Jenn’s Monthly Progress: August

This month the challenges and the blog have been kinda pushed to the wayside. I never did write up a blog post for our lifestyle challenge, which was to do a daily random act of kindness. It kinda speaks for itself, though.

It was an exciting month, though. I spent a week in Disneyland with my mom. We went for her birthday, and it was great to spend a week with her.

Also, Ashley moved in this month! The move had us both busy throughout the month, but it is so wonderful to be together in Denton. One of the things I’m really excited about is that now we are able to participate in these challenges together. It’ll be nice to have the added encouragement and accountability, plus we can establish a healthy and active lifestyle together. We’re already enjoying checking out local bike trails, and taking the dogs for walks at the dog park.

Year-Long Challenge: No Eating Out

I used two cheats this month, putting me at a total of 8. I went out for tacos to celebrate the end of the summer school semester and Ashley and I went for Korean food in Arlington.

August Food Challenge: Salad a Day

I didn’t eat a salad every day, but I did manage to work in a number of salads this month. I have discovered that I quite like spinach and really dislike arugula.

August Lifestyle Challenge: Random Acts of Kindness

It always surprises me how hard it can be to do a random act of kindness. I tend to overthink it. I worry about doing something for someone and it getting misinterpreted in some way and causing offense. I think of something nice I could be doing, and then I think of a million reasons why I shouldn’t do that nice thing. I found THIS list of 101 ideas for random acts of kindness, and while they should all be easy, some of them (like #1, Facebook message a genuine compliment to three people) challenge me a little. They involve putting myself out there in some way. This should be a list of easy things.

I did do random acts of kindness throughout the month, though I did not necessarily purposefully do them daily. Some of them were easy and involved very little effort. An opportunity arose to do something nice and I did it. I wish I had been a bit more invested in the challenges this month, however, because I think that purposefully doing something nice every day would have had a significant impact on my life. Even small acts of kindness make me feel more connected to those around me in some way.

August Fitness Challenge: Month of 1,000 Burpees

To be honest, this didn’t happen at all. I didn’t even do one burpee.

I wound up setting a different fitness challenge for myself this month. Starting August 1st I wanted to run every day. When I started running in October 2013, I began running on October 1st, and I ran every day until April 25th, 2014, when I went to Spain and broke my streak. I had tried running before, and always got discouraged and quit. When I decided to run every day suddenly it didn’t matter that I couldn’t run far or fast. It only mattered that I got out and ran. Within about two weeks I was pouring through books on running, reading blogs, researching races, and creating running playlists. I was addicted. Since I broke my run streak, I had continued to run somewhat regularly. I even trained for a half marathon. However, it was no longer a habit.

My favourite book on running. I found this to be a motivating read, and not too focused on the technical aspects of running.

I have read a lot about the importance of rest days. I still take rest days, in the form of very short and slow 1 mile runs. There are many athletes who maintain run streaks for years. For me, it seems to be what works. When I didn’t run daily, I would run farther and faster than my body was ready for, and I found myself more prone to aches and pains than when I run daily. I’m cautious not to overuse my muscles, and will slow down or stop if need be.

Anyway, today was day 31! One full month of running daily complete. I do intend on maintaining my streak, as it has reignited my love of running, however I think it will change from a run streak to an exercise streak once I begin other cardio exercises, such as biking and boot camp.

Month Four: August’s Challenges

I went to type “Month Four: July’s Challenges,” and just realized that we’re in August already! Where has summer gone?

July went quickly. Probably due to the two-week illness that knocked me out, then a 9-day trip home. It seems like July came and went without me ever even noticing.

August is a busy month and an exciting month. Both Ashley and I are busy finishing our summer school semesters. We’re in the last week of assignments and trying to get all of the papers done and turned in. Then, in the middle of the month, Ashley is moving down to Denton with me, so we’ll both be busy with that. I’ll be organizing the apartment while Ashley packs up all of her stuff and starts bringing it down. After this month, we’ll be able to really participate in these challenges as a team!

