Day 1

I have to say, there was something disappointing about the fact that I didn’t have to do anything sneaky to obtain a pack of cigarettes. I have been over the legal age for more than four years now, so there was no thrill to it at all. I wasn’t even carded! Lame.

But before I went out to buy my experimental pack, I did a lot of research. That is to say, I asked every smoker I knew what brand I should try for my experiment. Of course, they all just told me what brand they smoke personally… oh and that I was an idiot and to give this up before it got started. One person helpfully suggested clove cigarettes, but I declined that idea - I don’t need to become a cliche, here.

I finally picked out a brand (I assure you, it’s one you’ve heard of) and picked up a pack from the gas station. I felt like a total tool, just for the record. Not only because I was getting dirty looks for being a “smoker,” but because I knew I was a poseur.

The first try went predictably - I sat on my back porch with a lighter, and sat there coughing my way through my first cigarette ever. By the end of it, I realized two things: I was getting better at this, and that I didn’t have an ashtray. Poor planning for the win! I ended up using an empty terra cotta plant pot.

Day 2

At this point, I wasn’t sure what the big deal was. I now smelled bad, but I didn’t feel any closer to being addicted. I found some cool smoker friends so that I could use peer pressure to keep myself on task, and try again for the second day.

Day 3

Totally addicted. Also, I have a great idea for an experimental film. Well, experimental, but mainstream - I have a strange urge to become a sell-out. Also, I suspect that I have some form of smoker’s lung by now.

It’s not entirely worth breaking the process down by days, but I will talk in general about how I go about my daily juggling:

First, I just start juggling. It’s easier to do a ten or twenty minute session if I can just get started. I haven’t been juggling the goslings much, although I did on the first day. Usually I just grab my set of three red juggling balls, and start with simple, standard 3-ball juggling. I need to work on my form, so I spend a few minutes just trying to perfect my aim and timing.

One thing to note: I juggle while standing up against my bed, facing the bed and the wall. This way, whenever I drop a ball (which is most of the time), it lands on the bed, instead of the floor. Which is nice, because then I don’t have to bend over to pick it up. It sounds like such a silly, simple thing, but it’s very effective in allowing me to focus, and to juggle for a longer period of time without getting frustrated.

Sticking with 3-ball, I start switching so that my initial throw is from my non-dominant hand (my left hand). I’m partially ambidextrous, but I tend to favor my right hand, and end up practicing too much with that one. So it helps to remember to give the left hand some practice, too.

Just for fun, I’ll throw in some little tricks, like making the first throw from behind my back (I’m very bad at that) or under my leg (better at that). Or I’ll try "claw" juggling, which looks like this:

Only in my case, it looks more like a crazy blonde girl clawing at the air and dropping three red balls.

I’m also trying to focus on my 2-ball juggling, which is where you juggle two balls in one hand. Once again, I’m much better at this on the right hand. Which isn’t really saying much, because even on my right hand, I’m pretty bad at it. For now. Progress is being made!

Areas to Improve

First of all, I need to juggle earlier in the day, and for longer. I can’t just do it right before bed because I’m "supposed to." It needs to become a bit more routine.

It might be good to, at least once, juggle in front of a mirror. On the other hand, that may confuse me and mess me up. But I think it would be good to see myself from a different perspective.

I also think I need to watch at least one juggling video a day. I know, that just sounds like an excuse to troll YouTube, doesn’t it? But my former instructor, Jeff Peden, said that watching good jugglers helps improve your juggling, by giving you good mental pictures of good form.

Lastly, I need to develop some quantifiable goals. Things like "3-ball for 100 throws" and "4-ball (2-ball in each hand, simultaneously) for 10 throws."

But this week? I’m just going to juggle. Small objects. Red juggling balls, mostly. And probably some goslings, as well:

Aren’t they just adorable? I picked them up from a vendor at San Diego Comic-Con a few years back. (If you don’t get the reference, “juggling goslings” is a concept from the canceled Fox show Firefly.) Actually, I bought the juggling geese before I even learned how to juggle properly!

