23 | November | 2013 | Piper's Run

It will soon be time for “Elf for Health” 2013 Challenge to begin! I didn’t participate last year but am giving it a go this year! Basically, there is a challenge ever day from Nov 25th until Dec 22nd! You are assigned an Elf! This Elf is to help keep you on tract of the challenges and any goals you set. In return, you are an Elf for someone as well…keeping them on track and checking in on them. Sounds fun, right!

This is what the Challenges look like….

I would say that these are ALL attainable challenges….thought I’m not sure how I feel about 100, YES, 1-0-0 burpees on Sun Dec 1st. I’ll give it a go but it’s not going to be pretty…and I start work the following day, so I should be in great shape for my return 😉

Lindsay from the Lean Green Bean and Elle from Nutritionella. To learn more about the challenge OR sign up for the next round check out this post here starting on Dec 6th.

Anyone else participating in Elf for Health ?

Since December is fast approaching, what goals are you trying to commit to ?

Hard to believe that this 30 Day Fall into Fitness Challenge has hit twenty days already! I’ve never blogged so much since starting this blog two years ago (yes, an anniversary coming up!). The challenge has kept me focused on my goals and blogging more.

To review:

My goal: To workout four times a week this month and lose a weight (no specific goal on the weight). Results: The first 5 days I worked out twice, injured my thigh and got a massive head cold. Meh, I was fine with that. The second 5 days I worked out 4 days – perfect 🙂

Reasons:

1. I want to increase my fitness level to help with my running goals for 2014.

2. I want to plan better meals for the whole week for my family, prepping for my return back to work from maternity leave.

How I shaped up the last 10 days:

Hours of workouts: 5 hours

Pounds Lost: 2 (not something I’m focused on in this challenge, but I can earn points so I weighed myself this time around). Bonus!

Number of posts: 9 posts!

My workouts looked like this:

26 minute run + 4 minutes of sit ups, push-ups, squats etc (I lost my list of everything I did…dang)
55 minute walk and 10 minutes of stretching (yoga flex)
60 minute yoga workout
20 minute walk with Maclean and Hilary; 40 minutes raking leaves
10 minute fast walk with Maclean and 20 minutes of yoga
60 minute Zumba class

Meal Planning has it’s up’s and down’s. Week #2 wasn’t great however, Week #3 is 95% on track! So, I’m happy with that.

Changes I made since the first round:

Record my minutes every day – did better at this minus losing the 4 minute workout I did.
Workout longer so I can have an even 30 – 60 -80 minutes…none of this 4, 7, 8 minutes. That’s messed up. So if the thigh challenge takes me 9 minutes, I will do sit-ups, jumping jacks etc until I can round it to the nearest 10. Did better at this too.
Post more recipes and meal planning of week 2 (already started) – Did better at this.
Weigh myself in 10 days to see if I lost any weight … to gain a point of course – Yes and Yes, 2 pounds lost!

What’s up next?

10 More Days of the Fall into Fitness Challenge plus I’ve signed up to be an Elf…. Elf 4 Health Challenge. I think I need these challenges to keep me more accountable to balancing everything: the girls, meal planning and WORK!!!!

If you are doing this challenge, how’s it going?

Anyone doing Elf 4 Health?

Have you started to think about your New Year’s Resolutions?