My March challenge: RAoK

Rather than focus on myself this month, I've decided to focus on others. 

For the month of March, I will perform a Random Act of Kindness (RAoK) each day. It feels good to do things for other people and I hope I can spread a bit  of love and joy around.

I'll keep track of my daily deeds on this post and check in at the end of the month with my "results". Maybe my good deeds will inspire YOU to spread the love. 

Heeere we go!

**starting a few days late**

MARCH 3: Planned a party for a friend. I volunteered to host a virtual baby shower for a BFF who lives 12 hours away in Michigan. Today, I set up the Facebook site. Here's the banner I created. Isn't it adorable? 

February Challenge Results

My personal challenge for February was to do at least 30 minutes of activity each day. I knew this was going to be a particularly tough challenge. I had 2 business trips scheduled this month and the weather has been down right awful. We've had some type of snow storm or wintery mix EVERY WEEK this month. Ugh. 

So how did I do against the odds that were stacked up against me? 

Getting fit with Nike Training Club

Day 5
Work up early this morning and put on the workout clothes. I decided to skip the hotel gym and workout in my room using the Nike Training Club aka NTC app. 

NTC

I love this app. You can select from dozens of workouts based on your time, training goals and equipment. Today, I picked the Jump Start workout which lasted 30 minutes. It was easy to do in my hotel room without any equipment. 

February Challenge

1st day of a new month.

A fresh new start and a clean slate to make some life improvements. This month, I'm starting a brand new challenge for myself and this one is going to REALLY challenge me. In fact, it took me a few days to even commit to doing it. 

A friend posted this video on her Facebook page a few weeks ago and it really inspired me. Please watch...


Woman goes to the gym for 100 days and documents it.

After watching this video, I kept thinking about this young girl who was depressed and very unhappy. She found the strength to motivate herself to just do one thing each day...go to the gym. And she did it for 100 days. 

If she can do it for 100 days, surely I can do it for 28!

If you haven't guessed already, my personal challenge is to do some type of physical activity every day for the month of February (is it a coincidence that this is the shortest month of the year?)

This is going to be a hard one for me, but I'm ready to JUST DO IT! I have two out of town trips for work this month and I'm not great at keeping to a regular workout schedule. I won't be keeping a video diary like Lakeisha, but I will tweet my workout daily to keep myself accountable. Twitter @jenniferdent #febfitnesschallenge

Here we go...

For today's workout I went to my favorite fitness studio, Unite Fitness. I did the Cross-Training D class which is 45 minutes of cardio intervals, 30 min of strength and a quick stretch.

My results for today...

Time: 1 hr 25 min

Burn: 613

Activity: Cross Training

source

I will check in at the end of the month with my challenge results!

#beFit

Workout before church - The Daily Burn

Morning!
Day 2
It's 8:45 AM and I just tried a new at home workout program on my laptop called The Daily Burn. I heard about it yesterday and they offer a 30 day free trial so I figured, why not? This is the perfect month to test it out. 

Whoa.

I think I picked the hardest workout as my first workout today. It is called Scale the Ladder in the Inferno program. It's basically laddering a few exercises. If you're not familiar with it, you start with 10 sets of 5 exercises. For each exercise, you do 10 reps. This is called a round. You take a one minute break and then you start  your second round with 9 reps. Third round is 8 reps. Fourth round is 7 reps. As you "climb down the ladder" your rest breaks get shorter. 

today's workout from The Daily Burn

Simple enough, right? This particular workout was so hard because they went through the exercises FAST. I mean, lightening FAST. By the time I finished my first rep, they were on their third! I felt like I was moving at the pace of a senior citizen compared to those folks!

I paused a lot and at the 30 minute mark, I was only on round 5. That's about the time, I almost passed out. So I stopped the video and did a quick cool down. 

I checked my HR monitor and it told me to stop moving. 

Just kidding!

My results for today's workout:
Time: 36 min
Burn: 208 calories
Activity: Scale the Ladder on The Daily Burn

Now, off to get ready for church! 

#beFit

REWIND: October 30 Day Challenge

Remember this?

Last week, I wrote about the my new 30 day challenge for October which was to eat half of what I normally eat. Pretty simple, but definitely a challenge. As I started out with this challenge on my mind, I found it really difficult. I would split my normal portion in half and put the other half away. If the first half was really yummy, I had a hard time not eating the second half. In most cases, I was depending on pure will power not to eat the other half and we all know willpower only lasts for so long.

My initial goal with this challenge was to really hone in my feelings of fullness. I thought by only eating half, I would be able to check in with myself and decide if I was still hungry or if I was satiated. The only thing I could focus on was eating the other half! The simple rule of only eating half put me right smack dab in the middle of a diet mentality. Diets tend to have rules that ultimately cause some type of deprivation. My life's mission is to break the diet mentality! Remember, I'm done with diets?? Following a challenge that causes food deprivation was going to backfire. Actually it DID backfire. For me, deprivation around food stresses me out. 

Time to rethink this challenge. 

