No Blog, No Sit Ups

Can't explain it, but if I don't blog, I don't do the sit ups. Except today, I did them, and now I'm blogging, so I guess, I should say: including today. 

Maybe I'll figure out the not blogging not sitting up connection, meanwhile, here goes: 

Day 98. Sit Ups 98. 

As for the 1000 words, I'm behind. Now will go change that. 

From the New York Times: Sit Ups Devastate Spines

A professor of spine biomechanics, Stuart McGill, says that sit ups place devastating loads on the discs. Instead, there are other important core strengthening exercises. Not sure 365 Bird Dogs, Planks, and Approved Crunches have quite the same appeal, but this is worth pondering. 

Yes, he really says, If they did hundreds of sit ups their spines would break before they trained to a high level. 

Ouch.

One Hundred Sit Ups

For the past three days, I've done 100 sit ups per day. This is something I've never before thought possible, for me, a "non-athlete." I've also started daily push ups and thrice weekly running. In real running sneakers. 

Bottom line: Adding one more sit up every day works. It works great and is a beautiful way to make significant change. And every change causes a domino effect of more change, with unexpected results, and possibly even dangerous empowerment (this I'm still looking forward to). 

Doing my sit up experiment has also let me learn about my own negative thoughts, thoughts that I believe have been holding me back from doing my best and living my best life. Thoughts that were so much a part of who I have been, that I didn't even notice them until I did that first sit up and distinctly heard you can't do it  in my mind. Now, when I hear that voice in my head saying you can't do this, I immediately start to do just that thing. It's become my clue for finding my fear so I can find my fearlessness. 

I read once that if you can make a change last for 90 days, it is permanent. And, I believe this is true. I have no doubt that at the end of the year, I'll be up to 365 sit ups per day. But, I'm busy writing a novel and teaching and I'm sorry to say that I don't have anything else to blog about without sinking even deeper into pointless narcissism. So, I'll just say thank you. Thank you for your support and encouragement. If you try this experiment, let me know. I'd love to hear how it goes for you. 

Thrill Seeker

This morning I did seventy sit-ups and I realized that I've entered a brand new world. This is unchartered territory, for me, to be able to do 70 sit-ups and to continue doing more and more every day. To run, to do push ups, to be athletic. This is a way of life I've admired without ever thinking I could join in. I've always thought I was not athletic. I believed that voice in my head that told me I couldn't do it. 

Now that inner-mind voice blathers and I ignore it like I ignore the voice of my daughter's annoying little friend, who is always asking me why the backseat of my car isn't clean. As I'm learning to notice but also ignore the voice that tells me I can't do lots of things. I was so used to that voice, that I didn't even realize how much control it had over me. 

I'm 1/6 through the project, with no signs of stopping. It is working. I am thrilled. 

Two words

Sixty-five sit-ups. 

My daughter: That's four words. 

Me: Impressive, isn't it?

Daughter: You didn't say that. 

Me: No, but I thought it. And this is my blog. 

Daughter: Not any more. Mwah-hah-hah-hah!

Me: It's past your bedtime.

Uh, Oh

If you've got a big gut and you start doing sit-ups, you are going to get bigger because you build up the muscle. You've got to get rid of that fat! 

Thank you, Jack LaLanne, who at the age of seventy, handcuffed and shackled, swam 1.5 miles while towing 70 boats with 70 people in the Long Beach Harbor. I'm starting to develop a media crush. 

Here. Check this out. 

48 Sit Ups

I've broken the sit ups into two sets. Is this cheating? After about 25 sit ups, I just rest for a minute and then do the rest. The Guinness Book of World Records allows five minutes of rest per hour of sit ups. I learned this from Mark Pfeltz, the King of Sit Ups, who did over 33,000 of them in 58 hours. 

Too bad no one is massaging me between sets. 

Kings of Convenience

This is my newest favorite song. I like to listen to it when I run. Yes, somehow the sit ups started the push ups and the push ups started the running. Wouldn't it be great if flying came next? 

Paul Newman

Today someone told me that Paul Newman's secret was doing 100 sit ups every day. His secret to what? Success? Beauty? Fitness? Salad dressing?

Not sure. I'm only up to 42. I'll let you know what happens after I do 100. 

Incidentally, today my seven-year-old did 100 sit ups and 50 push ups. Just to show us that she could. She is so strong. Wonder how many she'll be doing at my age. 

Push Ups? Really?

While searching the New York Times for information about the beloved sit up and finding zilch, I came across this article about the exalted push up and why it is the enduring symbol of fitness. Could I have chosen my calisthenic as poorly as I chose my college major, retirement plan, and last three cars? Really, I'm wondering, is this a trend? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/health/nutrition/11well.html

So anyway, I checked and I can do twelve push ups, girlie style. Tomorrow, though, I now have confidence, I'll do thirteen. 

35 Sit Ups and Change

Yesterday I noticed something. While walking around. A change in the way the center of my body feels. It is stronger, bigger, more expansive. 

Today I noticed something else. While sitting up in my bedroom. Change on the floor under my bed. I picked it up and put it into my pocket. 

34 Sit Ups

I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed. 

(George Carlin)

Dangerously Empowered

Yesterday, I watched this video about starting a running program and training for a 5K.

I was taken by the author's assertion that making a change, such as beginning to run, can spill over into the rest of one's life, and the results may be dangerously empowering. 

I love this term and it has been sitting in the forefront of my consciousness ever since. Although, of course, dangerously here means something like deliciously or thrillingly. This is what we are hoping for, right? Not just the sit ups, but also the magical empowerment to live a life that is full of our most desired experiences. 

I wrote at the start that I would like to travel and make the world a better place, as well as be strong enough to do 365 sit ups. I'm not done, I guess that's the point for me. And the stronger I am, the better I will be able to continue existing into very old age--traveling, making art, and maybe even living more than several dangerously empowered decades. 

