Taking the No Alcohol 30 Day Fitness Challenge. I better lose a ton after this! Photo courtesy of Carlos Porto and freedigitalphotos.net

Since I’ve hit a plateau I decided to do a no alcohol challenge. I’m starting on August 1 – just to make it easier to track. Plus it gives me time to get rid of the bottle of white wine in my kitchen.

Not that I drink heavily, but I saw my alcohol intake go way up in July. I hit a crescendo last week with the celebration of Mr. Dottotrot’s e-book release.  Up until this month’s festivities, I limited my alcohol intake to twice a month. And no more than 2 drinks on those days.

This should jump-start my weight loss. After all, alcohol is mostly sugar. And sugar is a very bad carb.

The 30-Day Situp Challenge: Because losing 113 lbs. to get to my goal weight isn’t enough of a challenge!

I’ve decided to do fitness challenges each month. I’m not able to target specific areas of my body for weight loss, but I can pick areas to tone.

Also, I worry about sagging skin. I’m in my 40s, so I know as I get older, my skin loses its elasticity.  Slow weight loss and toning my muscles can help with my skin snapping back.

So this month, it’s the 30-Day Sit Up Challenge. It’s the area of my body where have the most jiggling and the source of major health issues – my big, fat belly!

I know that belly fat brings with it serious health risks – diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. Belly fat doesn’t just jiggle around. It churns out hormones and inflammatory junk. Abdominal fat breaks down easily into fatty acids, flowing into the liver and muscles. When they go to the liver, they trigger a chain reaction – increasing bad cholesterol and insulin resistance. When your hit insulin resistance, you gain even more weight. Blood sugars go out of whack. Fats and clots get into the bloodstream.

It’s not a pretty picture!

The nice thing about the 30-Day Sit Up Challenge, it’s just one exercise. The bad thing about the 30-Day Sit Up Challenge, I have to do sit ups.

Right now I can do 20 sit ups. That increases to 35 by the end of the week.  At the end of the month, 140 sit ups.

The belly fat battle is one I intend to win!

Related Articles

• How To Avoid Lose Skin During Weight Loss (eHow.com)
• Big Belly, Big Problem: The Dangers Of Belly Fat (Walgreens.com)

My push-up schedule. I’ll end on this calendar’s Day 25. This way I can time each challenge with the beginning of the month.

Since plank position, followed by push-ups, is the bane of my existence, I chose push-ups as my next 30-Day Fitness Challenge. If yoga taught me one thing, it’s I need to build upper body strength.

Plus I’ll rid myself of flabby arm syndrome. Push-ups help build the triceps and deltoids. Building up those muscles helps eliminate that loose skin look causing all that unnecessary jiggling.

So I don’t get those worried phone calls from family (you know who you are!), I’m easing my way into the challenge. How? By doing the sissified version. So instead of starting at 15 push-ups on day one, I start with 3.

Also, I’m cutting the challenge short.

Sacré bleu?

I want to change the cycle so I’m always starting a new challenge on the first of the month. So push-ups it is until October 30. The next challenge begins on November 1.

Oh, and I am counting the push-ups during yoga towards my daily total.

Headed to my first spin class today. I expect it to kick my butt and turn my legs into jelly.

I’m a little late in picking my next 30-day fitness challenge. I’ve racked my brains trying to pick a good lower body workout. Walking around my gym, I stumbled upon the new challenge – cycling.

For the next month, I’m hitting the road…actually my local spinning class. I plan on attending a 60-minute cycling class twice a week.

Today is my first cycling class.  My goal isn’t to keep up with the class — I won’t. I just want to finish the class, as I’m expecting it to completely kick me in the butt.

Why Cycling?
I have a few reasons:

1. While I’ve lost weight everywhere, my legs are the slowest to give up the fat. I know you can’t target where the fat comes off, but I can give my calf, hamstring and glutes a great workout without a lot of stress on my joints.

2. I needed a new challenge. I love lifting weights, yoga in the mornings and interval training for the 5K, but that can get old. Sometimes you need to add in a new exercise to shake things up.

3. The last time I rode a bike ride around my neighborhood was 30 years ago. That’s too long. In 2010 my husband and I purchased bikes.  I rode it for 2 minutes. I felt unsteady and uncomfortable. I weighed over 300 lbs. and had no confidence in myself. It was easy to think, “I’m too fat to ride a bike.” So into the shed it went.

