A New Start

Good evening! Hope you've had a good start to the week.

Today's post marks the start of something a little different that I think will be a positive change not only for the blog, but for me as well!

I have been a runner for a long time, and yes there are definitely days when it's challenging, but more often than not, my body is just too used to doing it. My body is just getting too bored doing the same things I've been doing for the past couple of years, so I really want to start challenging it in different ways so that I can get stronger. 

I've devised a list of rules that include daily and weekly exercises that will be really tough, but really good for me to do. Here's what I have come up with.

Fitness Goals:

1. Running 5 days a week

• two days per week devoted to long runs (6 miles and over in prep for half marathon)
• one day per week devoted to HIIT run (repeats of sprinting and then recovery)
• one day per week devoted to hill workout (treadmill or bridge run)
• one day per week devoted to timed 5k run (the goal here is to improve every time!)

2. Circuit workouts 2 days a week

• I'm going to find tough ones from other blogs, or make them up myself, but I'll always post them here for you to try too!

3. 10 minutes devoted to ab work every day 

• Usually I only do about 5 or 6 minutes of abs, and certainly not every day so this will be tough. I'll post the exercises I do!

4. Thursday kick-boxing class at the gym 

• I always see this intense 60 minute class going on when I'm at the gym and it looks really cool, but I've always been too afraid to try it. Not anymore though! I plan on trying it this week and if all goes well, I'll be back every week. 

5. Arm workouts 2 times a week 

• These will most likely be designed by Joey because he knows much more about all of this then I do, but I'll share the workouts of course.

6. P90X yoga once a week

• This will be tough to fit in because it's 90 minutes and I'll have to find space to do it somewhere in the house, but a bunch of the guys I live with do P90X everyday and say the yoga is really challenging, but I really want to try it. When I'm at home, I go to hot yoga classes regularly and I miss them, so why not give this a try. 

7. Stretch every day

• I am not good about doing this. Usually by the time I'm done working out I'm just too tired and want to get home so I skip the stretching, but that's going to change. I especially need to stretch my calfs and hamstrings every day because they're the most likely to get sore or even injured due to the amount of running that I do.

8. Try to incorporate the exercises I hate doing because they're usually the ones that whip my butt into shape the most. These include:

• Pull-ups (my goal is to be able to do these unassisted by the end of the summer)
• Burpees  
• Box-jumps
• Real pushups (no girlie ones)

*more things will be added to this list, I'm sure* 

9. Workout in the morning

• It's no fun to get up early and hit the gym or go for a run, but it really makes the whole day better when you just get it out of the way early. 

10. Take 1 day of rest per week

• This is a big one for me. I hate taking days off because working out is such a good de-stresser for me, and I usually end up feeling really guilty by the end of the day that I didn't do anything physically exerting. But as hard as it may be, I'm really going to try and do this because I can only get stronger if I let my body take a break and rest up. I'm sure it will make my other workouts more productive so this is happening. 

I plan on setting up a more clear weekly schedule of workouts that includes all of these rules, so I'll be sure to post that up as soon as it's done. 

In terms of eats, I only have a couple of changes to make:

1. EAT MORE PROTEIN

• This is definitely the most important one. Because I'm a vegetarian, my protein options are somewhat limited. There are times when I go the whole day without having any protein and that's just not okay. So starting today I'm going to be sure and have a substantial portion of protein 2 out of 3 meals a day.

2. Completely lactose free 

• Not sure how long this is going to last, but I think it will be good for my stomach's sake to just cut it out for a bit

So there are my changes for the next 6 weeks (until I leave the beach house to go home), and then I'll re-evaluate the plan and maybe make a new one! 

With all of that being said, here's a look at DAY 1 of the new plan. 

Hit the gym at 9am and got right on the treadmill for a timed 5k 

22:18 is the time to beat for next week's timed 5k

After a short cool down, I was off the treadmill and starting this tough circuit:

10 push-ups alternating knee-ins
15 froggers
10 / side ice skaters
15 / leg alternating forward lunges
10 box jumps
15 / leg single leg step ups
5 / side row with neutral front raise

No rest in between exercises. Repeat the whole thing FIVE TIMES with 90 seconds rest in between each circuit.

Click here to see the video that shows how to do each of the exercises. 

Then it was time for 10 minute abs that included this circuit 

vertical leg crunches

russian oblique twists

leg raises

bicycles

V-ups 

Each exercise done for one minute. Do whole circuit twice. 

Then I had a nice stretch that felt great. 

Today's Eats: 

Breakfast- Grape-nuts with almond milk, ground flax seed, berreis, and muesli on top! Soy, unsweetened green tea latté brought as a treat from Joey. Yay!

Lunch- 1/2 whole wheat wrap with hummus, california veggie burger (bam! protein!), cranberries, and spinach, apple on the side 

Snack- Banana with Barney almond butter

Dinner- Baked salmon (2/2 protein!) with quinoa/brown rice mix, peas, and apple number 2 of the day

Packed to go because I had to babysit tonight...some items not shown. Sorry for the poor picture quality!

 So DAY 1 is all done! Catch you back here tomorrow with more updates from my new challenge!