Success!
So far here are the totals for this month:
Squats: 95 | Push ups / Arm Raises: 6!
*So, my fiance just told me that I have not been doing real push ups! My arms are bowed too wide & not closer to my chest.. I am stunned, because that means that I cannot do a real push up *sigh*
Well, here is to trying to learn the basics again. Learning something new every day.
>Respectfully submitted<< ~Mai
August’s Squat Challenge was a success and my booty is 1,500 squats stronger! My daughter even joined a number of days and completed over 100 squats with me on her own volition! Such a beautiful secondary gain to being active and making the effort is the spark that others are able to draw on; our children, family, and friends.
I started doing challenges earlier this year and this one I just reached out and asked a few people if they wanted to join in with me. A staggering 10 people completed the challenge with me yesterday, and as of today – the group I created to house the monthly challenges has 23 members. I am so ecstatic to have such a large group of supporters and accountability partners!
I needed to be sure that I could post daily on FB before I jumped back on here, and I think for this challenge, I will also challenge myself to be sure to post on my blog in tandem with my FB posts.
So cheers to another challenge… another day… another month… another opportunity to perfect myself, gain increased strength, focus on my health, and refine my level of discipline. If you decided to join in, comment and let me know how you are doing. First post tomorrow will break down the image you see below.
>Humbly & Respectfully submitted<< ~Mai
So, the squat challenge is underway, Day.11 and 550 squats down! We are doing 50 a day for 30 days and I am loving how much support there has been as well. I invited three people to do it and there are about eight doing it with me, and several people caught onto a few other people – so there is like an extended squatting network going on right now! I absolutely LOVE IT!
I have actually already begun thinking about out / my September challenge and about half of the current “challengers” are going to continue the journey with me. The plan is to actually add another challenge on, but continue doing the current challenge as well. This will serve as sort of a foundation so I can stay active. My goal to to maintain my level of activity and gradually build it up, as to not overwhelm myself and make it seem like it is a chore. Also, I learned from my 90-day challenge that when I do not have an active challenge going on, it is SO HARD to stay motivated, so I pretty much just halted all exercises once that concluded in April.
Anywho, I look forward to seeing the progress through these next weeks and next months really, as I add more things in.
Forever evolving.
>Humbly submitted<< ~Mai
So, I have been on a hiatus, I took some time off of social media as I do periodically and it was great while it lasted!
Now, I am back on & am jumping into another challenge & have some new recruits joining with me. I will most likely try to record and upload daily for accountability purposes & so I can look back and see my personal growth / journey.
If anyone else wants to join us, my friends, family and I will be dong 50 squats a day. Any time, and way, any method, as long as it is daily and you do at least 50. I am going to start out really simple with basic squats & do as much as I can in the a.m. before I shower & go to work, and only do what I have left over when I get back from work. Honestly, the goal is to get all 50 done at the beginning of the day.
I am definitely going to stretch tonight, make sure I am limber again. I fell ALL the way off after my last 90-day challenge and am still psychoanalyzing myself how I can be SO DISCIPLINED once whatever innate on-switch is turned on, and completely apathetic when the switch is off. Do I have to actually challenge myself, compete with myself, in order to reach my goals? Not quite sure, but I am still mulling it over to make sure I am getting the most out of this life by understanding and figuring myself out as I continue to evolve.
T-Minus 7 hours until day #1…
~Humbly submitted *Mai*
Housekeeping, Gender reveals, travels, & much more. Working on a master plan and will fill in the details shortly 🙂
~Bests
~Mai
I am literally just waking up from being in a horrible fog. When I tell you I felt like I had a HORRIBLE case of malaria the last 36 hours, I WISH I was exaggerating.
I felt like I’d gotten a cold, because Tuesday at work I was sneezing, nose running & clogged up, I was tired, and had a slight headache. Figured it could also just be my allergies flaring up with the weather being all over the place.
Tuesday night was worse.. Everything exacerbated and I also randomly got an earache pretty badly in my left ear. I literally kept a piece of garlic in my ear the whole night. But I was slowly getting worse.
In the morning when my fiance got off his graveyard shift, he told me NOT TO go to work if I was feeling like last night (I think he could see it in my face). I said I was just going to try, I HATE missing work and feeling like I am leaving more for others to do, especially if it is not pre-planned.
MISTAKE.
Went to work and from the moment I got in the car and drove there, I knew it was a bad decision. My head began pounding & I was at full migraine now. I had no appetite, my jaw, my neck, my face, my eyes, even my teeth hurt. Where was all of this coming from? My co-worker immediately commented on how I did not look well. Damn, second person cannot be wrong. Tried to push through as there were two things that definitely needed to get done today & I was able to do that. Not even an hour into work, I had to tell my boss I felt horrible & she suggested that I leave & take care of myself.
Clocked out & when I got to the car, I just sat there in the warmth because I was soooo cold and I was also light-headed and almost in a fog, I was not happy about driving home in that state. I told myself to drive slowly and I will be ok. Made it home and shivering, got to my front door. I ripped off my clothing, put on jammies, and robe, and put the scarf back on, put on my long thick socks and climbed under all the blankets. I lay there shivering trying to fall asleep for over a hour. I was shaking uncontrollably, and with all those layers, STILL unable to get warm. Could fall asleep because my face was hurting and my head was pounding. It was very miserable. I finally fall asleep at some point and lay in the dark room all day, only up to use the bathroom & sat up to drink water. I could not eat, each time I reached for the banana I opened up that morning, I felt like I was going to upchuck & had to put it right back down.
