Day 2 #100HealthyDays!

Dear fitness pals,

It's officially day two of the 100 Healthy Days challenge! Karen, Sean & I have committed to our workouts and healthy choices! How are you doing? If you haven't started yet, join in! We have a NEW hashtag! #TFS100HealthyDays! <-- The Fitness Sisters' 100 Healthy Days.

Our posts are a day behind which allows us to collaborate & send our photos of food/workouts to each other. Some of us have to workout late at night, so it's almost impossible to get the blog up the same day! But not to worry, we are still here!

Day two update!
Sean- Rode his bike for a total of about 5 miles today for exercise. He also tracked and was within calories.

Megan- Worked out at the gym doing cardio & strength training! She also was within calories.

Karen- Made healthy food choices throughout the day and did some power cardio!

Looking forward to taking this journey with everyone. Hope to hear from you!

xo,

{the fitness sisters + sean}

#100HealthyDays

Hello again, friends!

I hope spring is treating you kindly! My weather has been erratic, but it seems to be normalizing. Are you ready for summer? I'm not! Unfortunately I'm 20 lbs heavier than the last time I wrote to you! It's time to make a definite change, which is why we are inviting you to join our----

"100 HEALTHY DAYS" challenge!

The rules are simple! 1. Commit to exercise at least 30 minutes 5x per week! (We know you spend at least that much time watching TV, procrastinating, or snacking!) 2. Make a non-scale goal for yourself! This includes things like drinking more water, taking the stairs everyday instead of the elevator, eating less refined carbs, eating more veggies, spending ___ minutes less per day on the computer and more time being active, etc! and 3. COMMIT TO DOING IT FOR 100 DAYS!

If you don't already follow us on facebook & instagram, please do so here: https://www.facebook.com/TheFitnessSisters and here http://instagram.com/thefitnesssisters (IG handle TheFitnessSisters) <-- There are 3 S's there! 

We will be using the hashtag #100HealthyDays for posts and photos and we would love if you did too!  (We may even have a giveaway!)

Officially we have me (Megan), Karen, and my boyfriend Sean joining us for the challenge! We will be keeping track of progress photos and weights and non scale victories over the next 100 days to see how our bodies and lives are changing! We already have 3 other people joining us in our challenge and will be doing highlights for them as well along the way! Please tag your IG & Facebook photos with #100HealthyDays for a chance to be featured on our blog/IG/FB pages! Feel free to also email us with your stories & photos: thefitnesssisters@gmail.com

We will be giving updates daily! Looking forward to hearing from you and taking this journey with you! We start today (May 19, 2014) and end August 27th, 2014. We will weigh in every Thursday! Feel free to join in whenever is convenient for you and you can extend the end date! (Just let us know so we can track your progress too!)

Xoxo!

TFS + Sean

{Obstacles}

Hey everyone!

I am having such a hard time getting into working out right now. It seems like as soon as I start getting into it something gets in my way. I am trying to coordinate workouts between work, school, boyfriend, and seeing family, not to mention homework and sleep that I have to to fit in somewhere. Well, I had finally started getting a routine down, and was actually on my treadmill several times! Then I hurt my foot. I am not sure what is wrong with it yet, but I have a guess. I was diagnosed with something called Friebergs disease when I was about 13. Basically it's where the bone in my second toe starts to deteriorate and creates spurs that poke my muscles. Yes it is very painful, but only when pressure is put on it, so as long as I am sitting I am not in pain. I am still trying to do some ab and arm workouts, but without the cardio I won't burn the fat. I can't get in the pool and swim for too much longer (and it's hard to do that late at night in the dark too). Hope you all are doing well and beating your obstacles!

<3 

Karen

The fitness sisters can be emailed at TheFitnessSisters@gmail.com

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{sweat like you mean it}

Good morning fitness family,

Another week has passed us by! The weekend is over, and it's time to start fresh again. How was the first week of September for all of you? I had an amazing week. It was a perfect food and exercise week-- meaning I was within cals everyday, I made mostly healthy choices, and exercised 5 days! I completed my first week of C10k training [couch to 10k]. I couldn't be more excited! It's a 13 week program so I'm hoping to do a run sometime in December! More on this later.

