3,000 / 30

In slightly less than a year and a half, I will be 50 years of age. 50 is a number that has stuck hard in my head for 28 years. 50 is how old my stepfather was when he had a massive heart attack and died one Monday morning on our living room floor, the first day headed back to work after a long summer vacation.

I was 20 and it was a fairly pivotal moment for my family and the direction it took following the shock of losing someone that was such a rock of stability for us. My mom spent a couple years in depression. My stepsiblings spun off into their own seperate lives and I stumbled aimlessly through crappy retail and restaurant jobs in sw Florida for a couple of years until I landed a graphic design-based desk job with my uncle's company in sw Missouri.

Fast forward 26 years, I'm 48-years-old, I have a wonderful and loving wife and daughter. I count myself rich, certainly not monitarily, definitely not there, but in spirit and in a sense of fulfillment. Though, that year 50 yet lingers and it's sitting ever closer on my horizon. So what to do about it? I started working out and running lightly in June. I have no idea how much weight I've lost, I don't much care, but it's a solid pant size. I do care about how I feel and look, though. I care a lot about regaining my sense of ballance and mobility. Something I was really feeling in decline earlier in the year.

In order to counter my Attention Deficit Disorder, I've turned the number 50 into more of a goal, rather than a spectre of doom, gloom and unknown. My idea is to be in as good of shape as possible by that birthday, Covid willing. I might even make a series of smaller goals and adventures to help me reach that line of crossing. Much like the 30-day-goal I completed this morning. Today marked the 30th consecutive day of completing 100 push-ups a day. That's 30 days, 3,000 push-ups. Not gonna lie. It sucked at times. But, when I started, I could really only do three sets of 10 without wanting to give up. I can now do three sets of 20 before reaching failure in the fourth set and just doing 10 push-ups here and there throughout my day till I hit 100. Other takeaways are that my chest and triceps are a bit more defined. I was seriously lacking there after quiting cycling about five years ago.

Now back to my regularly scheduled morning workout routine and trying to work more veggies into my diet.