These days I can juggle… badly. I first learned to juggle in high school - occasionally our gym teacher would bring out  a bin of what I can only call “miscellaneous stuff,” some of which was juggling equipment and video tapes. My friends and I very nearly learned how to juggle scarves.

A few years and a set of juggling geese later, I found out that I could take a class in juggling to fulfil one of my required gym credits for college. That actually went really well, since the instructor for the class was Jeff Peden, father of world-class juggler Wes Peden. Jeff was a super awesome instructor, and thanks to him I can actually juggle three balls now, and can almost juggle two. (Juggling two is the first step toward juggling four… juggling even numbers is actually very different from juggling odd numbers!)

So the reason that I’m not very good at juggling has nothing to do with my instructor… it’s simply because I don’t practice enough. I was pretty good about juggling every day when I was enrolled in the course, but that was a year ago. I haven’t made any progress since then. But I really, really want to.

Why Juggle?

Have you ever noticed that people who can juggle are awesome? Just in general - their awesome meter is larger and fuller than the average joe. I’m sure there’s a scientific study about that somewhere: The Effects of Juggling Skill Level on Overall Awesomeness In Humans Over the Age of Nine or something.

Ok, even if I just made that up, it does make a lot of sense. Juggling is both a mental and physical skill. It draws on a variety of talents, such as coordination (which I could always use more of), spatial relations, rhythm, concentration, stamina, and the ability to crack jokes and entertain an audience while keeping several objects in the air.

That last part is particularly important, because I’m the “funny aunt” now that my sister has children. I am not to be outdone by my brother, the funny uncle! Who, by the way, can also juggle, which is what makes this so important. There’s only room for one awesome and hilarious juggler in this family!

So, starting this week, I will juggle every day, to try and make a habit of it. If there’s interest, I may even post a few videos of me juggling (badly). What do you say? Would you like to see me juggle?

Or maybe it is. The theories that Cal reported on don’t exactly go against Dr. Baumeister’s theories - the two different theories are capable of co-existing. In other words, we have a limited amount of willpower for things we don’t want to be doing, but we have an intense amount of willpower when we’re motivated. And, even better, our "unmotivated" willpower might be expandable through "exercise."

Of course, my reflections on all of this add up to nothing more than pop psychology. I’m about the furthest thing from a psychologist you can get: I majored in Film Production and Business Studies. About the closest I got to psych stuff was my Gender Studies concentration (almost a minor, but not quite!). Most of this research leaves me with more questions than answers.

But I’m willing to try, anyway. I’m interested in people, and their habits, in general. I don’t yet know where the projects on Starting This Week will take me. Maybe I’ll be able to cure my noodle arms, and maybe I won’t.

At least I’m willing to try it. Turn myself into a human guinea pig… do I at least get a giant wheel to play on? You can play along, if you like. I’ve added a little widget to the sidebar of this site, that lets you suggest and vote on habits you’d like to see me try. I’ve got a lot of habits I want to try, but I’m always open to suggestions. We’ll see how it goes.

Day 5: Rest

Sunday was a day of rest. The two programs (100 push-ups and 200 sit-ups) are each three days a week, so if I do them every other day, my week gets messed up if I don’t take a day off. I’m anal like that. I was out and about all day Sunday anyway, so I decided to make that my day off. That puts me on a schedule of Monday-Wednesday-Friday sit-ups and Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday push-ups.

Day 6: Sit-Ups

Conquered "Week 1, Day 2" of the program with relative ease. Managed 26 sit-ups during "Set 5," where you do the most you can without stopping. I didn’t have any of the abdominal pain that I felt last time, so that was a big plus. But it did make me wonder if I’m not pushing myself enough. Is no-pain-no-gain a real thing?

