This series features inspirational stories from admirable women.  IMHO, it’s always good to be reminded of how strength, determination, hard work, heart and ingenuity can impact the quality of one’s life and I’m proud that these women will allow me to share their stories here.

 

Today I have the pleasure of introducing one of my fellow SoCalLadyBloggers, Jennifer Miyagishima@RealMomofSFV.  Jennifer and I share a few things in common – she’s a mom, lover of pop culture, TV and fitness.  It was great to finally hang out with Jennifer when we both ran the Hollywood Hard Rock Cafe 5K but now it’s time for you to meet her so….haaaave you met Jennifer?

 

Hard Rock Cafe, 5K, Running, RealMomSFV, thevalentineRD

Hello everyone!  I am so thrilled to be writing a guest post for Melissa’s blog.  When she first asked me to contribute, we were chilling out over coffee, after just completing the Hard Rock Cafe 5K run.  I feel honored to be here!

 

In about a week or so, the holidays will be over and everyone will be thinking about their New Year’s Resolutions.  Now if you’re like most people, you make them and after a month, most of the items on the list have fallen by the wayside.  Sure, everyone wants to lose those 5-10 pounds they may have gained over the holidays, get more sleep, exercise more, etc.

 

Rather than making a list of resolutions, I plan on doing what I did last year and make a list of fitness goals that I want to achieve.  You see earlier this year, I turned 40. (Note from Melissa – Jennifer looks nowhere close to 40.  You’ve got good genes girlfriend!)  So on January 1st a list of all the fitness goals that I wanted to achieve during the year.   Some of those goals were:

 

STAND-UP PADDLEBOARDING IN HAWAII

I had been wanting to do stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) for a few years, but never had the chance.

SUP, Stand-Up Paddleboarding, Hawaii, fitness goals

Stand-Up Paddleboarding (SUP) in Hawaii

Since we were going on a family trip to Hawaii in June, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to do this activity.  The water is so warm (no need for a wet-suit) & the lagoon on Oahu was so calm.  I had a blast doing SUP!

 

TAKE A NEW FITNESS CLASS

TRX is a form of resistance training that uses your own bodyweight.  It is a total core workout, while also strengthening your arms, chest & legs.  I thought this would be a perfect workout to help me prep for stand-up paddleboarding (SUP).  Everyone told me that my arms would be sore the next day, but I wasn’t and I have TRX to thank for that.  Now I am totally addicted to this class and try to take it at my gym at least once, if not twice a week.

TRX Suspension Training

An example of TRX training. Image: mariachily/Flickr

 

RUN A 5K

2013 was going to be my year to get back into doing 5K races.  I had done them in the past (last one was about 3 years ago).  So when Melissa told me about the Hard Rock 5k run in Hollywood, I jumped at the chance.  I prepped for it by using the Couch to 5k app on my phone.  Having a friend to motivate me before the run really helped and I made good time.  Plus the rock music that they blared along the route made it super fun.

Hard Rock Cafe 5K, running, RealMomSFV

Next month I’ll be doing another 5K at Disneyland.  The Never Land 5K is part of the Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend taking place in January 2014.  Since we are huge Disney fans, I thought this would be a fun race to do with my family.  They even have a 400m dash for kids, which my daughter will be participating in.  That’s one of my goals for the coming year, to pass on my love of physical fitness to my 7 year old.

 

Looking back on this past year, I am ready to set new fitness goals for 2014.  I’d really like to step it up a notch and try a 10K.  This is a big step for me because I’m not much of a runner. I enjoy being physically active, taking classes at my local gym and going on hikes in the Griffith Park area.  Running a 10K is going to be a challenge, one that I looking forward to achieving!

 

If you want to get to know Jennifer better and follow her journey to reach her 2014 fitness goals, you can connect with her on RealMomofSFV, Facebook Page or Twitter.

 

So what are your fitness goals for the coming year? I would love to hear about them in the comments below!