Elf 4 Health recap on round 1!

Well the last 2 weeks have been full of lots of fun with all the different challenges that Elf 4 Health has brought! Just a little recap of all that I was able to do for the challenges 🙂

Day 1- Meatless Monday- I did my healthy eating without adding meat to my meals.  Breakfast (yogurt with fruit) and lunch (black beans and veggies) were not a problem, but I usually have some sort of lean meat with dinner, so I chose a different protein source with dinner!  I made really yummy chocolate chip pumpkin french toast and had some eggs and blackberries on the side 🙂

Day 2- Send a handwritten card- This was easy for me.  There have been several people on my heart lately who have been going through some tough times, and so instead of just texting or emailing them, I made each one a card, and sent some encouragement their way.  I mean, who doesn’t love mail that is not a bill?!?

Day 3- Try a new workout today. Thanks to my wonderful Elf Maria, I was introduced to some new great workout routines. The one I chose to do, in addition to my already planned workout was a plank work out by Purely Twins.  You can look at the workout I did HERE! I have to say that even though it was only 12 minutes, it was KILLER!  The few days following that workout I was SO sore!  I am definitely going to be doing that workout again and soon 🙂  Thanks again Maria for the wonderful idea to do a plank workout!

Day 4- Get up 15 min early and meditate
Some of you may no I am not a stellar morning person.  I can get up early if I absolutely have to (for a flight, a race, to help a friend, or a special event), but it is really not my favorite thing.  So I set my alarm a few min early and when it went off instead of hitting snooze 3 times, I laid in bed and did some deep breathing exercises and prayed.  I have to say it was a really nice way to start the day.  When I finally did get out of bed I felt a bit more awake and ready to face the day!

Day 5- How many different colors can you eat today?
This was a really fun challenge.  I love to eat a variety of colors already, so I had fun planning out my day based on colored food!  It is amazing just how many colors you can eat in a day.  This was all from breakfast and morning snack that day!

And lunch time!
Can we say YUMMO?!?!

Day 6/7- Clean out your closet- In the past 2 weeks Wayne and I actually cleaned out our closet and reorganized SO much in our house I don’t have any pictures, but we had several bags of clothes that were either given away or thrown away (not in good condition to give), and one HUGE box.  I am really proud of my hubby for being such a good sport!

So week 1 had a lot of fun challenges and it kept me on my toes!
I also did many great workouts and I was happy I was able to stay on track with my 5k training 🙂

Week 2

Day 8- Track your fiber
Tracking my fiber was easy since I use MyFitnessPal to track my intake and workouts!  I haven’t really ever paid that much attention to it, but never seemed to have any issues with a lack of fiber.  When I here of fiber, one of the main things that comes to mind is all bran.  I had to do a little research to find other foods that have good fiber in them 🙂
I found this information HERE
I looked back over a few days in MyFitnessPal and saw that I usually have 20-30 g of fiber a day.  My goal for this day was to get more than than 🙂
You can see that by the end of lunch time I had already reached 30 grams of fiber.  By the end of the day I reached 50 grams 🙂 I am proud of myself for stepping out of the box to get more fiber.

Day 9- Make a salad and your own dressing
This challenge was really fun for me.  I have been doing some experimenting with making my own dressings the last few months.  I have yet to find a dressing in the stores that I like and isn’t horrible for you, and also doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
So I took some really simple ingredients that made a dressing my husband raved about the entire meal!
Plain yogurt, an avocado, salt, pepper, garlic powder and lime juice.
I mashed the avocado and mixed in the small container of yogurt.  Then I added the spices and lime juice to taste.  You could also add other spices, and I am sure I will next time I make it, but I wasn’t being very adventurous that night.

I added it to a salad of amazing chicken that my hubby makes, and it was SO yummy 🙂

Day 10- Pack a snack and bring one along for someone else
In my day to day life, I don’t really interact with any grown ups, so I was thinking of who I could share a snack with.  It ended up being a bit of a crazy day with hubs and I both working long days, and then we went to church. After church we had a few errands to run.  It would have been so simple to just grab some Chick-fil-a, but instead I brought us a little snack of an apple and granola! We avoided the temptation to eat fast food, and I made us a quick and simple dinner when we got home.

Day 11- Lift weights
I did not get a chance to go to the gym today since I worked a 15 hour day.  So instead of not getting in on this challenge, I used the twins as my weights! They each weight 20 lbs, so they were the perfect size!  I did lunges, squats and some calf raises while holding one or both of them 🙂

Day 12- Go makeup free
Pretty much ever day is make up free for me! Being around kiddos all the time is easy to just throw on sweats and have fun with the kiddos.  This day we did a fun walk outside and enjoyed all of the natural beauty 🙂
Lindsay did a great post with all the beautiful makeup free women who were able to do the challenge!

Day 13/14- Make a meal/workout plan for the following week
This challenge wasn’t really too much of a challenge since I LOVE to be organized, and I am a HUGE planner!!! So here is what my week looks like in my planner.  Now, even thought I am a planner, I do know that life happens, and so some of these days I am sure are going to be changed around a bit, and THAT’S OK!

Well that is the end of my recap!  I am so thankful I am able to be part of this amazing group of elves!  Thank you again Lindsay and Elle for all your HARD WORK in putting this together! And another shout out to my great elf from round 1, Maria!!