STATS
Starting weight: 190
End of Week One Weight: 180 
2 Mile Assessment time: 25 minutes 

WEEK ONE- workouts

Day One: Strength and Core 
Day Two: 2 Mile Assessment
Day Three: Lower and Upper Body Strength
Day Four: Running Speed and Power

FOOD

Breakfast: parfait, parfait parfait! Low fat yogurt, fresh fruit, and ancient grain granola
Lunch: Salad with grilled chicken and low fat dressing
Dinner: Salad with a side of pasta
Snacks: carrots with low fat dip, peanuts, string cheese, fruit, popcorn

PROS & CONS

Pros: 
Really easy to set up and follow
Videos that demonstrate exercises
You can look ahead to see what workouts are coming up

Cons:
No sound on the timers
You can't go back and look at completed workouts

MORE INFORMATION

Check out the North Face and their page about the Mountain Athletics App here

I'm an easy sell on new fitness apps. I'm also fickle. I start and stop training plans like some people change socks. So when I saw the North Face tweet about a new training app I was intrigued and instantly wanted to give it a try, but I also knew that it was unlikely that I would actually see it all the way through. Still... I've been slacking with working out (longer work hours = a very tired me= no motivation to work out) and I've felt the need to switch it up a bit, so the timing was right to find a new way to get in shape. So here is the plan. Follow the plan laid out by the Mountain Athletics App and see where I am at the end of the program, which for me is set to end on February 24th. I'm going to be posting briefly a few times just to keep myself on track and to document how this particular program worked for me. 

This program has me doing 4 days of workouts- 2 strength and 2 running. I will have to add a 3rd running day here soon as I've got a 1/2 marathon in March, but for the midweek runs, these workout are actually pretty good. 

The strength and core exercises are also good- I'm doing my workouts at home, so I've had to adapt a few things, but most of it is easily done at home. I'm hoping to pick up a few things in the next few days that will help (like a kettle bell), but overall it's been easy to take what they've planned out and make it work in my living room. 

I do want to point out that my weight stats are somewhat misleading. While I had a huge drop, I'm doing more then just this program. To start I went on the Stomach Flu diet for 4 days and didn't eat at all (and what I did eat didn't really stick with me). It was miserable and I felt horrid, and I lost 6 lbs in those 4 days alone. I don't recommend going the stomach flu route no matter how effective it is. In addition to being a zombie for half the week I have also completely re-tooled my eating habits. I'm eating 6 small meals a day and in addition to smaller portions I'm cutting out fried foods and anything that comes from a box. It took a few days to get into the swing of things, but that is definitely playing a part in any success I'm having. 

I've been waiting for this book to come into the library for months. Normally I'm all about buying all the books, but right now we are redoing our book shelve set up and, well, there's nowhere to put any more books! (It's a tragedy really) So instead I'm going the library route, although there will be a major list of titles to buy once the new shelving goes up, because some books just demand to be owned. 

So what about this book? Does it demand to be owned? 

It absolutely does. There are a few authors that I will buy every time, no questions asked, and Maggie Stiefvater is one of those. This books is the 2nd book in the Raven Cycle series and it's a great one. Even better is that the 3rd book, Blue Lily, Lily Blue came in at the same time, so there's no lag time for me between books! 

About this book...

It picks up pretty closely to where the Raven Boys ends and we find Blue and her boys still in search of Cabeswater and the mysteries held therein. 

While Blue and Gansey are still there (along with Adam and Noah) the focus of this book is really Ronan and his newly honed gift- he is able to dream things into reality. Through out the book we see Ronan learning to really use his gift and try to figure out what it means for him. It also gives him some really important insights into both of his parents and it helps him understand some things from his past that seemed impossible. 

Along the way Blue and the Boys have to deal with people coming to Henrietta to find the object that can pull things from dreams, these people don't know that it's not an object, but a person, and that person is Ronan. I particularly liked how Stiefvater wove The Grey Man into the story- he's bad. He's there to kill if need be in order to procure the object. At the same time he is enchanted by Blue's family and the town, and while he has no qualms about killing, kidnapping isn't really his thing. 

In the end several of our characters have to come to terms with who they are and where they are going in life. There are fights and struggles, but in the end they all pull together and stick together and I can't wait to see how they solve the next challenge laid at their feet.