Day 7: Push-Ups

"Week 1, Day 3" of the program went smoothly, although I’m still doing "knee push-ups." Actually, I had a little trouble finding a time and place to do my push-ups! I find that I don’t really mind doing the sit-ups with people around, but I’m fairly embarrassed by my wimpy modified push-ups, and I don’t like to do them when I think someone may "catch me in the act." Which clashes with my need to do them in a carpeted area!

I actually posed this question to the comments of an article about barriers on Get Rich Slowly, written by Ramit Sethi. (Recent articles on popular blogs are a great place to pose questions, provided your question is on topic for the article.) One person suggest I roll up a towel and place it under my knees on the hardwood floor. Intriguing! I may try this next time, just to see if it works. But I suspect the towel might slip, and cause me to fall of my face. Remind me to put a pillow down during the test run!

Another commenter suggested a yoga mat. I’m not sure I’m quite to the point where I’m willing to buy any equipment for this, but maybe someday. (It would also give me an excuse to do more yoga on the Wii Fit!)

Kick or Keep?

One week down, it’s time to decide: is the Spring Fitness Challenge a habit I want to kick, or keep? Should I keep going beyond this week’s experiment?

I’m not going to bother with a list of pros and cons, because there aren’t many cons to list. It’s easy to do daily, easy to track, good for my health, and I don’t need to buy any extra equipment (if I can keep people out of the living room on push-up days). And the Spring Fitness Challenge is only six weeks long, so I’m not committing my life to anything. This habit is worth sticking with… at least for another week.

What Now?

Next week will be a new habit, so you’re wondering… will you ever get updates on the Spring Fitness Challenge? Sure. I’m not just going to leave you in the dark because the week is over. Everyone once in a while, we’ll check back in on my progress. And there will certainly be a wrap-up post when I reach the end of the six weeks. You can subscribe to the Starting This Week RSS feed to get all the updates on my habits.

You can also track my day-to-day progress on the Pushups Logger (click "situps logger" in the left sidebar to view my sit-ups stats).

Day 3: Sit-Ups

Based on my initial test, I either could have done the third column of week 1 (the hardest set of that week), or skipped ahead to Week 3 and done the first column of that. I decided to stick with week 1, to keep it in line with my push-up routine. I got through the column fairly easily, and was able to do far more than the minimum for the last set (the minimum was 14 - I stopped counting once I hit that and just kept going).

I’m still pleasantly surprised that I have any abdominal strength at all! I think this program will be easier for me overall - I have little doubt that if I stick with the six-week program, I’ll be able to do 200 sit-ups by the end. Maybe it’s a little early to be making such claims, but I feel good about making that claim.

But boy, did my abs hurt all day long after that! And into the next day, too. I was very, very thankful that the program only goes every other day.

Day 4: Push-Ups

My second try at the push-up exercises, "Day 2" of the program (for those of you following along at home). The sets increase a little each time, but I’m still not ready to move up to "real" push-ups, so I stuck with the modified knee push-ups.

I moved from the hardwood floors (pictured above) to a carpeted area of the house, and it made a huge difference. My knees are still not happy about these modified knee push-ups, but the carpet is better by far. Except, now I’m acutely aware of how much the carpet needs to be vacuumed!

My push-ups are still very weak, but I managed to squeak six modified push-ups out of the last set, so that brings my max up to six.

I’m using to "loggers" on the OneHundredPushups and TwoHundredSitups sites to track my progress. You can watch my logs, if you like, by clicking the link below. The number that appears as "max" represents the number of push-ups/sit-ups I was able to do in a row, without stopping, in "Set 5" of that day’s workout.

Pushups Logger (click "situps logger" in the left sidebar to view my sit-ups stats)

The sit-ups, by the way, are not the full-upper-body back-pain-inducing sit-ups that doctors recommend against, but actually the smaller, safer “crunches” that I did so many of in high school gym class. So I’m grateful for that part, at least.

Day 1

Yesterday, I kicked off my personal attempt in the challenge by taking the initial test for each: that is, doing as many push-ups and sit-ups as my body will allow.

