#stf2016

[catsiesd]

I bought myself some skinny clothes. I am so thankful for tumblr, for my followers and for those I follow. You have all been amazing and the last 2 years have flown by (yeah it was my blogs birthday yesterday and I didn't do anything so I feel bad) Love all of you and I can't wait to see what the next year has instore for me

[running-on-spoons]

Look at what arrived today!!!!! My package from @mybigfatfitlife!!!! Thank you so much Harmony for this package! I love sticky notes/tabs and use them all the time for school stuff. I've never seen them in such cool patterns either which is fantastic!!!! The pens are my favourite marking pens and since I've got a bunch of papers to mark coming in a few weeks the timing is perfect for these! The journal is gorgeous and is covered in a really lovely textured fabric - I love journals/notebooks so I'm going to have to put some thought into what I use this one for as it's super pretty. Thank you so much! This was such a great package to top off a great day! And thanks to @fatgirlgetsfitatlast, @mybigfatfitlife, and @fueling-mydreams for putting on the @sparkingthefire challenge. It was such a wonderful way to start the new year off right!!!

[forevafaye]

Sparking The Fire Final Post

Recap your goals and how you did on each of them. Goal #1: Eat Clean and track everything on MFP. -Grocery shop & meal prep day once a week. -Only 3 days of this month to eat out (no fast food!) and that’s it. Goal #2: Work out at least 4 times a week. –The days I’m not working out, my goal is to ‘walk’ 5,000 steps. Goal #3: Pray and meditate every day.

I started out strong but lost momentum halfway during the month. Surprisingly, I did best on working out but eating healthy and prayer/meditation was a struggle.

What have you learned over this challenge? I learned a lot of new recipes! I learned the art of selfies 😀 I tried new workouts. What struggles did you have? Are they continued from last year or are they new struggles? How do you plan to tackle these in the next month? I struggled with eating out. I ended up eating out probably 10+ times. A lot of it was because of my biggest struggle-poor planning. I became focused on calories in good instead of quality in food and I think that was a huge reason why I didn’t lose as much. Plus, eating out meant a lot of guesstimating on MFP. Poor planning/procrastination is a HUGE life struggle for me and one I want to conquer this month. I’m going back to meal prep and packing all my food. I’m also logging my food in the AM and sticking to it, instead of just tallying everything up at the end of the day because those little things add up. I’m going to actually plan my eat out meals. I think once a week is reasonable. My main goal with this restart of my health journey was to be mindful, eat healthy without feeling restricted and to rework my relationship with food. I went too far in January and ended up rationalizing away some unhealthy food choices so I’m going to work on that this month Did you make any new friends??? How were your accountability buddies in helping you along this month? I met some lovely people. My APs were great; I think we were all in the same boat about losing steam or not posting as much towards the end. Do you have any new goals for February? Same goals, new approaches. Work on self-love Did you have fun???? Yes!!! What country do you live in? (this is important, just trust us!) USA

[hiitmetogreatness]

Sparking the Fire - Final Day! Jan 31

My goal was to have a sustainable workout regimen for my semester that consisted of 3 workout days. On the one hand, I have a cardio one that seems to work but not a strength one. On the other hand, I haven’t really had a normal full week of classes because of the snow. But I’m trying and have done well so far. I’ve learned that some Fitblrs around these parts have good taste in music lol. This whole not doing strength workouts is somewhat of a new development that I can’t explain so I guess I’ll try to tackle it next month. I’m planning on doing @fatmaninalittlesuit‘s challenge in February and am off to find the posts for it as soon as I finish this post. This challenge was a lot of fun and I really liked that everyone’s posts were reblogged to a central location. I think that’s a fantastic format for a challenge. I live in the U.S.

It’s been fun yall and thank you so much to @fatgirlgetsfitatlast, @fueling-mydreams, and @mybigfatfitlife for hosting this challenge <3

[hiitmetogreatness]

Sparking the Fire Day 30

Saturday January 30th - Weekly Check-in!

