Hooray!

Congratulations!! We've made it to the end of the challenge! How did you do? Were you able to meet your goals? If not, were you at least inspired to start walking/running/exercising on a more regular basis? At the very least, we hope this challenge motivated you to get moving and have some fun!

Nearing the end...

So here we are, in the final week of our challenge! Rather than ask you all how you're doing - since that's pretty much what our weekly progress reports do - I'd like to ask you all how the challenge has gone for you, outside of mile numbers. Have you enjoyed your exercise? Do you feel like you've learned anything about yourself? What did you enjoy most about the past three months in terms of exercise or fitness? Did anything exciting happen to you that you'd like to share?

As you reach forward towards the finish line, leave us a comment about how your journey has gone, and what you've discovered along the way. We'd love to hear your story!

Weekly Progress Report

One more week to go! Let us know how you did this week and if you're ready to do a celebratory snoopy dance next Friday.

Looking for a few good bloggers...

Due to life craziness and other commitments, Amanda and I will not be running the challenge for the final quarter of 2011. However, that doesn't mean that YOU can't!

If you're interested in taking over the blog for October through December (which at a minimum involves writing the intro and wrap-up posts, the weekly progress reports, and updating the sidebar with everyone's weekly progress), please email Jill at fizzybeverage at gmail dot com before September 27th. This is not something that you have to do alone...Amanda and I have found that the buddy system works quite well.

We are planning to be back in January of 2012 for another quarter of fun, though. So if you're interested in helping out, it's not a lifetime commitment!

Getting Enough Rest

Rest is another important thing we shouldn't do without. By rest, I mean both a time for your muscles to recover from exercise, and sleep.

Sleep is important for many reasons. People become less stressed and better focused with a good 7-8 or more hours of sleep a night. They are less cranky, less hungry, less forgetful, and less unhappy. Often, people will feel like they're doing fine on 5-6 hours a night, only to realize - once they've had some longer nights - that they weren't doing as well as they thought.

Non-sleep rest is a time of recovery for us. If you spend every single day working the same muscles, they will never have a chance to heal and grow. It's good to have a day off every once in awhile, or to cross-train so that you alternate muscle groups and give each set time to heal.

So remember in all this exercise to take some time to rest, and some time to sleep. It's important.

Weekly Progress Report

Only two more weeks left! Are you close to meeting your goal? Let us know how you're doing in the comments.

Stay hydrated!

Water is so important, and most of us don't drink nearly enough of it. We all know that the basic guideline out there is to drink 64 oz of water every day, but most of us don't. Unfortunately, we don't realize how many ill effects there are to not drinking enough!

• headaches
• increased hunger and calorie intake
• lighter sleep
• bloating and water retention, especially on the abdomen
• muscle fatigue
  

And those are just a few! It's so important to stay hydrated. Now, with exercising, it's even more important because you are sweating away more water than before.

I drink between 100 and 120 oz of water every day, with an off day periodically when I only get in 64-72 oz. I only started doing this in 2011, and it's made a HUGE difference in my life. Once I got past the first week or so of needing to pee all the time - and yes, that DOES go away - so much began to improve. I didn't get hungry as often. My stomach shrank and I lost a lot of water weight. My skin got healthier. I stopped having headaches 95% of the time when they were near-constant before. Now, I start feeling dehydrated if it gets to be noon and I haven't had 5 or 6 glasses of water! I can't imagine only drinking 3-4 glasses in a whole day like I used to!

There are some good tricks to help you ease into drinking more than you're used to, if this is a problem for you. Keep a water bottle with you at all times and fill it up several times a day. If you are home during the day, keep 5-oz Dixie cups in the bathroom and fill one up every time you're in that area. While I haven't done this myself, I hear you drink more through a straw than if you're just gulping straight from the cup. If you don't like the taste of water, you can add calorie-less packets of favoring or some citrus to it.

Once you get used to drinking all the time, you'll be amazed how different you feel and wonder how you ever could have lived in a constant state of near-dehydration!

Weekly Progress Report

No exercise cartoon this week, but this one made me giggle. And giggling is healthy, right? Too bad it doesn't count toward my total miles, though.

Speaking of which...how are you all doing with those miles? Leave a comment letting us know your cumulative miles.

Strength Training

Strength training is exercise specifically designed to build muscle. It doesn't necessarily burn a lot of calories, but it builds muscle, which makes you strong and boosts the calories you burn while at rest. Strength training can be done in several ways, all of which involve repetitions to put stress on your muscles:

1. Weights and weight machines: By lifting, pushing, and pulling weight for multiple repetitions, you build muscle. This is what most people commonly think of as strength training.

2. Resistance bands and machines: Like weights, repetitions with these will build muscle, but unlike weights, they don't have a specific poundage attached to them. This makes them very flexible. The bands can be adjusted during the workout for more or less resistance. Resistance machines will resist more the harder you work.

3. Body weight exercises: These involve using your body as a leverage to act as the weight to build muscle. Examples include pushups, crunches, or certain weight-bearing yoga poses.

Strength training is great for cross-training with aerobic or cardio workouts such as walking, running, biking, etc. The aerobic workouts increase heart health and burn calories, while the strength training builds muscle and boosts your resting metabolic rate. Together, they make a great exercise combo!!

Weekly Progress Report

That's what I need...an exercise servant! Oh wait. That kinda defeats the purpose, huh? Oh well, it's a good thing I got some walking in this week.

How about you? Let us know how you did this week by leaving your cumulative totals in the comments.