Photo a Day- February

February 1st: (iphone)

February 2nd:

February 3rd:

February 4th:

February 5th: (iphone)

February 6th: (iphone)

February 7th: (iphone)

February 8th: (iphone)

February 9th: (iphone)

February 10th:

 

February 11th: (iphone)

February 12th: (iphone)

February 13th: (iphone)  

February 14th: (iphone)

February 15th:

February 16th: (iphone)

February 17th:

February 18th: (iphone)

February 19th: (iphone)

February 20th: (iphone)

February 21st:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 22nd:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 23rd: (iPhone)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 24th:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 25th:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 26th:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 27th:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 28th: (iPhone)

February Goals- Update

New Years Goals that will be included monthly:

1. Write in a journal every day: I am still writing in my journal and still fighting the temptation to go through and rewrite it. It's a really odd thing to be obsessive about since no one is reading my journal and not even I am going back through and reading past entries. I may at some point though and I think that's what bothers me. There are entries that I wrote so fast I can't even figure out what it says. I really am regretting not taking my time to write neatly. I even knew at the time that it would be something that would end up bothering me and yet I still did it. What an odd thing to be complainy about.
2. Take at least one picture a day: I need to get better about uploading the pictures daily so that I'm not sitting here trying to upload a bunch of pictures to the blog and then trying to figure out formatting all in one day. It's annoying and irritating. I got the big camera out on a couple of occasions and really enjoyed taking pictures of the kids and am looking forward to printing them out and framing them. We don't have a lot of wall space, so I will have to think of something creative to do. I am spending a lot of time working on other projects, so it's been a lot easier to just take pictures using my phone. I am looking into prompts for March to try to spark some creativity because I am pretty disappointed with the photo quality for this month. I know I can do better.
3. Run and/or walk 105 miles: It really doesn't feel like much of a challenge when you are enjoying it so much.. Looking back in my mileage log I only made it over 100 miles in February once and that was in 2012 (and I only went over by 0.92 miles). This year I am definitely more focused and ready to accomplish my goal of 1250 miles in one year (and actually on pace to go well over that). I finished the month at 120.77 miles.
4. Run at least one mile every day to continue running streak: Again, another challenge that hasn't been too difficult to keep up with. There is very little that will stop me from completing my goal of 500 days in a row. I've made it this far, there is no way that I am starting over now. Today is day 131.
5. Track on MFP: Most days were not 100% complete, but I did log on and had the best intentions every day to track and I call that a win. It means that I am dedicated to trying to make each day a healthy one. Whether it ends up that way or not is an entirely different story.
6. Read two books: Completed and happy to say that both books were really good. They were both by Nicholas Sparks, so not difficult to get through and of course touched the sappy romantic side. It's amazing how happy I can be in my marriage until I read one of his books and then start to wish my husband was more of the romantic type... But he wouldn't be the man I fell in love with if he was that way and I much prefer his sense of humor anyway.

February Goals:

1. Have at least one child free date night with Patrick:  Patrick and I went out for Valentine's. Although our plans got changed it was still a wonderful, simple evening. We did end up getting dinner at In-N-Out (which was amazing, as always) but the wait at the go kart place was two hours long. Since we were planning on picking Isabel up after our date we decided to postpone the go karts and go out for frozen yogurt instead. It was simply a wonderful evening.
2. Take Isabel bowling: We ended up taking all of the children bowling, including my niece. It was so much fun and I bowled my best game to date (a 182!). I have never bowled so well and was secretly hoping to break 200, but I think I jinxed myself on the tenth frame. It gave me some hope that if I actually put forth some effort to my bucket list goal of bowling a perfect game that I could at some point. Seriously though, before this game my highest score was at or around a 125 if that...
3. Plan Isabel's birthday party:  There are so many exciting things happening with the planning of Isabel's birthday. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am for her birthday to get here already.. I am doing my absolute best to not tell her of my super secret surprise. I've already told quite a few people and want to keep it a secret because she is going to freak out. I think I said this at the halfway point, but I have a feeling that my ideas are going to fall short of my expectations but completely blow her away. There is nothing that brings me more joy than to make her happy.
4. Cook dinner at least once: I'm not sure if I can consider this "making dinner" but I did put together dinner one night by heating up a dream dinners and some veggies. I guess it's better than not being in the kitchen at all? Granted the purpose of this goal was to get me to actually prepare and cook a meal so I don't think I should count this. I did bake some delicious cupcakes though for Valentine's day. The cupcake mix was packaged and I made the frosting from scratch. Strawberry cupcakes with vanilla frosting, except the cupcakes were white and the frosting was pink. It totally threw a couple people off.  
6. Spend less time on my phone: Still a work in progress. I find that there are a lot of things that I do on my phone (like track of MFP, communicate with my accountability buddies, banking, etc) however there are a lot of things that I can spend less time doing (like checking facebook). I have rekindled my love for pinterest as it is helping me piece together some great ideas for Isabel's birthday party.
7. Set up and stick to budget: I set up the budget for February at the beginning of the month and I have really been looking forward to updating it. I really love physically seeing our balances grow in our savings, our balances get smaller with our debts and overall seeing where our money is going each month. I'm sure once we have a few months completed we will be able to look over it all and see what needs to be adjusted (if anything) and continue improving.

