This Week I Will 2

 Posted by at 8:42 am  fitness
May 202013
 

Now that I’m seriously working towards some health and fitness goals, I’ve decided to trying giving these “This Week I Will” posts a reoccurring series on THS.  I may not write one every week (much like Twosdays) but don’t be surprised to see a list of goals show up at the beginning of the week every now and again.

First up, let’s do a quick review of last week’s goals:

goals51313>>Run 3 times. DONE. You can see my progress on Daily Mile.
>>Drink lots of water. DONE.
>>Cut back on Caffiene. I’m a work in progress. :/
>>Shut Down @ 8:00 PM: I was off the computer before 8 every night but one. An #HLS13 planning conference chat ran late.  But I was still able to log off before 8:30 that night [8:22 to be exact.] and am VERY PROUD of myself for making this a priority.
>>Read. DONE. And will continue to do because I’m obsessing over the #hlbbookclub this month.
>>Lift some Weights. DONE. I did a round of Courtney’s Shredded Shoulder’s workout Saturday morning after my run.

 Now on to this week: twiw2

This Week I Will:

Take a Daily Multivitamin. It’s a habit I was so happy to finally master last year, and recently I’ve been TERRIBLE when it comes to taking it daily. I’ve moved the bottle of them to my desk, right next to where I keep my phone when I’m in the shower so that I can be visual reminded to take it each day.

3 Training Runs.  Last week I convinced Alicia over Twitter that we should try to PR our 5K time in July at my favorite local race.  I think spent Friday night writing out a 10 week training plan to get me to #PRorBust. I WILL be breaking 30 minutes on July 20, 2013. #SecretingThatShit

Core Work. My #PRorBust plan is more than just runs. I spent time flipping through my 2013 Runner’s World and Woman’s Health issues Friday night, looking for at home strength workouts to add to the list, too.  I’ve got a focus on core workout I’ve marked for testing this week.  Want to build that strong base to help make PR’ing a reality.

Take a real lunch break Monday through Friday.  It helps my productivity, anxiety, and mood TREMENDOUSLY, when I step away from my desk at the office.  It’s not always easy to do when the work is piling high, but when I make it a priority, I notice a difference and I know doing so is making a healthy decision for my life.  Plus this is an ideal time to get more book reading into my life!

Hydrate; drink 100+ oz of water a day.  Same as always; when I make it an official goal, I get it done. If I leave it off the list, I suddenly struggle with getting enough H20. Making it happen.

Complete a full strength training workout.  I’m pretty good about starting a workout, and pretty ridiculous about finishing it.  I have a Women’s Health full body workout to challenge me this week and I want to complete ALL of the reps in ALL of the sets before throwing in the towel.  TRUE EFFORT!

Aim for 8+ hours of sleep. I may have stayed up until 1:30 AM working last night.  And then woke up at 6:00 AM this morning. Not the healthiest thing for my body or mind, I know. I’m going to try very hard to be in bed by 9:00 PM and asleep between 10:00 and 10:30 each night.  Now that my fitness activities are increasing, sleep has gone uuuuuuup! on the importance factor scale.

What healthy intentions are you setting for the week?  Tell me about them on twitter and show me the proof on Instagram by using the #Make1HealthyDecision hashtag!

This Week I Will

 Posted by at 9:07 am  fitness
May 132013
 

The past few weeks I’ve been on a quest to rekindle the fire for healthy decision making in my day to day life.  One tiny, yet super fun, thing I’ve been doing is using the hashtag #Make1HealthyDecision on twitter and instagram, as a way to help myself stay accountable and motivated in my healthy choice making. [I invite you to start using the hashtag, too. I’d love to see snap shots into your healthy choices as you make them!]

 This morning I had a few minutes before work and decided to set some healthy intentions for the week.  I set six simple goals and took Jess’s Say It, Do It approach by sharing them in my (fairly new on the scene) instagram feed.

 

goals51313

This Week I Will:

Run Three Times.  I’ve been doing a great job running about once a week over the past few months, but I know that’s not enough for me right now.  It’s time that I make running a priority in my schedule for both my physical health and my mental health, too.  Running makes me a better person and gives my self-confidence a serious high-five.  I’ve been feeling a little crummy about myself lately and know that getting back in the running several times a week habit will battle that, presto-chango style.

Drink lots of water.  This is one of those healthy intentions that I can totally rock – as long as I make sure to say I’m going to rock it.  I never have a problem drinking water when I actively make it a goal.  Plus, if I’m upping my running, I should be upping my water intake a bit, too. Gotta keep this body hydrated!

