Happy February readers! Admittedly my least favorite month of the year (except for it being my husband's birthday month and it being the shortest one of the year).

I hope many of you have had the chance to tune into the show "100 days" that I mentioned in the last article. If you didn't read the last issue, this is a YouTube series featuring locally-based author John Green and his best friend Chris Waters. In this series, they challenge themselves in vast ways to increase their fitness and wellness through diet modifications and various exercise modalities. They come to me twice a week, and then embark on other types of workouts at local facilities for a total of 100 days. And no, they aren't torturing themselves daily for 100 straight days. They also build rest and self-guided exercise days into their schedules so it's really not as extreme as it seems.

The past two week episodes have been very interesting. John explains how much exercise, and particularly intense at that, has an extremely calming effect on him and helps with his OCD disorder. And the first month of this series has really impacted him immensely in this way. Which is awesome! I find fitness to be very therapeutic mentally and physically. I will refer to a meme I saw on Facebook the other day:

Said no one ever...."Man, I wished I hadn't got that workout in!"

The first episode highlighted a trip to Broad Ripple Park's fitness trail. The show's title was "you don't need a gym to workout" which I uttered while leading the guys through the various fitness stations, giving them a great full body workout while outdoors. In this episode, they also tried out indoor rock climbing at a local facility. John has a crippling fear of heights, so the fact that he was willing to do this was impressive. He did it; hated it, and said he will never do it again, and I believe him. But the fact is he TRIED it, never know for sure if you hate something unless you try it.

The next episode was interesting due to the fact that Chris was sick with the flu and John had to workout solo. While sad that Chris didn't feel well, it was interesting to see how much more difficult it was for John to struggle through his workout without Chris. It was WAY tougher for him and I knew it would be. The buddy system really helps with fitness journeys as it provides that support like a "misery loves company" haha. Not to mention a slight distraction while they joke with each other and take breaks. Indoor cycling was also done (also without Chris) at my favorite local cycling gym. John had never tried this before and he definitely liked it...probably not enough to return at 6:00am again! But did like it.

Finally the last episode I will mention featured an entire workout of partner exercise. This one was extremely amusing to film and they were doing wheelbarrows, plank jump overs, ball tosses, band jumps, etc. Not necessary to have a lot of equipment to get a solid workout! Lastly, they visited an aerial fitness gym downtown. They basically swung around on ribbons, spun around on hoops and trapezes. Trust me, it's harder than it looks. But it seems really cool and I'm hoping to give it a try soon!!

The main thing that John seems to struggle with is his diet. It seems to be his biggest challenge so far, and I know many of you, myself included, can relate to this. Our relationship with food can be quite complicated as it isn't something you can ever "quit" like smoking or alcohol.

This show has definitely been quite eye opening to myself and has inspired me to get out of my box as well!!