BB2's recap & challenge for March 2-9

So, this week's challenge was a two-parter: (1) Find a detox cleanse, and (2)make up a workout that we can take with us each week. 

(1) I'm going to admit that I'm a little scared of a detox or cleanse. I think the best time to try one would be a weekend because I don't want to try to stay awake in lecture with no caffeine... but this weekend is a test weekend. So, after reading some interesting articles about cleanses (http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/fast-diet  ,  http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/clean-detox-manual  ,   http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/detox-diets-cleansing-body?page=1  ,  http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/24-hour-stress-cleanse ) i'm making up my own. I'm going paleo for a day - probably saturday. And I challenge you and Matthew to join me.

The basic idea behind the paleo diet is that "if the caveman didn't eat it, neither should you." However, that's way more complicated than it seems at first glance. Cavemen didn't have any real drinks (no coffee! and especially no creamer or milk) or grains at all. so it's mainly raw fruits and veggies, and water (or green tea, with no sweetener) or juice and some lean meats. Right now I'm a little lacking in the SNACKABLE fruits and veggies department, but hopefully I can correct that. (edit: I just did that! Got some carrots, corn, pears, apples, strawberries, yum.) It sounds like a good, manageable version of a detoxifying cleanse. If you want to do something like a 24 hour juice cleanse, I'd still recommend leading in with a paleo day and then doing the juice only, and then a paleo day to lead you out of it.

Oh, and one more thing - cavemen didn't have girl scout cookies. sorry. ;)

((stress bonus: detox bath? http://www.wikihow.com/Take-a-Detox-Bath ))

(2)Making up a workout. Boy, this is right up my alley! Well, first of all, I've been doing fab ab february almost every night (I think I forgot a total of 6 times). I want to continue, and I know there's a mad abs march! So let's do that every night! It's a great little way to get a little blood flowing, a few calories burning... and it has an easy checkoff sheet to keep track of your increasing challenges! A lot of times I ended up doing them really late in the evening anyway, so it would work well as an "end of the day" thing. 

Check it out! https://pinterest.com/allonsy44/monthly-fitness-challenges/

(from http://sportyafros.com/workouts/the-march-mad-abs-challenge/)

We can do it!

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But enough about last week's challenge - here's this week. Cut the stress snacking, and do the insanity fit test. 

 I feel like because you can see the light at the end of the (employment) tunnel, you can take on a bigger challenge - so let's find a way to cut out the stress snacking. I think we both need to work on a mantra to say to ourself when we want to stress snack. I think mine will be "I want to win this competition for myself, and I want to look and feel better!" I also think finding other ways to deal with the stress is great, and we've worked a lot on coming up with ideas, and now it's time to implement them! I'm going to use one of the techniques we talked about before this blog got started - I'm going to work on really valuing my body & treating it right (massaging in lotion or oil after showers to improve blood flow, say a daily body love mantra, and work on treating it right with food because my body is my temple. And also, summer is coming up!)

Also, workout challenge - keep it up with the daily exercises we came up with last week(mad abs march?), aaaaaaand I've got a new challenge video for you! I got "insanity" from a friend, and am gonna try my hardest to get my butt in gear and do at least some of it (I know 6 days a week with my school schedule isn't feasible), but our challenge is to complete the insanity fit test! Here's the video link: http://vimeo.com/44997921
In theory, with the video series, you take this test every 2 weeks to see how your progress is going. We just want to get an initial baseline to see what we can do - maybe we'll do this fit test again in May? Anyway, post your results on here for each one and we'll see how it goes. You'll probably beat me, Brit, because me and cardio haven't been getting along lately, haha. BUT GOOD LUCK!!!! :)