Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and I am not trained or gifted with any type of physical fitness. I am just going to be following a popular challenge that has been said to work for many people. I have current physicals from my actual doctor, and I am a relatively healthy person, so this challenge is a way to increase my health and happiness during the school year.

Students generally don’t feel that they have enough time to workout, and a great way to get around the lack of time is to make workouts short and meaningful. Many workout crazes like high-intensity interval training (HIIT) have become very popular because they are easy for the “person on the go.” Another way to squeeze in impactful workouts in small doses is by following a monthly challenge.

I will be perfectly honest: unless you are a huge gym enthusiast, you probably don’t strictly enjoy working out. If you can’t find the time or you just can’t find the motivation, everyone has a reason why they don’t want to workout. I felt this way at the beginning of the week. I was getting over an upper-respiratory infection and felt gross. It had been a week since I had last gone to the gym, and I had no motivation to do anything except eat a pack of M&M Carmello’s. However, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to get in shape, and I was going to stick to it.

I am currently trying a 30-day ab challenge, which, in theory, should work to help build muscle in my abdominal region and hopefully burn some fat in the process. However, ab workouts that are low intensity are generally not great at burning fat as much as toning the muscle that you already have, which is why I will also be combining this workout with my other daily cardio workouts.

My workouts for the week are listed below, and if you want to sweat along with me, you can see the challenge I am following in its entirety here.

Week 1 reflection:

It generally takes 1-1/2-2 weeks to be able to see results of a continuous workout. This means that many people get frustrated about their lack of over-night beach body. However, you should never give up if you really want to see results. The only thing more upsetting than not having overnight success is knowing that you gave up so soon.

Though I can not see that much of a difference in my physique, I can definitely tell a difference because my muscles are sore, and sore is generally good. I am also new to ab workouts and I don’t have a lot of strength in my core. I found that I stuck with 45 seconds for Tuesday and Wednesday because the workouts allowed for that. It didn’t feel like too much pressure for me to add this in at the beginning or end of my day and I found that I was likely to do more than just one set. Overall, week one was a success, and I can’t wait for week 2 to begin.