I particularly love the idea of being dangerously empowered and 85-years-old. 

If Sit Ups Hurt Your Lower Back

Here are two options. First, crunches, said to be safe for lower backs, while still delivering "six pack abs." 

Not surprisingly, this gentleman's abs and mine are very similar after my fifty sit ups the other day. 

And, for those of you still pained by crunches. There's always this technique for getting six pack abs. I think I could do this. I think I could. 

Reading List

DAUGHTER: Haven't you ever heard of the Little Engine That Could? 

ME: Who? 

DAUGHTER: I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. 

Fifty Sit Ups

So technically I was only supposed to do thirty sit ups today, and I did. Then, I thought, why stop there? Why not keep going? So I paused and then did twenty more. And I didn't die, although I might have sounded like I was dying, because my daughter yelled from the next room, "Don't kill yourself!"

My new technique is to enthusiastically say to myself (internally) "I can't do this" after counting off each sit up, as if "I can't do this" actually means something along the lines of "you are amazing! you are doing it!" Is this what people mean when they talk about embracing the no? (Or maybe that is embracing the now..?) Anyway, this is all staring to seem very narcissistic. Who cares? Thirty sit ups. Fifty sit ups. 365. 

MY BELLY: I care. ME: I wasn't talking to you, was I. MY BELLY: You said who? The answer is, me and my low pain threshold. ME: Some day you'll thank me. MY BELLY: Don't count on it. 

27 Sit Ups

Two strange things about daily increasing sit ups. First, every day the additional sit up absolutely kills me. I can barely do it and afterwards must groan very loudly and collapse dramatically onto my back. But, the next day, yesterday's sit up is cake, and the new additional sit up is the impossible one. This has been true every day since the eleventh sit up. 

Second, after every sit up, my mind tells me I can't "do this." It's like this: One (I can't do this). Two (I can't do this). Three (I can't do this). And so on and so on. I think this is so weird. Why is my mind in charge of telling me I can't do sit ups, as it seems to be? And what else is it telling me I can't do? 

This reminds me of when I gave birth to my youngest daughter and my oldest daughter was in the birth room. For a time, I said, in a quite calm and reasonable voice, "I Can't Do It! I Can't Do It!" This went on for something like six hours, until miraculously, I did it. 

My oldest daughter, who heard all of this with some adult intervention (strategic trips to the ice machine down the hall), would for weeks, whenever she was crying over a scraped knee or hurt feelings, instead of saying "Owww!" or "it hurts" would say "I can't do it! I can't do it!" 

Is this how it starts? 

Five Sit Ups

One thing I really like about sit ups is that while I am sitting up, my field of vision is filled with the eucalyptus trees out the window--lovely, slight breeze--and while I am lying back down, I see the ceiling--smooth, white like the tundra, with nothing to make me feel like I need to go tidy up. 

Day Four

No Sweat. Four sit ups are still pretty easy. Takes about ten seconds. It's just enough time to wonder why my eleven-year-old daughter likes listening to Celine Dion *and* will.i.am. 

Then stand up and move on. 

Getting This Chestnut Out of the Way (why isn't everything as easy as 3 sit ups?)

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change; 

Courage to change the things I can; 

And wisdom to know the difference. 

Living one day at a time; 

Enjoying one moment at a time; 

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

As it is, not as I would have it; 

Trusting that He will make all things right

If I surrender to His Will; 

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life

And supremely happy with Him

Forever and ever in the next. 

Which would you rather be, thin or warm?

From the Washington Post: In addition to eating less and exercising more, people may one day be able to stimulate their bodies to get rid of stored energy -- in the form of ordinary fat -- purely as heat. "It is, in a sense, the discovery of a new organ..." Seriously? 

It's called brown fat and when you are cold, it is activated to create heat and burn calories. So, if you are chilled to the point of shivering, then you will be thin. So much for hot yoga and jogging in plastic wrap. 

(I'd rather be warm). 

Day Two

(This is actually really stupid.)

One. 

(I can't do this.)

Two. 

(I can't do this.)

Thr...

(Oh.)

Am I the Chimp or the Dog?

Their names are Pan-Kun and James. They sit up. 

(Today, I'm the dog). 

Why Sit Ups?

I've been thinking about how people change their lives, what is possible to change, what is here forever. We (okay--I) cling to the belief that one can change most anything, really, and with that change create a new life, or a better life, or something exciting, interesting, fabulous. And then there is global change, as opposed to personal selfish change. Because we do want to change the world, end hunger, and save the planet. But, can we change? Can we really change? Sometimes I feel so powerless yet also surrounded by immense clouds of utter hopefulness. 

One longed-for change, I wish I traveled more. Once, I went to the Czech Republic and it was so great. I loved everything about being in Bohemia: the dumplings, the music, my new friend Eduard, the crazy art everywhere. The quiet beauty of not understanding a word anyone said. My Kafka Museum T-shirt. I would love to live a life that involved traveling to new places all the time. Instead, I move across country rather often, but do not travel out of the country much at all. Someday I think I will change that--before I die certainly. But, will I? Can I? 

I don't know. 

Also, I kind of want to get my stomach muscles back in shape after having kids (okay, it was seven years ago, but who's counting?) For some reason, I kind of want to be a person with a strong core and flat abs, who also travels to great, new places, and does something to make the world a better place. This feels a little random, possibly shallow, but somehow do-able. Maybe if I take it one sit up at a time. 

With this in mind. I walk into my bedroom, lie down on the floor with my feet tucked under the bed, I clasp my hands behind my head, and sit up straight. Then I lie down again. 

Done. My first sit up. But, 365? This will definitely hurt.