It’s two weeks into 2018 and here’s my first update!! 

I’ll be breaking my results down into the format of the 5 W’s and 1 H (Yes, my mother is an educator – can you tell?)

WHO (did I talk to?)

I didn’t discuss my fitness goals in depth with anyone.

WHAT (did I do?)

I used different forms of activity to round up my 60 minutes.  I also began to eat within a time frame aka intermittent fasting (IF).  I personally don’t like that IF term because I grew up associating the term “fasting” with prayer, and I can’t really say that I “fasted” in the way I know this term to be.  BUT, IF coupled with my exercise, and I love the slight transformation thus far!  I incorporated the 16/8 IF method.  So, I would begin to eat around 10/10:30AM (usually later on weekends) and have my last meal by 5:30/6PM.  I ate healthy meals (that were prepped on Sunday and Wednesday), had no snacks in between, and drank mainly water and tea.

I have a wall calendar in my room on which I would mark an X on the days that I did some form of exercise.  I actually began to incorporate this pattern last year.  I’ve found that I enjoy marking my X, as it’s visual and helps me see right away whether I’m slacking or not.

Now water on the other hand! That has been a bit of a battle for me.  Unfortunately, I can go all day without really drinking anything.  I consume the most amount of water during hot summer days.  I’m attempting to drink at least 80 oz/day, and break it up into a set amount of hours.  There was one day when I consumed 60 oz.  The remaining days were NOWHERE even remotely close to that SMH. 

I’ve tried water apps in the past, and they’ve never really worked for me.  But, I decided to try it again, set up reminders, and drink at least 8 oz of water per hour.  So far, no dice.  It still isn’t working.  I’m thinking about creating labels detailing the amount of water I should have already consumed by a particular time of day on my water bottle to make it more visual.  So, I’m still working on a way to increase my daily water intake because I know that will make a great difference.  I tend to dress it up with apple cider vinegar and lemon when I’m on the go.  When I’m home, I use my SodaStream machine to create sparkling water, and that helps me to consume more water as well.  

If anyone has any water tips that have worked for them, feel free to share!!

WHERE (did I do it?)

I exercised at home and at the gym.

During home workouts, I incorporated videos from Fitness Blender and Keaira Lashae.

During gym workouts, I did a walk/jog/run rotation on the treadmill at an incline between 10 & 12 for about 35 minutes, then did calisthenics for the remainder of the time.

WHEN (did I do it?)

I exercised right after work.  I even incorporated a weekend workout to ensure I met my deadline of four days/week.

WHY (am I doing it?)

Because I want to get this bawdyyyyy together, and see what some consistency in this area will finally do.  

HOW (did I do?)

For the first two weeks of January, I was actually consistent in completing 60 minutes of activity four times a week!

Maybe it’s because I’ve given myself a bit of a reward at the end of the month in which the consistent exercise would make a difference (to me, at least).  Because I’m turning 30, I told myself I would do something I’ve never done before.  I solidified the majority of the details during the first week of January with the person who is helping me bring it to fruition, and that has made it more real, more exciting, and just a tad bit scary.

Regardless, creating a healthier lifestyle that incorporates physical activity is something that I really want to make a habit.  In the past, I would always have some sort of excuse.

I don’t wanna mess up my hair. 

I don’t have time. 

I just ate, so I need to let my food settle. 

Blah blah blah

I simply needed to get over myself.  Over the past two weeks, I’ve been pretty adamant about sticking with what I’ve outlined.  I can’t necessarily say I had any moments when I didn’t want to work out, and had to really push myself.  But whenever I did have that feeling in the past, I would remind myself of my ‘WHY‘ and tell myself to do at least 20 minutes.  And most times, that 20 minutes would increase because I would get into the groove of things or turn on some soca to help the time pass by.  And let me tell you….SOCA WORKS!!  Or even a podcast helps.  I try not to watch a show that I like because then I focus more on the show.  SMH there have actually been times when I would stop what I was doing, and rewind the show if I missed anything.  BUT, I’ve been delivered and those days are behind me!!  For the most part, I stick to soca and podcasts and the time flies by.

I incorporated Trello when I was meal prepping, and actually enjoyed the process.  In my decision to step out of my box and try a new dish, I browsed Pinterest for some meal ideas.  I placed them on my Trello board according to Recipe and Meals for the Week to help make things easier as I went grocery shopping.  I did the same for my weekly workouts.  Laying tasks out on Trello made it much easier to actually implement it when the time came.  I also used my planner to block out the times in which I would be exercising or meal prepping.

Overall, I’ve noticed that I’m more toned.  To track my progress, I focused more on inches lost as opposed to weight lost because muscle is denser than fat, thus it takes up less space.  Weight fluctuates on the scale too much for me to use it as my sole tracker.  

Check out my next post for my update on the real estate portion of my challenge over the past two weeks!

Let me know how your 2018 has been going so far?

What are you working on?