Hello, hello!
The new year is right around the corner, and I know a lot of us are setting goals and resolutions to get healthy in 2014. Whether it’s losing weight, eating cleaner, or tackling your first half marathon (or maybe trying CrossFit for the first time? C’mon, I know you want to!), we all have things we want to accomplish this year.
I’m all about setting goals for 2014 (full post coming soon), and one of my biggest, most important goals for this coming year is delivering a healthy, happy baby, which for me involves eating right, regular exercise, and getting some quality sleep while I can. I also want to keep things fairly simple with this goal because I know my body is going to do what it needs to do in the coming months to make a baby, so I designed an 8-week challenge to motivate me to get healthy and stay healthy. And, of course, I’d love for you to join me!
Here’s how it works”¦
Each week on Friday, I will post a new challenge for the upcoming week. It’ll be simple, likely a healthy lifestyle challenge, and you’ll have the whole week to do it. You can start Sunday or Monday, whichever day you prefer. For example, this week (December 29 – January 4), the challenge is keep a food journal. So starting on Sunday (or Monday) next week, we’ll keep a food journal””online or on paper””to track what we are eating and drinking. I did this when I first started to lose weight, and it was a real eye-opener for me. I’ve always been a relatively healthy eater, but keeping track of what I ate showed me just how oversized my portions were and where the extra calories in my diet were coming from.
Of course, I’m not planning to keep a food journal in order to lose weight (hello, I’m pregnant), but I think it would be helpful to see where my diet might be deficient in essential pregnancy nutrients and vitamins. I’m taking a daily prenatal vitamin, but I know I can do better with my diet, especially considering how many treats (and chocolate!!) I’ve eaten in the past few weeks and, well, my whole first trimester.
On Friday, I’ll do a check-in post on CNC about how things went for me during the week with the challenge, and I’d love for you guys to tell me how things went for you too. We’ll keep each other accountable! On Friday, I will also announce the new challenge for the following week. Saturday can either be a free day or you can continue with the previous week’s challenge for one more day. Totally up to you! And then you will start the new challenge on Sunday (or Monday).
You can also continue with each week’s challenge throughout the entire 8 weeks. So, for example, if keeping a food journal works for you, be sure to keep it up for the entire challenge. Same goes for challenges that just don’t work for you””modify them to your own personal preferences or skip them all together. Feel free to pick and choose what works best for you. This challenge is all about building and establishing a healthy routine that is sustainable long-term and works for YOU!
So that’s that! I hope you decide to join me!
P.S. Here are some posts I’ve written in the past that you might find helpful this week: