Planning to Succeed: Living & Active 5 Week Challenge; Week #1- Day 1

Starting today, I'm officially participating in the 3rd Annual Living and Active 5 Week Challenge with my SIL, B.

My Overall Goals:
You can't start any respectable challenge without setting some goals for yourself, can you? I figured since I am planning so much that's so focused on myself (when my life really revolves around all my children and my husband), I'd better be as focused as possible in order to succeed! I don't want to give myself too many, or too broad, or too narrow goals to strive for. Here's the best I've come up with:

     Goal #1: To stick something out for the sake of sticking something out. That's terrible, isn't it? However, I am great at starting things, and dreadful at finishing them. I want to say that I have the inner motivation to finish this thing on my own, but I am blogging this in painful detail because I need you people to really badger me into following through.

     Goal #2: To fit into my favorite khakis. I'm a sucker for a good pair of khakis. Now, you don't know this about me yet, because I've just started blogging here, but I love khakis the way some people love yoga pants. Is that a weird thing? Probably. Do I care? Not at all. And I have this one pair that's as close to a perfect pair of pants as I've ever worn... in my life. But they don't fit anymore... and I want them to!

     Goal #3: To get rid of as much of my "goober bump" as possible. There. I said it. Oh, wait... you don't speak Gobble? (Gobble is the language of my 'little twins'- it's a multiple thing (-; ) A goober bump is the chin you get when you're making silly, "goober", faces. Only, my goober bump rears it's ugly head every time I'm looking down at the computer screen. Ack! Toting around some extra weight doesn't help, but since I'm genetically inclined (aka, my family is chock-full of goober bumps) to have this particular unattractive trait, I've discovered that I must pay extra attention to this particular area. I spent my teenage years working out to ward off the dreaded goober bump, and I intend to mend my neglectful ways for the good of the cause.

(Even if the cause is my Facebook photos-- don't judge me!)


My Fitness Plan:
It was my original intention to follow Clare's workout routine for the challenge, but I've discovered a few problems with this plan of action:

1. I don't own a treadmill. Whoops!
2. I don't believe in crunches. Blame the fabulous Beth Learn!
3. I don't have an exercise band. *sigh*

As luck would have it,
   I happen to have a solution to the problem: Fit2b! ;-) My chosen videos/ workouts will focus on the same areas as Clare's (cardio, upper body, lower body, etc.) but will be more focused in on the goals I have for myself and still fit in with the way I desire to treat my body. (I'm probably the farthest thing ever from a glutton for punishment. B's (my accountability partner) likely to be out manhandling tractor tires while I'm inside doing my yoga and you know what? That's just fine by me! I like my air conditioning and I'm not a fan of getting my hands dirty.)

I'm also planning on using this challenge to up my running endurance. I injured my ankle pretty badly over the summer and have pretty much sat on my rumpus ever since... What better excuse will I find to get up and outdoors again?

 

So, my exercise routine for the first week will look more like this:

 

Monday:

• Kelly Dean's Total Body Toning (Time: 27:04)

Tuesday:

• Run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute.  (repeat 2 times)
• All Abs 1 (Time: 15:56)

Wednesday:

• rest

Thursday:

• Kickboxing  (Video, Time: 23:17)
• Backside Burner 1 (Time: 16:42)

Friday:

• Run 12 minutes, walk 1 minute. (Repeat 2 times)
• Ultimate Upper Body (Time: 17:05)

Saturday:

• rest

Sunday:

• Run 13 minutes, walk 1 minute. (Repeat 2 times)
• Weighted Warriors 1 (Time: 24.26)

We're looking at five days instead of four... but that's going to be a good thing in the long run. (haha- pun intended!)

 

My 'Soul Food' Plan:

I love how Clare includes a "spiritual exercise" plan as well as a "physical exercise" plan. I feel like I'm either cheating or ahead of the game because I already had the two memory verses memorized:

 

    "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken." Ecclesiastes 4:14

 

     "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17 

 

So, even though I'll be reviewing these verses, I don't have to commit them to memory. (I think I'll teach them to my children this week.) I decided that I'd add a bit of a challenge to my month (okay, maybe I am a glutton for punishment!) and start working on reading through my bible before the year's over. My favorite reading plan is a 60 day Bible Reading plan that I found a while back. It's not a sequential or a chronological plan- it kind of sweetly meanders through the Old and New Testaments. It's just one of those things that makes me happy.

 

The readings for this week will be:

• Monday: Genesis 1-20
• Tuesday: Genesis 21-40
• Wednesday: Genesis 41-50, Exodus 1-10
• Thursday: Exodus 11-30
• Friday: Exodus 31-40, Leviticus 1-10
• Saturday: Leviticus 11-27, Hebrews 1-3
• Sunday: Hebrews 4-13, Numbers 1-10

 

 

 And now for the "before" photos:

 

 Well... I'll be honest with you here. *sigh* This is what happened.