This post will not be comprehensive on the topic, but I really want to talk about sweat. I love sweat. First of all, it's a great way for your body to rid itself of toxins. It's completely natural. But I feel like we, especially as women, have been brainwashed to believe that we have to look perfect all the time. I know some girls feel insecure about working out because they "sweat more than normal." We see fitness videos of  women with perfect bodies showing us 2 or 3 reps of something we are doing 20 of, and they have perfect hair and makeup. Magazines, even fitness magazines, show women in perfect outfits, with perfect bodies, and are completely airbrushed.

I just really want girls to know that sweating is good for you. It's a natural function of the body. It's beautiful in the way that tears are beautiful. It's how our bodies work. Sweating is sexy. It shows courage and hard work and perseverance and determination and effort. And it's OK.

I'm working on a "sweat like you mean it campaign" and while I don't know what all this entails yet, I would LOVE if you fellow fitness men and women would send in photos of your real workouts. The kind where you are grungy and sweaty and your hair is wet and your face has no makeup. Let's show the world that sweating is beautiful, and that women are beautiful without being all made up. With permission I'll share your photos on my blog. Let's be a community that builds each other up and that is REAL. We are not airbrushed. We are real people with real lives who sweat.

I love sweat. I love the word and I love talking about it. Send your photos dear friends! I might even do a drawing and a giveaway [working on the details].

Sweat on friends, sweat on.

<3,
Meg

{ School! }

Hey friends!

AHHHH!! I (Karen) have started school again for the first time in years! I am still working full time and it's very hard to keep up with the diet, but I am doing decently well so far. The only thing I am struggling with is snacks during school hours. I don't have a place to keep things cool, and I can't take food or drinks into my classes, so anything I bring has to be able to sit in the car until I get a break, or I buy it from the vending machine which I am trying super hard not to do! I am in class for 6 hours with just a few minutes of a break! Any ideas on some healthy filling snacks I can bring that do not require refrigeration are more than welcome! Please keep positive thoughts for me starting this very exciting venture in my life!


And a little late, but here is our official weigh-in photo from September 1st, 2013.

<3,
Karen

{splendid september}

Greetings friends,

How was Labor Day weekend for you? I hope you were able to relax, let loose, and eat good food.  I was able to enjoy the company of some sweet sister-like friends that I've known since we were all toddlers. We went swimming, painted our nails, and grabbed a glass of wine and a turkey burger at a local eatery. The day ended in a perfect sunset.

On the fitness front, Karen & I have started training for our couch to 10k program (C10k) and are very excited to be working out full time again!

 The program is a walking/running interval program and we use the iPhone app called "Run 10k" for anyone interested.

I have created a "fitness calendar" for myself for the month of September to make sure I am moving my body every day (with the exception of my rest days.)

So far it's working out well and I've completed my first week of the program and I couldn't feel better. 

I've been struggling with weight gain (not muscle related-- stomach bloating) even with my new changes, so I'm hoping as I continue my routine things will start going better!

All in all, things are falling into place and it was a wonderful weekend with great choices, amazing friends, and a refreshing start to a new month!

<3

Meg

{{September 1st // Update}}

Dear sweet friends,

We're back.

TFS is changing it's format and there will be some site changes coming soon too! We're excited to get back in the swing of things with summer wrapping up towards the end of this month.

Yvonne is taking a short break from the blogosphere as her two toddlers are keeping her extra busy lately, but Karen & I [Meg] will be here strong as ever. You can expect "letters to you"-- [our new format] several times a week + weigh-in photos & recipes as we discover new ones ourselves. 

We will do our best to post body photos too & share all our exercise plans with you.

Each month we will have a NON SCALE challenge (sometimes multiple ones) that you can join in & share your experiences. This month's challenge is tracking calories/food every day. 

Karen & I have set new goals which should put as at our goal weights by Christmas 2014 & July 2015 respectively. Yes, these are realistic long term goals. We hope you are part of our journey! 

Today we start our month looking like this: 

Karen's [[curent weight]]: 158.2 // Karen's [[Ultimate Goal Weight]]: 130.0

Megan's [[current weight]]: 258.8 // Megan's [[Ultimate Goal Weight]]: 165.0

Our next weigh in will be October 1st, but check back in for all our fun blogs and tips until then!

Love. Live. Support. It's a lifestyle not a diet!

Happy healthy thoughts <3

Meg