Confessions of a semi professional quitter

Just before the start of this month ( September) I stumbled upon an online fitness challenge and decided it would be interesting to try. I then decided it was a little too easy so I changed a few things and decided not to take a break every second day. In the end I had nine exercises to do each day and every two days the numbers went up. They were a plank, push ups, dips, v-ups, up downs , jumping lunges, air squats, mountain climbers , superman pull and leg raises. On day one I would be doing about 7 reps of each exercise (slightly more of mountain climbers, superman pull and leg raise) and about a 1 min plank and by day 30 I would have 2 1/2 min plank and around 40 of everything else. So far pretty simple, right? I even printed off a calendar of September so I could write down what I had to do each day and have the wonderful satisfaction of crossing each day off as I went.

 I will admit I did not actually foresee a scenario in which I completed all thirty days. I am a rather wonderful quitter. Well except for when it comes to quitting bad food given that I have quit sugar at least four times in the last two years and then repeatedly fallen off the wagon in a dramatic style (which is the only way to fall off the wagon in my opinion).
I have also started many of these challenges before and most of them are only the one exercise with multiple reps or escalating time and I have rushed into them full of enthusiasm only to have it taper off once the going gets tough or I wake too damn tired to actually do anything. 

 These challenges are usually found on fitness pages on facebook and often lots of people from my gym will share it and talk about how they are going to do it and I get caught up in all of the enthusiasm and the notion of rock hard abs or super toned other body part that I will have to show for it once I have completed this. Telling myself I will wear nothing but belly tops so people have every opportunity to admire my beautiful flat stomach. Then the reality kicks in and I am trying to do a three minute plank at home alone with no one watching, no one asking how my challenge is going and it's hard and it hurts and I start thinking who will know if I quit. And then quietly never mention said challenge again.

 This was different though. I surprised myself as here I am on day 30 with the full challenge completed. I struggled through my mornings especially as the reps went up. I had to break up my up downs because they are so close to being burpees I couldn't face 20 0r 30 at once but every single day I got to put a big smiley through that days workout and now I can say I am less of a quitter than I was back in August.

 In case you are thinking that I am now superfit with steely abs then you will be very disappointed. I have some muscles which are mostly hidden because while I stayed strict on the challenge, I wasn't quite so good on the diet front so I have marshmallow abs instead. 
Which brings me to next months challenge. I have bravely decided for October I want to do a clean eating month. No spelt or rye, no sugar (coconut sugar, honey, maple, agave) no crisps or chips. Now if I thought the chances of me getting through September with a workout every day were slim, I have even less faith in myself as far as this is concerned. But I am fed up of feeling ugh and having a spongy middle so my body needs a break. 
The least I can do is enter into this with the hope of getting through it. 
To make the challenge even more fun I am heading to Dublin at the weekend so I get to eat away from home and not have any of my fall back foods. But who said I don't like a challenge. 

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