About three days ago, my mom came over to visit. My husband got off work early and we all sat around on the carport chowing down on Domino's pepperoni and banana pepper pizza for lunch. (True story!) So, since we were outside for like three hours and I wanted to check Facebook and take pictures, I asked my son to bring my phone charger outside. Which he did. Then we all came inside for baths and supper. All except my phone charger.

I'm so ridiculously not attached to my phone that the battery just died today... Shortly after I took my "before" picture in the dressing room of our local Wal-Mart while waiting on the pharmacy to fill my hubs' prescription for antibiotics.

So, I have a "before" picture, taken today in the glaring light of the dressing room, trying on what should be a cute outfit but which ended up having this weird wing thing going on in the shoulders.

Oh, so back to the whole phone charger thing. The long and short of it is that my phone charger met a stray dog that wondered onto my carport and thought to himself, "Hum. This black squiggly thing looks just like what I want to eat for my midnight snack." Which, of course, is crazy because no one should ever eat something that's black and has been laying on a carport for two days.

So, I have an appropriately atrocious "before" picture. It'll just be a few days before I can share it with you!

(Again, true story!)
 

There you have it.

My goals, starting points, and checklists for this week: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's my intention to be as honest and forthright with you guys as possible on this journey throughout this challenge, so if you have anything niggling on your mind, you feel free to ask away! I'll let you know how I'm (we're?) doing with it come Saturday!

 

Be sure to subscribe so you can stay tuned for more! ;-)

It's Going to Be a Busy Month... (October's Monthly Goals)

And I don't know how I'm going to be able to keep up with it all.

As usual, I've probably over committed myself, but I like having goals. And having goals with absolutely no accountability except what I can muster in my own head is like reading an introduction and calling the book finished. It just doesn't work well for me.

I need someone to kick my butt when I'm slacking off.
I need someone who's going to call me out for being a big baby.
I need someone to keep me on my toes.

First of all, I've committed to blogging every day for the 31 Days of October. I'm be blogging about cultivating a grateful heart... come what may. (This is quite apropos for the overwhelmed and anxious feeling I've got going on right now.) There is much more to this challenge, which I'll be sharing more in depth about tomorrow. Most of my posts will be posted about this time of day (about 8-9pm CST) because this is the time I have free to do this writing. This also means that all my "poor, pitiful me" posts for my next two October challenges are going to have to be turned into my being grateful for the torture experiences.

 

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Then, my sister in law (who also -luckily- happens to by my bestie) brought the awesome 3rd Annual Living and Active 5 Week Challenge to my attention and asked if I'd be her accountability partner. She's freaking amazing, btw. She's lost a ridiculous amount of weight all on her own get-up-and-go and is awesome enough to give me a swift kick in the hind quarters when I'm boo-hooing about my desperate addiction to sweet tea.... which is pretty much always.

 



The challenge is pretty straight-forward. There are just a few requirements I'm going to have to suck it up and do:

• Take a "before" picture... and post it for accountability. (Yikes!) The challenge itself doesn't require posted before pictures... but I figure- "Hey! Why not!" - may as well dive in with both feet, right?
• Commit to exercise 4 days each week. The challenge doesn't specify whether you have to do their workouts or your own. (I'll probably just use hers so I know what to do when!)
• Memorize each week's memory verse (without forgetting the prior weeks) and complete the key challenge. I really don't know what to expect here, but I'm going to call myself up for it!
• Take an "after" picture... and do a little dance at the results!

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Lastly, I've committed to an "unofficial" THM "No Cheats" Two Month Challenge.

 

 

 

This is the one that scares me the most....

... and the one that I'm whining about the most...

........and the one I probably need the most.

 

The rules are super simple:

• No deviating from the Trim Healthy Mama plan for 60 whole days.
• Exercise at least 3 days each week. (Thank you, Living and Active Challenge- got this covered!)
• Complete one Fuel Cycle each month, if your body needs it... which mine does.

 

 The challenge in this, of course, is the fact that I'm allergic to plan-approved sweeteners AND have a wicked addiction to sweet, sweet tea. But, as B says:

 

 

It sucks having someone love you enough to be honest, doesn't it?

 

In addition to no sweet tea, that also means no more chili mac nights for me and the kids. No Domino's pizza on Saturday afternoons when I'm being too lazy to get up and go cook. It'll be a challenge to just make myself get up and cook (or prepare ahead of time) enough healthy, on-plan meals to make up an entire month, much less 60 whole days! And giving up sweet tea? *sigh* It's the last of my "consumption vices", and it's very, very, very hard to even imagine letting it go. But, to complete this challenge, it has to get kicked to the curb!

 

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Pray for me, ya'll. I'm going to need it.

 

 



This is a Test: This is Only a Test

This is a test post so that I can know what this thing is looking like! If  you've come across it because I've forgotten to delete it, please feel free to comment and make as much fun of me as possible!