It wasn’t pretty.

I could pull off even one standard good-form push-up. I had to resort to the modified “knee push-ups,” and even those, I can’t do very many of. This is the reason one of my friends calls me “Noodle Arms.” I have the upper body strength of a five-year-old.

Sit-ups I did a bit better on, even though my abdominal strength runs a close second in non-existence. I can do about 20 of them before I have to take a few quick breaths to keep going. Still pretty poor performance.

But that’s alright, in my book - everyone has to start somewhere, and I’m not going to get any better unless I work on it, which is what this program is for.

Day 2

Since each program (push-ups and sit-ups) requires you to do the workout just three days a week, I’ve decided to alternate which day I do what. For my first day after the initial test, I decided to start the push-up program. I’m still doing the modified “knee push-ups,” since I can’t even extort one normal push-up out of my Noodle Arms. Even with the modified push-up, I’m still in the basic/beginner column of the guide.

Speaking of the guide, it’s available for free on the One Hundred Push-Ups site. I downloaded the “pocket mod” version of it (pictured below), because I love pocket mods more than any sane person should. It’s really nice, because I can just put the pocket mod down in front of me while I do the push-ups, and tick off each level with a pencil during the mandatory rest breaks.

I got through the set just fine - the mandatory rest breaks help. But I’m skeptical of my own ability to keep this up for the whole six week program, let alone repeat it if I don’t get to the 100 push-up mark at the end of the six weeks. The other thing that’s got me worried is the poor state of my knees. I’ve always had trouble with them, and have avoided high-impact activities for that reason. So the modified knee push-ups are pushing pressure on them that I don’t feel comfortable with (literally). I hope to graduate to “normal” push-ups as soon as possible, to take the pressure off my knees.

Tomorrow: sit-ups!

In fact, in high school, I was known for doing homework assignments in other classes, the period before the assignment was due. Latin homework in math class, art projects in Latin class, and vocabulary homework in art class. A constant cycle of procrastination and laziness.

If I sound like the Queen of Procrastination, it’s because I am. As teenagers, my brother and I used to have competitions to see who could procrastinate longer, and still get As in all (or most) of their classes. These competitions finely honed my procrastination skills, and now I dare anyone to try and claim my title from me!

Except, the truth is, I’m stepping down from that throne. At some point, you have to start acting like an adult, and for the first time in my life I find myself saying "I’d rather start doing that now, than start later."

Willpower

Last year, the New York Times ran an article title Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind, which offered insight into the way willpower actually works. According to the research of Psychologist Roy Baumeister (and others), willpower actually works a lot like the health bar of a video game character. First of all, it can be depleted. So when you use your willpower for one thing (say, spending less money), it leaves little willpower left over for other things (say, dieting). But, like that video game character’s health bar, willpower can be expanded. The more you exercise it, the more total willpower you’ll have - like a muscle.

The article also points to connections between blood sugar levels and willpower - basically, that hungry people have less willpower. Could small meals and snacks throughout the day help improve my willpower? But perhaps the most interesting, and helpful, part of the article is the list of suggestions for increasing your willpower "bar":

In psychological studies, even something as simple as using your nondominant hand to brush your teeth for two weeks can increase willpower capacity. People who stick to an exercise program for two months report reducing their impulsive spending, junk food intake, alcohol use and smoking. They also study more, watch less television and do more housework. Other forms of willpower training, like money-management classes, work as well.

I’ll be skipping the money management class, since my money is actually the one part of my life that I’ve got under some semblance of control now (see my other site about personal finance for college students and 20-somethings). But the fact remains that if I want to start using my willpower muscle, I’ll need to start exercising it.

So welcome to Starting This Week. Each week, a new habit - small or large. From brushing my teeth with my left hand to exercise regimes, from daily wrestling matches with a Rubik’s cube to finally keeping my fingernails away from my teeth. At the end of the week, I’ll decide whether the new habit is worth sticking with for another week.

Here goes something.