Daily Menu 2/26/14

Goal: 1490 calories
Exercise: 206 calories
Net: 2038 calories

Breakfast: (192 calories)
coffee with splenda and sugar free creamer (32)
Greek yogurt- raspberry (160)

Snack: (145 calories)
green apple (95)
string cheese (50)

Lunch: (330 calories)
apple bleu pecan salad (230)
3 oz chicken breast (100)

Snack: (599 calories)
fiber one brownie (90)
Hershey kisses (89)
ginger snap thins (420)

Dinner: (438 calories)
half burrito supreme (438)

Dessert: (540 calories)
Charleston chews (540)

Activity: (206 calories)
1 mile interval run/1.06 mile walk (2.06)

Water: 10 glasses
Fruits & Veggies: 2 servings
Milk: 1 serving
Vitamin: :(

Daily Menu 2/25/14

Goal: 1490 calories
Exercise: 441 calories
Net: 1466 calories

Breakfast: (407 calories)
Coffee with splenda and sugar free creamer (32)
Whole wheat waffles (170)
1 Tbsp Nutella (100)
Banana (105)

Snack: (145 calories)
Green apple (95)
Light string cheese (50)

Lunch: (330 calories)
3 oz chicken breast (100)
Apple Bleu Pecan Salad (230)

Snack: (231 calories)
Baby carrots (21)
Yogurt covered raisins (210)

Dinner: (794 calories)
Chicken taquitos (444)
Dream dinners cheesy chicken and rice bake (350)

Activity: (441 calories)
1.30 mile walk (130)
2.03 mile walk (203)
1.08 mile interval run (108)

Water: 8 glasses
Fruits & Veggies: 4 servings
Milk: 0 servings
Vitamin: :(

Mileage Update #6

Mileage update:
 

Monthly mileage goal: 105 miles

Monthly mileage as of 2/25: 115.35 miles

Yearly mileage goal: 1250 miles

Yearly mileage as of 2/25: 262.33 miles

20.98% complete

Total mileage recorded to date (1/1/12-2/25/14): 2012.34 miles

Running streak goal: 500 days

Running streak: day 128

This week's mileage: 36.23 mile week

Wednesday- 1.34 mile walk, 2.04 mile interval run

Thursday- 1.33 mile interval run, 2.04 mile interval run/walk (1 mile interval run/1.04 mile walk), 2.21 mile interval run

Friday- 1.30 mile walk, 2.04 mile walk, 2.08 mile interval run

Saturday- 1.10 mile interval run

Sunday- 13.12 mile interval run (Seaside Half)

Monday- 2.03 mile walk, 1.19 mile interval run

Tuesday- 1.30 mile walk, 2.03 mile walk, 1.08 mile interval run

Pictures from this week:

Daily Menu 2/24/14

Goal: 1490 calories
Exercise: 322
Net: 1366

Breakfast: (246 calories)
Coffee with splenda and sugar free creamer (32)
Oatmeal (150)
Raspberries (64)

Snack: (145 calories)
Granny Smith apple (95)
Light string cheese (50)

Lunch: (380 calories)
3 oz chicken breast (100)
Santa Fe Style salad (280)

Snack: (271 calories)
Caramel apple pop (60)
Granola bars (190)
Baby carrots (21)

Dinner: (296 calories)
4 chicken taquitos (296)

Snack: (350 calories)
Yogurt covered pretzels (210)
Honey mustard & onion pretzel pieces (140)

Activity: (322 calories)
2.03 mile walk (203)
1.19 mile interval run (119)

Water: 11 glasses
Fruits & Veggies: 5 servings
Milk: 0 servings
Vitamin: :(

2000 Miles

I ran my first race March 27, 2010.

