Good Morning!

How are ya today? Can you believe it’s the last day of July? I certainly can’t! That means it’s time for yet another one of these…

I have to admit, July was awesome goals-wise – well, except for one, but you’ll see what I mean in a second. I’ve got lots of evidence of my accomplishments to show you, and I don’t think I’ve ever taken so many photos in a single month before. In fact, I’ve just ordered an external hard drive because my Mac has been super slow lately! Here’s what went down:

Yep, 2 more hikes happened! The first July hike was to Websters and Tews Falls on Canada Day, and the second happened this past weekend when we did the Great Smokey Hollow Walk. After spending day after day taking photos of food, it was a nice change to take pictures of waterfalls, flowers, and other gorgeous bits of nature.. although moving subjects are much more difficult to work with than food on a plate!

I could easily spend an entire day looking at that scenery!

Oh I did indeed! If you’ve been watching my Facebook profile, Twitter, or Instagram, you may have caught this little photo bright and early on Saturday morning:

That’s me after conquering 13.2 miles in 1 hour and 39 minutes. And I was so. freaking. happy about it. Everything about the run was awesome, with the only small exception of the side cramp I got somewhere around my 10 mile mark. It went away in just a few minutes and even though I don’t wear a Garmin when I run, I’d be willing to bet that my last 2 miles were some of the fastest of my entire run.

My ankle was a little creaky and sore on Saturday post-run, but I put my anti-inflammatory cream on it and took it easy. By Sunday, it felt totally fine. I plan to do one more long run this coming weekend, because next Saturday I’ll be lining up in a race corral in Vancouver at 7:37am west coast time! Gahhhhh I’m excited!

Yep, this absolutely did happen! I knew it wasn’t going to be a huge challenge – after all, we’re talking about me eating fruits and veggies folks, which has never really been a problem!  However, the goal was to eat produce that I don’t buy on a regular basis, and I certainly did do that. Beets, celery, plums, radishes, Swiss chard, lemondrop melons, and golden raspberries were all enjoyed this month, and here’s my evidence (click on the photos for the recipes):

Of course, there were plenty of the usual suspects consumed too, including plenty of my summer staple…

Actually, more like 1938432 times that bowl above, but who’s counting? No dehydration problems here!

I’ll be 100% honest and tell you that I didn’t actually start working on this one until this Sunday. I soon realized that I bit off more than I could chew with this a goal – you’re looking at the girl that can’t even do a French braid on her own hair! I watched this video tutorial for the waterfall braid many, many times and sectioned my hair off more times than I can count. Long story short, I have yet to come up with anything that looks like a waterfall braid, but I’m going to be trying again this weekend. The straight French braid is coming along quite nicely, especially considering I’ve done about 10 in the past 2 days and they’re the first 10 I’ve ever done in my life. Strangely, I find that the best ones are those that I do without a mirror, and whenever I do try to use one, things go horribly wrong. Does this happen to anyone else?

Despite the waterfall braid fail (actually, let’s just look at it as a not-yet-accomplished task) I did learn to do a little braided headband thing that looked like this:

The only problem was, as you can see, that the braided hair isn’t quite long enough to tuck subtly into the hair that’s pulled back. A few more inches and this problem will be solved!

Yep, all done!

Did anyone else finish the whole thing? I don’t know about you, but I love having my workouts pre-defined for me before stepping into the gym and this challenge did exactly that. I actually feel a lot stronger in my core now, which seems to be helping my other total-body strength moves, and quite possibly my running too.

In case you didn’t jump on the challenge at the beginning of the month, the workouts are still posted on a sub-tab under Workouts in the top navigation, as well as on my Workouts page as Fit Bit Friday features. It’s also not too late to get in on the fitness action for August, because this past Friday, I launched the August Summer Sizzler Challenge, which is all about circuits and sweat! Feel free to pop over to the page to check it out, and get ready for workout 2 coming up later this week!

Alright, that’s all for now! I want you to tell me…

• How did you do on your goals for July?
• What’s the biggest thing that gets in the way of your fitness routines? Lack of motivation? No gym? No time? Let’s hear it!