That bike’s coming out of the shed.  I’m going to relearn how to ride and take my bike for a spin in my neighborhood before year’s end. The spinning class is a way for me to regain my confidence.

Hey, How Come You’re Not Cycling Everyday?
Yes, the 30-day fitness challenge is a daily challenge. Since I’m interval training to run a 5K, I don’t want to tire out my legs. I’m taking the spinning classes on my days off from training. Trust me. Two spinning classes a week is a challenge.

I do plan to ride a real bike before the end of the year. But that is a separate challenge all on its own.

Related articles

• Intro to Spinning (tangelaparker.com)
• Bike Your Way To A Better Body (About.com)

From our pals at Authority Nutrition comes a great new 30-Day Challenge I can’t wait to try!

OK, this is just silly, but it helps drive home the point that catching quality zzz’s is a big part of weight loss. You need a good night’s sleep to reset your hormones. While I attribute my recent 7 pound gain to bad eating, it’s no coincidence that my insomnia kicked in at the same time.

The amount and quality of sleep helps keep your appetite-regulating hormones (Ghrelin and Leptin) in check. Not enough sleep and Ghrelin, which tells you to eat, runs wild in your body.  When I get a full 8 hours a night I don’t eat as much because Leptin (which tells me I’m full) is doing its job and keeping Ghrelin at bay.

This week I’m doing better on the food front, keeping to 20-25g of carbs a day. I’m also getting about 7-8 hours of sleep each night this week too! In fact, I took a 20 minute cat nap this afternoon and feel great. How great? I’m going out for a 2nd run today!

Time to kick my Tough Mudder training into high gear! I’m doing a host of challenges to get myself ready for the world’s toughest race.

At the top of my Healthy Bucket List sits my desire to run a Tough Mudder. For those of you not familiar with a mudder, it’s a 12+ mile obstacle course (in the mud) designed by former British Special Forces dudes. Around 30% of the folks who try fail to complete it. The more I read about the mudders, the more I realize I need to kick my training into high gear before attempting this puppy.

I’ve decided that I’m going to try a Spartan Sprint first. Spartan races are similar to the Tough Mudder, but they have 3 levels: Sprint, Super, and Beast. The Sprints are about 3 miles and have 15 obstacles. The Sprint seems much more doable for this first timer.

The Super Spartan focuses on strength and includes 20 obstacles over 8 miles. The Spartan Beast is comparable to the Tough Mudder – 12 miles and 25 obstacles.

Fear not. My ultimate fitness test is a Tough Mudder. Working my way through the Spartan trio will prepare me for that future challenge. The trio might be easier on the surface. But with all Spartan races you have to do 20 burpees if you are unable to do an obstacle. Crap!

To help me prepare for the Sprint (and burpee penalties), plus improve my overall fitness and strength this year, I’m taking on some challenges.

If I can stay injury free, I plan to run several 5K races this year.

5K Training
With my knee feeling great, I’ve restarted my 5k training as of this month. On New Year’s Day I ran a 5K…not in a race, but I still ran that far. Weather permitting, I’m planning on running 3 times a week. I also plan to join a local runner’s club.

This week I start registering for upcoming races. The first one is on Valentines Day (Nothing says love like huffing and puffing across a finish line)!

I saw great results with my 2014 Gold’s Gym Challenge. I’m looking to do better this time.

2015 Gold’s Gym Challenge
For the 2nd year in a row, I’ve entered the Gold’s Gym Challenge. And for the 2nd year in a row, I don’t expect to win my gym’s top prize. This year I’m using the 12 weeks to compete with myself. I have 3 specific exercises I’m using to test my progress: Push-ups, sit-ups, and planks. At the end of 12 weeks, I want to see how many push-ups and sit-ups I can do in a minute. I also want to see how long I can hold the plank the position.  At the start of the challenge, I can do:

GG Challenge Benchmark (January 5, 2015)
Push-ups: 26
Sit-ups: 22
Plank: 1:01

I’ve got 11 more weeks to improve. My hope is that by the end of this challenge I’ll not only beat my fitness benchmarks, but lose inches and get closer to my goal weight (I lost 9.5 inches and 22 lbs. during last year’s challenge).

But the Gold’s Gym Challenge isn’t all I’m doing.

