January Health and Fitness Challenge: Week Four Round Up

I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed having specific goals to work towards. Fiona's January Challenge was the perfect focus for a dark and dreary month and I'm a wee bit sad that it's over! To give me a challenge for February I've just signed myself up for a 30 day yoga challenge which I'll also be blogging about.

Week Four was quite a nice way to finish the month. We were to do an activity that we love, and for me that's yoga. I went to four classes this week, and although I'm still struggling to find an instructor that I like, I am loving practising regularly again.

The food focus for this week was breakfast. YUM. I love breakfast food, but rarely make a decent effort with it as I'm on my own. This week I tried to step it up a bit and had a few variations of porridge, poached eggs and spinach, and my current favourite oatcakes with banana and peanut butter. All super healthy and oh so delicious.

How was your January? Did you stick to your goals?

January Health and Fitness Challenge: Week Three Round Up

I've had annual leave from work this week, so have had absolutely no excuses for being lazy. But, I have been. The only exercise I've done for the week has been for this challenge. I've not been to the gym, I've not been to classes and I've definitely not been running. Oh dear.

Here's how I got on with this week's tasks:

On Monday set a timer for 60 seconds and count how many press ups you can do. Every day repeat that number of press ups again, adding on at least 2 more each time. Don’t time yourself after the first day, just aim to complete more press ups than the previous day: Oh my word. I'm absolutely terrible at press ups, I won't lie. On Monday I only managed to do 11 and that was a struggle!! But, I persevered each day and added on two more each time, but today it definitely took me longer than 60 seconds!

Don’t eat any ‘naughty’ desserts until the weekend. Try not to overdo it at the weekend either!: Generally, I don't eat desserts at home. If I'm looking for something to nibble on after dinner I'll have greek yoghurt or fruit, but normally a wee peppermint tea is all I need. Yesterday was my aunt's birthday so I baked a victoria sponge and had one slice yesterday and one today so I think I did alright with this one!

Fiona's just put up this week's challenge and it looks like a fun one! We've to do activities that we love, and have good wholesome breakfasts. This, I can do.

How are you all getting on with your January goals?

January Health and Fitness Challenge: Week One Roundup

(Image from Fiona)

Phew, what a week! I realise that it's now Tuesday evening and I'm only just typing up last week's fitness challenge round up, and I wish I had a really exciting reason why I'm so late, but really it's all due to being on night shift for a week.For some reason when working nights, all I can handle doing is working, coming home, crawling into bed then simply getting up, getting ready and heading back to work. Any semblance of a life disappears for a couple of days. But, all is well and I'm off for a couple of days now and have plenty of time to catch up on blogging!

Last weeks challenges were super fun. So here's how I did:

Work out at least three times: I managed to do the first week of my half marathon training plan, which involved three 5k runs. The plan roughly follows the popular Couch to 5k plan for the first 9 weeks, so the runs involve running/walking for alternate intervals. It was raining every single time I went out, and I would have much rather lay in bed and snoozed away but as always, the endorphins kicked in when I was finished and it was all worth it. I went to one yoga class, which I'm trying to get back into big time. My aim is to go to a yoga class on each of my days off, as my mind and body absolute thrive on the mindfulness and stretching that yoga brings. This week's fitness schedule will be roughly the same with a body pump class or two thrown in for some strength training.

Eat at least 3 healthy vegetarian dinners: As I said last week, I am vegetarian, but the last few weeks have definitely not been healthy. This was the little push I needed to get my meals back on track. Generally, I eat really well. Lots of veggies, fruit, pulses and if it's possible I might drink a little TOO much water. I wanted to document my meals in pictures, but I picked up some extra shifts at work, so most of my meals were had there and it's not an ideal place to snap away at your dinner! I had a quorn and vegetable sweet chilli stir fry, a spinach and tomato omelette, quorn ceasar salad, red thai veggie curry, homemade pizza and spinach and chickpea curry. All veggie, all healthy, and all absolutely delicious.

This week's challenges are:

Fitness challenge:

Do the January Core Workout at least 3 times this week. No equipment required so no excuses!

Nutrition challenge:

Aim to substitute all coffees and energy drinks for decaffeinated coffee or herbal teas. Or go one better and aim to only drink water. You should aim for 1-2 litres a day and more if you are exercising.

I've not looked at the Core Workout yet, so I'm a wee bit scared, but I'll do it first thing in the morning after my run!

How are your January Goals going? I feel so much better about this moody little month knowing that I have things to focus on.

January Health and Fitness Challenge

(Image from Fiona)

January, the month where everyone feels a bit full, tired and groggy after December's festivities. The lovely Fiona has decided to help us combat this, and has developed a health and fitness challenge for the month. Each week she will set one nutritional and one fitness goal and we'll blog/tweet with our experiences.

Generally, I'm quite a healthy person. I'm vegetarian, don't eat processed foods very often, drink a lot of water/herbal tea daily, and work out sometimes. BUT, I'm not living the lifestyle that I dream of. I'm lazier than I would like when it comes to fitness and food. I want to be the woman who works out daily, and eats more things that make my body happy. I've not had a goal to work towards for a while, and this year I'm aiming to always have something to aim for. For, we are so much more productive when we have goals and have to be accountable for our actions, are we not?

This week's goals are to work out three times and eat at least 3 healthy vegetarian meals. I've not been to the gym in weeks, so a push to get my trainers back on and into the fitness studios is much appreciated. I've booked myself in for yoga and body pump classes, and I'm aiming to get back out on to the pavements to reignite my running love. The healthy, veggie meals should be easy for me, right? WRONG. Being veggie doesn't automatically mean you always have healthy meals, and over the past few weeks I've had more take aways, chocolates and crisps than I can count, and has left me feeling super sluggish.

I'm excited about seeing how I stick to Fiona's weekly challenges, and also reading about everyone else's experiences over the month!

Have you planned any health and fitness goals for January? What are they?