Lessons Learned on the 30 Day Challenge (Blogging)

  The 30 day blogging challenge is over.  Did you know I was participating?  Well I was and now am celebrating on this final day with the 30th post on the 30th day of November.

  It was harder then you think.  I don't always know what I'm going to write.  It's not always planned. Hmm, I'm not one to plan ahead.  Sometimes I was good others not so much but, I have learned alot from this journey.

What I learned from 30 days of blogging:

1. If you plan ahead things are easier.
2.  If your determined you will get the job done even if it's past your bedtime.
3. I am confident now how to not stress about what to post.
4.  I gained more exposure and interaction with daily posts.
5.  Posting variety gets people's attention!
6. This was special me time that I made happen.
7. I can learn from others along the way when I do engage.
8. You have to focus and have patience to finish something you started.  If it was important enough to start it's important enough to finish.
9. Speak from the heart or experience because people like real and deserve real.
10.  There's always something to post!

Each day there was a prompt to help you with ideas if you needed it.  Todays prompt was if a chose a word for the year and what it was.  I will finish this 30th post on this 4th day of November with my answer.

  At the beginning of 2016 I did choose several words.

INSPIRE
MOTIVATION
DETERMINATION
DESIRE
ACHIEVE

  I can sit back and reflect on how I used all these words for myself making myself a better person and pursuing the current situation.  I can also smile as I have shared all of these in one way or the other with friends and acquaintances.  If I can why not you. I post a cannoli one day and I'm at the gym working out.  The struggle is real and I keep it real.

Thank you for keeping me company on this journey.

Have you ever completed a 30 day challenge on anything?
What did you learn from it?
Would you do it again?

#NaBloPoMo

Day 13, 14

Day 13

  It is getting harder and easier but I can see physical changes.  You can't get discouraged when you can see the improvements.  If nothing else this is the biggest motivating factor there is.  A big hurdle for me is not just the eating at home and making healthy meals or skipping junk food it's the choosing the easy road.  Making an excuse to eat something I don't need to, eating something because it's there.  When take out is brought home its hard to deny, when we usually eat somewhere on a specific day it's hard.  When I am spending the day with my kids out and about (I may pack them a lunch but get real skimpy on my own meal.  It's not hard to fix all these areas but it's just easier said then done.

Breakfast: peach oatmeal smoothie
lunch: leftovers hotdog, potato salad, squash
Snack: pineapple
Dinner: 1/2 chicken parmesan sub, cheesefries and a hmmm chocolate covered cannoli!!!! Now if I eat half today and half tomorrow how does that equate to cheat meal? I haven't eaten all of it yet.......
75 oz water
workout weights

Day 14
Breakfast : scrambled eggs with garlic,chicken and spinach. A bowl of fruit
Lunch: nothing
Dinner: taco and rice sweet tea
75 oz water
workout: rest day

  Meals have been skipped and not so good meal choices have been made.  For the last couple days and a couple more for the next couple days will be not so good choices.  I know this because #1 I'm catching up with posting my days. (I'm actually on day 16 even though I'm writing 13 and 14 plus I will be indulging in 1/2 price cheesecake.)

  My workouts are stable if not over what I normally do but that alone I am witness to as helping the whole overall process.  I confidently say I will not make a poor meal choice because I missed a meal.  I miss a meal and keep it moving.  I will not over eat or grab the wrong thing but not eating is not good either.  You need to eat and I know this!!  I have done good and I have just hit a couple hiccups. Game on as I finish this 30 days hard and strong!

Keep watching and follow this ride!!! I'm real and living this out and proving it can be done! Thank you for your support and encouragement.

** UPDATE*** I actually never got to eat the whole cannoli as my husband ate the other half.  That took care of that!

Day 1 of 30 day healthy challenge

  Most of you do not know me but have gotten a good idea based on what I write  about what's important to me, what I like, my hobbies or aspirations.  If you read in between the lines you see I do love to eat

 and workout.

 Not necessarily the best two compatible things.   At least in my case.  I overeat the bad things and work my butt off which means I will only see small changes.  I have a deep relationship with sweet tea.  I was born in the North where it was a luxury and now where I reside it's second nature.  I can get it everywhere.  I have even learned I like flavored such as raspberry and a Teavana brand.  Tea is good but the sugar that I am ingesting not so good I hear.  So I definitely lack in good drinking choices.  I go days without drinking but if I eat out I will down 3-4 or more glasses of tea.  So this challenge is also keeping me on track with consuming water; not just drinking it but actually drinking at all.

I post a lot of my drinking water containers on twitter. Making fun of myself calling it camouflaged water as I drink it from my Dunking Donuts cup

or Starbucks cup.  I even had it out in a big gulp cup but didn't successfully finish that before it was left unattended and dumped down the sink.

 

Well I started on the overindulgence of drinking water last week and my 30 day challenge started today.  So I am going to hold myself accountable with you guys (and the fitness group that started it).

Our mission and I did choose to accept it was to. 1) post our meals, water consumption and workouts 2) take before pics and measurements 3) Adhere to the rules and wait and watch the transformation.

I am excited because I am feeling more serious this time and usually bomb out but I'm focused.  Summer is still here and there is a chance I can walk around the pool with some confidence.  I have posted various pictures on the other social media sites but will stick with food and exercise with you guys.  Eventually I would like to add a quick easy workout to my you tube channel but I am still working on that.

For now I invite you to join me on this journey.  I will have bad food choices I can guarantee you that but my goal is too have more good ones than bad.  That cheesecake picture was from last week and I have eaten out a few more times and successfully declined dessert. (Which is a HUGE feat for me)

My journey will only be with healthy food or food in general. No supplements, protein shakes or diet meals.  Definitely exercise which I enjoy consisting of anything and everything.  My muscle content is on certain parts of me and other areas lack drastically.  I plan to get my body on the same track.

Day 1 meals!

Peaches and bananas for breakfast with my water. Lunch was a salad with cucumbers, carrots and tuna fish sprinkled with garlic and onion powder with more water. Dinner was 1 hard beef taco and 1/4 Spanish rice at a local restaurant with a sweet tea and more water.  I drank about 91 oz of water today!!

My workout included a bike ride to my gym and back 3.78 miles, 12 laps in the pool and various weight training with my arms and legs.

I do workout for the muscle tone not to be skinny.  I have a focus of what I want to look like and what I don't want to look like. Sadly I do not know if or how much weight I can lose or just only tone what I have.  I will deal with that as it comes. Everything I do is attainable by anyone. I am not lifting hundreds of pounds, running or biking marathons.  Sometimes my kids go with me so it's not always about speed as much as it is about just moving.