Beach Body Week 1 + Camper Lifestyle

Happy Monday, friends!  I can’t believe how fast the weekend flew by…now I’m back to work.  And trying to take deep breaths {it’s not even 8am and I’m already stressed, annoyed, frustrated…}; awesome.

Anyway, I’ve got week 1 of the Beach Body challenge is under my belt and it feels GOOD!  I stuck with the PiYo workout calendar that came with my DVDs and had a Shake each morning.  I’ll be honest, after doing the first couple of PiYo workouts I felt a little disappointed and didn’t feel like I was really getting a “good” workout.  But, after doing the SWEAT workout, I felt great!  I loved the workout and really felt accomplished after finishing it.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of extra time to add on to my PiYo workouts; in fact, I’m just happy that I’m finding making time to workout each day!  Believe me, I’d love to take a long {fast} walk or a 3 mile run or even hit it hard with another DVD workout, but fact is, I just don’t have the time.  I find it far too important to spend my extra time with my family.  Fitness is important, but for me, above all is family.  Therefore, I’m only getting in my PiYo workout for the day {along with a leisurely walk or 2 with the dog}.  But, when I workout, I give it 100%...

As for eating, I’ve been trying SO hard to make really healthy decisions.  I’ve been having my shake in the mornings.  I’ve started using FRESH fruit instead of frozen and a cup of Almond Milk and find that they taste pretty good and I feel pretty full until 10am.  I will have a small snack of either fruit or veggies and PB or a handful of nuts.  Something healthy but fulfilling.  I’m trying not to worry about numbers so I haven’t weighed or measured myself since Day 1, but I will say that I feel like I look better.  Maybe it’s all in my head, but I really do think I’m seeing some results and that’s what continually motivates me to make good food choices and PiYo HARD every day!

I’ve been pretty bad at taking pictures of my food lately and that’s something I’m going to work on this week.  I’ve actually joined TWO other mini-challenges! 

The first is a clean eating challenge, put on by my friend Christie {YEP, the SAME friend who is hosting the Beach Body Challenge}!  It’s basically how it sounds – 1 week of clean eating!  Lots of fruit, veggies, healthy proteins {salmon, chicken, lean turkey, nuts, etc.}.  For breakfast, I had my usual shake: 1 cup of unsweetened Almond Milk + handful of fresh raspberries, 1 banana + a scoop of Shakeology protein mix.  

For lunch, I have grilled chicken and pasta salad LOADED with veggies, plus some plain yogurt and a handful of nuts for dessert!  Dinner, I’m making a black bean and summer squash skillet.  Plus my snacks include: apple slices and a KIND bar.  It should all be tasty and fairly clean.  If there’s one challenge that’s really going to CHALLENGE ME is this one.  I try to eat healthy and make relatively healthy meals for my family, but in the essence of time, I tend to use things that are from a can or might not be the healthiest.  I’m definitely NOT the person in the grocery store reading labels.  I just don’t have the time.  Hopefully I won’t disappoint and will succeed with this challenge.

The second is a 7 Days of Health Photos challenge.  It’s all about healthy eats & habits and is being put on by another super health conscious friend, Katie.  I actually “met” {via email, FB, etc.} her last December through the Lean Green Bean's #Elf4Health challenge.  She was my partner and we became friends.  She’s from the same area as I am and we seemed to have a lot of the same interests.  Each day she is posting a “healthy theme” and our challenge is to post a picture that represents the theme.  For example, today’s theme is a well-balanced plate.  We need to show how we eat well-balanced meals: fruits/veggies, lean protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fat, etc.  Should be fun and I’m excited to see what others post for each day’s challenge!

With the 3 different challenges I’m in, I’m hoping I’ll not only eat healthier and make better choices, but will learn a thing or 2 about making good decisions!  Excited to see what this week brings!

Alright, enough about food {it’s making me HUNGRY}, let’s get on to the weekend!  Friday night was fairly low key in our house.  It seemed like we were constantly running around last week, so it was nice to have a night to relax.  Saturday morning we got a fairly early start and headed to my parent’s camper!  It’s always so relaxing up there.  We got up there around 11:30am on Saturday morning and headed off to a little party for a friend of my parent’s.  We only stayed for a short while before we headed off to watch the BELLY FLOP contest…yes, you read that correctly.  I mean, who doesn’t love watching larger men flop on their bellies….

 After some playing at the campground’s park it was time for a nap.  Except someone wanted to play and sing and well, do just about anything BUT nap.  Finally, after an hour + of playing, signing, jumping and watching Mom “sleep”, Dafney FINALLY fell asleep.  Unfortunately, her nap was short lived because the dogs barked and it woke her up.  I also think she was excited for what was happening next!  Did I mention it was the campground’s HALLOWEEN weekend?  No, well, it was!  The kids {& adults} dress up and then quite a few of the campground tenants bring candy, snacks, etc. to give out to the kiddos.  It’s actually pretty impressive and Dafney walked away with a BUCKET FULL of candy!  She had a great time and we had fun watching her!

 Saturday night they hosted a Dance {probably to allow the kids to dance of some of the sugar the consumed}, which is always fun.  Except when your 2.5  year old is out.of.control.  Seriously, she was running around like she was on something more than SUGAR and then would fall to the ground and laugh.  Then she’d get up and was GONE.  Can I count chasing her around for over an hour a “workout”?  Because it was.  Needless to say, by 10pm, we left. 

 We went back to my parent’s place, started a small fire and relaxed a bit before bed time.  The night started off okay, but by 1:30am, Dafney was up – and was ALL over the bed.  She tossed, turned, whimpered, tossed & turned some more until after 4am.  Awesome.  We were pretty tired Sunday, but we powered through.  We left around 1:30pm and Dafney was out 3 minutes after we left and slept the whole way home.  LUCKY!

 It was a fun weekend and I’m always so glad we can spend some time up there.  It’s definitely one of my happy places and I look forward to our next trip!

Will be back with updates on my THREE challenges for the week, until then; hope everyone has a great week!