<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" I last blogged three weeks ago before I left for my two-week vacation. While I had every good intention of keeping up my exercise routine and sending e-mail updates before I left, it was quite challenging to stick to an exercise routine while on vacation, let alone find the time and means to send updates overseas. Luckily, it wasn&amp;#039;t all a wash, especially in the first half of the vacation, when I was at my parents&amp;#039; beach house. I did in fact exercise my arms with the modified routine I described in Week 3 of the challenge. Proof? That&amp;#039;s me in the picture lifting the small tote bag filled with books and a huge pebble stone. About the tattoo\u2026Don&amp;#039;t worry, I didn&amp;#039;t totally go wild. It&amp;#039;s a temporary one that I had gotten with my kids at a water park and it&amp;#039;s all gone by now. I finally got a chance to test if one could &amp;quot;burst&amp;quot; by swimming and yes. One in fact can. Any time I was in the water I swam as fast as I could until my arms and legs felt tired and then caught my breath by doing slower paced water aerobics like bicycles and jumping jacks. One other time, I &amp;quot;bursted&amp;quot; by running up and down a shaded walkway despite the 90 plus degree weather and the curious looks I received from neighboring houses. I wasn&amp;#039;t as good in the second half of the vacation though. Partly because I was in a big city with many other interesting things to do, places to go to, and relatives to see and the vacation had started putting time and distance between me and my fitness goal. So I only did the modified arm toning routine once in the entire week and didn&amp;#039;t &amp;quot;burst&amp;quot; at all. My diet was pretty lax as well. I ate pretty much whatever I was served. However, I tried to control the portions and didn&amp;#039;t go overboard with desserts or drinks. Upon my return home, I went off the track even further. Between back-to-school prep and the jet lag I didn&amp;#039;t not exercise at all this past week! So what to do to gain control? Though I was scared to death to go on the scale, I forced myself to go to the first Weight Watchers meeting I could and got weighed in. To my surprise, the damage was only a 0.2 lb weight gain in three weeks. Although this sounds negligible, I can most definitely feel that I lost muscle in my arms and legs which got replaced with fat! Six-weeks have past since Charmaine and I began this challenge and if it wasn&amp;#039;t for my vacation-induced break, this would have been my last post on the Gorgeous Arm Challenge. However, it doesn&amp;#039;t feel quite right to stop right now. Because: 1) I am nowhere near where I want to be with my arms 2) I really could not report on my progress for six weeks and I finish all things I start 3) Most importantly, if I stopped blogging now I am afraid I will never have the motivation to go back to it again (as Charmaine said in her last post, blogging about the process really makes one accountable and stick with the program) Therefore, right here, right now, I am recommitting to the challenge for another three weeks and I hope you come and visit my blog as I continue reporting on my progress. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a20631/get-remotivated-to-workout/?src=shelter_footer>