No Jiggle July -- Final Wrap-up

Well, No Jiggle July has come to an end. Overall, I think it ended up being a good month. In the course of 31 days, I worked out 15 times, so I managed to maintain my average of every other day. I dropped about a pound (not amazing, but better than going the other way I guess) and am slightly lower than I was in body fat percentage. 


In my head, I think I was hoping for more dramatic results, but I know the reality is that it was just one month. And I do feel better than I did, so I think No Jiggle July served its purposes well. The Zombie Escape 5k obstacle course is a little over a month away. I'm still not sure quite what I was thinking when I agreed to sign up for the race, but I feel decently prepared. Well, maybe. I mean, in the course of the next month, I think I'll be reasonably ready, anyways. 


And so, July turns into August. I don't have a quirky name for this month (though maybe I should...it seemed to help!), but the mission continues. Thanks for following along on this journey!

No Jiggle July -- Week 3 (Almost There!)

Happy Monday! I was hoping for an exciting post this week, but I'm afraid there's not much new to report. The frequency of my workouts has remained about the same (averaging every other day), but I do feel a little better about the intentionality of my workouts. I've had some decent cardio blasts this week, and I've also continued working on strength training.

As I start the final week or so of No Jiggle July, I'm curious as to whether my "before" and "after" pictures are going to show any progress. I know that you can only do but so much in a month, but I think it will be interesting to see if there's a noticeable difference. I'll keep you posted!

No Jiggle July -- Second Week Slump

Why is the second week of something always harder than the first? Because excitement and motivation wear away quickly!


Week 2 of No Jiggle July could be the poster child for the sophomore slump. This week was hard to get moving! I'm averaging a workout every other day, but I still feel like I could step it up a little. If nothing else, I want to make sure that the time I spend actually working out is productive and intentional, not just me half-heartedly going through the motions. My weight is also up a little bit...an indication that I'm not paying as much attention to what I'm eating as I need to.


On the plus side, my favorite workout this past week occurred on Tuesday night. I ended up getting home from work too late to make that Body Combat class that I wanted to go to, but I had scheduled Tuesday as a workout day, so I knew I needed to do something! After dinner, I changed into my workout clothes (note to self: working out on the way home from work is MUCH easier than trying to get up the energy to do so after dinner!) and headed to the backyard. As best as I could, I tried to put myself through the paces in a "backyard boot camp" circuit. Basically, this involved me running around in circles (thankfully we have a big backyard), doing jumping jacks and (a few) burpees, and anything else I could think of to just move. I'm pretty sure that the hubby (and probably the neighbors!) thought I was crazy, but the dog and I had fun running around like idiots!


So with some hits and a few misses, I'm down to 2 1/2 weeks of No Jiggle July and 3 weeks until my beach trip. If you need me, I'll be at the gym...

No Jiggle July - Week One Wrap-up

No Jiggle July has started out well, I think. I've been to the gym three times over the past week, and I went running in the neighborhood next to ours on the 4th. I'm struggling with the endurance factor of my cardio (that is, when I ran/walked outside, my time/distance was MUCH higher than it has been on the treadmill), but I think that's more a mental/discipline thing than anything else. On the plus side, I've been really trying to focus on the strength training portion of my workouts. I'm even a little bit sore today, so I'll take that as a good sign. :-)


Today will probably be an off day, but I'm already thinking about hitting up Body Combat tomorrow night at the gym. I've taken the class once or twice, but it's been awhile, so I thought I should give it another shot. I'm also trying to avoid boredom and muscle adaptation (from too many of the same type of workouts). I've seen lots of different strength training exercises and circuits online, but it's so hard to remember any of them when I'm actually standing in the gym!


1 week down, 3 1/2 more to go!

No Jiggle July -- Days 1 & 2

Thanks to a much needed lazy Sunday, No Jiggle July started with a whimper, but should be in full effect starting today. In the absence of real exercise yesterday, I did take "before" pictures and checked on my weight and body fat percentage (25.2%). I'll be very interested to see what those numbers are 30 days from now.


Tonight's plan includes the gym (for sure) and RPM spinning class (most likely). I'm looking forward to a break in this crazy heat to be able to do some more running/walking outside, but for now, the air conditioned gym is definitely the way to go!

Introducing...No Jiggle July!

I've decided that it's time to kick it up a notch here at Maintaining Merth. I've been floating around in the post-race slump for the past few weeks, and I'm ready to get back to some more focused, regular training. There are two events coming up this fall (Zombie Escape and the Color Run) that I really want to be prepared for, so I don't want to lose the progress I made this spring. Oh yeah...there's also a trip to the beach coming up in August that, well, I want to be prepared for too!

SO...I'm declaring next month to be "No Jiggle July" -- a month-long quest to get back on track and really work on strength training and toning. Thankfully, today's only June 29, so I still have a couple of days to decide exactly what that's going to look like. Some of my ideas I'm thinking about are below:

1. Incorporate at least 15 minutes of exercise into my day EVERY day in July. (Yikes!)
2. Work my way through the gobs of fitness pins that I have saved on Pinterest.
3. Find the most creative ways I can to fit fitness in to my regular routine.

I suspect that No Jiggle July will contain a combination of all of the above, but I'm also open to suggestions. What do you think I should do?

I am Ninja!

On Saturday, I ran the Ninja Challenge with a group of my friends. 5K. 15 obstacles. NC heat.


My teammate Diana and I started the day early with a little ninja prepping. Who says ninjas can't look good while they're stealthily moving from one challenge to the next?

Finally, it was time to leave for the race. I think we were both nervous, but with a few deep breaths of assurance, we decided we were ready to tackle whatever lay ahead of us. Following the trail from the parking lot to the check-in area, we passed by a hay bale obstacle. Whew. The hay bale seemed manageable. Maybe we CAN do this!

With the sun blazing down, we found the rest of our team and began preparing for our start time. Water? Check. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Check. Pre-race pit stop? Check. 

And so it began. Our team opted to bring up the rear of our starting heat so as to be able to take our time and not hold anyone else up. We ran. We jumped over log hurdles. We crossed ponds. We leaped into ice cold water. We climbed cargo nets. We skipped. We finished. We had a blast.

And so, we survived the Ninja Challenge. I went into the race anticipating that it would be one of those things that I did to do and that would be it. But in truth, although it was challenging, it was also a lot of fun. So much fun that I think we're trying again -- the Zombie Escape mud (!) run in September. After several months of "training," I felt reasonably prepared for some elements of the course, but not as prepared as I should have been for others. While I'm not sure how I feel about the mud aspect of the next race, I'm thankful to have something to work toward for the next several months. Here we go again!