Day 2 of the 30 Day Challenge

Okay, so I just finished my second workout of this 30 Day Challenge.  Fortunately I've done all of these exercises before so I don't have to spend any time with how-to segments.  I'm doing the medium intensity this time round and really prefer it.  It's more reps mostly, but it takes longer so you don't feel like you cheated somehow and you have higher calorie burns.  Today I actually burned more than the target which was nice. 

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm doing the Wii Sports Active workouts in my home.  But don't worry, the whole post doesn't rely on you having the same.  These exercises can be done just about anywhere, from your own home to the gym. 

Favourite exercise today:  Side lunges with toe touches.  Really anything that works my core to me is absolutely essential. 

Exercise I hated today (but did anyway because I'm stupid competitive good like that): fast high kick ups.  ugh.  I should have worn my  knee brace today.

Okay, someone asked, what is The 100.  It is a pilates staple.  When I was younger and my midsection still had some firmness to it and hadn't gone through quite so much trauma, I could tighten it up with just the 100 morning and night for a couple weeks.  I don't know if it's going to be as effective as quickly this time, but I figure it can't hurt.  So the basic position is this:

Depending on your level of core strength you would either do top (easy), middle (medium), bottom (hard). See her hands, flat palms facing the floor and hovering a few inches?  You just pump.  100 times.  Looks easy, right?  Go ahead, try it.


I'll wait.

Uh-huh.  Not bad, right?  So anyway, I'm adding that after every work out and hopefully if I get my act together and if a certain toddler lets me lay on the floor without accosting me, I'll do it other times throughout the day as well.

Tomorrow is a day of rest. 

What exercises do you love/hate/rely on?

The Strange Idea

I know there are a ton of fitness blogs out there. At least I'm sure there are, I honestly didn't actually look. I'm sure they're put up by people who know more about it than I do and who are probably in better shape than I am. But I wasn't interested in someone else telling me the secrets to their amazing body when they have likely never really been overweight to begin with. And I wasn't really looking for someone else to whip me into shape. What I wanted was a place to be accountable for my goals. I want to know think hope that people are out there keeping up with my progress or lack there of. And really that's all I need. Just the thought of someone else knowing that I have slacked off is often enough to keep me from letting things go for too long. I've discovered recently that I have a closet A-type personality and really don't like to cheat, especially if I'm making it public what I'm trying to do.

Now for all of that being about me, I also firmly believe that we do better, we succeed more, in community. If you're like me and just want a place to be kept accountable, to share when things get frustrating, and even to bitch and moan a little when it just sucks to be on this journey, I'd love to have you on board. Share your goals, exercises, recipes, triumphs, setbacks, and anything else you want to share. You can add your two cents in comments or email me with full posts to share with everyone. I would even love to take on team members at some point. I'm really hoping that we get some notice and can include awesome fitness give-aways down the road.

What do you say? Are you up for it?

What I eat.

Okay, I'm not really into diets. I'm more interested in trying to eat better food, more salads, and smaller portions. I've also really gotten into making more of my food from scratch. I've started with some breads, I've heard you can make your own yogurt in the crockpot, I want to start making our pasta sauce from scratch instead of getting the jars from the grocers and I'm really looking forward to starting my own herb garden. I'll share my recipes and I hope you'll share yours, too.

My Exercise

So nothing hardcore right now. I don't have time to do an hour at the gym everyday. I don't even really have time to get to the gym. That's where my Wii comes in. I tried the Wii Fit and it didn't really work. You have to pause between each little thing and fiddle with the menus. It's still fun for its balance exercises. We've moved on to the EA Sports Active now. There's some getting used to using the remote and nunchuk while moving about and there's different ways to do some of the exercises depending on whether or not you have a balance board. We use the tension band it came with right now, but I plan to get a stronger one soon so it will be more of a workout. I'm also trying to remember to do The 100 from Pilates after every workout. I should really get into the habit of doing it every morning and night as my stomach is one of my biggest issues. I'll add to this as I develop my routine more. I also do some biking and of course I have a toddler to chase after.

What do you do for exercise? Email me your routine and I'll post it here!