I started training for my first marathon in August of 2011.

I started logging my miles January 1, 2012.

I don't know why I waited so long to start tracking. Probably because I didn't think this would be something I would still be doing 2 years later. Most likely because I knew my OCD would kick in and I would end up writing and re-writing the mileage multiple times in multiple journals. No matter the reason why, I am so glad that I eventually started logging so that I could see the miles add up over time into what is now my journal of numbers.

I don't write much other than the date, daily miles, monthly miles, yearly miles and total miles. I don't write a course, how I was feeling, pace, etc. Maybe that would have been a smart idea but I really am not going to focus on the would have/could have/should have and instead focus on the milestones that I have made over this time.

I decided that I would track walking and/or running miles in this log. Only those exercises that were a conscious effort on my part (not steps per day by pedometer).

There were some great months (like last month where I walked and/or ran 146.98 miles) and some not so great months (the entire month of April 2013 totaled 0 miles since I had surgery in March of that year). No matter how many miles, I logged them.

Finally, over a total of 26 months, I have reached the 2000 mile milestone.

This is not something that I ever thought I would track or be excited about, however here we are and I am in full celebration mode. My half marathon yesterday brought me over and I am looking forward to continuing adding those miles on.

It definitely helps that I am paying myself $1 for every 1 mile I walk and/or run. It's adding up and I feel like paying for the Dopey Challenge is not going to feel like such a financial burden.

Seaside Half Marathon Race Recap- Race 2/14

So, my race goal changed a bit when I got a little registration happy and signed up for 14 half marathons in 2014. Kind of threw off the whole 13 half marathons in 13 months, but it's a bigger goal and I am so ready to kick ass and take names!

This month's race was the Seaside Half Marathon. It was an out and back, mostly flat course along the beautiful coast.

I went to the packet pick up yesterday. My number was #666. I text my mom, my sister and Patrick the number I got. My mom's response: "Ask for another number!" Patrick's response: "Hell yeah!" and Rachel's response: "The devil is going to tear up the course!"

I decided to play it up and add devil horns to my outfit.

I  got up early this morning in order to make sure I was ready to go. I left a little over an hour and half before the race started in order to make sure I got a parking spot. It took about a half hour to get there, giving me plenty of time to walk around and warm up my legs.
 

And of course take some pictures... It's a good thing too, because I didn't take any during the race.

I started the race using 30:30 intervals. We ran along the bike path and I was concerned about the starting and stopping with the people around me, but I guess I started in a good place because I don't think I annoyed too many people. I was very conscious about the people around me.

 

It was a pretty uneventful race, to be truly honest. After what happened at the Camarillo half marathon in January I was a little concerned about my goal of PRing, but I still wanted to make that my goal. I decided to up my intervals from 30:1 to 30:30 because I had been practicing with those intervals and knew that it would be my best chance to PR.

 

My current best is 2:39:00 from the Arroyo Creek half marathon. I really pushed myself today because I have been very comfortable with my 12:30 pace. I knew I had to be around a 12 minute mile consistently in order to PR. I made it to the halfway point pretty easily. I decided at that point to start running 1:30:30:30, so I would run 1 minute, walk 30 seconds, run 30 seconds, walk 30 seconds and repeat. That worked pretty well to keep my pace consistent because my running was getting slower, but as long as I upped the amount of time I ran it worked itself out.

 

I hit a small wall around mile 8. Nothing too bad though. At the Camarillo half I ended up needing to text a few of my "people" for support. I needed that extra boost, that reminder that I enjoy doing this. Today it was more of a minute or two of questioning myself and my goal of a PR. Before I knew it I was already at mile 9 and at that point I only had 4 miles to go.

 

I've found that I usually hit my wall around mile 8 and I would love to work on that. That's definitely more of a mental road block for me than a physical one. It's at that point where I realize that I'm over halfway, have already gone 8 miles but I still have 5 to go. 5 miles just seems like so many when you've already gone 8.

 

I text my mom at mile 10 that I was a 5K away and then again just before mile 13 to let her know that I was on my way and to get the camera ready.

 

I knew at that point that I would have a PR. It was an exciting moment for me. Something that I hadn't really been training for but something that I wanted to prove to myself. I really had no intention of attempting a PR for any of the races I have planned for 2014, and at this point I have no intention for any new PRs this year. For some reason this just felt right.

On to the next one. In two weeks!

