Happy New Year! I'm not going to do the same old New Year's Resolution spiel - but I did come up with a new idea to get my rear in gear following the overindulgence of the holiday season. You might practice the "swear jar" in your home, where offenders with potty mouths must deposit change into a jar anytime they utter a bad word? I had modified this idea to suit my distaste for the current habit my children have of saying "like" out of context, rather than thinking out their sentences before speaking. And so the "LIKE" jar (said with a 'Valley girl' accent) was established.

What has this to do with your fitfix, you ask? When I "fall off the wagon" with my fitness regimen, I find that I berate myself in a most unproductive manner. Instead, I have decided to create a Fit Jar. It’s as simple as it sounds – I took 7 pieces of paper and wrote different exercise tasks on each of them:

100 jumping jacks
25 pushups
50 situps
200 squats
50 triceps dips
50 Heels Press hip lifts**
25 Superhero/Banana poses***

{** Lie on your back, legs extended upwards from the hip, feet are flexed so the heels face the ceiling. Engage the abdominal muscles and pull your hips off the floor an inch or two, keeping your heels pressing upward and legs as straight as possible. Squeeze your abs and return the hips to the floor. Repeat.}
{***Lie prone on the floor, arms extended in front of you as though you are flying through the air. Raise your chest, arms and shoulders, as well as your feet and legs, feeling your lower back work to maintain this position. Hold for 5 seconds, then return your limbs to the floor and roll over to the supine position. Lift the head and shoulders, arms straight out in front, palms down; lift your feet off the floor and engage your ab muscles. Your body should resemble a banana. Hold for 5 seconds, return to the floor. That is one rep.}

I folded them up, tossed them in a jar and select one each day. Whenever I have a few minutes to spare I reach in and grab one. I do whatever it takes to finish that task, even take a break between reps, but I finish it. I set that task aside so I have a new task each day of the week, then start all over on Monday. It’s unpredictable, which I like.

These are my numbers, the amount of reps I personally feel that I can complete, achievable but still challenging – you can choose your own amounts. Also, in about one month, I will switch it up for new exercises once my body adapts to these ones.

Okay, this is similar to the Daily Discipline, however, I don’t usually have time to go and log onto my computer every day, so it’s a great tech-free alternative – it doesn’t take much time, but the Fit Jar is definitely paying off!

Miranda Stadnisky Mayhew (a.k.a. L'il Fytness Fanatik)