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!

In 24 hours...

5 kilometers. 15+ obstacles. It's Ninja time!

Measuring Body Fat

As I mentioned a few months ago, I have been trying to track my body fat percentage as part of my ongoing metrics of health. I originally tried to do this by taking measurements and plugging them into an online formula, but I had trouble measuring with consistency (is this the same place on my arm that I measured last time?).


As I researched the topic, I discovered that there are basic machines that can help determine your body fat percentage. For about $35, I purchased a hand-held body fat monitor. Doctors and other professionals probably have more exact ways to measure, but for my needs, this little machine seems to work great.

You hold the machine by both hands at an arms' length away from your body and push the start button. In 5-10 seconds, your current body fat percentage displays. Quick and simple!


For what it's worth, my initial measurement calculations of 24-26% body fat actually proved to be fairly accurate. I'm in the "normal" range for a woman in her 30s, though I would like to move more into the "lean/fit" category (closer to 20-22%). It's handy to be able to track both my weight and my body fat percentage as I see how my body changes and responds to diet and exercise. The adventure continues....

Countdown

It would appear that I've been practicing my disappearing ninja skills around here lately. I'm getting pretty good at it, huh?


Anyways, the countdown has begun for my back-to-back 5K weekends. Run the 'Quay is two weeks from tomorrow, and the Ninja Challenge is the weekend after that. Yikes!


To train for Run the 'Quay, I've been doing one of the Couch to 5K apps on my phone. It's actually pretty cool -- the program leads you through a series of progressively harder walk/run workouts until you're ready to run the full 5K. I've been doing some other workouts along the way, so I haven't progressed quite as far as I would have liked, but it's a helpful tool to judge how I'm doing. I'm running the race with my brother, so I'm also motivated by the fact that I don't want to slow him down too much!


As for the Ninja Challenge, I'm not sure that I'll ever be as prepared as I want to be. When I first signed up, it seemed like I had so much more time! It's also hard to know what to expect, but I guess we'll figure it out as we go. In addition to running, I've been working on basic strength exercises (push ups, core strengthening, etc.). I hope it will be enough!


Two weeks and counting...

This pretty much sums it up...

Salsa Chicken Taco Salad

I'm always trying to come up with quick, easy, delicious, low-point lunches for work. (That's not too much to ask, right?) One of my new favorites is salsa chicken taco salad. I originally made the chicken to use in a wrap, and while it's good there, I discovered that it is fantastic with a salad.

The chicken is super easy to make and is moist enough that you don't really need dressing for the salad.


Salsa chicken:
1-2 chicken breasts
Jar of salsa


Put the chicken breasts in a small crock pot and cover with salsa. (I usually use one chicken breast and about half a jar of the salsa.) Cover and cook until chicken is cooked through (2-3 hours???). Remove chicken breast from crock pot, shred with two forks, and then return to crock pot to soak up a little more of the salsa goodness.


Serve over lettuce with low-fat shredded cheese and crumbled tortilla chips. Yum!