[Gemara D'Jessica]

Want to add a bit of weight training type stuff to my exercise routine. Not sure where to start. Preferably free. Ideas? YouTube videos? Websites? Books? Etc? Thanks!

Nerd Fitness just posted this interesting challenge. I don’t plan on joining the challenge - I’m a sore loser — but I do like the idea of the challenge, so I figure I’ll do the challenge on my own. The basic idea is two pick 3 diet and fitness goals and one life goal and for 6 weeks focus on those things. At the end of the 6 weeks see how far you’ve come (and continue on). 

Diet/Fitness goals:

[1] Eat a big breakfast, medium sized lunch and small dinner. I read this recently and it just makes sense to me. Breakfast is to fuel you and get your day started right. Lunch is for a pick-me-up midday and dinner is to just hold you over while you’re sleeping. (Obviously before and after working out I’ll be eating, but I wouldn’t consider those “meals”.)

[2] Yoga/stretching/meditation and light leg/core/hip exercises 6 mornings a week. (Can’t exercise on Shabbat, otherwise it’d be every day of the week.) This one I actually hesitate to add. I had gotten this idea a few weeks ago, when Kovi was waking up around 7/7:30 for the day. I had planned on waking up around 6:30 to do my mini work out. The past few days though, Kovi has been waking up around 6:15/6:30 for the day. I don’t know if I can get up before 6 and still be a fully functional human for the rest of the day. 

[3] Bike at least twice a week and run at least twice a week. Once the weather starts getting more reliable (ie not getting to 79, having a thunderstorm and the next day being foggy, dropping into the low 50s and raining) I’ll be biking 4 days a week and running 5 days a week - plus tennis one day a week - but until then, twice a week works. 

Life Goal: (Honestly, not completely certain of what this one is. Couldn’t find a real explanation on the site, but I’ll wing it…)

Get into bed no later than 10. Sleep is so important and if I’m going to be able to get up before Kovi does, then I need to get to sleep earlier. 

I’ll be starting this next week. I need to menu plan for the breakfasts, lunches and dinners and I need to give my father and sister fair warning of which day I’ll need them to watch the boys so Corey and I can go running. So yeah, starting May 6th (the day of Kovi’s birthday party!). 

I accomplished 4/5 things that I wanted to last week. My exercise is hardly where it needs to be. I ran once and walked a lot, but that was it. With it being so warm, I wanted to spend as much time outside with the boys as possible. I really need to hook up that bike trailer and buy a helmet for Kovi. Then it will be easy peasy to get my daily exercise in. Anyway, here’s this weeks list.

[1] Set up the bike trailer. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get Kovi a helmet this week since it’s not always so easy going places with the boys to try things on by myself. But at least it will be a start in the right direction.

[2] Exercise! More specifically, running three times a week again, push ups, core and hip strengthening exercises. 

[3] Clean the upstairs for Pesach. If the basement is any indication, the upstairs will go nice and smoothly. 

[4] Make tropical lemon cranberry coconut chia bars and healthy strawberry oat squares with homemade jam. Want to get rid of as much chametz as possible in the next couple of weeks. Figure these are some yummy, relatively healthy-ish snacks that the boys (and myself) might enjoy. 

[5] Start planting seeds indoors for the garden. With it being so warm lately, I was tempted to start the seeds outdoors, but this is Cleveland. It can be 72 in the morning and -10 by late afternoon. Not going to take the chance. I have a list of what to start when and I know there’s at least one of the seeds that needs to be planted indoors in March. I also bought Asher a little herb garden starter kit so I’ll have him start that with me. 

[1] Clean the basement for Pesach. Shouldn’t be too hard as we haven’t eaten down there since Asher’s upsherin in November (and we cleaned up after that). 

[2] Get back on track with exercising. Between the road trip and Purim last week, I only exercised on 2 different days. Not good. Want to exercise 5-6 days a week.

[3] On warm days like today, spend at least an hour — if not longer — outdoors. Find new places to walk to.

[4] Get better at carrying Kovi on my back.  This past Shabbat was the first time I tried it and Kovi seemed to like it. He was very mellow the, so far, three times that I have carried him this way. On Shabbat Corey helped me to get him on my back, but today I had to do it by myself. Had to sit down on the bed and very awkwardly get him strapped in. Hoping that the weather stays nice so I can get a lot of practice in. 

[5] Make vegan graham crackers with Asher. I found an easy — and mildly healthy… calls for whole wheat flour — recipe that I meant to make last week, but forgot. 

I was sent this link. At first glance, I wasn’t so sure about it. Veggies, exercise and water… awesome. But veggies before breakfast?! Ugh… The more I thought about it though, the more I liked the idea. I’m a competitive person and when I see healthy challenges like this, it’s kind of hard for me to pass them up. So, starting tomorrow I’ll be eating 6 cups of veggies (plus all the other veggies I already eat), drinking 8 glasses of water (I probably don’t drink that much, so this is a good thing) and exercising for a half an hour a day (I definitely hit this number at least 3 days a week… now to make sure I’m reaching it the other 3-4 days of the week…). 

Back in the beginning on January I said that by the end of February I wanted to be able to do 10 standard push-ups. As of today I can do 7 push-ups in a row. Aw yeah! It’s not 10, but it’s getting there. And I know February isn’t over, but I have a feeling that I won’t be able to do three extra push ups in only two days. I’m thinking that at some point in March I’ll be up to 10. And I’m adding some weights into my exercise routine a few times a week so that should help to strengthen my arms. Right now I’ve just been doing the push-ups, some girly push-ups, plank and side-plank to work out my arms. Anyone have any other idea of how to build up arm strength (other than lifting a 24lb baby several times a day…)?