Shredding It Up This Month

Hello Hot and Humid June! After this past weekend I can say it definitely feels like summer has arrived here in NYC. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. From reading my favorite blogs, I see lots of racing action happened. I didn't race, but did spend both days of the weekend getting some running in and ended up needing to be wrung out when all was said and done!

Exhibit A (Saturday):

Exhibit B (Sunday):

Saturday also kicked off this little thing called Summer Shred 13. Bobbi over at NHerShoes is putting this on for those of us who want a little butt kicking action for the entire month of June. She had such great success with her May Shred that she decided to do one for June too. As soon as registration opened, I signed right up!

I was super excited to get started. As you all know, my motivation and running consistency has wavered since my brother's death in March, so I thought that participating in this would be exactly what I needed to help get me going again.

I can tell you right now that I am very happy I signed up for this because the support being received from all the other lovely ladies participating has been wonderful! We are all in it together.

So for the entire month of June we are receiving weekly healthy, clean eating meal plans, weekly HIIT training plans (I haven't done my yet for today, but let me tell you I think I am going to be pretty beat up afterwards.), a private Facebook page where we can interact/support each other and have Bobbi available to us for any questions or help we may need.

Plus, there is this little thing call Diet Bet! Win some money for losing 4% of your body weight? Yes please!

Thursday, I spent some time reviewing the weekly meal plan sent out to us and used it as a guide to create what I was going to eat for the entire week starting this past Saturday. Everything on the meal plan wasn't really new to me. I really cleaned up my diet (i.e., green juicing 4-5 times a week, eating organic foods, etc.) when I became a vegetarian three years ago, so I was looking at this as a guide to help me change things up a bit. I'll say it now, I do eat salmon once week when I am really running a lot, like training for a marathon, and it's usually the night before my long run of the week.

I was very ambitious and even created this little table:

I ended up referring to it often this past weekend. I also found it was extremely helpful in making things super easy for me when it came time to eat. I didn't have to waste X amount of time wondering what I was going to make for myself. It also made putting my lunch together this morning a no brainer!

I have tried my hand at meal planning in the past and it never really stuck with me. I have to say that by putting in the effort to create a weekly plan really is worth the payout. I have found that I have been less stressed over the past couple of days about my meals and wondering if I am really getting all the nutrients my body needs.

Now I can focus on getting my exercise groove on!

So tell me, anyone else sweat it out this past weekend? What little changes have you made to assist with living a healthy lifestyle?

Joining the June Shred was one step for me. I also joined My Fitness Pal a few months ago, but am now really using it like I should have been all along. Last Friday I purchased a pedometer because I really wanted to know how many steps I take during the day. I mean, every little bit counts, right?