Active April - Fit N Healthy

Last month I joined my twitter buddy Ami (@smtwngrl) on her challenge to be healthy and ‘active’ during the month of April.

This was not to be the first, and certainly not the last (and in fact, not even the only April) “fitness” challenge I did on Twitter.

Fact is, if any one of my Twitter friends mentions some sort of health/fitness/etc. challenge, I’m probably going to at the very least, investigate it, and most likely, join it.

In January, I attempted (and came very close to fulfilling) @AmberOliver’s 31 day fitness challenge.

Also in April I attempted (and failed miserably) in @swissms99’s 10 day clean eating challenge.

There have been others.

Truth is, lately, I’m all about eating healthy, exercising, and basically, changing my lifestyle to one where health is just a matter of life.

I hate “diets”, I hate “crash courses” and crazy goals and impossible feats when it comes to what to eat and how much exercise to do.

I love food. I like lounging on my couch and watching television.

But I also like the way my body looks when I am taking good care of it. I like fitting into my size 4 jeans. I like that the other day, when I flexed my arm, I saw muscle there. I like that I used to be out of breath going up one flight of stairs and now I can walk/jog 3 miles and be barely winded.

I love being healthy.

So, if you mention some sort of fitness challenge to me, you can bet your booty I’m going to ask you more about it.

In April, I was active. I didn’t exercise every single day, but I came close. So, when Ami asked me if I was up for joining her for another fitness challenge in May, I, of course, said yes.

Enter #fitNhealthy. You can find out more about the challenge here, at Ami's blog. But the general idea behind it is that for the month of may, Ami is challenging us to do AT LEAST 30 minutes of exercise AT LEAST 5 days a week. I'm in.

In fact, I've been doing that already for the last few weeks, and most days, I do at least an hour worth of exercise. I'm going to just stick to Ami's challenge however, and see if I can "outdo myself" and push for an hour each day.

For me, these challenges, these Twitter buddies of mine who are focused on their health, are just added motivation for me to live the life I want to live.

In the last few years, I’ve gone from being the girl who would say “I run if someone is chasing me”, to the girl who is determined to run a 5k race before this summer is over (OMG, did I really just admit that out loud?)

And I owe a lot of that to Twitter. The constant motivation, encouragement and commiserating with my Twitter buddies, both the ones who run marathons and the ones who, like me, struggle along, has helped to change me into this person I am becoming.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret, I really like this person.

So, what do you say? Join me in being #fitNhealthy? You can find me HERE on Twitter, if you don’t already follow me, and join me in changing the way our minds work, so we can change the way our bodies work, look, and feel.

Active April

I’m always looking for motivation to be healthy.

If you don’t know, about two and a half years ago, I signed up for Jennie Craig on a whim. I’d gone to an appointment with my mom for moral support. I knew I needed to get in shape, but I was sure I could do it on my own, and didn’t need to sign up for any program to do it, I was just going with mom because she didn’t want to go alone.

She was going to sign up, and I was going to walk away and go do my own thing.

But I signed up. And I’ll be forever grateful that I did. In the next 4 months or so I dropped 25lbs.

More importantly, however, I changed the way I thought about food, about exercise, and about my health.

This post is not an advertisement for JC. Although I feel I do owe it to the program for my weight loss, and I think it is a great program and it DOES work, this isn’t about them, it’s about me.

I needed to be in the right mindset to take control of my health, and although JC helped me on that path, it was I who made the decision to do it.

And since then, on my own, I’ve done a pretty darn good job of staying healthy.

Over this past holiday season, however, I slacked a bit. I regained about 10 lbs. Now, to be honest, considering where I was before I regained this weight, I’m still in pretty good shape. If I wanted to, I’m pretty sure I could stay right where I am, and would never be called overweight by anyone.

But I know my body, and I know that the 10lb difference matters. Over the last several months I’ve been able to manage the food and exercise balance so well that I have maintained my weight pretty steadily. I have not been super strict with either food or exercise, but have managed to not gain an ounce.

I have also not managed to lose a single pound.

You could say I’ve maintained, or you could say I’ve plateau.

Either way, the scale’s not budging, up or down.

I read somewhere that the “cursed” last 5 lbs women struggle with constantly are a woman’s body’s way of telling her that maybe she’s not supposed to lose that last 5 lbs., which is why she’s constantly re-gaining them.

I wonder if that is true. I’m wanting to put it to the test.

I am determined to lose the last 10 (or actually it’s 13) lbs. to reach my goal weight. I’m going to do this one last SERIOUS push in the next few months to drop the weight, get in great shape, tone my body…and see what happens. I wonder if after I do, with this new balance I seem to have found, I’ll be able to maintain it, as I’ve maintained the weight I am now for several months…

So, starting today, I’m putting myself on a 1200 calorie a day diet, with healthy options, regular snacks, and a complete and varied diet.

And also, I’m joining my twitter friend Ami on her Active April challenge.

Here are my “activity goals” for April:

Mondays: Shred at the gym

Tuesdays: Kickboxing at the gym (with the exception of Board Meeting Tuesday, because…well, I can’t miss the meeting)

Wednesdays: will probably be my day off from the gym, but if the weather allows, power walk outside, and if not, abs and arms at home with FitTV

Thursdays: Cardio day at the gym

Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are always a crapshoot schedule wise for me, so I’m just going to focus on trying to get in at least 30 minutes of “real” exercise each of those days.

On top of that, my plan is to walk at lunch daily, take the stairs at work instead of the elevator, park far away from wherever I go, and just MOVE more.

I also have a plan to chat with a friend about starting a weight training routine of some sort. I’m completely clueless when it comes to weight/strength training, but really want to get into that a bit…

So, there you have it, my ActiveApril plan…wanna join in? Visit Ami's blog to find out more, or let me know in comments that you'll be joining in...