September and October were challenge months at Kosama with a $5 buy in for whichever contest you wanted to participate in. Since I see very small weight loss results I opted for the body fat percentage contest. In September we officially rejoined the fitness bandwagon and started going back to classes regularly, and while I did note an improvement in my body fat percentage, it was small for a four-week effort.
So, in October I developed the 30-Day Challenge to challenge myself to make home cooked dinners for the entire month. My weigh in at mid month had me down almost an additional 2% body fat, so it was quickly proving successful. Toward the end of the mouth we had a rough week where we ended up eating out just about every night for convenience, and not even tasty food (for example on riff trax night we had chicken fingers and pizza at the movies – blech). We were fairly successful, though. Here are the tasty meals we enjoyed (and many of which we enjoyed again as leftovers!):
- Deviled Chicken with sweet potatoes and zucchini & mushrooms
- Cavatappi with grilled zucchini & mushrooms and chicken apple sausage
- Chicken Cashew Lettuce Wraps
- Pesto Honey Salmon
- Lemongrass Chicken Stir Fry
- Cavatappi pasta bake with ground turkey & part-skim mozzarella
- Asian Glazed Chicken
- Black Bean Burger with Goat Cheese, sauteed kale and sweet potatoes
- Crockpot Chicken Tacos
- Italian Pesto Chicken
- Creamy Rosemary Chicken
- Chicken, Spinach & Goat Cheese Quiche
- Whole Wheat Angel Hair Pasta with Homemade Italian Turkey Sausage
- Herb Sauteed Spaghetti Squash and Homemade Italian Turkey Sausage
- Italian Baked Chicken
- Black Bean Burger Burritos
- Weight Watchers Spicy Beef Tacos
The 30-Day Challenge also coincided with a MEPs challenge at Kosama, so for the first two weeks of October, I was busting ass at the gym. The reality was that I was pushing a bit too hard, and was also in desperate need of new cross-training shoes, so I was out after the second week and to some extent, am still recovering with occasional shin splints (I have since purchased new shoes, thank goodness). On the other hand, Z is STILL in the challenge, one of the “Elite 8” that are kicking off competition against one another this week. In order to be successful, he needs to work out at a high intensity for a full 60 minutes, so I have been adding on to my workouts where I normally would have stopped during cool down and gone home. I feel pretty confident that this extra push to support him, along with eating, overall, much healthier and at home, are what contributed to these results:
But, just because I have made some huge strides doesn’t mean I get to stop now! Getting through the pie, cookie and other tasty treat holidays is an immense challenge that I have always been too weak to overcome. In an effort to combat that and holiday weight gain I will be embarking on a Too Much Turkey Countdown Challenge as I spend this next month busting ass. Keep an eye out for the details!
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