April Healthy Challenge: 100 Miles

Can you believe it is almost April?!? I hope you all are feeling very relaxed and flexible after your month of yoga and are ready to get moving because this month is a real challenge.  A challenge unlike the past two that is sure to get you ready for your summer bikini body, running or bike races and triathlons.

This months challenge is to run, bike and/or walk 100 miles. Yes you read that correctly 100 miles.

Running

I know that this sounds like a grueling challenge and you’re probably thinking “can I really complete the challenge?” Before you go doubting yourself let me tell you YES you can and just think of how proud of yourself you will be.

Healthy Challenge: Walk | Run | Bike –>100 MILES. You can count any miles that you walk, run or bike.  That means walking around the grocery store can count towards your total miles for the month; this challenge is not just about specific fitness miles but rather miles in general. I want you get moving. If you live in a city and take public transit to work get off a stop early and walk the remainder of the way or maybe you live only a few miles from work, go ahead and bike or run instead of driving.  Once you start tracking things you’ll see it isn’t that hard to complete the 100 miles (although if you’re a biker you may want to take on a personal challenge to complete 125-150 miles).

Tracking: You can track your miles via your Garmin (or similar device), run keeper or daily mile. Once you sign up for the challenge I’ll send you a spreadsheet where you can submit your daily mileage. However, I will require you to send me a screen shot of your tracking device to prove your miles.

Complete the challenge and you’ll be entered to win a pretty amazing giveaway item. That’s right if you complete the challenge not only will you get bragging rights that you walked/ran/biked 100 miles in 30 days but you will also be entered to win a great prize. Brooks Running has generously agreed to offer a pair of the #pureproject running shoes to the winner of this challenge. To win you must complete the 100 miles and submit to me your completed spreadsheet with screenshots. There will be one winner of the challenge and all entries must be received by May 2nd, 2013 at 12pm PST.

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Social Media: You can follow me on twitter and instagram @runwithtongs and you can follow our April Challenge giveaway sponsor on twitter and instagram at @brooksrunning.  The challenge hash tag is #RWT100Miles.

Second Giveaway: Oh yes and there is a second prize, a package filled with my favorite running/training items. To enter “tweet @runwithtongs @brooksrunning #RWT100Miles” along with how many miles you completed for the day. You can enter once per day for a total of 30 entries.  There will be one winner of this prize.

Okay so now that you have all the details lets get you signed up:

Yoga Shout Outs

We are just about two weeks into our month long yoga challenge and I wanted to take some time to share what our participants are saying.

“For the past 10 years or so I have pretty consistently had lower back pain, that I attributed to my being very inflexible, especially my hips and hamstrings. For this challenge, I signed up for gaiamtv and have been trying out some of the different beginner videos. The change has been amazing so far! I am already feeling more flexible, but most importantly, I haven’t been waking up in the morning with a stiff back or ending the day with an achy back. Can’t wait to see how I feel after another 2 weeks!”- Elisabeth

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“I am LOVING March Yoga – I cashed in an Amazon Local deal I bought a while ago for a bikram studio in my neighborhood.  It is absolutely killing me – in the best way.  I’ve done 4 classes so far and while I get discouraged and cranky, it’s been great to tell my mind to get lost and just connect with my body.  I already notice the strength coming back in my legs and oooo, I love it.”- Catie

“I have benefited immensely from it already!”- Monika

Keep Calm & Do Yoga: Link Up

Can you believe we are already 10 days into our month long yoga challenge! We are about a 1/3 of the way through and it is feeling great.  That being said this is the time when it can get a little more challenging to find the motivation or we lose interest or other things “get in the way” so I’ve linked up a number of posts in hopes that they will give you a little motivation to keep going strong.

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Who says you have to be on a yoga mat to practice?

You can do these poses in bed or how about these.

If the thought of staying in bed to do yoga just makes you want to throw the covers up and go back to sleep than how about you jump out of bed and into the shower where you can wash your hair while doing these poses.

Okay so you maybe you decided to sleep in, you skipped the shower and you went to work and sat all day.  Your hips are killing you and you need to relax so why not try out this series of hip openers to help you unwind and get ready for bed.

What is your favorite yoga series? Share in the comments below.

Are You Ready to Yoga? I’m not.

Today is the last day of February’s Health Challenge- 10 day cleanse, and tomorrow starts another challenge this one the entire month of March, 31 days. Yes, that would be 31 days of yoga in a row.
mountain top yoga long trail
Is your head spinning? Yeah, I know mine is too. The good part is I won’t be alone I have a handful of other crazy yogis ready to participate (you can sign up here if you are crazy enough to join us.)

As excited as I am for this challenge I am far from ready. I was hoping to have more time to prepare and get myself back into yoga mode but when you have a baby, a husband, a house and a new city to explore somethings fall to the wayside so I guess I’ll be jumping right into this challenge.

My hope is that a month of yoga will get me back on the mat regularly, help improve my running and flexibility and destress my mind and body. Why are you participating or Why do you practice yoga?

I practice yoga to calm my mind.
I practice yoga to relax my body.
I practice yoga to strengthen my body.
I practice yoga for community.

For those participating you will find an email in your inbox tomorrow with more details.

March Healthy Challenge: Yoga Everyday

Yoga and I have had an on and off again relationship. I tend to practice consistently for months and then for one reason or another I stop for a period of time and then take it back up. I am not sure why this is because I always feel amazing once I start back up, so I should probably just stick with it, eh?

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After a short break from it in the Fall of 2011 I feel back in love with it and started to attend a weekly prenatal class through my entire pregnancy. It was just what I needed physically and emotionally during my pregnancy and extremely helpful during my labor and childbirth. However, once Edith arrived I fell out of my routine, since I needed to heal and all, and then I stopped carving out time all together.

Now here we are almost 8 months later and I am finally ready to recommit to my practice. I know I won’t be able to get out to as many classes as I would like to but I am making time, even if it’s just 15 minutes, to do yoga everyday for the entire month of May. My hopes that it will help increase my flexibility, reduce my stress and help me improve my running.

I am also inviting you to take on this month long yoga challenge with me for my March #RWTHealthyChallenge.

I know an entire month of yoga seems like a lot to commit to but I want to set things up for all of us to succeed. That being said you are only required to do a minimum of 15 minutes of yoga per day. That isn’t so hard, right? I know from experience that just a short practice can make all the difference and if you are able to try to make this practice happen first thing in the morning to get your body ready for the day.

Are you ready to take on the challenge? Fill out the form below.

Bonus: For those who complete the challenge and submit their time sheet to me you will be entered to win a yoga prize pack! Submissions must be sent via email to me by April 3rd.

Cleanse Menu No. 3

Can you believe that February is almost over? For those of you participating in my February Healthy Challenge we are at the last session. This is also my last cleanse specific menu, next week I will be posting the final menu that will focus on a gentle transition back to gluten and soy (if you so chose).

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Day 1.

Day 2.

Day 3.

Day 4.

Day 5.

If you are participating in the challenge please e-mail me with proof of your completed tasks by March 3rd.