This weekend, I took on another race – a five-mile run through a favorite park of mine.

Well, it WAS a favorite park until I realized all the hills I would be running on! It’s a lot easier to drive those hills in my swagger wagon than it is to tackle them on foot! But my running buddy and I finished strong, breaking our goal time by a full 30 seconds!

There are two main reasons I have been able to take up running and working out AND stick with it since April:

1. I set a goal.
2. I have an awesome accountability team.

My goal was originally a certain weight I wanted to reach. I still have that goal, but along with weight loss, my goals have evolved and expanded as I get healthier to include new milestones and challenges.

The goals would be mostly ineffective for me, however, if I didn’t have these guys…

The Hubby and my best friend – my accountability team!

We check in with each other every day with our workouts. Just a simple text to say what we did. Takes about five seconds, but knowing I will answer to both of them if I don’t get a workout in is great motivation! And when I haven’t done any exercise for the day, getting a text from one of them about their own workout is usually enough to get me off my behind and on to the treadmill!

I’m a STRONG believer in the power of accountability, which is why I’m also joining the Living and Active Challenge with Clare over at Peak313 Fitness!

This week’s verse is Ecclesiastes 4:12 – the PERFECT verse to emphasize the importance of accountability! Clare has a great devotional and printables to go along with this verse.

I’ve already shared who I am keeping accountable with “in real life,” but Clare also asked us to share our workout plan for the week.

Here is my schedule for the week:

• Monday: Run 4 miles
• Tuesday: Kettlebell workout
• Wednesday: Run 4 miles
• Thursday: Zumba
• Friday: Run 4 miles
• Saturday: Elliptical
• Sunday: Rest or elliptical

That’s the plan! I will throw in a few weight training exercises throughout the week as well – just geting my feet wet in that area! So glad The Hubby filled me in on how important strength training is to health and weight loss!

Join the Living and Active Challenge with me over at Peak313 Fitness! Let’s commit our healthy living goals and lifestyle changes to the Lord and GET MOVING!

Did I mention I have a few extra people at home cheering me on as well? I feel pretty blessed 🙂