On News Year’s Day, in a state of post-celebrating delirium/hilarity, BF and I had a good ‘ole time talking about potential resolutions.

He and I have never been huge into resolving to change our lives at the start of the New Year, but it’s fun for us to invent crazy ideas of how we could spend the rest of the year.

And for better or for worse…this year, one of those ideas stuck.

It all started with BF trying to come up with some sort of fitness goals. Sometimes he’ll do this throughout the year, such as a number of miles to run in one month or something of that variety, but this time he dug a little deeper.

His idea was to do one push-up and one sit-up on January first, two push-ups and two sit-ups on January 2nd… and so on.

And just because he felt it was incomplete, he included a jumping-jack into the mix as well.

The things you learn when Google-image searching “funny jumping jack”. Also, this is true.

So on that day, January 1st, he started the first round. 1-1-1.

And because, you know, why not do one push-up, one sit-up, and one jumping jack… I decided to do it too. The next day, we went for our two of each.

I’m not really sure when I decided to join in on this venture, however we’ve just completed day 11 of Push-Up, Sit-Up, Jumping Jack…more fondly known as “PSJJ.”

It was hilarious at first. Because seriously…who purposefully does only one or two of these? It’s still a little funny…but (and I think you can see where this is going) we’re beginning to realize that this idea is going to get really hard, really fast.

I’m not even talking about day 365 when allegedly we’ll be doing 365 of each exercise  I’m talking about mid April when from then on, we’ll be doing 100+ of each per day.

Not so funny then.

However, this wasn’t so much of a resolution as a, “let’s see how long we can do this for” type of thing.

At this point, it’s both amusing and do-able. Howeve,r I’m a little afraid that it’s not too long until we’re going to curse this idea and dread every day a little more.

However, for two reasonably athletic and outrageously competitive people, I don’t really see us quitting as soon as we hit some scarier numbers.

So we’ll see.

In the meantime, it’s still funny and still a little fun to think of actually carrying this whole thing out.

And in case you’re wondering, there are official rules:

1) Real push-ups. On toes, all the way down.

2) Real sit-ups. No crunches.

3) Exercises can be completed while in a class at the gym/during a gym workout. I.E: while not in the presence of the other participant…we’re all about honesty here.

4) Exercises can be spaced out throughout the day. This isn’t really an issue now…but I can’t get through more than 40 push-ups in one shot….let alone 41, 42, 43, 44, 45….365.

5) Off days. (BF, we still need to discuss). I think potentially we may need to come up with some sort of allotted “off-days” for the sake of deathly illness, injury, or…ahem, marathons. HOWEVER, I think those off-days need to be earned by adding those missed PSJJs on other days.

Clearly, our hangover-induced idea has turned into a much more official endeavour, but it’s kind of fun.

Who knows, maybe this stupid crazy health-oriented idea will actually start to really supplement our strength.

So there you have it. PSJJ is now public, and open to anyone who wants to join on the bandwagon. There’s no spreadsheet, sign-up, or twitter handle…just honesty and sweat. If you did start now though, you’d need to go until January 11, 2014…just to get in the full year.

And just think, wouldn’t 1, 2, 3..11 PSJJs feel better after completing 365, 364, 363… right before? 🙂

And now you have a glimpse into the thrilling lives of BF and myself. It’s a little embarrassing.

And in case you were super curious…my “real” resolution is to read a book a month in order to get my ass off the interwebs all the time. I know this is ridiculously easy for a lot of you…but for me, well, let’s just say I have a little more faith in PSJJ.

Happy Friday!

In case the Mayan prophets or mainstream media haven’t told you yet, the world is supposed to end today.

Actually, I’m not sure if the world was supposed to end last night at midnight, during the day today, or tonight at midnight…they weren’t super clear on the specifics. But, we’ve all been told for many a year that 12/21/12 would be the end all.

Now, I don’t believe in prophecies or apocalypses or anything of that sort (except perhaps of the zombie variety…that shit’s real). Even NASA said we’re in the clear. But, this whole theory has got me thinking about what I would be doing if it were my last day on Earth.

Naturally, all kinds of fantastical ideas came about. Some involved Disneyland, some involved flying to Prague, and some involved going back in time to summer and transporting to my family’s lake house. They were all quite end-of-the-world worthy.

They also involved excessive amounts of brie.

I intended, then, to write a post about what my more “realistic” last day on Earth would look like. I even started a fairly detailed timeline, with some flailing attempts at humor and everything.

But then, as my “day” started progressing and I tried to come up with all the elaborate things I would do with a final 24 hours (sky diving! hang gliding! robbery!) I realized there were really only three things I wanted to do:

1) Be with my family and friends

2) Run long

3) Eat yummy food

I tried so hard to come up with all the incredible opportunities available on the last day ever. It seemed like there would be so many important discussions to have, misdeeds to undo, and ambitions to take on. But really, when it came down to it, all I really wanted to do were the same things I want to do most every day.

Maybe that makes me wildly boring (probably the case), or maybe it means I lack preparedness whenever the end should come. But I prefer to think it means that I take a good deal of enjoyment out of the simple things in life.

There is nothing more appealing to me than an obscenely long run, followed by an obscenely delicious meal, followed by time spent with the people I love. Perhaps it’s why my weekend plans are always the same, or why I prefer staying in to going out 90% of the time.

And that really doesn’t change if the world is ending or not.

Sure, I do want to sky dive at some point. And duh, I want to go back to Prague and see the rest of the world at some point as well. There are many adventures high on my bucket list. But when it comes down to it, these aren’t the most important things. These aren’t the things that I would turn to if I knew that there would be no tomorrow.

I’d probably spend a good amount of time expressing gratitude for certain people and the impact that they’ve made (which is something, admittedly, I don’t ordinarily do enough), but other than a few circumstantial tweaks, the way I would live my last day on Earth isn’t too different from how I would live a good day, any day.

The fact that I immediately decided running would somehow need to be included in the day was both very not surprising  and somewhat comforting. The realization confirmed for me that running for me is about more than just races and being in shape; that it’s a part of me regardless of those extraneous factors, so much so that I don’t necessarily feel complete without it.

So call me lame, introverted, whatever. I, for one, love envisioning my final day on Earth as somewhat reminiscent of the best days I’ve already had.

And I suppose I’d probably wear a ball gown the whole day too, just for the occasion.

But what I really want to know is…

How would YOU spend your final day?