I kind of cheated with this one. After I finished Day One's post, I clicked through the rest of them just to see what they were all about. Forethought never hurts, you know. As I was reading through today's article, a startling fact jumped out me: my gut could be partially due to my bad posture!
That was something I'd never suspected before. I should have realized it, of course. Just as women's innards are rearranged by a tight corset, men's guts are squished by their rib cages whenever they hunch over. Fancy that. I've been trying to ditch this gut for ages, and by slouching I was working against myself the whole time.
Well, no more. I've been subtly working on my posture all through the past three weeks of this challenge. I stand straight enough, but my sitting posture is atrocious. I've made a conscious effort to sit up straighter, or "sit at attention" as AoM explains. (And I've been making a heartier effort at the gym, too, for obvious reasons. Between that and sitting straighter, I'll have this beer gut licked in 2014, hell or high water.)
Today being the actual day of the challenge, I was more conscientious. I actually performed the tests which AoM recommends in the article. I did the "wall test" to see if my standing posture was good, and it was. The only bad habit I have while standing is to suck in my gut, which will probably give me hypertension at some point.
Sitting was more challenging. My couch doesn't lend itself to leaving a "hollow" in the small of my back, and I often became tired. But I stuck to it. I'm going to keep at it when the spring semester begins and I'm at my desk for long periods. I didn't do the "string" test that the article suggests, because I have a feeling my gut would interfere with it. But I don't need no string to tell me to sit up straight.
Ouch. Ouch ouch ouch.
This sucks.
This might be the worst challenge yet.
Can't a man slouch if he wants to?!
Stand tall for Day 23...
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