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"  The challenge I committed to nearly 9 weeks ago has finally come to an end. It was meant to last 6 weeks but my overseas vacation interfered with the seamless execution of the program so I extended it for an additional 3 weeks. Within this period, I did my best to tone my arms (that had never been exposed to any formal training before) and also tried to maintain the recommended dose of &amp;quot;bursting&amp;quot; -short aerobic interval training- exercises. You can see the results in the before (on the right) and after (on the left) photos, above and below. While I couldn&amp;#039;t take the pics in the exact same lighting and position, I made sure to wear the same top I had on the very first day of the challenge.   While I kinda suspected that my arms weren&amp;#039;t going to look like JJ Virgin&amp;#039;s or Michelle Obama&amp;#039;s after just 6 weeks of training (I&amp;#039;m quite sure that it&amp;#039;s genetically impossible for my arms to ever look like theirs) I&amp;#039;m happy with the progress I made. There&amp;#039;s still room for improvement so now the real challenge begins: Maintaining and building on the muscle tone I gained now that the commitment to blog about the challenge is over! With my hectic schedule, I can&amp;#039;t commit to weight training any more than twice a week but if I can keep that up I should be able to keep the slight definition I now have and perhaps even improve it...slowly. Here&amp;#039;s my game plan for keeping up the routine:  I&amp;#039;m keeping the little training station I created with weights, an exercise ball, and a mat in my bedroom, which will be a constant reminder.  I&amp;#039;ll continue exchanging notes with my coworker Charmaine, who has been off the challenge for 3 weeks now but has continued with the weight training about twice a week. The buddy system has proven to be invaluable during this challenge and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in taking up an exercise routine.  I&amp;#039;m sticking to the Weight Watchers program here at work, which will help keep me focused on my food intake as well as being active.  Getting enough sleep has been difficult for me throughout the program and I&amp;#039;m afraid it will continue to be a problem. Just this week The New York Times reported on a University of Chicago study that proved there&amp;#039;s a link between fat loss and getting adequate sleep. In view of this, I&amp;#039;m going to work towards getting a minimum of 7 hours of shuteye every night.  While the Gorgeous Arm Challenge has come to an end, I hope you&amp;#039;ll continue to visit our blogs as we talk about other health and beauty topics. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a24134/gorgeous-arm-challenge-week-6/?click=main_sr>