My New Digs During the Locker Remodel

I am fortunate to work in an office building equipped with a locker room and showers. However, they are closed until September of this year for an accommodation remodel. What’s a lunch break runner to do? Luckily the office building across the street also has a locker room and showers AND an exercise room with equipment. Even better for me, I happen to work frequently with the lady in charge of assigning lockers.

I did have to pare down my locker essentials quit a bit though. I went from full size lockers in my building to half size lockers in the other building. It actually came a great time though. Let me explain…using dumbbells has been a part of my training regiment for a while. I started with 2 pounder, then moved up to 3 pounders. I received a 30-day arm challenge from a friend, and as I never back down from a challenge, I quickly accepted, but felt like I was ready for 5 pounders. Lo and behold, my hubby had asked for a weight set for Christmas and it was received, you know the somewhat fancy kind where you can screw on different weight plates. The smallest weight we could make them was 8 pounds with the bar, and I was able to complete the arm challenge with that. However, since we were sharing them and the hubs usually does his work out during the day when I normally would, I opted to do mine in the evenings to save the locker space, and to keep from toting them back and forth from home.

My new digs:

I am also having to change up my usual running paths. I don’t like having to cross many busy streets in Austin and my office building is flanked by two major ones. Therefore, I have now started running in a different direction and am becoming more comfortable with the various route options and hills. I came across this hidden pathway today, the infamous Shoal Creek.

I doesn’t look like much, but when it rains in Central Texas it pours and this thing becomes a small river.

My Lent Fast Recap

For Lent this year I chose clean eating, while giving up all breads and sugars, while fasting one day a week. I lost a total of 27lbs. and feel wonderful. My hubby got in on the gig about two weeks after the start of Lent and has done so well too. I didn’t stop at the end of Lent either, we are keeping it going, although I do allow myself to have some bread now. I tried going with a healthier option, whole wheat bread and pizza crusts, and switched the kiddies to it too for their sack lunches. However, I recently learned that wheat bread hinders your body’s ability to absorb iron. That’s not exactly the news I wanted to hear as I’m bouncing in and out of anemia.

Diet is not the only thing I changed up. I have now been through a 30 day ab challenge, 30 day arm challenge, 30 day squat challenge and am now in the middle of a 30 day yoga challenge and 30-day beach body challenge. The ab challenge helped me lose some serious poundage around my waist line and the squat challenge helped me slim down my thighs a bit. I’m a little disappointed in the arm challenge. While I feel stronger than when I started, I didn’t tone my arms or lose a lot of weight there. Although I’ll be the first to admit that my flabby arms have been the most troublesome spot I have so I know it will take a whole lot more to shape them up. The yoga challenge has been a nice break from lifting weights, but kind of boring and not very challenging. My favorite challenge so far has been the beach body challenge. Everyday is a different set of exercises rather than targeting a certain area. You can find loads of free “30-day” type challenges on Pinterest; follow my Work It Board to get you started.