Monthly Fitness Challenges
I love the 30-Day Fitness Challenges. I just wish some of those challenges would love me back — I’m talking about you 30-Day Burpee Challenge!  As part of my morning stretching routine, I’m planning to do these challenges each month.  While you can’t pick spots on your body to lose weight, you can work on strengthening and building muscle.

January is the Abs Challenge. I’m starting late on this challenge, so I’m doing an abbreviated version. But I’ve got the rest of the challenges planned out for the year.

February – Little Black Dress Challenge
March – Arms Challenge
April – Ab & Squat Challenge
May – Push Up Challenge
June – Crunch Challenge
July – Butt Challenge
August – Tricep Dips Challenge
September – Plank Challenge
October – Wall Sit Challenge
November – Burpee Challenge
December – Sit Up Challenge

I’m going to talk with my trainer and see if I can add dumbbells into some of these workouts. It’s not that I’m so awesome (Oh, but I am!) I need more of a challenge. I’m just looking to improve my strength and build muscle. Building strength will help me with my Spartan and Tough Mudder training. I also need to build muscle to help with my growing loose skin problem. I’m not going to bulk out into She-Hulk mode, but anything to reduce floppy skin is a plus.

Mudderling Along
I’ve downloaded the Tough Mudder’s Mudderling Bootcamp guide. Basically it provides a 40 minutes of circuit training to help you with specific obstacles. Many of the exercises I’m doing with my trainer or through the 30-Day Challenges. I don’t want to over do it and end up injuring myself (again!). I’m thinking I’ll use this workout once a month to gauge how I’m doing and where I need to improve.

For February I’m taking on the Little Black Dress Challenge for a full body workout. To kick my butt even more, I’m doing each day’s workout twice.

It’s February and that means its time for a new 30-Day Challenge (or 28 days). This month I’m taking on the Little Black Dress Challenge. This particular challenge focuses on upper and lower body as well as the abs. Each day of the challenge brings several different exercises.

I started the challenge yesterday and I have to say it was easy peasy – 30 second plank, 10 push-ups, 10 mountain climbers. Today I’m doing 20 jumping jacks, 10 burpees and 10 high knees. Despite the burpees, today should be easy too. But not to fear, by next week I’m expecting the challenge to start kicking my butt.

Since February is a short month, I decided to do each day’s exercises twice – once in the morning and again in the afternoon. Insane? Possibly. Tough? Absolutely. But after what I feel is a sluggish start with my Spartan Sprint training and my Gold’s Gym Challenge (more on this later), I have a need to kick some my ass.

Are you up for the Little Black Dress Challenge?

March Madness starts tomorrow for me. My next 30-Day Challenge focuses on those flabby arms of mine. Lots of push ups, mountain climbers and triceps dips this month.

Yesterday was the last day of my Little Black Dress Challenge. Overall I didn’t do too bad. About 10 days in I gave up on doing the routines twice a day. My abs wouldn’t allow it. I do need more work on mountain climbers and burpees as my form isn’t that great. Nonetheless I love the challenge and may want to do it again, but later in the year.

March Madness: A Call To Arms!
Tomorrow I embark on a new task – building and toning my arms. March 2 begins my 30-Day Arm Challenge. This challenge includes just 3 exercises – triceps dips, push ups and mountain climbers…again!

I love these upper body challenges as they are a great way to attack flabby arms! They really do work (along with my weight training). And it’s not just me. Both my trainer and husband tell me they can see a huge difference in my arms. The skin isn’t as loose as it once was and there’s a lot more muscle definition.

As with these challenges, the number of times I do each exercise increases everyday. I’ll add these 3 exercises into my morning stretch routine.

Interested in taking the challenge? Check out the videos below on how to do each move.

Triceps Bench Dips

Push Ups (different levels)

Mountain Climbers (different levels)

If I want to do a Spartan Sprint I need to work on my upper body strength to get through the race’s tough obstacles.

After my trainer killed my arms with 10 pound dumbbells, I decided I needed to put more emphasis on my upper body. So today I started the 30-Day Push Up Challenge. As I want to do a Spartan Sprint by late 2015/early 2016, its time to kick my upper body training up a notch.

How am I suppose to climb ropes, walls and swing on monkey bars (through fire!) without strengthening my arms, shoulders, chest and back?

That’s why I picked push ups as my next challenge. They’re great for your shoulders, arms, chest, abs, back, neck and triceps. It’s a basic exercise that all of us can do since no equipment is needed.

