Here is a summary of the wins and challenges from week 1 of my 8 week fitness challenge.
WATER
The goal is to drink a full gallon of water daily. I have a big jug that is a half gallon and am trying to drink 2 of those each day. At the beginning of the week I was feeling pretty solid on this. I’ll count anything in between a half gallon and a full gallon as a win because it’s still more than I would normally drink. I also cut down my coffee intake to a couple times this week instead of everyday.
EXERCISE
I went to Burn Boot Camp 2x this week. The second camp was leg day and I might have gone a little too hard because I’m still sore. I didn’t make it to a third camp but did end up walking a ton on Friday so I’ll count that as the 3rd workout of the week.
SLEEP
Goal is to get at least 7 hours a night. I did that 3 nights this week but got less than 7 hours the rest of the nights. My whoop bracelet tracks my sleep and my recovery. I want to have green recovery but most days this week were red and yellow. Definitely lots of room for improvement in this area.
FOOD
I did eat more at home this week but still did go out a few times. One of the times I went out to eat, I got summer squash pizza and a kale salad so didn’t feel to bad about that. We did also eat cookout, BBQ and Mexican food which might have slowed my progress a bit. Excited to see what we come up with to cook in the upcoming week.
Highlights from cooking at home this week included fruit parfaits, hot beef sandwiches, green bagel sandwich, and steak pizza.
SNACKS
No junk food or fast food. Generally stayed away from this except for some chips and queso and a late night Cook Out run.
FRESH
With fruits and veggies, I was doing great the first three and a half days. My fave new way to add in fruit is on top of a base filled with yogurt, protein powder and peanut butter mixed together. I also snacked on veggies and hummus. This upcoming week I want to find more interesting ways to add vegetables into my day.
GROW
I did a little bit of reading and journaling in this area 5 out of the 7 days. I’m reading a 30 day best life challenge book as well as a fiction book for an upcoming book club meetup. My goal is to wake up in time to read first thing in the morning to slowly start my day instead of jumping right into work.
EXPLORE
Lots of fun new things in this area! Monday night golf league made us play outside. I also went to new places for concerts – Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary and Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro. On Friday night, I went to the Beer, Bourbon and BBQ festival which was outside as well and fun then went to two new restaurants in Raleigh, Lola’s Beach Bar and Johnson Street Yacht Club. On Saturday I went to a plant class at Logan’s Garden Shop but on by a local plant blogger. I can’t wait to go back and buy some new plants soon!
SELF-CARE
My first self-care idea of the week was a gratitude bomb where I filled up a full page in a journal with things for which I’m grateful. I’m also asking Brian at the end of the day to think of 3 things from the day – we did this a couple times but I would like to get in the habit of doing it every day. Another self-care form was a brain dump where I set a timer and wrote down everything in my brain. I did this twice, once for all the personal things and the second was for all the work things. This weekend self-care was allowing myself to relax and watch some new shows and movies.
Tomorrow is the next weigh in since the group is doing every Monday morning. I took pictures of what my starting point was last week. I’m stoked to keep going with this challenge and enjoy the process. Cheers friends!