Daily Menu 2/23/14

Goal: 1490 calories

Exercise: 1312 calories

Net: 893 calories

Breakfast: (600 calories)
Luna bar chocolate peppermint (180)
Powerbar gel (110)
Jelly Belly sports beans (100)
Clif shot bloks (100)
Red Bull (110)

Snack: (350 calories)
Corn Dog (190)
Soft Pretzel (160)

Lunch: (410 calories)
Egg salad sandwich (410)

Dinner: (750 calories)
Frozen pizza (750)

Dessert: (95 calories)
Green apple (95)

Activity: (1312 calories)
13.12 mile interval run (half marathon race)

Water: 4 glasses

Fruits & Veggies: 1 serving

Milk: 0 servings

Vitamin: no

Daily Menu 2/22/14

Goal: 1490 calories

Exercise: 110 calories

Net: 1485 calories

Breakfast: (250 calories)
Clif Bar- Crunch Peanut Butter (250)

Snack: (80 calories)
Gala apple (80)

Lunch: (350 calories)
Movie theater popcorn (350)

Snack: (0 calories)

Dinner: (915 calories)
El Pollo Loco- Ultimate Pollo Bowl (915)

Dessert: (0 calories)

Activity: (110 calories)
1.10 mile interval run (110)

Water: 8 glasses

Fruits & Veggies: 1 serving

Milk: 0 servings

Vitamin: check!

Weigh In #11

Starting Weight (12/14/13): 189.2
Last Weeks Weight: 180.6
This Weeks Weight: 179.8

+/-: -0.8
Total +/-: -9.4

5%! Heck yes! That was exciting to see this morning.. Considering I've been stepping on the scale daily to "peek" and I've been up every single day by no less than 3 pounds I was sure that I was going to see a gain this week. I did really well on Saturday, tracked everything and felt great. Then I went a little overboard on Sunday and really overboard on Monday and just decided the week was shot. Up until Wednesday afternoon when I decided to reach out for help.

I decided to ask for accountability to some friends I have online who frequent the same message board that I do. I received a wonderful response to my request and now have a few people who I email, text or facebook with daily/every other day/once a week to check in and see how we are doing. I like this a lot because I feel like I am able to be there to support them as well and it's more of a give and take than me just getting what I need.

I tracked everything on Thursday and yesterday and actually completed my daily journal on MFP both days. I haven't done that in a while... It felt wonderful to get on the scale this morning and to see that not only did I have a loss, not only did I reach my 5% goal, but I am also out of the 180s. I haven't been in this weight range in too long and it's a very exciting start to my week.

I am going to use this as motivation to stay on track all week this week so that I don't go back up to the 180s next week. I have an email that I'm waiting for response for something pretty exciting/scary/nerve wracking that I would like to do next Saturday. Pending spaces available I might be putting my self esteem to the ultimate test. May need to add in some strength training this week depending on if I get an appointment or not...

Last weeks goals:

1. Track: I did really well with my tracking on Saturday and most of the day on Sunday. I don't know what happened to cause the stop in tracking other than a bad meal which turned into a bad day which continued on through most of the week. I can't go back and change it, so instead I am looking forward to the next week.
2. Water: Same old, same old. I am going to be doing a much better job with tracking my water in take and I am going to get in at least 8 glasses a day. I feel so much better when I do and I know how important it is to stay hydrated. I will succeed in this goal at least once!
3. NMTZ challenge: This ended on Valentine's day. I took the night off of the challenge for my one free night and ended up losing all motivation to continue. Not good. But I am planning on picking up a similar/less intense workout on March 1st with scheduled rest days so that I will be forcing myself to be better about letting my body heal.
4. No self sabotaging:  I'm pretty sure I sabotaged myself by making this my goal. I'm not sure what is wrong with me, but I realize there is a problem and I'm working on finding ways to make it easier for myself to see the successes by sticking with it.

Workout schedule:
February 16th- February 22nd
Sunday: training run- 6 miles completed
Monday: streak completed, NMTZ challenge did not complete
Tuesday: streak completed, NMTZ challenge did not complete
Wednesday: streak completed, NMTZ challenge did not complete
Thursday: streak completed, NMTZ challenge did not complete
Friday: streak completed, NMTZ challenge did not complete
Saturday: streak completed, NMTZ challenge did not complete

This weeks goals:
1. Track. Every. Single. Day.
2. Drink 8 glasses of water. Every. Single. Day.
3. Attempt to PR at Seaside Half Marathon.

