The January Challenge

Welcome to the CHALLENGE 2018 program! Every month, you’ll receive an email that announces the Fitness and Healthy Habits focus, the Challenger of the Month and more!

Make sure to add coach@jennyhadfield.com email into your email address book to assure it ends up in your inbox versus your spam folder.

In this post you will find the following:

• Fitness Focus: The #WeeklyGoal
• Healthy Habits Focus: #EatWell
• The National Parks Challenge
• The Pinned Post
• Workout of the Season is Coming Next Week
• Facebook posting etiquette

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The #WeeklyGoal

There will be plenty of opportunity to challenge yourself in this year’s program. Be mindful that the goal isn’t to do it all, but to focus on areas that speak to you. One strategy that is simple and works to keep us on track, is to set a weekly mileage or exercise minutes goal at the start of every week.

It aids in setting goals based on our life schedule and what is realistic. It also provides an opportunity to learn how to balance life with activity, reach a short term goal to maintain motivation, and allows us to start fresh each week in the event we don’t meet our goals.

If this speaks to you, here is how to do it.

• Set a Weekly Goal. At the beginning of every week, simply post your weekly activity goal in the Facebook group using the hashtag #WeeklyGoal, or if you’re not on social media, in your log or journal. Set a goal for a certain number of miles for the week. An example weekly mileage goal post might look like this…”My goal for the week is 20 miles, 12 will be running miles, and the rest will be cross-training.”
• Every workout counts. Running can be tracked in miles, while cross-training activities like cycling, classes, swimming, yoga, Zumba, Crossfit are tallied with 10 minutes of cross-training = 1 mile. If you walk, you can count the activity in miles or minutes, which ever you prefer (10 minutes equals 1 mile). For example, if you run for 3 miles and strength train for 20 minutes, your total mileage for the day would be 5.
• Share it. As you get in your workouts, post them in the Challenge 2018 Facebook Group Paget. An example post workout post might look this like… “I ran 4 miles and did 10 minutes of yoga for 5/20 miles for the week.”

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The January Healthy Habit Focus
#EatWell

The definition of a habit is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly until it becomes almost involuntary (like brushing your teeth).

Health happens slowly over time, and with repeated healthy behavior. The purpose of the Healthy Habit Challenge is to focus on key areas of health and wellness, focus on choosing one small habit, and slowly create healthy change.

It’s also important to mention that what works for me won’t necessarily work for you. I’ve learned in my coaching career that some folks do well on an all-or-nothing approach (ie. Sugar Detox), while others do best to make changes in moderation (ie. remove the sugar from my coffee).

You won’t find a specific habit you’ll follow each month. Instead, you’ll find a healthy habit focus of the month and a few ideas to get your juices flowing to identify a habit that works for you.

This month’s Healthy Habit focus is eating well. Your homework, should you choose to accept this challenge, is to identify one small habit to focus on this month, and then hit the repeat button.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

• Keep a food journal for a single week, or all month. This can be an extremely effective way to get real with your food choices, discover the nuances of your eating habits, and see where you might make change. You can use a piece of paper, a journal or go high tech and download an app like MyFitnessPal or Fitbit. Research has shown that people who use food trackers for a week, lose twice as much weight as those who do so once or not at all. It’a all about awareness.
• Reducing sugar in your daily diet. I talk about this in my podcast. A great way to educate yourself on the benefits of a low sugar diet is to watch the documentary, Fed Up. It is a fascinating view on the science of sugar in our body, how it affects our metabolism and encourages it to store more fat, and unveils where sugar lies in the foods we choose. From there, you’ll find inspiration to reduce or remove added sugar (not fruits or veggies) from your diet. You can go full throttle like me and do a sugar detox this month, or go in moderation and choose one sugary food to remove.
• Prepare meals. One day per week, prepare meals that you can pack and eat all week long. When I’m on track, I’ll make a list, check it twice, head to the store and prepare meals for the week. This makes life much easier, and reduces the resistance for reaching for unhealthy, quick and processed foods.

When we change our habits, we change our health and our life quality. Use the handy #EatWell Habit Tracker Sheet to keep track this month.

Use the hashtag #EatWell in the Challenge 2018 Facebook group this month for a chance to win the Challenger Spirit Award and a Challenge 2018 – National Parks Challenge tech shirt.

Download a pdf printable version here.

Download an excel digital version here:

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Start your journey on The National Parks Challenge

This month is all about getting into a regular exercise routine, and kicking off The National Parks Challenge (NPC). A program that will inspire you all year long.

Start Date: The National Parks Challenge will begin Friday, January 5th. You can count exercise from Jan 1st, and start submitting once the online log opens on January 5th.

Newbies: If you’re new to The Challenge, please watch this video tutorial on how to track your progress and submit your points. It also covers details on the Membership Site.

Watch the video here:
Short Version – Just the National Parks Challenge: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=jtyAxWlu2GA

Long Version – Includes all things about the Membership Site and the National Parks Challenge: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=rrHk7n0c3Rc

Here’s how it works:

• The NPC is a year long challenge where the goal is to exercise at least 30 minutes a day, 4-5 days of the week. We’re dedicating January to kick off this Challenge and getting into a consistent exercise routine.
• The mission is to earn points to move across 30 National Parks. In order to do this, you’ll need to average 4.5, 30-minute exercise sessions per week. Challenging and doable, but not insane. 🙂
• It’s a journey, not a race. This isn’t about racing across the parks, or perfection (7 days a week), getting in consistent activity week by week, month by month, throughout the year. It’s about averaging 4.5 sessions per week. Some weeks you may end up with 1 or 2, and some weeks you may hit 6-7 days. Some of us may cross most of the parks, while others may do them all. The fun is in challenging yourself to see how far you can go.
• Tracking: It’s on your honor. Every time you exercise for 30 minutes, you earn 1 point for The National Parks Challenge. There are three ways to keep track of your activity:
  • Download The National Parks Challenge Tracking sheets here and color in each point within a park as you earn them. This will give you a big picture view of your journey.
  • Not into coloring? No worries, use The National Parks Challenge Tracking Chart to track the dates you earn each park.
  • Once you’ve earned the points for a park, log them into The National Parks Log within the Challenge 2018 Membership Site.
  • There will be Patches Earned!: But wait, there’s more…You’ll earn a virtual patch along the way after you submit every park. The goal is to earn your way to a Park Ranger Patch by moving across all 30 parks!
  • Every park has a different number of points (i.e. Grand Canyon = 12 points) , and you can pick and choose the order of the parks you want to earn along the way.
  • Challenger rankings. What’s a challenge without knowing where you stand in the group? Once you enter your points for a park, you will be included in the Challenger rankings by number of parks completed and total number of points (fun, huh?). The rankings can be found within The Challenge 2018 Membership site.
  • One point max per day. Keep in mind, this challenge is all about consistency and designed to motivate you to move regularly this year. You can only earn 1 point per day. Whether you exercise for 30 minutes or 3 hours, you earn 1 point.
  • Mix and Match: It’s also fun to note that any exercise counts. It’s an equal exercise opportunity Challenge, and therefore your yoga, cycling, strength, running, walking, elliptical, dancing counts!
  • The goal is to move throughout the year, focusing on progress, not perfection.

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The Pinned Post