Monday, September 1, 2014

It Never Gets Easier, You Just Get Stronger: A September Fitness Challenge

A week ago, I discussed some of my fears and concerns when it comes to blogging.  In that post, I also discussed my desire to step out of my blogging comfort zone and, at the very least, start commenting on blogs I enjoy reading and/or participate in some link-ups.

Shortly after sharing that, I found the perfect opportunity.  As a regular reader of Not Entirely Perfect, I was excited to see a monthly personal challenge link-up that starts this month.

This month's challenge is all about fitness.

I kind of fell off the workout wagon after Eric and I got married last November, and, needless to say, I gained some weight.  This obviously didn't make me very happy, so I decided I should probably do something about it.  I started with committing to a BodyPump weightlifting class once a week.  Eric had been asking me to go with him for a long time, and I finally decided to give it a chance.

After I made BodyPump a regular habit, I looked for some other classes to add to my schedule.  I started taking yoga and BodyFlow (a combination of yoga, Pilates, and Tai Chi).  I now typically go to classes 3 or 4 times a week (BodyFlow, BodyPump, and 1 to 2 yoga classes).

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Image courtesy of www.dailymakeover.com.


























Since I'm already making a real effort to maintain a regular fitness routine, I actually had to give this link-up challenge some thought.  I mean, I'd love to say I'm going to go to the gym 7 days a week, but that's not realistic.  So I've decided to keep my fitness goals for September simple since I'd actually like to achieve them!

My September 2014 Fitness Goals:

1.  Continue going regularly to the classes I've been attending.  Because my schedule can get kind of crazy sometimes, I'll commit to going to at least 3 classes each week.  This means I'll be going to the gym Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday (or a combination of at least 3 of those days).

2.  Incorporate at least 1 day of cardio into my routine.  I used to almost exclusively do cardio (especially before my wedding), but since I found a bunch of classes I love, I rarely find myself on a treadmill.  I'd like to change that.

3.  Before our wedding, I was using MyFitnessPal constantly.  But now?  I haven't used this app in months.  Since I found it incredibly useful when I was actively trying to drop weight for the wedding, I decided to give it another go.  I just signed up for a new account using my blog name (if you're a fan of this app and want to add me as a friend, I'm divulgeandindulge), and, at minimum, I will be logging all of my fitness activity.  If I have the time, I'll also add all of my meal information to keep track of my calorie intake.

I'm excited to participate in this link-up!  I'll share my results on October 2nd, which is the official end of the challenge.  Hopefully I can stick with these goals and see some more results by the end of the month!

6 comments:

  1. You can stick to anything you put your mind to! I have been actively challenging myself to comment and follow others as well. I particularly enjoy reading self improvement blogs, which is the journey my husband and I are on. We have found ourselves becoming more involved in the blogging world over the last few weeks. I enjoyed reading your inspirational post and am looking toward to more in the future!

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  2. I'm glad you found it inspirational! It always makes me feel good to know that someone actually enjoyed something I've shared.

    The blogging world is kind of intimidating to me sometimes since it seems as though so many people are "established" (and I'm not), so I'm glad to see that someone else is also trying to break out of their comfort zone by commenting and following more blogs.

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  3. I love to help people! When I read your post I thought "wow that's what we're doing!" So I knew I had to follow you! :) looking forward to more post!!

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  4. […] you might remember, this month I participated in a monthly personal challenge link-up.  I’ll be posting my […]

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  5. […] time has come to share the results of my September fitness challenge, and, if I’m being completely honest, I didn’t stick with it the way I hoped I […]

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  6. […] I shared the results of my September fitness challenge, and at the end of that post I promised I would post my goals for this month’s personal […]

    ReplyDelete