Workout schedule:
February 23rd- March 1st
Sunday: Seaside Half Marathon
Monday: streak
Tuesday: streak
Wednesday: streak
Thursday: streak
Friday: streak
Saturday: long distance training run- 5 miles

Measurements:

Original measurements taken October 15th:

Chest: 41

Waist: 37.5

Hips: 45.5

L thigh: 26.5

L arm: 13

L calf: 14.5

 

Measurements taken February 8th:

Chest: 39 (-2)

Waist: 33.5 (-4)

Hips: 43.5 (-2)

L thigh: 24 (-2.5)
L arm: 12.25 (-.75)

L calf: 15.5 (+1)

Current measurements taken February 22nd

Chest: 39.25 (-1.75)

Waist: 33.25 (-4.25)

Hips: 43.25 (-2.25)

L thigh: 24 (-2.5)
L arm: 12.25 (-.75)

Daily Menu 2/21/14

Goal: 1500 calories

Exercise: 542 calories

Net: 1402 calories

Breakfast: (337 calories)
Coffee with splenda & 2 Tbsp sugar free creamer (32)
Whole wheat waffle (85)
.5 Tbsp Nutella (50)
Lemon Meringue Greek yogurt (170)

Snack: (130 calories)
Gala apple (80)
Light string cheese (50) 

Lunch: (330 calories)
3 oz Buffalo style chicken strips (190)
Green Giant garden vegetable medley (140)

Snack: (211 calories)
Granola bar (190)
Baby carrots (21)
 

Dinner: (936 calories)
Pasta bowl- penne (390)
Focaccia bread (546)

Dessert: (0 calories)

Activity: (542 calories)
1.3 mile walk (130)
2.04 mile walk (204)
2.08 mile interval run (208)

Water: 10 glasses

Fruits & Veggies: 4 servings

Milk: 1 serving

Vitamin: check!

Daily Menu 2/20/14

In an additional attempt to hold myself accountable I am planning on posting my daily menu each night. I may miss a few days here or there and will try to remember to do this every night. I am having a difficult time remembering to track everything every day and tend to make it through lunch before calling the day a loss and eating whatever I want.

The point of tracking on My Fitness Pal is not to just eat the number of calories it suggests. Eating 100 calories in crap food is not the same as eating 100 calories in fruits and vegetables. I know this and yet I still proceed to eat the crap food. I'm not saying that eating crap food every once in a while as a treat is not okay, because it is (hello cupcakes!) but for me to do it every day is getting out of hand and I need to put an end to it somehow.

I will not be sharing these daily menu posts on facebook like I normally do with my other posts for the simple fact that it can (and probably already has) get annoying to see the updates from my blog. So I will simply share this first one and hope that people are interested enough in what I have to say to check in. As a friendly reminder, you can follow by email as well as follow by joining the site (I currently only have 2 followers and would love to see more!!)

My Fitness Pal asked me questions when I signed up to figure out the correct number of calories that I should be eating a day. On top of that I am supposed to be eating back the majority of the calories that I burn each day so that I net the goal provided.

I gave them my starting weight, height, goal weight, gender, date of birth and how I would describe my normal daily activities. The provided me with the goal of 1500 calories per day.

Thursday, February 20, 2014
Goal: 1500 calories
Exercise:
Net:

Breakfast: (282 calories)
Coffee with splenda and sugar free french vanilla creamer- 32
Strawberry Greek yogurt- 120
Instant strawberries & cream oatmeal- 130

Snack: (130 calories)
Gala apple- 80
Light string cheese- 50

Lunch: (695 calories)
Minute rice brown rice- 230
6 oz chicken breast- 240
Green Giant corn & butter sauce- 225

Snack: (84 calories)
Baby carrots- 21
1.5 Tbsp Hummus- 53
Jello- 10

Dinner: (580 calories)
Homemade cheese burger- 580

Snack: (146 calories)
Gala apple- 80
Baby carrots- 21
Low cal Gatorade- 45

Dessert: (140 calories)
Red vines licorice- 140

Activity: (558 calories)
1.33 mile interval run- 133
2.04 mile interval run/walk (1 mile interval run/1.04 mile walk)- 204
2.21 mile interval run- 221

Water: 10 glasses
Fruits & Veggies: 6 servings
Milk: 1 serving
Vitamin: check!

Womp Womp

Well, my 30 day challenge lasted a total of 10 days.. And ended a while ago. I just haven't had the courage to write about my failing of this challenge. Whoops!