The New Challenge
This month's new challenge is something that I have done before in the past and it worked well. I just had a hard time sticking to it. Sticking to it for the rest of the month will definitely be a challenge for me. And there isn't any deprivation involved!

Whenever I eat, put the food on a plate, sit down at the table and eat it mindfully.

What does that mean? No standing the kitchen chomping on a cold slice of cooked bacon straight out the fridge, no reading emails, checking Facebook or watching TV while eating. Just sit at my table and focus on the food in front of me. Why this is so hard, I have no idea, but when I did this faithfully for a few weeks, I was really able to tell when I had enough to eat. Sometimes, I did leave half the food on the plate. Other times, I ate the entire plate, but it's not the amount of food that I'm focusing on. The focus is on the food that is going into my body. 

Did you know that when you eat with distractions (i.e. reading a magazine or at your desk), your food doesn't digest properly? Well it doesn't. When you are distracted, you also miss the cue your body gives you that you are full and satisfied so you keep on eating until you're stuffed. 

I now have a new note at my table to remind me of some cues while eating my meals. 

Actually this is an old 3x5 card, I wrote it out when I was practicing this before. Somehow, I stopped referring to it before it actually became a habit. This is my renewed focus for the month. Go me go! 

If you're interested in learning more about eating for pleasure aka Vitamin P, I highly recommend reading The Slow Down Diet. I am going to read it again myself this month to remind me why it's so important to eat mindfully. 

#behealthy

October 30 Day Challenge

Day 3 of 30!
I've never been good at making goals and sticking to them, but since I successfully completed the 30 day green smoothie challenge in September, I might as well keep riding the wave of success. 

My October 30 day challenge is pretty simple. 

I'm three days in and have been doing pretty well so far. I took a road trip to NY and even when I was out to eat I consciously ate half (well maybe a bit more than half), but I DID NOT join the clean plate club. This was my salad at J.G. Domestic before I took the train up to NYC. 

I also took a comparison photo of my dinner on Monday night. Full plate vs. half plate. The meal was wonderful, but the photo was less than desirable so I decided not to post it. If you're interested, here are the two new recipes that I tried out. Man Pleasing Chicken (yep, that's the name of it) and Balsamic Mushrooms. I got fancy and added some kale and bacon bits in there. Fab-u-lous! 

So as you can see, I have one main goal which is above. My side goals are:

• Continue to drink a green smoothie each day
• Go to cross training 4 times a week
• Continue to pray and meditate each morning

#octobersuccess

Blogging about the challenge is challenging!

Day 15!
Blogging every day about the green smoothie challenge is also a challenge!

Half way through the challenge and I have to say, it's been pretty easy to drink a yummy beverage every day. It's not always convenient to make them, but it is possible with a little planning. This morning, I went to 8 AM service and didn't have time to make the smoothie before church. I drank it for a late breakfast/early lunch later this morning. What did I drink?

2 c organic baby spinach
1 frozen banana
1/2 cucumber
2 tbsp Cacao powder
2 tbsp natural peanut butter
1 serving Amazing Grass Organic Wheat Grass
Generous sprinkle of cinnamon

Cheers!

Green Smoothie 30 Day Challenge Starts Now!

It's September 1st!
Unbelievable. 
In honor of September and the new blog, I am going to do a 30 day challenge. According to the directions by personal development guru, Steve Pavlina, you can do anything for 30 days, right?

My 30 day challenge will be to drink a delicious green smoothie EVERY DAY!

I'm no stranger to the good for you green smoothie. I've been drinking them a few times a week for the past few months, but now I am challenging myself to drink one every day and I'll share my recipes aka Drink of the Day (DOD) on the blog. 

Check out my collection of green smoothie recipes on Pinterest.

A few reasons why drinking a green smoothie a day is good habit to have. 

1. GREEN SMOOTHIES ARE PACKED WITH GOOD NUTRIENTS

Green smoothies are packed with fiber, which lowers cholesterol and glucose levels, keeps you feeling fuller for longer and regulates your body’s cleansing processes. Plus, it’s a tasty way to get a strong dose of fruits and veggies, which provide vital nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, folate and potassium.

2. YOU CAN DRINK YOUR DAILY REQUIREMENT OF VEGGIES
Most folks don't eat enough fruits and veggies on a daily basis to provide all the nutrients their bodies need. Solution! Drink them. Green smoothies are packed with a chlorophyll and chlorophyll is a molecule that closely resembles a molecule of human blood. What exactly does that mean? By drinking two or three cups of green smoothies daily, you will consume enough greens to nourish your body, and all of the beneficial nutrients will be well assimilated. 

3. THEY TASTE REALLY GOOD!
Not convinced it won't taste like a glass of liquefied lettuce? The best ratio of greens to fruit is 60/40. 60% veggies and 40% fruit. Let me break that down again. 2 cups of greens to 1 cup of fruit. The fruit will balance out the taste of the greens. If you're a newbie, start with a mild green like spinach or broccoli. 


Cheers!