For August, we picked the challenges purposefully, not out of a hat. We wanted our three challenges to be challenges that we could do around a move (ones we could do at home, with little equipment necessary, and that wouldn’t take huge amounts of time out of our day).

August Food Challenge: Salad a day. We also wanted to get this challenge in during the summer months when we can buy fresh produce at the local farmer’s market.

August Fitness Challenge: Month of 1,000 burpees. I will write up a blog post all about burpees and what exactly they are (besides evil), but in the meantime, if you want to participate with us and are not sure how to do a burpee I will leave you with this video.

We will have 1 month to do 1,000 of them. I suspect pacing will be the hardest part of this challenge, and making sure I don’t leave all 1,000 to the last day.

August Lifestyle Challenge: Acts of kindness. Each day we are going to do one random act of kindness for someone.

July Food Challenge: Log All Food

This month, Ashley and I are going to be keeping track of everything we eat. This is something I’ve tried to do in the past, but usually after a week (if not sooner) I get tired of writing down every meal, every snack, and every drink. Keeping track of the nutritional info for food, can be ever more of a challenge. Often I whip things up for dinner with no idea what the nutritional content is. However, it’s super important to keep a food log and know these details!

This challenge is a new addition to our list. If we had thought of it sooner, I might have pushed for it to be the first food challenge of the year.

Keeping a food log gives you an idea of your diet’s baseline. When you track what you eat, you then have a starting point for any changes you want to make. Maybe you come to realize that you’re eating too many calories, or you’re eating too few, or your caloric intake is just right but your sugar is way too high. Maybe you don’t eat enough protein, or have too much sodium. Keeping track of nutritional info is a great way to know where you’re starting from, and help you determine where you want to go.

If you’re anything like me, you eyeball food and arbitrarily sort them into two categories: healthy and unhealthy. This seems greasy: unhealthy. This has vegetables in it: healthy. I’m not very accurate judge. Often foods that seem healthy, really aren’t. Also, there is really no way to categorically sort foods into these two categories. The body needs different things from different foods.

The Canada Food Guide illustrates the different food categories needed.

Keeping a food log holds you accountable, and shows you how the little things add up. Before I started our year-long challenge of not eating out, I didn’t realize just how often I did eat out. I never kept track of it. I felt like I cooked a lot, and that grabbing something to eat on the way home one day was no big deal. Which it wouldn’t be, except that I probably ate out more days than not. If I had documented what I was eating, I would have been surprised. I’m a little scared to see this month how the calories add up from beverages consumed, and how many times I grab that sugary snack from the checkout line at the grocery store. I always tell myself “I’ve been eating well, and so I can get that chocolate bar today.” This will show me how many times I do that. I’m by no means saying to never indulge in a chocolate bar or a sugary summer beverage. Keeping a log just lets you know how often you do that. This is useful info for anyone wanting to make a change to their diet.

Keeping a food log can help directly modify your eating habits. People tend to act different when they know they’re being watched. This is true even if people are watching themselves. Keeping a behaviour log (for any behaviour) almost always helps people move toward their desired behaviour. If you want to stop smoking and you start writing down every cigarette you smoke, suddenly that number becomes less just because you’re now aware of that behaviour. Keeping a food log can initiate dietary changes. One study from the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (as described HERE in USAToday) showed that women who kept a food diary were more likely to lose weight than women who didn’t. Knowledge is power.

In the past, I’ve kept track of my food on paper and in excel spreadsheets. This month, Ashley and I will be using MyFitnessPal to log our food. The great thing about MyFitnessPal, is that it has a huge database of foods already. Maybe I didn’t measure exactly how much coffee I had in the morning, or how much sugar I put in it, but I can select the closest option and it will input the nutritional info for me. This is great for foods that I’m really not too sure on, as I can look up something similar to get an idea of the nutritional info. Maybe my nutritional records won’t be 100% accurate, but they’ll give me a good idea. Additionally, MyFitnessPal adds up the nutritional info for everything you eat and tells you if you’re consuming too much sugar, too little protein, just the right amount of sodium, etc.

