Greatist.com is an awesome fitness & health site that I’ve been following. They offer super helpful workout plans and healthy food ideas. This month they posted their September Pushup Challenge. Being 7 months pregnant, I’m not really in the mood for a hard core workout so something like this is just what I need to have a goal, keep moving, and work on staying strong. It’s just 30 seconds per day of pushups! Anyone can do that, even a pregnant chick 🙂 If you don’t normally do pushups, or struggle with them, please consult with your physician and use caution if you decide to try this challenge.

I didn’t find this challenge until Sept 2nd so started on Sept 3rd with the Staggered Pushups. I did 15 seconds with my right arm forward and 15 seconds with my left arm forward. I was able to do quite a few before dropping to my knees to finish out the set. Again, use caution and modifications where necessary if you are pregnant. I WOULD NOT try the explosive pushups when pregnant. Instead of explosive pushups I’ll be doing some triple threat pushups: 1 regular pushup, 1 wide-armed/wide-legged pushup, & 1 tricep pushup, repeat for 30 seconds.

The best part of this is it only takes 30 seconds but you definitely feel the burn. I also was able to get my husband to join me. In hopes of becoming more productive and healthy (we’ve really fallen off track recently), we decided to set 3 new goals for this month:

1. Drink at least 96 oz of water per day. I’ll be drinking 24 oz before each meal, plus some more in between to reach this goal.

2.  Do the Greatist Pushup Challenge 

3. Study for 1.5 hours per night (Monday- Thursday only). My husband is taking an online real estate course & I’m studying for my personal trainer certification and we’ve both been slacking in the study department.

We even set up a little calendar in the kitchen where we are marking off when we complete each goal for the day. Accountability is HUGE when it comes to health and fitness and it definitely helps even more if someone in your very own house is doing it along with you. Of course many of us might be in situations where our partner or roommate doesn’t want to participate. You can try to combat this by bringing an element of fun to the challenges. For example, whoever completes all 3 goals for the day first gets some sort of reward. Another big help can be explaining why its beneficial for the person to do these challenges (drinking lots of water = great looking skin! etc) or you can always let your friend/partner know that with their support you are way more likely to succeed so if nothing else, could they do it for you? Who can say no to that?

Starting out with small, achievable goals is the best way to change your habits. Do I need to do more than 30 seconds of pushups per day? Yes. But is 30 seconds of pushups per day something I know I can likely accomplish? YES! Small changes made over time will inevitably create bigger changes and more drive later. Try it out! Grab a buddy, write down 3 small daily goals for this month and get it done!

I look forward to hearing how it goes 🙂

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MamaBurnsFat