The Great Mile Challenge

It's been a good first week of the decade, if I do say so myself. It was mostly spent getting ready for school to start next week, finishing up reading The Help, my "fun" book before school starts, and spending time with family. By the way, I'd recommend that read to everyone. It's fabulous!

The beginning of the week was also spent setting goals, both for the month of January as I challenged each of you to do, and a couple for the whole year. In January, I set a goal to do a bit more yoga. I know how good it is to give my legs a day off and to get some good stretching in, but I'm usually not patient enough to do yoga. Yes, this is true. But I want to try! I think it will help me on my harder cardio days, and help relieve stress and tension.

On Tuesday I tried something totally new to me: Zumba! My mom and I went to a class at a local dance studio with some of my mom's friends. It was fun! I'm more of the running, biking, swimming kind of chick - I'd never done aerobics or any type of dance, but it was a good change of pace. I'm not sure I'd do it on a regular basis, because I like my running and biking time. But if you are looking for something new, try it out! From what I hear, how good the class is and how good of a workout you get is totally based off the instructor.

~Have you tried Zumba?

Now, if you look at the title of this post there is another challenge. I know it's not Monday, BUT I want to let you in on a goal I have for myself this year. Ready for this? I want to log

1,000 Miles of Activity in 2011

My goal is to have at least 500 of those miles be running, and the rest involve biking and swimming and walking/hiking. And I'd like to invite you to join in on the challenge! It might not be 1,000 for you. But pick any distance that you think is reasonable, and go for it! I like it because it will keep me accountable, and on the days that I don't feel like going another 10 minutes, hopefully I'll think of this challenge and push myself a little further. So, join me in logging more miles than ever in 2011! You can follow my tracking on my 1,000 Miles page - a little encouragement wouldn't hurt one bit!

I have a feeling my new NIKEiDs I got for Christmas will get plenty of pavement pounding time :)

Get Tracking!

Have you set your goals yet? Pleasant surprise this morning: when I went to open my fridge, I saw that my mom had posted her 3 goals for January! Go mom! I love that I have at least one follower :)

I don't think all fitness or nutrition goals have to be centered around losing weight. Often, if you set goals like getting two runs in a week, or being able to run 3 miles by the end of January, or eating at least 4 servings of veggies a day, you might see weight loss just happen. BUT, if weight loss is a goal, I have a great resource for you!

I've talked about livestrong.com before. I love it! There are all sorts of good things about it, but what I really like is the "start tracking" section. So check it out! You can submit recipes and it will tell you the nutrition facts, you can put in everything you eat during the day and how much you exercise and see how it's balancing, etc. One of the most important things when trying to lose weight is to track eating and exercise. If you aren't writing it down, most likely food is getting consumed when you don't even realize it, and you might not be exercising as much as you should be. So track it! Whether it's online or with pen and paper...keep yourself accountable.

When I'm training for a race, whether it be a road race, bike race or a triathlon, I always plan out my workouts and type them up. I print one off to hang in my room, and the other I have open on my desktop so I can keep track of what I'm supposed to be doing. It helps sooo much! I'm sure my training wouldn't be successful without it.

Speaking of LIVESTRONG...have you seen the LIVESTRONG collection through Nike? I love it. All of it. That might be because of my slight obsession with looking for workout clothes and running shoes. That isn't weird, is it?


~What do you secretly love to shop for?
~Do you find tracking your goals to be hard? Or maybe just a pain? How do you make it easier?

New Year...New You!

In an earlier post I mentioned changing things up a bit with the new year. I want to keep providing information and guidelines on nutrition and fitness, but I also want to help YOU reach your goals to become a healthier you in 2011. So this is how it works! Each Monday I will post a challenge for the week. It will involve anything from exercise to eating a certain food to doing a certain activity. Throughout the week, come back to the blog and comment on completing the challenge so we can all congratulate you! Fridays post will involve me telling you about the highlights of my week in nutrition and fitness, as well as pointing out readers that completed the challenge! I will try to post some "Wisdom Wednesdays" during weeks that permit, so we can still keep learning about healthy lifestyles. Sound like a plan?

SO! For our first challenge of the year:  

Write down 3 goals involving fitness or nutrition 
for the month of January

Then, I want you to tape one copy on your mirror, one copy on your closet door, and one copy in the pantry or on the fridge. I figure those three places are most visited! Then start this week. The reason I say only January is because often people think the so called "new years resolutions" are things you only do for a couple weeks. This way, you are only planning on doing them for 4 weeks. After that, you can either keep the same goals if they worked for you, or change them for the month of February. Also, if they are specific enough, you just might need harder goals the next month if you've already reached one or two! You are welcome to do more than three goals, but I think three is a good place to start. If you need help with writing goals, refer back to this post. Remember to be realistic and specific. Now let's get to it!