To increase the difficulty of the challenge I’m doing two sets of push ups — one in the morning and another in the evening. Overkill? Maybe, but I’d rather do a second round than sit on my butt.

Muscles push ups work. Image from MDHealth.com.

I must say my push up form is bad…really bad.

While I can do 10 unmodified push ups (yay!!!), I’m finding it difficult for my chest to hit the floor. What I’m trying to do is get my elbows to a 90 degree angle (not there yet).

So by the end of the challenge, I looking at doing 80 push ups in near perfect form. Piece of cake!

Need to keep my fitbit charged for this month’s challenge!

Due to a lot of travel and general running around this month, I decided on something completely different for my monthly fitness challenge – walking a half marathon.

That’s 13.1 miles baby! I’m using September’s 4+ weeks to extend my bipedal travels.

Given all that’s going on this month, walking was the perfect choice. Walking relaxes me. I simply download some awesome podcasts or a great audio book on my iPhone, strap on my walking shoes and head out. For some reason, when I walk the spoken word, rather than music, keeps me going for hours. Who ends a walk mid-chapter?

So What’s My Plan?
I found a nifty little site with a 14-week training program to walk a half marathon. I’m making some modifications to account for my nutty schedule. Before my trip to Texas, I walked between 4-6 miles a day, occasionally getting up to 8 miles. So a month doubling that distance is very doable.

Dot2Trot’s Half Marathon Challenge
Week 1
September 1 – 4 miles (COMPLETE)
September 2 – Cross training (40 min)
September 3 – 4 miles
September 4 – Rest Day
September 5 – 6 miles
September 6 – EZ walk

Week 2
September 7 – Rest Day
September 8 – 4 miles
September 9 – Cross training (40 min)
September 10 – 4 miles
September 11 – Rest Day
September 12 – 11 miles
September 13 – EZ walk

Week 3
September 14 – Rest Day
September 15 – 4 miles
September 16 – 4 miles
September 17 – Travel Day
September 18 – Travel Day
September 19 – 8 miles
September 20 – Cross training (50 min)

Week 4
September 21 – Rest Day
September 22 – 4 miles
September 23 – Cross training (50 min)
September 24 – 4 miles
September 25 – Travel day
September 26 – 13.1 miles!
September 27 –Travel day

Week 4.5
September 28 – 2 miles
September 29 – 2 miles
September 30 – Rest day

I’m undergoing 3 challenges in March, including strength training.

I hear birds chirping. Our cherry blossoms have a ton of buds ready to bloom. Temperatures topped 60 degrees for 3 days straight. That means March is here and it’s time for a new monthly challenge.

So far this year I’ve only done one challenge – 30-Day No Alcohol Challenge. I did so poorly in January I decided to give it another try in February. Needless to say, February was a bust too.

For March, yes I’m doing the alcohol challenge again, but I’m adding two more challenges, both of which should help me go alcohol free this month (yes, even on St. Patty’s Day).

Challenge 1: Strength Training
I’m starting weight training this week. I plan to hit the gym three times a week for 30-45 minutes. I don’t want to just regain the strength I lost. My goal is to be as strong as possible. Oh don’t worry, I won’t turn into this.

So while I’m starting my training with barbells March 1, this will go beyond the 30 day challenge.

I’m pretty much following the Mark Rippetoe method. Today I work on the squat, overhead press and deadlift. On Thursday it’s the squat, bench press and deadlift. Saturday I repeat the cycle. My initial focus is on getting the positions right. The last thing I want to do is injure myself right off the bat.

Besides building strength and muscle, weight training reinforces my good eating habits. When I’m purposely lifting heavy stuff, I’m much more conscious of what I eat and drink.

Which leads me to…

Kitty agrees. I’m giving up wine this month in favor of healthier options like water and unsweetened ice tea.

Challenge 2: No Alcohol – No Exceptions
I refuse to fail at the 30-Day No Alcohol Challenge. I’ve done this challenge before, easily. Yet the start of 2016 my head just wasn’t in the game. I don’t know if it was the Winter Blahs or just no motivation, but now I’m just ticked off at myself (yes, sometimes it is okay to fuel motivation with anger).

This challenges is pretty straightforward. No alcohol, period. I know people make exceptions for special occasions (anniversaries, birthdays, happy hours, watching The Walking Dead), and I’ve done that too. But isn’t that really cheating?