I have not used MyFitnessPal frequently enough to really have the hang of it yet, but it has been recommended to me in the past and I’ve been told that it gets easier the longer you use it. Once you have your staple foods added in, you can easily select them without having to input any new data.

The food log doesn’t need to be restrictive. It doesn’t mean we have to stress over numbers in a chart. The food log is just a tool so that we can start being more informed about the dietary choices we’re making. It means I can stop basing nutritional value on how much broccoli is in a dish.

Ashley’s Monthly Progress: June

This month was a bit harder than last month. As a paramedic, I often work long hours which means that I don’t always take the time that I should for meal prep because I am just too tired to worry with it most days. Being in Texas, there is not a lot of variety in frozen dinners that I can take to work with me. The pescatarian challenge was hard, but I guess that it would not have been as difficult with more time spent on meal prep.

Adding to the difficulty of the challenges this month, I decided to foster a dog. She was sweet, but also lots of work. I used to think I wanted a Boxer, but after fostering one, I’m just not sure I have the energy.

Luckily, when I got too tired, I could just pawn her off on Diego.

              Diego taking over “Bella Duty”

The happiness challenge wasn’t that hard for me. Every day, before I went to bed; I made sure to write something that made me happy into the calendar block.

Speaking of things that make me happy, I have found a new passion for chia seed drinks. Unfortunately, they are more expensive per ounce than champagne. Since we’re taking this year to do more home cooking, I decided I could also learn how to make drinks like this at home. I think the flavor of my homemade chia seed drinks could be improved, but Jenn seemed to like it.

The plank challenge: I hate planks.

For our year-long challenge, I have used two ‘eating out’ cheats in May and two in June for a total of 4. 11 left.

Jenn’s Monthly Progress: June

Two months into this year of challenges, and I’m feeling great! While I’d had some trepidations, I’m now so glad that I was talked into participating in these challenges. There has been noticeable changes in both my body and my attitude, and I feel like these challenges are making really significant improvements in my life.

Year-Long Challenge: No Eating Out

This month, I’ve been way better at the ‘No Eating Out’ thing. I’m still at 5 cheats used. I used one cheat this month, but I only ended up using four cheats last month (the fifth that I had expected to use, wound up being a picnic instead). After Ashley and I ran the Day of Crisis race, we went for a BBQ dinner to celebrate.

Not eating out, I feel so much better. I’ve noticed a slight drop in my weight (which has been a nice ego boost), I have more energy, and my digestive system is less grumpy with me than it typically is. Driving back to Texas from Canada, I had to eat out a few times (which didn’t count as cheats, as it fell under our ‘travel’ exception) and I felt noticeably worse. Preparing my own meals, I’m reducing process foods, and I’m consuming less fat, sodium, sugar, etc. The foods I’m eating have more substance and are healthier. Without even putting in much effort, I’m noticing my body responding to this new way of eating.

I may need an intervention to keep me from buying more cookbooks, though.

There have been a few times when I’ve craved eating out – particularly breakfast food. There was one morning when I really, really wanted to find a sit down restaurant for a coffee and a breakfast burrito. But, overall, I haven’t craved eating out like I had expected. Before this challenge, I ate out a lot. A breakfast sandwich after morning boot camp, Chipotle on my way home from riding lessons, tacos after class… I don’t miss any of it. I thought it would be so much harder to change up my routine, but as it turns out, simply taking ‘eating out’ off of the table as a meal option has stopped me from eating out and also from wanting to eat out.

As expected, not eating out has been far easier now that I’m back in Texas. Eating out is not so much a part of my social life here, as it is in Canada, and in Canada it was hard to catch up with everyone I wanted to see, without using a few cheats.