How did you do this week? 

~~~

I’m still making cardio progress but not strength. Still unknown as to why I’m just not motivated to do the strength half of things.

[emiliclimbs]

#sparkingthefire: Last day

This was a fun challenge. I just hope I had kept up with it. The first half of the month went well but then I started falling behind on the daily prompts and here I am again, writing this a day late. Oops. 

Recap your goals and how you did on each of them

I had four goals for this challenge. I didn’t meet any of them. 

My first goal was to finish Yoga with Adriene’s Yoga Camp by the end of January. I am thirteen days behind. :(

My second goal was to be able to run 30 minutes straight by the end of January. I can run 25 minutes straight and I am happy with that (thirty minutes will be possible some time next week). I’m also very pleased with myself that I have kept up the habit of running. That’s the most important thing to me now. 

My third goal was to eat fruits or vegetables as part of every meal. That didn’t happen either and I really need to keep on focusing on that habit. It’s so easy to not eat them even though eating fruits and vegetables makes me feel so much better.

My fourth goal was to meet my activity goal on my Polar Loop 2 on six days of the week. That didn’t happen on any week. Though for the last three weeks my average percentage has been over 100 and that’s fine. 

What have you learned over this challenge?

I learned that these kind of challenges might not be the best thing for me. Pretty soon in the challenge I realized that I needed more time than I had to participate in the challenge the way I wanted. The next time I want to participate in a challenge I need to make sure I have enough time. 

What struggles did you have?

I was sick for about a week in the first half of the challenge. On the second half of the challenge I had too much other things to do and I also was tired because of too little rest. 

Did you make any new friends???  How were your accountability buddies in helping you along this  month?

I hope I have a new tumblr-friend in @somedayssummer, even though I was not a good accountability buddy. 

Do you have any new goals for February?

The first thing I’m going to do in February is to take care of myself mentally. I’m going to do the things that have been waiting for a few weeks now (going to some boxes of stuff that I have brought over from my parents etc.). Also just relaxing and doing the things I like. 

I have been planning on doing a take-a-photo-a-day challenge by myself for the month. So maybe?

I also want to challenge myself to take a walk or a run every day. To take care of my health (both mentally and physically) and to go outside and see new places. Otherwise I fear that I’m going to be stuck inside. 

During January I have realized that I need to do some strength training to help my running. So that is also something I want to incorporate in my habits. Bodyweight training twice a week maybe?

Did you have fun????

YES! The challenge was fun and I really like how it was structured and the daily prompts were fun. 

What country do you live in? 

Finland!

[learningtolovetherun]

SparkingtheFire - Final Day

HOLY COW!  We did it!  Congrats to everyone who made it to the end of our challenge! We covered everything from goal setting, to nutrition to fitness and self care.  You guys deserve a gigantic high five!  This has been a fun and amazing challenge to be a part of.  

So, we want to know a few things!

*  Recap your goals and how you did on each of them.

1. Follow the running plan given to me by my friend.

- Hahaha I didn’t do so great at this. I restarted the running plan and this last week fell off it. Again. But I’m looking forward to continuing to work through the training plan in February. 

2. Strength train 2x per week

- I failed miserably at this, I only strength trained once a week and that’s really only if you count rock climbing as strength training. This is one I’ll have to continue to work on throughout February. 

*  What have you learned over this challenge?

One of the coolest things I learned throughout this challenge is how much these challenges actually do help me. More than once I went out and ran or worked out because I didn’t want to disappoint my fellow Sparkers. The accountability was awesome and I’ll definitely be looking for some February challenges. 

*  What struggles did you have?  Are they continued from last year or are they new struggles?  How do you plan to tackle these in the next month?

So I really struggled with consistency, which is definitely something that’s followed me from last year. Since running my last half in November and starting my new job, I’ve struggled with following my running plan and especially with getting any gym time in. 

I think in February I’m going to have my boyfriend help me with my strength training consistency and will start going back to the running group I’m a part of at least during their weekly group run. 

*  Did you make any new friends???  How were your accountability buddies in helping you along this  month?  

Oh my accountability partners were awesome. I felt I was able to chat with them when I needed and it was really awesome to see even a like or reblog on my posts from them. 

I do wish I’d been a bit more active in communicating with them so I apologize for that you guys! @mattybuggie @xrunningsloth @bodylove-etc

*  Do you have any new goals for February?

I haven’t quite figured out my February goals just yet. 

*  Did you have fun????

I did! This was such a fun challenge and I loved the different themes each week. 

*  What country do you live in?  (this is important, just trust us!)

I’m from the US 

*  Please post your Final #STF2016 post no later than 8 AM MST on February 2nd so we can tie up the challenge appropriately :D