Emma and Amy's week 2 round-up

Hi all New Year, New Goals challengers! Here's a little update on how we got on in the second week of the challenge with our chosen tasks.

Emma's week two

This week I tasked myself with the following!

• Food – include three new fruits in my diet.
• Exercise – try a new YouTube leg workout.
• Habit – prep my breakfast and lunch the night before during the working week.
• App feature – use the new Strength Training feature.

I'm still really enjoying this challenge and finding it very motivating. It's helping me stick to my diary logging, which is great for keeping an eye on getting the balance right in my diet. I don't have a goal to lose weight, but I definitely want to be more mindful of my food choices sometimes, so the diary is helping with that! I'm also loving trying to fit new healthy habits into my routine.

Highlights

I kicked off the week really well by doing a new lower body HIIT workout on YouTube at 6am on Monday. I really enjoyed it and it gave me some great ideas for new moves to try, as I'm definitely guilty of sticking to the same old leg exercises.

I'd also done the weekly shop at the weekend and bought some blackberries, plums and kiwi fruits, as these are fruits I rarely pick. I've loved including something different with my morning porridge or to snack on. Another bonus is my 2-year-old daughter has also tried some new things. I hate to admit it, but although she eats plenty of other fruits, she hadn't had a plum or blackberries before! And she loved them both.

I did an upper body strength session on Friday, so I used the new Strength Training feature to log it. I'm loving being able to see all my sets, reps and weights lifted and will definitely keep using this feature. It will be great to see how my strength improves over time, which is a goal of mine, so fingers crossed!

Things to work on

OK, so I'm going to level with you, my habit was not great this week. I tasked myself with prepping my breakfast and lunch the night before, all week. But, I've ended up being at home most of this week, which isn't that typical – so the prep hasn't really been necessary. I've still made good choices and prepared healthy breakfasts and lunches at home, which is the ultimate goal, right? So this one was a bit of a none-starter. I'll choose something a bit more challenging/useful next week.

Amy's week two

Here's a rundown of my tasks for week two:

• Food – try a vegetable I've never cooked with before.
• Exercise – add in a leg workout after my run.
• Habit – no screen time 30 minutes before bed.
• App feature – use the new Strength Training feature to log my leg workout.

It's the end of the second week and my motivation is still going strong! I've kept my water reminders on from last week's task to ensure I'm still keeping my fluids up – the habit hasn't quite stuck yet so I still need that extra nudge to help me remember.

Highlights

After my leg workout, I used the new Strength Training feature to log everything, and I'm absolutely loving it! Now that I'm going to the gym more often, I can already tell it will help me track how much weight I lift and how many reps I manage. After reading Emma's blog at the start of the week about the importance of exercise progression, I'm keen to make sure I'm constantly challenging my muscles and stepping up my weights when I'm ready.

This week, I picked up a daikon from the supermarket to try. I've never really heard of it before, so it was a very new experience! Turns out daikon are similar to radishes, but a little sweeter. They're commonly used in Japanese and Korean cooking (my favourite cuisines), so I chopped it up and quick-pickled it with some vinegar, sugar and salt, and then popped it on top of a rice dish. It was really delicious. I'm feeling so inspired to try even more ingredients unfamiliar to me – plantain is next on the list!

If you tuned into our Facebook and Instagram stories, you would have seen I got out for a run on Thursday in the glorious winter weather (much needed after so much rain!). I pledged to do a leg workout afterwards to strengthen my muscles and reduce the chance of injury ahead of my half marathon at the end of February (eek!). My legs were already jelly after my run, so I took it easy and just did a quick 15 minute session with some light weights. Definitely felt it the next day, but it's a good kind of ache!

Things to work on

Screen time! I actually think I did okay on this – I set a downtime timer on my phone so that all my apps would shut down by 10pm, prompting me to read or go straight to sleep instead. However, I've popped it in the 'things to work on' section because I didn't manage this every day of the week. My partner has a television in his room so it's quite hard to hide behind my book and avoid it if he's watching something or gaming late in the evening. I wonder if I can get him on board with less screen time going forward? Wish me luck!