Food Challenge: Eat Pescatarian

This challenge has been fun! I’ve never really cooked much with seafood. Every so often I would make some seared scallops, but that was about it. Generally, I cook a lot of chicken. I’ll eat seafood, beef, and pork if I’m out, but I don’t cook them often. This month challenged me to cook new things, and I had some fun kitchen adventures.

Some of the seafood dishes I made this month:

• Mussel (in lieu of clams) Miso Chowder
• Seared scallops in a white wine cream sauce
• Jamaican jerk salmon over quinoa

I also ate a lot of grocery store sushi, and tried crawfish for the first time!

Most of the dishes that I made this month were vegan or vegetarian. I ate a number of tempeh & carrot sandwiches, I made a black lentil & chickpea Indian curry, homemade chia-seed jam for PB&J sandwiches, cabbage rolls, black-eyed pea sliders, etc.

Black-eyed pea sliders

Fitness Challenge: 30 Days of Planks

I didn’t do so well with this challenge. I kept up with it (somewhat) for the first two weeks, and pretty much forgot all about it for the second half of the month. I found that because this challenge required so little time, I would put it off all day, then go to sleep having completely forgotten about it. I haven’t done much at all in the way of fitness this month, and I’m feeling lazy and need to get back into some sort of routine. July is a new month, and a fresh start!

Lifestyle Challenge: Sources of Happiness

I also failed horribly at this challenge. I wrote down what I was happy for once this month. Once. Twice if I type up what I’m happy about right now. Today I’m happy for the Starbucks coffee that was on the house when I got up to the window to pay. And I’m happy spending the morning drinking that coffee, blogging, and cuddling the little dog.

Because I can’t not smile at this compilation of the many faces of Delia. I love her little under-bite and big-eyed forlorn expressions.

I did really well with the food challenges this month. Next month hopefully I’ll be better about incorporating all of the challenges into my life, to help with a more holistic wellness.

Aside from food, however, I’ve noticed that I’ve become much more environmentally and socially conscientious as a result of our monthly challenges. The monthly charities have helped me feel more connected with my world, and I feel like I’m actively working toward making the world a better place. All of the challenges have improved my life, but this has probably made the most positive impact.

Event Recap: Day of Crisis

Jenn and I decided to do this blog because we wanted to lead healthier lifestyles. We’re challenging ourselves with food, fitness, and lifestyle challenges each month, but we wanted to add in other things along the way to push ourselves and keep us motivated. Working toward this goal, we ran the ‘Day of Crisis‘ 5k obstacle event yesterday.

A sponsored ad for an event neither of us had ever heard of before called “Day of Crisis” appeared up on Jenn’s Facebook news feed one day. She decided it looked like a fun event and suggested we sign up. I begrudgingly agreed to do it with her. I have to admit, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I had done a few obstacle 5k races in the past, when I was working out more regularly, and they were tough even then.

We both had plans to train hard for this event, but with time constraints (we really only signed up for the race about a month before the event) our training was mostly limited to our 3x per week run that we did in May, and our planking that we’ve been doing this month. We both went to the race with trepidation, wishing we were more prepared.

The event, hosted by Project Hope, took place at Beaumont Ranch near Fort Worth, Texas. One event staff described it as an “obstacle race with a message”. The idea is that the obstacles represent real-life disaster scenarios. Beaumont Ranch provided an isolated, wilderness backdrop for the four disaster zones: flood, fire, rubble, and infection. The funds raised by the event were to support real world disaster relief efforts. This was the first time this event has been held, and so we really had very little idea what we were getting into.

We arrived at our race gate behind schedule, but the staff were nice enough to let us run anyway. As such, we were the only two on the course, with two event staff joining our team to complete the four-person requirement. The race started off in a cow pasture, with high grass and rough terrain. We had to be careful to watch our footing, and because it was Texas, to keep an eye out for snakes or other wildlife that might venture into our path. One of our team members mentioned that she had been chased by a baby steer the previous day. There were no cows in our area the day of the race, but we kept a lookout anyway.