So I’m opting for zero exceptions. While I don’t have any proof, I’m starting to think my body isn’t digging wine as much as it use too. After 2 glasses, I’m feeling it the next day, and I’m not talking about just a headache. We’re talking sour stomach and digestive problems.

Eliminating wine is a good way to test if my hunch is correct. If I’m symptom free, I can always test what a glass of wine does to me come April 1. Then see what two glasses do. Or test the differences between red and white wines?

I’m giving up snacks this month once I noticed I was committing a low carb sin: snacking while not hungry. I’m getting back on track by giving up my snacks.

Challenge 3: No Snacking
I eat only healthy low carb high fat snacks – macadamia nuts, deviled eggs, olives, pork rinds, etc. My problem is I’m snacking. Or I should say I’m snacking when I’m not hungry.

I’ve really noticed my snacking habit this month.

I like to get up from my office chair, step away from the computer and take a 10-minute break. I find that it recharges me mentally and it stops me from sitting all day in the home office. But lately I tend to walk into the kitchen, open the fridge, and grab something to snack on.

I caught myself doing this about a week ago. It’s an old bad habit. Something I use to do out of boredom. This time around it isn’t boredom. Maybe I’m thinking it will perk me up (I’ve recently cut back on coffee), or I’m on autopilot. Either way it’s a bad habit and I’m not happy with it.

This last trip to the grocery store I didn’t buy any easy to snack on foods. No nuts, pepperoni, olives or pork rinds. Yes I picked up eggs, but I’m not making any deviled eggs. I did boil some eggs for use in salads. But those I shoved to the back of the fridge – out of sight, out of reach.

Even if I’m hungry, I’m not snacking. A glass of water or a cup of tea with cinnamon can easily zap my hunger until it’s mealtime.

As for my little 10 minute breaks each hour, that’s the perfect time to play with the dogs, talk a walk around the block, do laundry, vacuum, or clean a room. The goal of my break was to inject activity into my sedentary computer days. And walking to the fridge and looking for a morsel doesn’t count.

Question: What healthy challenges are you doing this month?

30-Day Challenges are a great way to create new habits, change how you do things and build confidence. And they are available online for free. Just make sure you pick one that’s realistic.

I love this article from Business Insider on the importance of 30-Day Challenges in changing behavior. I’ve become a big believer in these challenges. I’ve used them to:

• Drink more water
• Cut back on alcohol
• Build strength
• Run a 5k
• Improve my sleep habits

I always try to pick something that:

1. Isn’t part of my wheelhouse;
2. Provides opportunity for self-improvement;
3. Realistic and measurable.

It’s important to pick a challenge where you not only want to make a change, but decided that you must change. Big difference.

Making a meaningful, lasting change means committing to it. While there are tons of 30-Day Challenges online, you need to be realistic. Trying to run a half-marathon in 30-days when you  are a couch potato is insane and guaranteed to fail before you reach your drive way. Not only that, but you can risk serious injury.

You need to pick a challenge where an actual good habit can take hold (or reduce a bad one).  If you want to get off your couch, try a 30-Day Walking Challenge.  Or if you already walk daily and want to run a 5K, then try a 30-Day Walk to Run Challenge.

Changing habits requires serious baby stepping. Baby steps allow you to rack up early wins, boosts confidence and keeps your motivation high throughout the challenge.

Also don’t sweat it if you can’t do everything perfectly. When I began a walk to run challenge, I was unable to do the 1 minute run/2 minute walk ratio. I didn’t give up. Instead I changed the run/walk ratio to a 20 second run/2 minute walk.

Baby steps!

Sure enough, I got stronger throughout the challenge and after 30 days I could run for 15 minutes without stopping.

My Upcoming Challenge
I’m working on transforming my low carb diet into a strict ketogenic lifestyle. So I’m working on creating a 30-Day Keto Challenge for me and my hubby in March. The goal for the challenge is changing my macros so nearly 80% of my calories come from healthy fats.

Why? Menopause! What little research there is indicates that the fewer carbs and proteins tends to help minimize the symptoms (hot flashes, weight gain, mood swings, insomnia).

It’s hard for me to eat more than 73% fat on a given day. But my health situation has changed and I’m looking to push that number up towards 80%. I’ve tried a strict keto diet before, but my heart wasn’t really into it. The result was not so great and I gave up a few days in.

What makes me think this time is different? Attitude. I must make this change for my health. A big difference.