This horrible cycle repeated until 8pm & I finally forced myself to stay up for a few minutes and walked over to the couch, where I laid back down & 1/2 interacted with my daughter. She seemed confused as she looked at me laying there in the dark. Not holding and hugging her like I always do. Couldn’t tell her how weak I felt, how my body seems to have a mind of its own, how mommy does not want to pass to her WHATEVER this is plaguing my body.
Finally got up the strength to eat half a bowl of food I had to coach my fiance through making & send hopefully a coherent email to supervisor I would not be in the next day. Shortly thereafter, I made my way back to bed to sleep through the night until almost noon today.
The migraine, face pain, earache, and chills have seemed to subside and I am just left with a headache, clogged nose, bouts of sneezing, and general fatigue. Hopefully I will continue to get better through the day and will probably take another nap here shortly. I serious had not felt this bad w/ all of these symptoms since I had malaria during my travels in Meritah (Afrika). I am so thankful the worst has seemed to pass & looking forward to getting back to myself.
>Respectfully submitted<< ~Mai
IM DONE! IM DONE! IM DONE!
Such an amazing feeling that I completed this, three months of shutting down excuses and just doing it. Listening to my body those 5 times when I just was not able to do it those days.
Awwww, it just feels so amazing.
Also finally got in touch with a woman I’d met on my travels to Meritah (Africa) and we had a long, amazing, and long-overdue catching up session. Hopefully, we will get to link up later this year in person as well.
Well, nothing like a warm shower to “consummate” the closing of this challenge.
Next challenge to begin in: 35 days!
2018 = 5 million!!!
Second half of challenge totals:
TOTALS!
>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<< ~Mai
OMG, tomorrow is the FINAL day of my 99-day challenge. Today was successful, workout completed & we also go to head to Balboa Park for the Earth Day celebration. Baby girl got some great sun and danced away to a several live bands.
We wound down the rest of the evening & watched a movie we hadn’t seen before, so all-in-all, it was a successful day. Looking forward to buttoning up this challenge & feeling the accomplishments of my hard work, as well as transition into another push towards balance, but this time, focusing on my diet.
See you all on the other side. #Last24 #Igot5onit99 #DangThatsALotOfSquats!
#Countdown1toGo!
2018 = 5 million!!!
Second half of challenge totals:
Totals for day 96/99:
>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<< ~Mai
I work at a law firm and the partner decided we should do Administrative Appreciation day early so we can do it on a Friday. Yes all here for it and food was Delish!
Here are some pics from the lunch 😋 (Yes, those are piranha heads in my display pic).
Workout complete and just THREE MORE DAYS!
Good workout, dinner is practically done, had an AWESOME time today for our early Admin Appreciation day lunch 🙂
Have a perfect little weekend planned to spend time outdoors and with the family, really excited to be moving into outside walking season.
I think on Monday, my final day of the challenge, I am going to do burn outs of each of the exercises, just do as many as I can do straight over the course of the day and see how that goes :/
#Countdown3toGo!
2018 = 5 million!!!
Second half of challenge totals:
Totals for day 96/99:
>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<< ~Mai
These German Sauerkraut Potato balls were amazing and the chunky salad I paired it with cleansed it right down. Heavy + Light = balance 🙂
Type the name into Pinterest for recipe.
This will now be a MaiMuna’s Kitchen staple.
>Respectfully Submitted<< ~Mai
Yes! Felt much better today, so I went ahead and knocked out my workout EARLY, just in case the pain tried to creep up later. I also was able to get dinner prepped for tonight and tomorrow’s dinners. I just have to cook the pasta (tonight) and the rice (tomorrow).
YAY Happy Born Day to my MaMa! Doing a joint celebration one of these upcoming weekend for our late April / early May b-days 🙂
In other news, I am feeling so good that after this weekend, I should only have one more module left in this class, then it is just getting my personal business topped off from there on out. My goal is to have the entire year plans on paper before the doors open and at least the first 6 months by the time this summer ends, because that will be more than enough to get started, should I receive the necessary funding to get it off the floor.
Well, time for this much anticipated shower, until next time. Just 4 more days!!!
#Countdown4toGo!
2018 = 5 million!!!
Second half of challenge totals:
Totals for day 95/99:
>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<< ~Mai
Today went fairly smoothly – but unfortunately, no workout. A few hours after getting home, by back hurt TREMENDOUSLY. It is my low low back and on the right side oh my goodness. Felt as bad as it did shortly after the car accident.. *ugh* It has mellowed out a BIT, but I still feel it when going from sitting to standing, vice versa, try to move too quickly, bending down & over.
But, it is only a minor setback & not a complete halt. I would rather take a seat on the bench, then to be taken off the court in a gurney!
Tomorrow is another day, another opportunity to get it in. Until then, rest & hydration.
#Countdown5toGo!
2018 = 5 million!!!
Second half of challenge totals:
Totals for day 94/99:
>>Respectfully submitted & Always thankful<< ~Mai