Our first obstacle course, once we made it out of the pastures, was a mock flood zone. Our job was to wade through a knee-deep stretch of muddy water, collect sandbags that had been placed at the other end, and carry them back through the water to build a wall. There were about 30 sandbags, each weighing about 30lbs, that we as a team had to carry through the water. It was slippery but we both managed to avoid falling on our asses (barely). By the time we went through, as the last two race participants, the ground was already trudged up by all of the other teams. We even saw a shoe or two lodged in the mud!

Once our shoes were soggy and our clothes were clingy and wet, glued to our bodies with mud, the race continued onward! A steep uphill climb, and several cow pastures later, we arrived at our next obstacle.

We thought we were done with water and mud, but our second obstacle had us slogging our way through a muddy creek bed. There were trees across the path, which we had to either go over or under. The banks of the creek were vertical walls of mud, preventing us from climbing out of the creek bed and sneaking around the sludge. I got stuck and nearly lost my shoe at one point. Jenn didn’t even come back to help me! Aren’t Canadians supposed to be polite? She just left me there to die. At the end of the creek bed, our next race marker was up the side of one of the steep banks. Luckily, at this spot, there were trees and roots growing that we were able to catch a grip on and pull ourselves upward.

Another trek through a cow pasture led us to our third obstacle. Here we had to navigate a smoke-filled shack, then carry one of our teammates on a stretcher out through the woods. The smoky shack was pitch dark inside, and the floorboards were uneven, making it difficult to traverse with our mud-caked shoes. We pulled our wet shirts over our faces, which helped combat the effect of the harsh smoke as we breathed in. Once we found our way back to daylight, through the winding shack, there was a stretcher waiting for us to carry out our teammate. As we chose which teammate would be “incapacitated”, a guy in a gas mask handed me a bag of pills that we would need later.

We chose the female volunteer as our ‘injured’ team member, because she was small and looked easy to carry. She trusted us enough not to drop her, and her faith in us was not misplaced. We traveled up and down hills, through gravel and high grass, and finally out of the trees and up a steep incline toward a road. Once at the road, we could put her down and race toward our next challenge.

I hated this next challenge. It was hot, I was tired, and Jenn had all the fun.

Here we were given a tractor tire that we had to push up a really big hill. It was rocky, uneven, and the tire was caked with mud and full of water (as if it wasn’t heavy enough to begin with). If you’ve never picked up a tractor tire, just imagine rolling a car up a hill. In fact, a car might have been easier. With all the mud, it was hard to get a grip, but with hard work and the cooperation of our team, we got that bastard to the top.

Luckily the rest of the course was a road, albeit gravel, but we still had another good hill before we got to our final obstacle.

The last obstacle was a fun departure from the others, and a needed break from the physical demands. This was the infection zone. We were greeted by a man in a hospital mask who asked if we had those pills I’d been handed earlier. He explained that their infection control center had been overwhelmed with patients and that our help was needed. We were tasked with creating an antidote using the pills, and locating patient zero who was in need of that antidote. The pills were dissolving color tablets which we had to combine in test tubes to create the right color. The patient symptoms were enclosed in a small plastic puzzle box. Once we had the antidote and the symptoms, there were a number of patients in tents, all with different symptoms. We had to find the patient whose symptoms matched the list we were given and give that patient the antidote.

From there it was smooth sailing as we ran down the road to “the sanctuary” where a cold beer and clean, dry clothes awaited us. We were given a dog tag representing each obstacle, one for completing the race, and a free t-shirt.

We both enjoyed the race and had a lot of fun doing it. The obstacles were challenging, but none were outside of our ability levels. It pushed us physically and mentally, without being too much. We went home feeling accomplished and muddy.

We both really enjoyed this new obstacle event and would recommend Day of Crisis if there are more events held in the future.

*Pictures used were found on the ‘Day of Crisis’ and ‘Beaumont Ranch’ Facebook pages.

