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Challenge Accepted!

Today is day 1 of a clean eating and fitness challenge that I am participating in.

It's 4 weeks long.

We eat clean in our family and workout 6 days a week - but there's something about adding in the word "challenge" that makes you up your game.

Over the weekend I received the menu for this week, grocery shopping list, and all the recipes for the meals.  Plus all my workouts for the week.  Well, 2 sets of workouts - one for if I workout at home or if I workout at the gym.

Martin Nutrition & Fitness is hosting this challenge (my friend, Stephanie, who I wrote about last time - this is her business).  And, girl brings it when she writes out the menu & workouts.

No joke here.

I feel like my workouts get varied up and are challenging at times - but she knows how to write out workout plans that really help you take it to the next level.

One part of the workout this morning was 30 minutes of cardio - your choice (swimming, running, walking, elliptical) but focusing on your target heart rate.  Honestly, I haven't really paid attention to that.  But, I did this morning.

And it was hard to not exceed my target heart rate.  I actually felt like I was going slower and I started to get upset during my run that I wasn't going to get a certain number of miles in that I liked (I like to aim for at least 3.5 miles a day).  But, at the end of my time I hit 4 miles.  (Oh, this is on the elliptical too this morning.  Running outside I'm much slower than that!)  I couldn't believe it that I exceeded what I normally do.  Sweet.

For the clean eating part, I didn't get started on that part till dinner tonight (although my breakfast & lunch were clean).  Life happened over the weekend - no internet to look up recipes and grocery lists, no time to grocery shop, etc.  But, I got it done today and started up with the challenge at dinner tonight & evening snack.

I'm looking forward to this next month to see how things play out during the challenge.  Excited to grow stronger and…I'll be honest…hoping to hit 100 pounds lost!

Almost there.  Goal is to hit it by Valentine's Day :)

And, I'm thankful that my friend, Hannah, here is doing the challenge with me.  We can keep each other accountable - it's nice to have that with someone on this side of the ocean.

If you want to join in, I don't think it's too late.

Think about it :)

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