May Fitness Challenge

Nothing like waiting until the last minute for me! I came across a posting for a May Plank Challenge and I thought to myself, sounds good, sign me up! No matter that I'm starting a day late, but I like this challenge, since it is an overall body workout exercise. So, here's the plank challenge from theslenderstudent that I'll be participating in this month:

March Fitness Challenge Completed!

I finished it! And I am quite proud of myself for sticking with it and getting the exercises done in the morning right after I woke up. I really noticed how the exercises were getting harder each week, but I also noticed how my legs were responding and I seemed to be able to handle the leg exercises in my kettlebell class much better.
My plan had been to come up with a fitness challenge for April and I was leaning towards arms. However, I've decided to do one more session of my kettlebell class. In addition, I'd like to begin working on improving my time for 5k and 10k races. This past Saturday, I ran 6 miles, which I haven't done since my 10k last March. Now that I'm back at that distance, I'm going to concentrate on some running programs. So, with that, my arms fitness challenge is going to have to wait a month or two!

March Fitness Challenge Update

Well, I'm halfway through my March Fitness Challenge and I'm really feeling the daily workouts! I've gotten into the habit of doing the exercises as soon as I wake up in the morning. I'm not one for exercising first thing in the morning but I know that if I don't get it done, I'll make excuses all evening when I do get home from work. And I must say, I'm getting a bit more than a leg workout! With the bridge, I've really been feeling it in my abs as well. Last week during my kettlebell class, I had a much harder time than usual getting through the ab exercises! So, here's to finishing the last two weeks of this challenge!

March Fitness Challenge

Through my various searching and pinning of fitness workouts, I've come across several monthly fitness challenges. I always think to myself, I really should do one of those, having a daily schedule/plan would help me stick with it. So months have come and gone without me participating in one. Well, that changes today! I searched several of them and decided on Lean Legs for March since shorts will be the first order of business once it starts warming up this spring.  :)  This workout is courtesy of Fun Fit and Fabulous with Lauren.

Week 1 Exercises:
Bridge Exercise
Wall Sit Exercise
Donkey Kick

Week 2 Exercises:
Inner Thigh Bridge
Inner Thigh Wall Sit
Straight Leg Donkey Kick

Week 3 Exercises:
One Legged Bridge - Switch legs halfway through
One Legged Wall Sit - Switch legs half way through
Cross Over Donkey Kicks

Week 4 Exercises:
Bridge and Wall Sit are the same as Week 1, but on your toes.
Fire Hydrants

Week 5 Exercises:
Bridge Lower/Lifts
Wall Sit with Weights - same as Week 1 but while holding a dumbbell
Cross and Kick Donkey - same as Week 3, but kick leg straight out 90 degrees from your body

For anyone that will be participating with me, good luck!

Welcome to the Former Jungle

I am back home from Mexico, no future trips. Well, at least none that I know of yet. And I am so glad to be home. Three days after we closed on the house, I left for Mexico again. Jim worked on the yard while I was gone and it doesn't even look the same. Everytime I thought of the yard, I would literally sing 'Welcome to the Jungle' to myself. Just way too many overgrown flowers, plants, and trees. He's used the weed whipper and chainsaw, cut down a lot, and limbed some trees so that we have a much better view of the water from the house. The house is L-shaped and from the front room, there is a covered porch. When we bought the house, you could not see the water from the porch, now you can see the water from the front room! We still have more to go though, there's a large trellis still to remove and we will be digging up all the perennials this fall and next spring to keep them from coming back. We do have a good start for firewood for some future bonfires though!


Here are some of the before and in progress photos (not after yet, we still have a lot of work to go!):

View of the back of the house.

Same view. We plan to add a walkway with a porch under the bay window.

View of the backyard and lake.

View after some trees were cut down and the bigger trees had the lower limbs cut.