30-Day Ab Challenge

I am doing a 30-Day Ab Challenge with Erika Pike Fitness. She gives you ab exercises to do every day and you are part of an online group to motivate each other. In the group, you also have daily health prompts that you post and discuss. And you also commit to working out at least 30 min/5 days a week. All with Erika coaching! I'm excited to do this! I have been wanting to do more core work lately and this will be a good excuse/motivator!

I have learned that I need to be accountable to someone besides myself to get my butt in gear!

Planning

I am finding that the better I PLAN, the better I do. I heard a quote once that said, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." For the past week or two I have been planning out my meals and exercise every night for the next day. And it is working. And I only have to take it one day at a time.



I make a 2-week menu plan because I try to only grocery shop every 2 weeks, and then I choose from that main list each night of what I'm going to have the next day. (BTW...I heard that the less frequently you go to the grocery store, the less money you spend and the less times you are tempted to put a box of cookies or whatever in your cart.)

I've just been doing it in a little notebook, but I think I'm going to get myself a planner so I can also better plan what I'm going to do with the kids that day.

2-Week Dinner Plan

Here's what we're having for dinner around here for the next 2 weeks:

Sun: Family dinner at Paul's (we had chicken and salmon)
Mon: grilled steak & salad
Tues: zucchini pizza boats (these were actually pretty tasty)


Wed: chicken artichoke pasta
Thurs: cilantro lime chicken
Fri: eat out
Sat: grilled pork chops
Sun: light fettuccine alfredo
Mon: homemade hamburgers (w/ 93% lean ground beef and whole wheat buns)
Tues: veggie spaghetti w/ whole wheat noodles
Wed: burritos (w/ whole wheat tortillas & black beans)
Thurs: spinach ravioli
Fri: eat out

We also have at least one or two veggies with each dinner. We've been eating a lot of corn, salad, zucchini, and beans with our dinners lately. And we go out to eat on Fridays.

Finding something that works

Something I've realized over the past few weeks is that even if something doesn't work out like you
hoped it would, it's not the end of the world. You just keep trying different things until you find something that DOES work for you.

 

I'm still trying to find something that works for me, but at least I'm still trying and that's what's important.

Vacation workouts

When we go on vacation, sometimes I am really good at exercising. I like to run in new places and it's not too hard to pack my running shoes. I went for one run on the beach this time, and it was great! I also planned in some "active" activities to do while we were there...like this!

We had a lovely hike along some beach cliffs. They reminded me of Bryce Canyon, only with the ocean in the background. It was great! I love hiking and it's a fun way to see new things while on vacation.

Plus, I'm sure I burned some extra calories with this little chub strapped to my back! It was tough work lugging him around. I realized though that I have lost MORE weight since Zach was born than I was carrying on my back on this hike. Yay for me!

We also went ocean kayaking for a few hours one of the days. We paddled out to some sea caves where we saw some big orange fish, jellyfish, and sea lions. My arms and back were sore the next day!

I don't like to do the same old workouts while on vacation, so this was a fun change.