By Leanne Zheng, staff writer
With almost 1 year of staying at home, my physical activities went from daily volleyball practice and conditioning to no physical activity at all. So for my seven day challenge, I wanted to attempt to start getting more active and exercise for at least 30 minutes daily. Previously during the beginning of quarantine, I had tried to stay active as I had thought that COVID was going to be a temporary thing and that I would be going back in a few weeks. As I had realized that this whole distance learning thing was going to be a long term situation, I had sort of lost hope and motivation so I stopped for a few weeks before deciding it was time for me to start again. After multiple attempts at consistently exercising, I started to give up and stop working out. I saw this assignment as the perfect opportunity to get started on my journey of living a healthier and active lifestyle.
During the next 7 days, I expect myself to do the workouts consistently and not give up because of my laziness and procrastination. Some obstacles that may prohibit me from staying committed and motivated include work, school and social media. The challenge started off rough as it has been such a long time since I have worked out and I was so reluctant to start the workout. I tried to put it off for most of the day but since I knew that I had to do it in order for me to complete the assignment I reluctantly started my workout.
The first two days, I followed 4 videos from youtubers including Chloe Ting, Emi Wong and All Blanc. Throughout the first few days, I had a hard time following and keeping up with the exercises and took many many breaks. I had thought about stopping and quitting many times during the first day as it was so hard for me to get my body to perform like it was when I was in school. After the first day, I was so sore and worn out.
On the second day, in the middle of my workout I had gotten a notification on my phone from one of my friends on instagram which got me really distracted. I ended up stopping my workout and going on my phone for a good 30 minutes before realizing what had happened and getting back to my workout.
By the third day, the exercises were starting to get easier and I was able to complete the whole video without pausing or taking excessive breaks. On the fourth day I decided to take things to the next level by adding a new video to the workout.
I decided to do something different on the fifth day and do a walking workout from the channel All Blanc with my mom and sister. I sweated a whole lot. On the last two days, I did both the walking workout and the previous videos from the first few days.
I felt very unmotivated at times as at times I had just got home from a long day at work and was in no mood whatsoever to workout, but something that kept me going was thinking about the results as well as the pros of committing to this challenge. My sister was also a big motivation factor during the first few days as she had already been consistently working out for 4 months now so she cheered me on and talked me out of skipping. Seeing her results from her commitment really pushed me to stay motivated and continue working out.
Some things I had noticed from this challenge is that overall I don’t see much physical changes but overall I feel so much healthier and happier after working out. Mentally I feel a lot better and healthier as after every workout that I have accomplished, I feel so good and proud of myself. I had also noticed that at night, I tend to fall asleep faster and get better quality sleep. Throughout this challenge, I realized that I was so out of shape and that I can actually consistently exercise for more than 3 days. Overall I think this was a great experience and starting point for me to get back on track with fitness. I definitely will continue to work out as distance learning continues.
