Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge Week 1 Recap

Good afternoon!  I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but it is cloudy, windy, and cool (for Flordia...) here.  Sounds like the perfect day for sweat pants, a cup of coffee, and a good book!

This week was the first week of Amanda's Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge.  

As I've mentioned before, the challenge is focused on being healthy over the holidays and keeping other participants accountable.  Each day, you earn points for workouts, eating 5-7 servings of freggies, drinking 64+ ounces of water, and participating on the Facebook group.  Let's take a look at how I did!

Sunday:

Felt stylish courtesy of my BAMR Band

-I ran 4.22 miles total (I missed a little bit on my Garmin due to not starting it again after waiting at some crosswalks!).  The run felt great :) (4.22 points)

-Got in freggies and water consumption on this first day. (2 points)

Daily Total: 6.22 + Facebook participation = 7.22

Monday:

-Earned my activity points with a 30-minute upper body workout thanks to the Nike Training Club App.  I supplemented it with a few of my own exercises for my chest and triceps. (2 points)

-Got in the freggies and water!  The steamed zucchini and carrots we had with dinner certainly helped in doing so. (2 points)

Daily total: 4 + Facebook participation = 5

Tuesday:

-Yoga for 1.25 hours earned my points today (and helped to stretch my legs!) (3.75 points)

-Freggies today, but no water.  You can see how I did that on my WIAW post. (1 points)

Daily total: 5.75 + Facebook =5.75

Wednesday:

-No activity today.  Busy day of meetings and Bible study after work.

-Got the water in and freggies (2 points)

Daily Total: 2

Thursday:

No activity, freggies, or water today.  Joe and I went out for dinner and drinks with some friends, which makes it a lot harder to get in the water counts!

Daily Total: 0

Friday:

No activity or freggies today, but I definitely got in my water!

Daily Total: 1

Saturday:

-I ran my first 8K on Saturday (recap coming tomorrow)!  While I didn't meet the goals I'd set, I still had a great time getting my workout in early in the day.  I also wound up running 5.06 miles instead of the 4.97 miles, so I earned myself a few hundredths of a point :) (5.06 points)

-No freggies, but got in my water consumption! (1 point)

Daily Total: 6.06 + Facebook = 7.06

Overall this week: 28.03

Successes This Week:

-Food prep--I set myself up for Freggie Success by prepping food on Sunday.  We got plenty of fresh fruits and veggies at the store, I sliced them up beforehand, and just grabbed what I needed when packing lunch or making dinner.

-4 Workouts in the Week-That's way more than my 2 workouts in weeks before!  Woo!

Goal for Next Week:

Even when I'm out of my routine due to Thanksgiving, I want to get in 4 workouts and get in my water consumption each day this week.

Question for you: What were your successes this week?

Operation Christmas Child

Howdy, y'all!  This weekend is off to a great start so far, and I hope yours is, too.  I completed my first 8K race today, so expect a race recap coming up soon!

The holiday season is always a good reminder for me that Jesus calls us to give of ourselves to help others.  One of my favorite ways to do this during the holidays is Operation Christmas Child.

Image Source

Put on by Samaritan's Purse, OCC calls for people to fill a shoebox with toys, treats, and school and hygiene supplies for needy children all around the world.  You choose the gender and age range, pack the box, and submit it to one of their drop-off locations.

Joe and I usually fill two boxes, one for a boy and one for a girl.  We selected the age range 5-9 for each of them.

It's collection week for OCC, so we've got our boxes ready to go.  We're taking them to our church, which participates in the program and provided these boxes for members to fill.

If you'd like to fill a shoebox, the collection week goes through Monday!  Find a drop-off location near you (and make sure they are still accepting boxes, too).

If you are feeling like donating money to worthy causes this holiday season, here are some links to help you do so:

• I'm sure you heard about the typhoon that devastated the Philippines.  Donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief or Samaritan's Purse Relief
• Salvation Army holds Angel Tree at Christmas time.  Visit their website to contact your local Salvation Army to get an Angel.  You can also help during distribution, which I've done a few times in Richmond, and it is SO MUCH FUN and heart-warming to see the kids pick up their gifts.
• You can donate to Kellsie's Hope Foundation in support of me running the Disney Princess Half Marathon as a part of Kellsie's Krew.  You can mail in a donation, or just click that link, click on my name (Amy Herring), and you can donate via PayPal. 
• Local food banks are always in need, so check out Feeding America's site to find a food bank near you.
• An acquaintance of mine, Cristina, suddenly lost her husband yesterday.  They're newlyweds, he was about to graduate from Palmer Chiropractic (where Joe attends school), and she is pregnant and due in June.  Some friends have created a website to donate to their family.  Click here to read more about Cristina's situation, see a beautiful video of their wedding, and donate if you feel so inclined.

