Healthy Goals

Last semester, Jayze and I hardly exercised at all. Sometimes we would be too tired to make dinner, so we would pick up some fast food on the way home. With balancing homework, taking care of Aidan, household responsibilities, church callings, and everything else, it was hard to make exercise and eating healthy priorities.

One day while I was driving home, I saw an advertisement for the Teton Dam Marathon hosted in Rexburg. I hadn't run for so long, so I thought it might be fun to train for the half marathon. I talked with Jayze about it, and we realized we would have to start training right then because it was close to the end of the semester or train really hard for two months after I graduated. We were so close to signing up, but seeing as how out of shape we were, we decided to bag the idea. Two months was just too short amount of time to train for where we were at physically.

Because we didn't sign up for the half marathon, we came up with a different idea. We made it a goal to do some sort of exercise every single day (except Sundays) for one month and skip out on all desserts and sweets for the same amount of time. One motivation (besides getting healthy) was that once the month was over, we could go shopping for new clothes. As poor college students, we haven't bought new clothes for a while, so that was a pretty good motivator.

So now I'm here to tell you that we did it! We started April 20 and just ended May 20. I didn't realize how often I craved sweets until we started. Usually we would have some sort of sweet after almost every dinner. I also realized that it is a lot easier to exercise in the mornings than in the evenings, although a lot of the time I had to exercise in the evening because I would go back to sleep after feeding Aidan in the morning. That's another goal I need to work on--becoming a morning person.

Jayze lost a few pounds, and I lost a couple of pounds a quite a few inches. Jayze ran, did push-ups, squats, crunches, and other at-home types of exercises. I got TurboFire for Christmas one year (a Beachbody work out), and decided to roughly go off of that schedule, as well as walk and jog. The kickboxing/HIIT/strengthening was just what my body was craving. I wish we had taken before and after pictures, but I figured it was okay since we weren't doing anything super hardcore.

We both feel stronger, healthier, more confident, and more motivated to keep up a healthier lifestyle. It's extremely empowering to do things our bodies deserve.

Now for buying some new clothes. :) 

 Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence, October 2014