I knew by the end of the first week that this challenge was not something I could maintain. I know that 30 days is nothing in the grand scheme of things, however it became something that was not enjoyable and not just because it was a workout.

I'm the type of person that believes a workout should be hard work, make you push yourself past limits and be something you enjoy. Running does that for me.

But I can't lose fat and gain muscle by cardio alone. That's where strength training comes in. Strength training is where I'm going to lose inches and gain muscle. Strength training is where I'm going to become stronger, leaner, healthier and happier. And, for the most part, strength training is something I enjoy.

So, once I realized that the strength training routine I had planned out was over the top I knew I needed to stop being stubborn and just call it what it was. A failed challenge. To be honest, I'm not that sad about it. I wasn't enjoying it and I know that pushing myself would have made things worse. I wouldn't have put my all into it and my form would have suffered. Bad form = bad news.

I could sit here and give excuses as to why I stopped. Good excuses too. Knee pain type of excuses. Knee pain is not a good thing when you enjoy running and are signed up for a ton of races for the coming year.

So... What now?

Well, I actually really enjoyed the majority of the exercises in this workout, but felt burnt out by the second set of each. The 40+ minutes a day was a lot to commit to, however going through the workout once seemed to work well. It was quick enough to add in at any point of the day, but intense enough to be a good workout.

So the change is simple. Instead of repeating each circuit I will only go through each one once. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, however the idea of a 30 day challenge is enticing and I know deep down that I can accomplish it. It just isn't the right time to do 30 days in a row.

The plan is to make it through the month of March doing the workout as follows- three days on one day off. Meaning I will be strength training three days in a row, taking a rest day and repeating throughout the rest of the month. I will be strength training a total of 24 days out of the month. I think that's a good trade off and should be easy to maintain for the whole month. It may not seem like much, especially with the number of repetitions for each workout, but it is something I can maintain and right now I need that "win".

Of course we now probably all know how well I maintain a training schedule, however here is my hopes for the month of March:

March 2014

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
						1
						Training Run- 5 miles NMTZ Challenge
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak NMTZ Challenge Cross Training	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
San Diego Half Marathon NMTZ Challenge	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak	Streak NMTZ Challenge Cross Training	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Hope4Kids 5K NMTZ Challenge
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Streak	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak Cross Training	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Training Run- 8 miles
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak NMTZ Challenge Cross Training	Streak	Training Run- 5 miles NMTZ Challenge
30	31
Streak NMTZ Challenge	Streak NMTZ Challenge

The challenge will be the following exercises:
Squat with shoulder press- 10
Backward lunge with shoulder raise- 10 each side
Chair squat with anterior raise- 10
Press outs- 10
Chest press with crunch- 15
Chest fly/reverse crunch- 10
Bicycle crunch- 15
Squirms- 10
Push ups- 10
Dead lifts with hammer curl- 10
Static squat with concentration curl- 10 each side
Alternating lunges with wide grip curl- 10 each side
Side lunge with bicep curl- 5 each side
Chair pose tricep kickbacks- 15
Sumo squat- 10
Crescent tricep kickbacks- 15 each side
Double crunch- 15
Twisting plank- 10
Toe taps- 10 each side
Windshield wipers- 10
Plank rows- 10
Superman- 10
Hollow man scissor kicks- 10
Pelvic thrust- 15 each side
Side plank left- 10
Foot raises left- 15
Inner thigh raises left- 15
Side plank right- 10
Foot raises right- 15
Inner thigh raises right- 15
Donkey kick- 15 each side
Fire hydrant with side kick- 15 each side

I added cross training once a week for now. I need to get back to the gym that I am paying for and not using. Thursday is a great day for me to get to the gym for a quick session after work and I can easily get in a solid 30-40 minutes on the bike. What's nice is that I am able to read while on the stationary bike while still keeping the RPMs up in the 90s and sometimes over 100. Meaning, I'm still working hard even though I am doing two things at once.

After March is over and I finish this challenge of 24/31 days strength training I plan on continuing the 3 on/1 off idea doing strength training, cross training, strength training, rest and repeat. While, of course running every day.

March is going to be my month. I can feel it. I'm getting a solid start now in regards to eating and continuing my streak so that when March comes I will be prepared. I need to be prepared for March because we have seven birthdays to celebrate. Pretty close together as well. 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, 25th, 27th and 28th. That's a lot of yummy food and delicious cake. But I will be ready!