I plan to post the challenge along with my 3o-day menu plan by the end of February.

Have you tried doing a 30-Day Challenge?

My new workout log. Time to start tracking my goal of building strength.

While I track what I eat, my exercise tracking is lacking to say the least. It’s a good habit I never tried to reinforce. But without tracking my progress it’s hard to know if I’m actually building strength.

To get stronger I need to constantly challenge myself physically. That means increasing the difficulty of my workouts. But if I can’t remember what or how well I did my last workout, then how do I know I’m doing better?

Gaming My Cardio
I’m reserving August for my own 30-Day Challenge. I’m tracking how many steps, stairs and miles I walk, run and cycle during my workouts. Then I’ll plot out a course from my home via Google maps to see where I virtually end up.

I’ve done a travel challenge like this before. It was fun but I didn’t keep it up. But this time I’m determined.

I’m using my FitBit One to track my cycling movements. It does a pretty good job estimating distance during spin class when I clip the device to my laces. I’ll also use it for hikes. Some of the trails lack continuous cell service so my phone apps won’t do.

Speaking of phone apps, I plan to use RunKeeper, my go to app for running and walks. Not only will it track distance (nice to compare against the FitBit) but I can track time/speed as well. Part of getting stronger is tracking if I’m getting faster or increasing my stamina. I’m not trying to set land speed records, it’s just another data point to track improvement.

Building A Strength Log
As for strength training, I created a chart in Excel to track my progression when it comes to weights. I’m tracking:

• How long I can hold the plank position
• Number of crunches, push-ups, dips
• Weight I can bench press, dead lift, squat, overhead press, rows, etc.

Today I’m hitting the gym to establish my current baseline. My goal is to increase how much I’m lifting by 2.5% each week, per Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength method.

I’ve got the tools in place to track. Now I just need to stay motivated to build this habit.

Headed to my first spin class today. I expect it to kick my butt and turn my legs into jelly. I’m a little late in picking my next 30-day fitness challenge. I’ve racked my brains trying to pick a good lower body workout. Walking around my gym, I stumbled upon the new challenge – cycling. For the next month, I’m hitting the road…actually my local spinning class. I plan on attending a 60-minute...

Source

From our pals at Authority Nutrition comes a great new 30-Day Challenge I can’t wait to try! OK, this is just silly, but it helps drive home the point that catching quality zzz’s is a big part of weight loss. You need a good night’s sleep to reset your hormones. While I attribute my recent 7 pound gain to bad eating, it’s no coincidence that my insomnia kicked in at the same time.

Source

Time to kick my Tough Mudder training into high gear! I’m doing a host of challenges to get myself ready for the world’s toughest race. At the top of my Healthy Bucket List sits my desire to run a Tough Mudder. For those of you not familiar with a mudder, it’s a 12+ mile obstacle course (in the mud) designed by former British Special Forces dudes. Around 30% of the folks who try fail to complete...

Source

For February I’m taking on the Little Black Dress Challenge for a full body workout. To kick my butt even more, I’m doing each day’s workout twice. It’s February and that means its time for a new 30-Day Challenge (or 28 days). This month I’m taking on the Little Black Dress Challenge. This particular challenge focuses on upper and lower body as well as the abs. Each day of the challenge brings...

Source

March Madness starts tomorrow for me. My next 30-Day Challenge focuses on those flabby arms of mine. Lots of push ups, mountain climbers and triceps dips this month. Yesterday was the last day of my Little Black Dress Challenge. Overall I didn’t do too bad. About 10 days in I gave up on doing the routines twice a day. My abs wouldn’t allow it. I do need more work on mountain climbers and burpees...

Source

If I want to do a Spartan Sprint I need to work on my upper body strength to get through the race’s tough obstacles. After my trainer killed my arms with 10 pound dumbbells, I decided I needed to put more emphasis on my upper body. So today I started the 30-Day Push Up Challenge. As I want to do a Spartan Sprint by late 2015/early 2016, its time to kick my upper body training up a notch.

Source

Need to keep my fitbit charged for this month’s challenge! Due to a lot of travel and general running around this month, I decided on something completely different for my monthly fitness challenge – walking a half marathon. That’s 13.1 miles baby! I’m using September’s 4+ weeks to extend my bipedal travels. Given all that’s going on this month, walking was the perfect choice. Walking relaxes me.

Source