Cookbook Review: Thug Kitchen

Since we’ve started our blog, we’ve been trying to cut back on our meat consumption. Especially with this month’s pescetarian challenge. In doing so, we came across the Thug Kitchen cookbook. This cookbook features a variety of vegan recipes, and though neither of us are following a vegan diet, we have loved having a few delicious vegan meals thrown into the mix.

We know that there has been some controversy about this book. Some feel as though the title, Thug Kitchen, as well as some of the slogans and foul-language peppered throughout the book gave the false illusion that the authors were Black, and people were angered to find out that they were a White couple from Hollywood. A good article articulating the controversy around Thug Kitchen can be found HERE. We did not want to pretend that this controversy doesn’t exist, and wanted to address the issue. It is an issue that each consumer will need to weigh for themselves when deciding whether or not to buy this book. We felt that foul-language and modern lingo is not exclusively tied to being Black, and was perhaps more a sign of the authors trying to appeal to youth in America than trying to profit off of Black culture. We also do not feel that the word ‘thug’ is tied to Black people.

All that aside, we’ve really enjoyed this cookbook. It is full of Southwest, Mexican- and Asian-inspired dishes that are packed with flavour. The authors provided clear instructions that are easy to follow, fun to read, and make eating vegan more accessible to those who are unfamiliar with maintaining a plant-based diet. They explain all of the “weird f*cking ingredients” like nutritional yeast and tempeh in a way that makes them sound appetizing.

                                        Nutritional Yeast

Before trying this cookbook, we both had some misconceptions about eating vegan. Primarily, that vegans don’t have much to eat, and what they can eat is bland. This book proved us both wrong. Almost every recipe we’ve tried easily rivals any meat-heavy dishes, and far surpasses many others. They are light, fresh, and delicious.

The authors took the time to explain the basics needed for all of the recipes: knife skills, pantry staples, how to cook beans properly, etc.

Some of the recipes are time-consuming to make, but no more so than non-vegan made-from-scratch meals, and they provide plenty of leftovers. For instance, their Quinoa Oatmeal recipe is great to make on a lazy Saturday morning, and then breakfast is ready to reheat throughout the week. Ashley and I enjoy adding a little fruit some mornings; sometimes a little jam; or maybe even some spinach, mushrooms, and onions. It is a really versatile recipe that has become a regular breakfast staple for us.

                                   Quinoa Oats with fresh fruit

Another of our favourite recipes is the Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad, with the Toasted Sesame Dressing. This is the perfect light summer dish for a hot Texas day. Seriously, so good! We also swear by the BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa. Ashley looked at me like I was crazy when I brought out peach salsa, but one bite and she was hooked. I am currently addicted to the Savory Carrot and Tempeh Sandwiches. We’re about to go make some up right now.

                                          Delicious AND nutritious!

We feel like this cookbook is a great starting place for anyone who is trying to eat a more plant-based diet. The foul-language may not appeal to everyone, but we would encourage you not to be deterred by it. For us, it has made cooking a little more humorous and less-stuffy. It doesn’t have the feel of those cookbooks in your grandma’s cupboards. You don’t have to know everything about a vegan diet, or even how to cook at all. For non-vegans looking to lower their meat consumption, it provides full meatless meals that can be enjoyed by anyone.

Sriracha Cauliflower Bites are a delicious substitute for high fat chicken wings on game night

Cooking from this cookbook, we feel healthier. Because it teaches how to make so many components of the recipes from scratch, we know exactly what’s going into each dish so we’re more aware of what we’re putting in our bodies. We’re cutting down on our refined sugars, as well as the high-sodium content found in pre-packaged meals.

We definitely recommend this book!

June Fitness Challenge: 30 Days of Planks

Let’s talk about planks.

If I had to guess, I’d say that planks are probably the most well-known of all isometric exercises. Even the novice exerciser has heard of planking, though they might not know exactly why planks are so important.

So why are planks so important?

Planking works almost every single large muscle group in the body in one simple movement. While planks might look easy if you’ve never done one, they’re actually a full body workout. Planks work the core muscles, obviously, but they also work the biceps, triceps, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, pectorals, gluteus, quads, and calves.

