Decem-BURPEE!!!

How can it be December already? Where did 2013 go???
I've got lots off things going on this month -- and I'm feeling excited about getting back into the swing of things -- and jumping into 2014 with the wind at my back. (Perhaps writing while Wil plays Assassin's Creed 4 has injected a bit of nautical-speak into this post...)

Thing 1: it's actually week three of Coach Jenny's Holiday Challenge! In order to keep us all on track during the season of eating (that is, the holidays...), CJ has put together a simple challenge that runs through Sunday, January 5th, 2014. Set a realistic mileage goal -- which is totally up to you, and should reflect what you can realistically achieve during this super-busy time. Besides walking and running mileage, you can add miles for cross-training, too: every 10 minutes of cross-training = 1 mile running. I've been setting my goals pretty conservatively -- and hitting them the past two weeks. But for some reason the hardest part is actually managing to post them on Facebook!!! If you're interested, you can register for the challenge here.







Thing 2: Tomorrow is the beginning of Sync Fitness's "Holiday Hotties" program -- three weeks of unlimited boot camp workouts, food and drink tracking, and prizes, fabulous prizes... We had our kick-off meeting last week -- I'm excited that we'll actually be getting started tomorrow!

My goal is to go to boot camp 10 times over the three weeks -- which isn't a ton, and I'm already giving myself a couple of bonus "sleep in" mornings. Ideally I would go to BC Monday - Thursday, but we'll see how my old body holds up. (Did I mention that I'm only recently not feeling sore after last Wednesday's killer Barre workout???) I know I won't go in the evenings or during the weekends, but I'm not in it to win it. Just in it to get myself back on track.
I think my challenge will be to drink all of my water (80 ounces/day?!?) and to track my food. I'm also going to challenge myself to try at least one new recipe each week. Things high on my list: a quinoa adaptation of one of the rice bakes in my cookbook; spagetti squash; and one of Sara's recipes.
Of course, the other part is just to get back to tracking my food -- I always eat healthier if I remain accountable; getting back to tracking daily will be a great habit to acquire before the new year!
Thing 3: Clearly, I like a structured challenge... so I decided to look for a 30-day challenge to do in December. I'd like to strengthen my marshmallowy core, so this 30-Day Plank Challenge seems like an obvious one to try. Except, of course, that I have a VERY difficult time imagining that I'll be able to go from a 20-second plank on December 1 to a FIVE MINUTE plank on December 31. But who knows, without trying?

30 Day Plank Challenge

Thing 4: Okay, so this is totally not my original idea. But when I was looking for different plank challenges, came across the cleverly named "Planksgiving" -- which was a 30-day plank challenge for November that was featured on the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans site. And then I saw that their December theme challenge was 31 Days of Burpees. Which, instantly in my mind, became Decem-BURPEE. Yeah, dumb, but it STILL makes me giggle, 3 hours later.
So here is their lovely 31 Days of Burpees -- aka Decem-BURPEE challenge calendar... Who's with me???