90 Day Challenge - Part B

Okay, so I promised I would be back with more than just a brief outline. I want to be completely transparent with whoever wants to follow along, so I am including all of my plans, rules, etc. here. 

Here is the plan I intend to follow for the next 90 days: 

• Goals: 

• To lose 15-20 pounds of body fat. 
• To increase strength and mobility, muscle definition. 
• To improve overall health and well being. 

• Diet: I will practice Intermittent Fasting and am taking a Paleo-ish approach to my diet, as this has worked the best for me overall in the past. I will still be tracking macros so that I can report back to my trainer that I'm eating enough and not starving myself, and I want to make sure I am balancing everything out in my diet also. 
• For IF: eating my last meal at 6:30/7:00p - Breaking my fast at around 10:00a 
• Diet will includes no gluten with the exception of sprouted Ezekial bread
• Limited dairy {cottage cheese, greek yogurt for protein sources}, some cheese in moderation
• I will likely lower my carb intake a little, and focus also on increasing fiber intake 
• Replace coffee with green tea
• Avoid processed food, avoid "diet/low fat" items, avoid sugar/artificial sweeteners
• Limit alcohol only to pre-planned cheat meals and it will be red wine only, no more than 3 glasses
• Pre-plan cheat meals, add in +1 cardio per cheat meal {I can't stress enough that I am going into this with literally a calendar printed out and writing in the days that I have things I can't avoid or know that I will want to indulge. I don't want to feel trapped in this challenge, so will allow for these days, such as our anniversary dinner and Thanksgiving. I will work HARD to still make as good of food choices as possible} 

• Water intake: 75 oz daily at a minimum.
• Exercise commitment: 

• Strength: 6x/week 
• Cardio: 4x/week 
• Commit to +1 cardio per pre-planned cheat meal 

• Tracking: 
• I will track my food, workouts and overall feelings daily. I will keep a food log. I am undecided if I will blog daily or weekly. 
• I will monitor my weight, BF% and BMI weekly, and do measurements and progress photos every 30 days. 
• Changes/commitments that I need to make to be successful in achieving my goals (daily/weekly):
• I sleep, a lot- so I want to focus on 8 hours a night, or at least figuring out what my body NEEDS. Because right now, if you ask her, she'll say like 10. 
• I need to wake up early to work out in the AM if I am going to be working out twice a day. With this, I want to wake up and start journaling again, stretch out, and set my intention for the day before I do my morning workout. 
• I will fill up three water bottles each night. I have two 32oz Nalgene water bottles, and another ~20oz bottle. This will help me to track my water intake for the day, as I will need to finish all three before the day is over! 
• I want to come up with some new recipe content! I haven't blogged in about three years or so, and used to love it so much. Coming up with new recipes to share was something that made me so happy. I am hoping through this journey I can break out some of the old ones, and create some new things in the kitchen also! {I'm also working on my photography, which is a story for another day since I have approximately zero food photos because they were always terrible!}
• Rewards: I decided against rewarding myself as this can get out of control very quickly. I will come up with something when the challenge is over to reward myself for sticking to it!
• Other: Make time for other things- blogging about things other than just this! Working on a few ventures I have going on in the background. While this challenge will be adding additional workout commitments to my plate, I am hoping it also adds energy to accomplish more than just my health and fitness goals! 

So there you have it. I have a few days left to iron out a few other details, but this is it. This is what I am going to do, and I am so excited to see where the next 90 days takes me. 

90 Day Challenge - Part A

Have you ever felt so compelled and inspired by someone's journey that you can't stop thinking about how you can follow in their footsteps? I feel that way often. I follow quite a few influencers, and every time they are doing something I am always thinking to myself "that could be me." -- and this is so all encompassing. I feel this way when someone posts about health, wellness or fitness, blowing diet culture out of the water and just eating clean, all the pretty fashion and lifestyle bloggers' photos of their 'Gram worthy shots {even the ones they say are real, still half of them are staged, this I know don't worry}, or even all of the online products they are selling. I can't say I haven't thought about selling *any.and.all.of.them* -- because that could totally be me! 

All joking aside, there is one person in particular that I have taken an interest in following. She is also a big time CEO and I just adore her personality, drive, and passion: Cassey Ho of Blogilates. She recently posted that she is challenging herself to a 90 day journey, publicly, which is so huge. Read her first post here, but ultimately she decided that finding herself at the heaviest she has ever been, she is taking back her life. 