That’s a lot of muscles!

Working these muscles leads to a more toned midsection, better posture, decreased back pain, increased flexibility, and improved balance. There is no other exercise that can do all of this at once.

Jenn and I decided to do this blog in part because we want to train for a Spartan race. When we were adding ideas into our challenge list, this was one that we knew we had to do. Planks will help us increase our full body strength, and will also help us to become better runners. The muscle groups trained by planks are the same muscle groups used to keep the upper body stable while running. By keeping these muscles strong you prevent injuries and power your stride while running. Core muscles prevent having to rely too much  on legs for balance and reduce swinging of the arms, which helps conserve energy, and energy conservation is a key to  running long distance.

People don’t realize how big a role core muscles play in almost every exercise they do. Core muscles stabilize the entire body (that’s why they’re called core muscles). For example, when doing pushups, a strong core keeps the back from dipping inward which provides a more balanced workout and will help with maintaining proper form. A strong core allows the workload to be distributed evenly so that the whole body gains benefits of the exercise, not just one muscle group. It also prevents stress on smaller muscle groups which are more likely to tear or become injured than large muscle groups. This is important for us, as we want to avoid injuring ourselves while training for the Spartan race, which we know will take a lot out of us.

There are many benefits of a strong core than transfer outside of the gym as well. A strong core improves posture by keeping the back in its natural alignment. Research has shown that people in tribal cultures tend to have J-shaped spines, while people in developed nations, where calorie consumption is much higher, have S-shaped spines. This is caused by an accumulation of fat around the abdominal muscles. Strong core muscles help maintain proper alignment of the spine against the pull of belly fat.

People who sit in a desk all day tend to have more slumped shoulders, and a strong core helps pull shoulders back into their proper alignment. This improved shoulder placement also helps when lifting heavy objects, because there is less burden placed on the shoulders and the core muscles help with the lifting.

For our fitness challenge this  month, we are using the 30 Day Plank Challenge found  on MyFitnessPal.

This challenge will start off with the standard plank, and will add increasingly difficult plank variations as the month goes on. More information about the challenge, as well as full details about how to do all of the plank variations can be found HERE.

June Food Challenge: Eat Pescetarian

Today, as it so happens, is “World Oceans Day.” It seems like a fitting date for this post which is going to be about fish, and seafood, and sustaining life in our oceans.

For the month of June, our food challenge is to follow a pescetarian diet. This diet means that we will eat more-or-less vegetarian, with the exception of fish and seafood. I threw this challenge into the hat, because it was a diet challenge that would help me reduce my meat intake, without being quite as restrictive as going full-out vegetarian or vegan.

It was a diet challenge that Ashley and I thought carefully about before participating in, because of the pros and cons of such a diet.

There are a number of health benefits of following a pescetarian diet. Eating seafood is far more “heart healthy” than eating other forms of meat. Compared to red meat, seafood has far less fat and cholesterol. Seafood is also rich in many things the body needs. It is also high in omega-3 fatty acids, which is food for brain health and memory, decreases stroke risk, and possibly lowers blood pressure and promotes mental health. Seafood is also rich in the vitamins and minerals that the body requires. Following a pescetarian diet is a way of cutting out some of the harmful effects of red meat, while being able to easily obtain all of the nutrients the body needs.

However, there are cautions to eating too much fish. Mercury consumption, in particular, is a concern. The FDA has a number of guidelines for how much fish should be consumed on a weekly basis, according to how much mercury is in the fish. A general guideline that I found was that the maximum amount of fish consumed should be about half a pound per week. From what I’ve read, if you happen to consume too much mercury, you stop eating fish and wait for your mercury levels to come down. But still, it’s better to avoid mercury poisoning. Everything in moderation!

