Category Archives: Fitness Challenge

Week 4: Veg out with fruits and veggies.

Well you’ve made it to week 4 great job. By now you shouldn’t be craving night time snacks and you are drinking water and plenty of it. Now you can continue this months challenge with the second diet change with adding more fruits and veggies. According to the Food Pyramid we need to eat these scrumptious easy to eat foods because they are rich in fiber and nutrition. What other food can you wash, eat, and take with you anywhere you go. This week grab an apple and some carrot sticks to go and get ready to munch away on your fruit and veggies all week.

Consider staying away from veggies that are too starchy and loaded with calories such as some of my favorites of course: corn, potatoes, and peas.

For example: If you normally just have toast for breakfast add a ripe peeled orange. Or if you like eating cereal for breakfast add some fresh blueberries or sliced bananas to it. For lunch time, add some crisp red pepper slices instead of chips with your sandwhich.

One randomly selected winner will receive a free Runhelper 5k t-shirt.

Our grand prize winner will receive a $100 e-gift card from UnderArmour

Update: The winner of the $20 ID e-card is Tonya Cook

I also wanted to remind everyone that at the end of the month the person that has completed all 4 challenges and posted on this blog will be entered into a drawing for a $100 e-gift certificate to UnderArmour online. You have just 2 more weeks left. Everyone is doing so great and your posts have really inspired others as well as myself to stay focused. This week workout hard and remember to drink your water and do not eat after 7pm.

The posts have gone down since last week. Actually by 70%. I know these challenges are tough but they are worth it. Congrats to all who are sticking with it! Give yourselves a pat on the back and please post how these few simple changes have impacted your daily routine and health.

Week 3: Exercise 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week.

You are most likely already running 3 days a week with one of our Runhelper apps, but now it’s time to use those two other extra days for cross training: weights, yoga, circuit training, swimming, walking, and biking. You can even try our Bootcamp app available for purchase in iTunes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adults should get 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week and in addition, 2 or more days of strength training. Seems like a lot of exercise to fit into our already busy lives. However, if we plan ahead and make time for these positive changes in our lives everything can be possible.

Now is the time to get organized with your new February challenges. Get a journal or write it all down on a calendar. Make sure you are taking your water bottle with you wherever you go and that you are not cheating yourself with late night dinners and snacks. You’ve made it through 2 weeks so you are half way done. Great job and keep going!

One randomly selected winner will receive an iTunes e-Gift Certificate valued at $20.

Week 2: Drinking water and more of it!

Water as we know it is very important for the maintenance and purification of our body. So, plain and simple we need to drink more of it! A study, Water May Be Secret Weapon in Weightloss conducted in 2010 suggests that drinking 2 cups of water before a meal helped individuals lose and maintain weight loss. I also found this great article, Seven Ways to Trick Yourself Full to be very interesting and useful.

How much water should we drink? Research is suggesting 9 cups for women and 13 cups for men or 2 to 3 liters per day. Find a big enough water bottle that you will want to take around with you everyday from now on your bottle will be your best friend. By increasing the amount of water you are drinking I hope you can decrease any unnecessary calorie extras like sodas and coffee.

One randomly selected winner will win a Road ID e-Card valued at $20.

Update: This weeks randomly selected winner will receive an UnderArmour e-gift card valued at $20.

This week’s challenge has ended. To see who the winner is click here.

Week 1: No night time snacks at least 2 hours before bedtime. Ideally no eating after 7 pm.

Listen, this weeks challenge is tough, but that is why it’s called a challenge. This one is first because if you can conquer this the rest of the month will be easy. When you don’t eat late you get a better nights sleep and actually wake up in the morning ready to eat the hearty breakfast everyone boasts is the most important meal of  the day, and guess what? It is. Starting with a healthy breakfast jump starts your metabolism and gets your body going.

Yes, I don’t want you to put any food in your mouth after 7pm every day for the rest of the month. Everyone’s schedule is different depending on when you get to bed. Ideally if you go to bed at 9pm then not eating after 7 will be less of a challenge for you. If, however, you’re a night owl then you might have more difficulty with this one. Either way, this new habit will help you in achieving your health and fitness goals.

This week and for the rest of the month you can only drink water from 7pm till bedtime and that is it. No candy, gum, juice, and obviously no food.

Update: The first week’s challenge is underway.

Week 1 Winner: Click here

New Year’s resolutions don’t need to just start and end in January. We want to make fitness and weight loss in 2011 fun and motivating. In January we did the iTunes Gift Card giveway for posting runs on Twitter and answering fitness trivia questions on Facebook. In February we wanted to try something a little different. Getting fit doesn’t happen over night and if you are interested in making a commitment to a true life style change than it can take months or even years to get results.

Everyone has a different idea of what they want to look and feel like, but everyone wants to be healthy. The February Fitness Challenge will help you adapt a new healthy concept each week. Every new week starting on Sunday I will post a new challenge. Every week after that we will build on each week’s previous challenge making sure that by the end of the month we have kept up with each weekly challenge.

Below are the challenges to help you get your mind and body focused on what’s up ahead. We want everyone to succeed and  accomplish each task. We are in on this together.

Week 1: No night time snacks at least 2 hours before bedtime. Ideally no eating after 7 pm.
Week 2: Drinking water and more of it!
Week 3: Exercise 30 minutes a day 5 days a week.
Week 4: Fruits and veggies.

Challenge rules:

Everyone who joins is already a winner, but adding prizes will only make it more fun and motivating.

The challenge will begin weekly on Sunday mornings at  7am (EST) and will end the following Sunday at 7am. The challenge will begin January 30th and end February 27th at 7am (EST). Each Sunday at 7am I will post the challenge on Twitter, Facebook, and our blog. You can join us at anytime during the month. All you need to do is post a comment(s) on the blog post for that week. Only comments posted on the blog will be counted towards a prize. I will randomly select a winner from those posts. Weekly challenge winners will be announced on Monday mornings. You can post as many times as you like, but only one entry will be counted. Get your friends involved and let’s help each other get healthier.

Prizes:

Each week we will be awarding one challenge winner and each week we will have a different prize.

At the end of the month we will award one winner a Grand prize gift. To be eligible you would need to have entered at least one blog comment on each of the four challenges.

There really is no way for us to know if you’ve honestly completed the February challenge for the Grand Prize. We are going to be going by the honor system. Please post comments on the blog if you truly completed the challenges. Let’s not prevent someone who is trying to complete the February Fitness Challenge from winning.