In reading her first blog post, that she posted after Day 1/90, I truly felt so inspired. Someone who literally does fitness for her living fell off track because LIFE got in the way. Like, wow. These people really are human. And that gives me so much hope for the rest of us. Well, at least for me. 

So while I am not at my heaviest,* it is pushing me feel compelled to do my own 90 day challenge. There is never a "good time" to start, and especially as we are getting into the Fall, the days are getting shorter, the temperatures will begin to drop, and the holidays are quickly approaching it is increasingly harder to focus on eating well and exercise... but I am drawing a line and just jumping over it with both feet forward.

I will get through this coming long weekend {we are leaving tomorrow for a quick weekend trip}, then I want to make sure I have a game plan. I want something that is achievable but also going to put me out of my comfort zone. I want to make sure I am creating accountability for myself. I want to have a meal plan set up for myself. I want to make some rules. I want to set goals. All in all, I really want this to be real and and to help me feel super accomplished when I am done.

So far, here is what I have come up with. It's not much.. I definitely need to do some soul searching and planning, but I want to get it out there ASAP so that I can't back out.

Here is my timeline:

September 2 (start)

October 1 (Day 30)

October 31 (Day 60)

November 30 (Day 90)

Here are the numbers I will track:

Here is the very brief outline of my Rules:

1. Goals: to reduce overall inches and weight. To increase strength and mobility, muscle definition. To improve overall health and well being. 
2. Diet: TBD
3. Water intake: 75 oz daily
4. Exercise commitment: TBD {number of workouts per week, length of time, time of day}
5. Tracking: I will track my food, workouts and overall feelings daily. I will monitor my weight and BF% weekly, and do my measurements every 30 days. I will post progress photos every 30 days. 
6. Daily changes/commitments that I need to make to be successful in achieving my goals: TBD
7. Rewards: TBD
8. Other: TBD

Tools I'm currently using to track:

Cassey wrote about this in her initial blog post, and I love it. I think it's very important to note the things you will use to help make you successful and to monitor your results. 

• Watch: Garmin vivoactive3 Music to track workouts, heartrate, calorie burn etc. 
• MyFitnessPal Premium to track food {links to Garmin, links to my personal trainer's training app}
• Fitindex smart scale and app to track weight, body comp measurements including BF% and BMI 
• If I add any tools to my arsenal as I am planning my 90 days, I will add them to my follow up Part B post. 

So, there we have it. I want to say TYSM to Cassey for being so open, honest, and HUMAN about her journey. It can't be easy living in the public's eye, and I know she has gotten a lot of backlash for being so public with this challenge. For what it's worth, I think it's an amazing thing she is doing. I hope it inspires more individuals than just myself, because we need a little more of this in our lives. So anyway, thanks Cassey. I hope you don't mind that I'm total fan-girl copying you right now :) 

*I have actually hit the lowest scale weight that I have seen as an adult. I'm teetering within 2 lbs of it, though, and realize that I am starting to feel lax and don't want to take my foot off the pedal. I feel like this is the exact time I need something like this! 

Hello - Ciao - Hiya - Hi.

After a {not-so} brief hiatus, I am back and ready for action. As always, there have been many a thing going on in my life.

Y'all, I haven't given you a new recipe in like three years. And haven't really talked to you at all in that amount of time. I just went back and read some of my posts and realized also that every time I announce my return, I disappear just as quickly. Every time I announce my return, I also announce that I have started some new {health/fitness/something} and I will tell you that behind the scenes, that disappears just as quickly also. How big of a bummer is that!?

Now that I'm home full time with our daughter, I want to try to make this into something when I have the time to. So I want to be better for you. I want to give you content that you want. Do you like the recipes? do you want more lifestyle things? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Comment here - comment on the 'gram (@skinnyinstilettos) - email me.

I know a little bit about a lot of things, so I want this to be a space that provides knowledge. And tips/tricks. And where we can share for a love all of my favorite F words: food, family, fitness, fashion, and fun! And I want anyone who is out there reading to actually enjoy it. Selfishly, if I am investing time in it, I want it to be for a reason - for YOU!

In the meantime, I'll get back to cranking out some recipes. Making things my own. And trying to remember to take pictures along the way ;)

And don't forget to check out my recipe of the day:

Quick & Spicy Garlic Dill Pickles