There are also some moral benefits to the pescetarian diet. Animals who are farmed for food are often subjected to awful living conditions and inhumane treatment. Fish are caught out of the sea and eaten. There is not the same level of animal cruelty involved with eating seafood, so for people trying to eat less meat for moral reasons, a pescetarian diet may be a good middle-ground.

Then there are the environmental pros and cons. This was what we spent the most time discussing when making our decision, because the cons here really are not to be taken lightly.

When I started reading about pescetarianism, I read all about the environmental benefits. Breeding animals for food is damaging the earth in many ways. Animals themselves require an enormous amount of food, and they make inefficient use of that food. Livestock are fed massive amounts of grains, and only a tiny fraction of those grains are then converted into meat. Basically, commercially producing livestock means taking a large amount of food and converting it into a small amount of food. Livestock also produce massive amounts of waste, which releases harmful gasses into the atmosphere, has been linked with global warming, and also contaminates water.

BUT it’s not as simple as saying that eating animals is bad, and eating fish is good. Following a pescetarian diet is not without it’s own set of environmental concerns. The fishing industry causes all sorts of damage to the ocean. Over fishing has led to the collapse of wild fish populations, and vulnerable species are captured and killed. Additionally, all marine life is part of it’s own ecosystem and by capturing vast amounts of fish from their environment, humans disrupt that ecosystem. We disrupt the balance, taking food for ourselves and depleting wildlife food sources.

We talked a lot about that last con, because we really felt that it is important to eat sustainably. We didn’t want to partake in a challenge that was going to benefit us but harm the earth. It is virtually impossible to eat anything without having some form of impact on the earth, and so we wanted to be aware of the impact that we were having. If we were going to attempt to follow a pescetarian diet, we wanted to ensure that we were aware of the costs as well as the benefits, and informed about the most sustainable fishing practices possible.

I, for one, was completely overwhelmed when we started looking up sustainable seafood. There were lists of fish to avoid, but I had a hard time finding information on what I could eat. Finally, I came across an app called “Seafood Watch,” (Check out the website for it HERE). I downloaded the app for my phone, and when shopping for groceries I can look up the type of seafood that I am interested in purchasing, and it will tell me what is the best choice to buy, a good alternative, and what I should avoid. We’re going to use this app when purchasing seafood this month, to try to make our impact on the environment as minimal as possible. Additionally, to ensure that you are purchasing sustainable seafood, you can look for eco labels that ensure sustainability. You can also look at how the fish are obtained. Look for fish that have been farmed, not harvested, but particularly look for fish that have been farmed from a reputable and sustainable choice. (Overwhelmed yet? For me, this is again where the Seafood Watch app comes in…)

Ashley and I have decided to go ahead with the pescetarian diet challenge this month, because it will help us reduce our meat consumption and find alternative sources of protein (seafood, yes, but also more vegetarian meals). However, we want to mitigate our impact as much as possible. We want to ensure that as consumers, we’re making the most sustainable choices possible, so that there will always be fish in the sea.

Month Two: June’s Challenges

Well, we’ve made it through one month of challenges, and have randomly selected our challenges for June. This will be a short post, as we will explain each challenge in-depth individually over the next couple of days.

June Food Challenge: Eat pescetarian.

Pescetarian: that’s a fancy word to say that we’re eating seafood as our only source of meat. There were aspects of drinking two liters of water every day that were hard, but this challenge has me nervous. This is the first food challenge that is going to push us to think about and alter our diet.

June Fitness Challenge: 30 days of planks.

We’re working core this month!

June Lifestyle Challenge: Sources of happiness.

Kinda similar to taking note of the things we’re thankful for. This month we’re taking the time to notice what makes us happy. We’re stopping to smell the flowers, so to speak.

June Charity: We have not yet settled on exactly which charity we will be donating to, but it will be a charity tied in with protecting our oceans and sustaining the world’s marine life.

As always, we welcome people to participate in the challenges alongside us. We’d love to hear about your progress! We’re also still looking for suggestions for future challenges to put into the hat.

For anyone brave enough to tackle these challenges with us, good luck this month!