My Health & Fitness Plan for April

Or maybe better titled . . . "My Ongoing Health & Fitness Plan" . . . :)  

So, I've kind of hit a plateau with my weight loss for the past several months, and I want to step things up a notch.  I'm maintaining a healthy weight, but I still have those last 6ish pounds that I'd like to lose, and I realize that if I want that to happen, I'm going to have to actually work for it.  Oh yeah, and eat healthier (and less :)).  

I thought about several options for this month.  I was considering doing another 8 week challenge like I've done twice in the past 6 months, but I thought something different might be more interesting for me.  Then I seriously considered doing a "Whole 30" Paleo eating plan to reset my system, and I even pinned a ton of Paleo recipes on Pinterest.  (For those who are curious about what a Paleo diet is, basically it means eating lots of meat, veggies, and fruit, and eliminating all grains, dairy, sugar, legumes . . . it's pretty restrictive.  Oh, and for the record, I don't buy into all that "this is what our caveman ancestors ate," since I don't believe in evolution :)).  I'm still thinking about doing a challenge like that at some point in the future, but I decided it wasn't the best idea right now.  #1, we have 3 birthdays in April.  I do try to go easy on the sugar anyway, but I didn't want to totally cut it out this month--I like birthday cake and ice cream too much. :)  #2, April is a kind of pricey month for us--besides birthdays, we have 2 cars to register and inspect, I had a license to renew, and we have car insurance also coming due this month.  So I didn't really want to blow the grocery budget with a lot of new foods or tons of extra veggies and fruit--even though I know those things are very healthy, it just didn't seem like a good month to jump into this. :)

Anyway, so I finally decided to create my own plan and it's pretty simple.  

• Exercise (treadmill) with C25K 3 days/week
• Exercise for at least 20 minutes with either treadmill or 30 Day Shred 2 days/week
• Track calories and water using My Fitness Pal (I am loving this app!!)
• Back off on grains, work on increasing veggies, meat, fruit and eggs
• Eat naturally sweetened snacks and cut out most sugar
• Be accountable on the blog and to friends
• Drink detox tea for 1 week of the month

So far this plan is working well for me and I'm enjoying it.  I've been wanting to try using My Fitness Pal for quite a while, because friends kept raving about it, but it was too frustrating before we got cable internet.  Now, it's easy peasy. :)  I am also loving the C25K app and challenging myself with this program!  Right now I'm repeating week 3 for the second time.  I am a bit nervous to move up to week 4, but I'm hoping to do that next week.  Slow and steady, right?  I'm hoping to check in about my progress once a week through this month.  Hopefully I'll see a couple more of those stubborn pounds disappear. :)

I'd love to hear if any of the rest of you have specific health and fitness goals for this month!  Anyone who'd like to join in with my plan or their own, is welcome . . . there's strength in numbers! :)