7 Day Challenge

I have a love/hate relationship with Allie Johnson. She has been my running/workout buddy for the last 2 years. And by hate... I mean she pushes me... hard... and sometimes I don't like it at first, but am always grateful for the way she challenges me. Last Wednesday was no different when she sent me a text talking about this 7 day challenge she was doing. I of course couldn't let her do it alone so began the "hate" part...7 days of:

400 jumping jacks
300 squats
200 sit ups
100 push ups

Everyday.

I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed this workout. I love how its a great whole body workout plus we're getting in cardio and strength. It becomes a little monotonous at times, but overall is a great workout. We broke it down into 4 sets and adjusted from there. We found we were actually adding more exercises than what was expected but enjoying it too much not to. For example, here is one set:

100 jumping jacks
100 squats
100 sit ups (we do a variety of crunches)
30 push ups

If we were to repeat this 4 times we'd def get in the 400 required jumping jacks, but also have increased the squat, sit ups, and push ups... score.

I will say I have noticed, as I did when we were running  longer distances, how much we are affected by the food we eat. After eating all of our Easter family dinners on Sunday... which were all delicious but not necessarily nutritious, I found our workout on Monday to be much more difficult. I love though that our bodies tell us when we're eating crap. It challenges me to be more mindful of what I eat.... because I do not want to see it again.

An added bonus is we've seen a difference in strength, stamina and our bodies these past 6 days. With just one more day of the challenge, I was getting kind of bummed... that is until she started sending me new challenge ideas and then I remembered why I have a love/hate relationship with her.