Month: December 2014

Living Fit Columbus [8 week] Winter Fitness Challenge

Our third annual winter challenge kicked off yesterday! We had a great turnout for the RUN+YOGA event we helped put together @ Bend Active, with several of our Living Fit Run Club runners…

Living Fit Run Club attendees! not pictured; Amanda R & Teresa

and lots of new faces too…

The eight week challenge helps us all stay motivated and accountable during the winter months, when outdoor runs become a challenge. Its all on an ‘honor’ system of various ways to earn & log points including;

Keeping track of a point calendar each week [earn points by working out, drinking water, giving up sweets and motivating friends]
Setting and meeting weekly personal fitness/wellness goals
Completing weekly bonus challenges

It may seem like a lot of tedious point counting, but it works and it CAN be fun! Its evolved over the last few years and we’ve grown it this year to 30+ participants! Woo hoo!

This year we are also lucky enough to have several local businesses participating, offering support and even prizes. These businesses include;

NOOMA [a clean, hydrating drink company based out of Cleveland]
Harbor Yoga [one of our local favorites!]
Bend Active [Fitness meets Fashion! – Yoga, running and comfy apparel for all!]
Winans Dublin [Coffee & chocolate shop where our Saturday group runs start & finish]

Living Fit run club Saturdays @9AM

Nooma

You have to attend at least one Living Fit Columbus event to be eligible for prizes & this is the last week to enter! Make sure you email us at LivingFitColumbus@gmail.com if you’re interested in more details.

GOOD LUCK to all our participants! May the odds be ever in your favor!!

Photo/quote credit to: dafont.com

Check out all the weeks below…

Week one (above)
Week two
Week three
Week four
Week five
Week six
Week seven
Week eight

Run+Yoga event @ Bend Active [Tour of Columbus]

Our Living Fit Columbus runners kicked off our winter fitness challenge & met up with Bend Active this morning for a fun RUN + YOGA event. A big thanks to Bend, Fair Trade Yoga, Samba Fresh, Living Fit runners and all the other sponsors & participants that made today fun! Great sweating with all these pretty faces!

Fitness challenge & Bend Active Grand Opening!

We are excited to announce a mini run/yoga event at Bend Active‘s new store this Sunday to kickoff our Living Fit Winter Challenge & Bend Active’s Grand Opening!

When: Sunday, Dec 7th 11AM-12:30PM

Where: Bend Active, The Shoppes on Lane Ave, 1595 Lane Ave, Upper Arlington, 43221

Details:

Enter the Living Fit Winter Challenge
- You do NOT have to be present at this event to join our challenge ~ however, you earn week 1 bonus points for attending and will be given a brief overview of challenge details
- You DO have to attend at least one group activity during the 8 week challenge to be eligible for prizes
- You can check out the leaderboard from last year’s challenge HERE
20-30 min run starting and ending at Bend Active’s new Lane Ave location
20-30 min vinyasa yoga session [post-run] lead by Sherry Hoff of Fair Trade Yoga Studio
Enter a raffle for items from Bend Active and Fair Trade Yoga Studio

Come for the run, the yoga, the goodies, the photos or all of the above!

Hope to see you there!

Traveling, Holidays & Staying Fit [guest post]

Traveling, Holidays & Staying Fit [guest post by L Nguyen]

So for the second week in a row, Mahvish and I decided on a whim to go to Chicago a few weekends back, and I just went again for Thanksgiving. Having been traveling these past few weekends, we have taken some time to reflect on ourselves.

Have we taken the time to take care of our bodies?

Did we get our workouts in?

Are we being mindful and eating clean?

Many of us, when we travel, tend to fall off track of our healthy habits. Yes, it can sometimes be tricky and difficult when it’s quick to grab something from a fast food joint or junk food from a gas station. From experience, it is definitely a challenge to stay in routine while traveling, even for a short weekend. Needless to say, we made sure we tried our best to stay on top of our A-Game. It was an added bonus to have someone around to keep the other in check! Being busy (from work, etc) and tired (not enough sleep!) pose problems of their own. So here are some tips for “on the go” to keep track of your fit routine and healthy habits:

Eat as clean as possible, as much as possible. When eating out, it’s ok to splurge, but try not to over indulge to a point where you can’t breathe! One night, we did tapas so we could try a little bit of everything. 🙂
Carry protein packed snacks & nibble on healthy snacks when you can. We love nuts, Larabars, dried fruit, banana chips, trail mix, sugar snap peas, mini sweet peppers with hummus & fresh fruit.
Drink plenty of water! (Disclaimer: except for when driving long distances, try not to inhale a liter of Perrier sparkling water within a half hour. You WILL have to make pit stops every 45minutes to every hour! But hey, breaks are good too!)
Get enough sleep and don’t rely only running on caffeine.
Find a local yoga studio to take a class or two. While in Chicago, we took a class with Carmen at The Lab and a couple sculpt classes at CorePower!
Get out and squeeze a run in, even for a few miles. Its a great way to check out a new place while getting a workout in! Look into a local running group and perhaps do a run with them.
Take some Airborne tablets. And/or enjoy hot tea or hot water with lemons as a simple detox. Traveling and not sleeping enough can wear down your body, I got sick after returning from one of my many trips.

Remember, we aren’t, by any means, experts. These tips are just a few ideas that kept us from getting sidetracked from our goal(s) of taking care of ourselves.

How do you stay on track of your fit routine when traveling? Feel free to share with us any ideas!