It's been quite a week!

I feel like it's been awhile since I've blogged, but it's been "one of those" kind of weeks! Work schedule was nutty, with not much personal down time,  but I've made it through to Saturday!

 I managed to get in 5 days of workouts for the week, including our first training session with Chris O'Hearn at Fort Sanders Health & Fitness Center. It was a great session, and felt good to start doing some more full body strengthening. We did some arm, back & leg exercises using the weight machines & free weights, and then  some other core strengthening stuff like planks, and crunches using the exercise ball. Friday I wasn't as sore when I woke up as I was afraid I would be -- which was definitely a relief!

This morning our Biggest Winner team met up with the Knoxville Track club at the Runners Market in Western Plaza for our training. Today my training goal was to increase my longest by 1/2 a mile ... so 5.5 miles for me today! Although Missy wants me to limit running right now to avoid injury, I did some interval pick-ups to get our heart rate up. Needless to say, my feet hurt after today's walk/shuffle, but the rest of me feels great!! It's 1 p.m. and I have over 14,000 steps in for the day!! I'd call that a successful day!

After our walk most of our team met up at Panera to relax a little. Missy asked us how the nutrition portion of our challenge was going. It was good to hear what everyone was going through, the challenges they were having, or the successes. We all go through the same stuff at different times, so most of us can honestly say "I know exactly what you're talking about!" Also, I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who is not seeing the pounds just melt away! Some of our team members (mostly guys) have lost more than 10 pounds in the challenge so far. I'm fluctuating with the same 2-4 back and forth. I know that I'm building muscle and converting fat to muscle, and I am happy about that ... but it will be nice to see a bigger dip on the scale. Currently I'll be thankful that I definitely notice the loss in the way that my clothes fit. Even if the scale isn't showing it -- my baggy clothes do!

Another cool thing that's been going on this week is that at work we transitioned to a new employee wellness plan endorsed by our health plan Humana. I wasn't so sure about it at first, but now I'm pretty excited the opportunity. Why shouldn't I earn points (that transition into vitality bucks) for all of the hard work I'm putting in?! So, with my new pedometer clipped on, and my HumanaFit iphone app I tracked today's walk. Pretty cool!

I'll leave you with a few motivational tidbits that I pinned on Pinterest.

Oh, I almost forgot to share an article that ran in the Mountain Press, the local paper in the county where I work! Some of you have seen it ... but for those who haven't, here you go!