Medic Cop and Tall Bird about eating well.
Alright, enough blathering on and I’ll tell you how I used pasta to help with chin ups. I count with them. To be clear I am really a chief inspector and can count over twenty without taking my shoes and socks off, but I used the pasta to keep track of the sets I had completed. For really tough exercises (or all of them when you start out) I had to do them five reps per set. When you get to day 30 and 120 reps, I was doing 24 sets of five!
To help I had 24 pieces of pasta in a pot (penne, but that’s not really important, I won’t use Lol in a blog, but hope you realise I’m joking). Every time I finished a set I put one piece of pasta back in the pot until I had moved all 24. Simple. Why do I need to do this and not simply remember how many sets I had done? Two reasons: 1. my memory is ok, despite being 48, but I really like to zone out when I exercise and I find the counting of each rep quite relaxing and I sometimes lose track of the sets; 2. more importantly, just like when you tick something off a ‘to do’ list, it helps reinforce the activity and build good habits. I read somewhere (forgive the lack of research, and if you find a journal article to confirm or refute this please let me know) that ticking something off a list releases endorphins and that makes you feel good.
So, if you don’t want to eat pasta, at least you can make good use of it!
Pasta – eat it or count sets with it!
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