Question for you: Any charitable opportunities you would like to share?  Please post them in the comments if you have them!

WIAW #21: Emphasis on the Freggies

Hey y'all!  It's Wednesday, so you know what that means...

It's time for What I Ate Wednesday!  This week, I'm showing you Tuesday's meals, which focus on getting in 5-7 servings of freggies.  Thank you to Jenn for hosting the WIAW link-up.  Head on over to her blog to check out what other people are eating!

What are freggies?  Well, the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge started, and one of the ways to earn points is by eating 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables.  Last year, one of the participants put them together (fruits + veggies = freggies) to make it easier to type ;)

Let's see how I did on Tuesday!

Breakfast

I had a bowl of Kashi Go Lean Vanilla Clusters topped with banana slices.  To be quite honest, I have avoided bananas for quite a while.  My mom had me eat a banana when I had an upset stomach when I was younger, and I associate them with nausea.  I think I've gotten over it, though, and have enjoyed slicing a banana as a cereal topping!

Morning Snack

A Luna Protein bar + a gala apple.  Quite a tasty and satisfying snack!

Lunch

Tuesday's lunch was a salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, orange peppers, and half an avocado.  I also had a carrot and slices of a green pepper.  Lots of veggies there!!

Afternoon Snack

I had a doctor's appointment, so I was home a lot earlier than usual.  I was able to make myself a new-to-me smoothie with included a frozen banana, cocoa powder, protein powder, peanut butter, and milk. It was quite a tasty one, and I will certainly share the recipe soon!

Dinner

Dinner wasn't so freggie-filled, but hey, sometimes a girl just needs some cheeseburger macaroni!

Joe and I were kind of busy in the evening, so I made an easy dinner that we could both eat quickly going to-and-from our meetings.

And there you have it!  I'd say that I did a very good job of getting in my 5-7 servings (by my count, I had 7 servings!) and hope to continue that trend throughout the challenge.

Question for you: How many servings of fruits and veggies do you get a day?

Low-Key Weekend

Hi y'all!  Happy Monday!  This Monday was actually pretty good for me, so I'm looking forward to a good week.

Let's recap this weekend, shall we?  It was pretty low-key, but fun at the same time!

Saturday
After updating y'all on the races I have coming up, I went for a run!

I ran the first two miles, then did some run/walk intervals.  My goal was 3 miles, but my knee started to hurt, so I wound up a little short.  This was my "semi-long run" for training before my long run on Sunday.

After running and catching a few minutes of the Virginia Tech game (ugh!  Why did we lose?!?!), I headed to a local park for my friend Ashley's baby shower!

Ashley and I taught together last year, and she is now working at one of the schools where I am the math coach!  I'm so happy that we still work together and that I got to be a part of her baby shower.

Her mom had us do something really cool: instead of cards, we were to buy our favorite children's books and write our well-wishes in them!  What a great idea!

I went with two books...couldn't decide!

Ashley and Nate enjoyed seeing all of the books (many of them they remembered from their childhood, too!) and finally caught on toward the end that the books had messages in them :)

I ordered them a custom-made monogrammed 12-month dress for their baby girl Kourtney.  The monogramming was done by a friend of mine from church, Whitney.  Check out her Etsy shop Bouffants for all of your monogramming needs!  She does a fantastic job (and she is a fantastic woman)!

From Bouffants...check it out!

After the shower, I met up with Joe to watch the end of the Georgia game.  Sadly, they lost on a freak play, and we came home to wallow in our sorrows over football relax and watch more football.

Sunday
Sunday was dedicated to CLEANING!  Our house is pretty dirty, so we spent some time tidying up.  It felt so nice to get the house together.

I also got in my long run for the week--4 miles!  I felt super cute doing so while wearing my BAMR Band.

The rest of the day, I did some food prep, hung out with Joe, and watched more football.

Now, here we are on Monday!  The Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge began yesterday, so I've been making sure to get my activity points (run yesterday + upper body strength workout today), water intake points, and freggie (fruits + veggies) points.  So far, so good!

Question for you:  What is something fun you did this weekend?  Do you watch as much football as we do?