Weekly Challenge (Sep. 20-Sep. 26, 2010)

So how did you do making your vision board from last week's challenge? I have to admit, I haven't finished mine yet. I was a bit preoccupied worrying about my injury and the half-marathon, but I did manage to cut out a few pictures and quotes from my huge magazine collection. I hope to finish mine this next week. If any of you finished your vision board, I would LOVE to see it!

This week's challenge is going to focus on fitness again. The challenge has to do with weight-training. For a long time in my fitness journey I concentrated solely on cardio activities. I figured they gave me the best calorie-burning "bang for my buck" so I did it ALL THE TIME!! I still do a lot of cardio activities (hello, running?!?!?) because I enjoy it and it keeps my heart and mind healthy and alert. But it wasn't until I got serious about weight-training that I started to see some real changes in my body. I have more muscle definition than I ever have before and I like seeing the toned muscles starting to shine through. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely still a work in progress, but I really like the changes that have come my way both physically and mentally from the challenging work of weight lifting.

The benefits of weight-training are hard to deny...fat loss, increased energy, stronger bones, greater muscle definition, just to name a few. Of course it's a great calorie-burner too, especially the aftereffects. The more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you will burn from just sitting on the couch!

So this week's challenge will have to be personal to where you are at in your weight lifting journey...for some of you, it will be to start to lift, for others it will be to lift more. But decide this week to make weight training an integral part of your workout routine. It will pay off big for you if you're consistent with it. One of the best resources that I have found for some good exercises and programs to start or continue weight-training is this book...

Image found here.

I have several books about weight-training, but this is by far my favorite. It's great for giving detailed pictures and progressions of various moves and it provides lots of different exercises for each body part. It even has some programs designed in it for you to take the guesswork out of what you should be doing. It's also nice because it has exercises you can do whether you workout at home or at a gym. I think it's definitely worth the investment to pick this book up. You can find it here for a pretty good price.

Talking Point: What do you enjoy about weight-training? What is your favorite go-to move or area you enjoy working the most?

Weekly Challenge (Sep. 13-Sep. 19, 2010)

First things first this morning...

The lucky winner of this bondiband is...

Stephanie T.!!!

Congratulations Stephanie!! Unless you've moved I still have your address so I'll be shipping it off to you shortly. I hope this helps to keep your hair back a bit better during your basketball sessions!!

So how did the challenge go for you last week with increasing your workouts in some way? I was able to get in one bodyrock.tv workout but I hope to be able to do more of those types of interval workouts soon after my half-marathon this Saturday...wait, did I just say THIS Saturday? Why yes, my race is this weekend and I'm both scared and excited about it. Scared because my backside is still giving me issues but excited because I've trained long and hard for it and I just hope and pray that everything somehow comes together for me on race day! Did any of you have any luck in increasing the volume and/or intensity of your workouts this week?

The challenge for this week will be a bit different. It has to do with something that I've wanted to do for myself ever since I started seeing other people make them and incorporate them into their lives. The challenge is to make yourself a "vision board." This will be a visual reminder that you will put up some place to remind you of what your goals are, whatever they may be. Maybe it's to lose 5-10 pounds, build muscle, buy a house, improve a relationship, workout more regularly or to eat healthy foods...whatever your goals may be, you have to envision yourself doing it before you can achieve it and that's what this vision board will do for you. It will also help to keep you motivated when your resolve may be weak!

Here's a description of a vision board that I found here...

A vision board (also called a Treasure Map or a Visual Explorer or Creativity Collage) is typically a poster board on which you paste or collage images that you have torn out from various magazines. It’s simple.

The idea behind this is that when you surround yourself with images of who you want to become, what you want to have, where you want to live, or where you want to vacation, your life changes to match those images and those desires.

The Five Steps of Creating a Vision Board:

Step 1: Go through your magazines and tear the images from them. No gluing yet! Just let yourself have lots of fun looking through magazines and pulling out pictures or words or headlines that strike your fancy. Have fun with it. Make a big pile of images and phrases and words.

Step 2: Go through the images and begin to lay your favorites on the board. Eliminate any images that no longer feel right. This step is where your intuition comes in. As you lay the pictures on the board, you’ll get a sense how the board should be laid out. For instance, you might assign a theme to each corner of the board. Health, Job, Spirituality, Relationships, for instance. Or it may just be that the images want to go all over the place. Or you might want to fold the board into a book that tells a story.

Step 3: Glue everything onto the board. Add writing if you want. You can paint on it, or write words with markers.

Step 4: (optional, but powerful) Leave space in the very center of the vision board for a fantastic photo of yourself where you look radiant and happy. Paste yourself in the center of your board.

Step 5: Hang your vision board in a place where you will see it often.

I know that may sound kind of cheesy to some of you, but I think we all tend to underestimate the power of positive thinking and of having concrete goals to focus on in life. By next Monday, I hope to be posting my own vision board. Hopefully this will give me enough motivation to get it done!!

Also, my brother-in-law suggested that I allow for people to check in on their progress on any challenges that they may have started. He's been doing a great job on following the "100 Push-up Challenge." I ended up skipping an entire week (bad Dadra!!) so I am only on Week #3 now. He is scaring me about weeks 4-6 though so maybe it's good that I am a week behind!! So far so good on the plan...I can currently do 30 consecutive push-ups which I'm excited about but wondering how in the world I'll be able to do 100 in just another month. Maybe that's something that should go on my vision board! Anybody else out there that would like to update on their challenges too?

Talking Point: How many of you are going to commit to doing a vision board this week?