Cut back on caffeine.  It’s something I like to keep in check, since I’ve been known to rely on it too much from time to time.  I love my morning coffee fix, but lately have been relying on caffeinated beverages in the afternoons and evenings, especially for the past few weeks which have been filled with lots of must-do-before-sleeping tasks.  I’m aiming to get back to my one cup a day habit and am slowly transitioning by switching to tea after lunch.

Shut down at 8:00 each night.  I spend way too much time behind my computer screen.  That’s that.

Read.  I’m loving the #hlbbookclub selection for May, The Interestings, and want to make sure to set some time aside this week for more reading.

Lift some weights.  Because I’m just so excited to have my arms feel like jello.

 

 What healthy intentions are you setting for yourself this week?

Goals and Stuff

 Posted by at 6:00 am  fitness, Weight Loss
Jul 052012
 

Let’s talk goals and stuff, eh?

hlb1

This past weekend, I wrote a list of five tangible, weekly goals to work towards for the next 6 weeks.  All of them will keep me moving forward towards my mid term [in between short and long, of course!]  goals. Somehow, three of the five are fitness focused. [Didn’t see that coming.] All of them have me pumped up for success. Let us review!

1. Continue on my current eating plan. What eating plan you ask?  Well, for the past few weeks I’ve been following an (unintentional at first!) pattern in my meals.  I’ve been eating meat free Monday through Friday, and then eating meat in 2-3 of my meals during the weekend.  I’ve also been making sure my meals are full of nutritious ingredients, and a balance of proteins, produce and carbs.

I love this because I’m not depriving myself of anything by skipping out on meat during the week.  Instead, my focus is on enjoying all of my favorite veggie-ful meals!  Then, when Saturday morning rolls around and I want a sausage & egg sandwich, I feel 100% guilt-free in enjoying it because I feel so good about what I’ve been eating all week long.  [feeling good both physically and in terms of my weight loss efforts!]

veggieburgerparadise

I also like that this eating plan doesn’t call for a “cheat day” or full blast “weekend mode.” I’ve learned from experience that I am most successful working towards any goals when I keep the momentum strong.  This doesn’t mean 100% of my actions are perfectly healthy, or even smart.  It does mean that I continue to walk by the “Make one healthy decision. Now make another.” mindset and try very hard to make more healthy choices than unhealthy ones.

2. Write four times a week. I would love to say that I’m going to publish content four times a week, but I don’t really see that happening as we draw closer to HLS.  I do want to set some time aside each week to write some words. You know – get the bum glue out and just do it.

pj cross processed

3. Run 31+ Miles. Last Sunday night, after dinner, sitting on the back porch at 8:52 PM, I remembered it was the first of July and decided to start my own damn run streak since my clumsy ass fell on the stairs walking up to my apartment in the rain the last time I tried to join in on the rw run streak.

Now. I know there is a good chance that at some point I’m going to try to talk myself out of running this streak one of these days.  And I don’t want to miss a day, for some reason or another, and then not run for 9 days because “well…I already broke the streak…” So, I’m setting the bar LOW – and saying I’m going to run a total of 31 miles for the month of July. 

This is what I like to call a safety net goal – it doesn’t necessarily set me up for TOTAL success [it’s basically a free pass to stop the run streak at any point], but it does set me up AGAINST failure. [Failure in this case would be missing one day of running & then beating myself up for it, and using it as an excuse to be lazy!] 

What I’m really wanting to do is prove to myself I CAN run at least a mile a day for an entire month and maybe even keep it going until HLS, too! We’re several days into the month now, and I’m still going strong on at least one mile a day!

4. Shred my shoulders.  I’ve only mentioned about 100 times my love for Courtney’s 7 Moves for Shredded Shoulder workout.  [Honestly, I love almost all of her workouts, but this one is my favorite muscle specific work out of all times.]  I’ve noticed that when I make it a priority to a strength training workout I love, I’m more likely to fit other strength workouts in throughout the week as well.  Here’s hoping that by dedicating 30 minutes or less to this workout once a week, I’ll be motivated to work in some other strength and circuit workouts each week as well.

5. Core work.  It’s something I know is good for me.  Every time I make a list of habits to form in strength my running, core work is on the list.  The reason it’s on the list every time? I NEVER STICK TO IT.  I am confident that I can squeeze in at least one strong core workout a week for the next month and a half.

I’m no doubt a “cross it off”, list happy, task orientated person. Because of this, I thought the best way to stay focused on making time for core work is to narrow in on specific  workouts from my favorite fitness bloggers that I’d like to try.  Over the next six weeks, I plan to try each of these core workouts at least once each.

Do you have a favorite blogger built core workout you favor? Please leave a link to it in the comments!  I’d love to have some others to temp me to do MORE core strengthening this summer.

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