30-Day Challenges

I love 30-day challenges.  One of my favorites is Crunchy Chicken's "Buy Nothing Challenge"- where, big surprise, you buy nothing for a month.  Sure, you get gas, food and absolute necessities, but nothing more.  I do this 2-3 times a year and it really helps the annual budget.

Anyway, while getting the house ready to sell, I got lax on a few things.  In order to get back on track, I'm going to do a few 30 day challenges.  Join me if you want, or not.  Whatever. It starts TODAY!

1) Drink water.  I've been AWFUL about this.  For months I've been under-hydrated.  It's time to do something about it.  I will now pledge to drink 5 of these a day.  It's super cute cup from Caribou Coffee.  It holds 24 oz.

Not only will I drink 5 of these, I will drink half of one immediately upon waking up every.single.day.  I know I always feel better when I start off the day with a cold glass of water!

To help me drink all this water, I'm going to do a few things.  First, utilize this cute cup.  It's more fun to drink out of something cute, don't you think? And I will use "add ins".  I will keep fresh lemon and mint on hand at all times.  I will try cucumber in my water and once a day, I'll add Emergen-C ElectroMix.

2) Blog Daily! Yes, I will post every day.  With Pictures.

3) Journal Food and Exercise Daily. Self explanatory

4) Connect with my kids daily.  The last 6 weeks have been tough on the kids.  They have heard a lot of "not now, I'm busy" and "No! I just cleaned that up!".  I now need to focus on them.

That's a lot to take on, especially since I'll be out of town so much.  Still, I think I can pull it off.  Even if it's not perfect, it will be better than before, and isn't that the point?

Ever done a 30 day challenge? Tell me about it. 

Game Plan: April 2-8

I'm running the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon in October, so it's time for me to start building a base for my half-marathon training.  This means more running. Now, this is not the actual training, this is just building a solid foundation.  I won't start the actual training until July.

Because of this, you will see more running and less cross training workouts.  I'm still doing GoBarbell twice a week and Nth Degree twice a week and my boot camp on Thursdays, but all of my "personal" workouts are going to be runs. Not so fun for you, BUT- I have a surprise for you.  Julie, over at of my favorite blogs, Peanutbutterfingers has a ton of fun workouts to hold you over!  Here's the direct link to her workouts, but she is absolutely worth subscribing to- if only for her dog!

April 2-8

Monday: 4 mile run and extensive stretching afterwards.
Tuesday: Go Barbell and "Tempo Tuesday"- 800 m warm up, 4 x1600 repeats "Tempo style", 800 cool down
Wednesday: Nth Degree plus (plus means try to get early and do a mile warm up)
Thursday: "Three on Thursday"- easy 3 mile run and Bootcamp
Friday: "Friday Fartlek 5" - (5 miles of Fartleks)
Saturday: Nth Degree plus
Sunday: "Easy like Sunday Morning" 50 minute run & GoBarbell

Prior week Stats:

As far as last week went, here are the stats:
Weight change:+.5 lb
Minutes of working out: 375
Calories burned (while working out):2550
New Stat: Miles run: 13.5
New Stat: Calories +/- goal:1313 under

Review of Stats:

Want to up my mileage, minutes and calories burned.  I missed a 5 miler on Friday, so that has a big effect.
My calories were too low- but I'm afraid that may not be accurate.  I was really sloppy with journaling last week. That's really the only way I can explain a .5 lb gain.

No, that's not true.  There are a few ways it could have happened.

1) Weigh in a week ago was a dehydrated weigh in, as I had been drinking the night before (Saturday). It was a good .5 to full lb lower than any of the days around it.  I know this because, I *gasp* step on the scale every morning.  I only count it once a week, but I find that the daily weigh in helps me get a feel for what does what to my body.  For example, I was 2 lbs heavier today than I was yesterday.  That let me know that either my scale was crazy or I needed more water. When I work out hard, I see a bump in my weight.  I know this is because my muscles are retaining water in an effort to repair themselves and I don't over react. But, if I see several days at an increased weight, I know that I better look at how honest I am being about my calorie input/output.

2) It is possible, though doubtful, that I am not eating enough.  Again, proper journaling should resolve this issue.

3) Increased Muscle.  I know I am stronger lately and my close are not tighter.

4) Jacked up HRM readings.  This is very possible.  I am having a lot of trouble with my HRM.  I will post more on that later.

5) Sodium? I did go over a bit yesterday, but I don't find that I'm very affected by this.

6) Another likely contributor: It's just part of the weight loss journey.  There are ups and downs and you don't lose every week.

Plan: As I mentioned, I slacked with journaling. I also slacked with meal planning.  I have been so busy and excited with my projects around the house that I have let things slip, so I just have to recommit!

Tell me, how do you handle little gains?
What do you think causes them?
Do you have a "Game Plan" for this week?  What is it?
What are you going to work on this week? 

These workout posts need some pictures- I'll work on that! Here's a completely random and unrelated picture to hold you over till I figure something out.