#stf2016

Recap your goals and how you did on each of them. Goal #1: Eat Clean and track everything on MFP. -Grocery shop & meal prep day once a week. -Only 3 days of this month to eat out (no fast food!) and that’s it. Goal #2: Work out at least 4 times a week. –The days I’m not working out, my goal is to ‘walk’ 5,000 steps. Goal #3: Pray and meditate every day.

I started out strong but lost momentum halfway during the month. Surprisingly, I did best on working out but eating healthy and prayer/meditation was a struggle.

My goal was to have a sustainable workout regimen for my semester that consisted of 3 workout days. On the one hand, I have a cardio one that seems to work but not a strength one. On the other hand, I haven’t really had a normal full week of classes because of the snow. But I’m trying and have done well so far. I’ve learned that some Fitblrs around these parts have good taste in music lol. This whole not doing strength workouts is somewhat of a new development that I can’t explain so I guess I’ll try to tackle it next month. I’m planning on doing @fatmaninalittlesuit‘s challenge in February and am off to find the posts for it as soon as I finish this post. This challenge was a lot of fun and I really liked that everyone’s posts were reblogged to a central location. I think that’s a fantastic format for a challenge. I live in the U.S.

Saturday January 30th - Weekly Check-in!

How did you do this week? 

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This was a fun challenge. I just hope I had kept up with it. The first half of the month went well but then I started falling behind on the daily prompts and here I am again, writing this a day late. Oops. 

Recap your goals and how you did on each of them

I had four goals for this challenge. I didn’t meet any of them. 

My first goal was to finish Yoga with Adriene’s Yoga Camp by the end of January. I am thirteen days behind. :(

My second goal was to be able to run 30 minutes straight by the end of January. I can run 25 minutes straight and I am happy with that (thirty minutes will be possible some time next week). I’m also very pleased with myself that I have kept up the habit of running. That’s the most important thing to me now. 

My third goal was to eat fruits or vegetables as part of every meal. That didn’t happen either and I really need to keep on focusing on that habit. It’s so easy to not eat them even though eating fruits and vegetables makes me feel so much better.

My fourth goal was to meet my activity goal on my Polar Loop 2 on six days of the week. That didn’t happen on any week. Though for the last three weeks my average percentage has been over 100 and that’s fine. 

What have you learned over this challenge?

I learned that these kind of challenges might not be the best thing for me. Pretty soon in the challenge I realized that I needed more time than I had to participate in the challenge the way I wanted. The next time I want to participate in a challenge I need to make sure I have enough time. 

What struggles did you have?

I was sick for about a week in the first half of the challenge. On the second half of the challenge I had too much other things to do and I also was tired because of too little rest. 

Did you make any new friends???  How were your accountability buddies in helping you along this  month?

I hope I have a new tumblr-friend in @somedayssummer, even though I was not a good accountability buddy. 

Do you have any new goals for February?

The first thing I’m going to do in February is to take care of myself mentally. I’m going to do the things that have been waiting for a few weeks now (going to some boxes of stuff that I have brought over from my parents etc.). Also just relaxing and doing the things I like. 

I have been planning on doing a take-a-photo-a-day challenge by myself for the month. So maybe?

I also want to challenge myself to take a walk or a run every day. To take care of my health (both mentally and physically) and to go outside and see new places. Otherwise I fear that I’m going to be stuck inside. 

During January I have realized that I need to do some strength training to help my running. So that is also something I want to incorporate in my habits. Bodyweight training twice a week maybe?

Did you have fun????

YES! The challenge was fun and I really like how it was structured and the daily prompts were fun. 

What country do you live in? 

HOLY COW!  We did it!  Congrats to everyone who made it to the end of our challenge! We covered everything from goal setting, to nutrition to fitness and self care.  You guys deserve a gigantic high five!  This has been a fun and amazing challenge to be a part of.  

So, we want to know a few things!

*  Recap your goals and how you did on each of them.

1. Follow the running plan given to me by my friend.

- Hahaha I didn’t do so great at this. I restarted the running plan and this last week fell off it. Again. But I’m looking forward to continuing to work through the training plan in February. 

2. Strength train 2x per week

- I failed miserably at this, I only strength trained once a week and that’s really only if you count rock climbing as strength training. This is one I’ll have to continue to work on throughout February. 

*  What have you learned over this challenge?

One of the coolest things I learned throughout this challenge is how much these challenges actually do help me. More than once I went out and ran or worked out because I didn’t want to disappoint my fellow Sparkers. The accountability was awesome and I’ll definitely be looking for some February challenges. 

*  What struggles did you have?  Are they continued from last year or are they new struggles?  How do you plan to tackle these in the next month?

So I really struggled with consistency, which is definitely something that’s followed me from last year. Since running my last half in November and starting my new job, I’ve struggled with following my running plan and especially with getting any gym time in. 

I think in February I’m going to have my boyfriend help me with my strength training consistency and will start going back to the running group I’m a part of at least during their weekly group run. 

*  Did you make any new friends???  How were your accountability buddies in helping you along this  month?  

Oh my accountability partners were awesome. I felt I was able to chat with them when I needed and it was really awesome to see even a like or reblog on my posts from them. 

I do wish I’d been a bit more active in communicating with them so I apologize for that you guys! @mattybuggie @xrunningsloth @bodylove-etc

*  Do you have any new goals for February?

I haven’t quite figured out my February goals just yet. 

*  Did you have fun????

I did! This was such a fun challenge and I loved the different themes each week. 

*  What country do you live in?  (this is important, just trust us!)

I’m from the US