Hello and welcome to 2019! I am doing something a little different this year by starting the new year off with…the Living and Active challenge! This will be year 7 of it and I have only held it during September/October, but I didn’t do it in 2018 (because I did “Your Second New Year” instead) so it works perfectly to start the new year off with it.  I also have something exciting I’m adding to the “pre-challenge” which I’m totally excited about! Before I get to that, let me explain the challenge for those of you who are new to it.

How did this whole challenge get started? Knowing that I wanted to create one for you, yet being conflicted on how I would do it, one day in church God gave me my answer! We were reading in Hebrews and came upon 4:12.

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

It hit me square between the eyes and gave me the inspiration to start this challenge: “Living and Active”. My goal and passion is to get you into God’s Word which holds the keys to getting us Living and Active!

First off, I’d love to share with you some feedback from last year’s challenge!

I was very skeptical about joining. I did not think it would help but it did. I found that I have a competitive side and wanted to do what was required. Also I have lacked learning scripture, now I can say I will definitely continue this. One scripture a week. The video posts were awesome and very helpful. I can say I have grown spiritually, emotionally and in my determination. 

I have tried this challenge two other years, but this is the first time I made it the whole time! I also met a huge personal goal of doing a 30-mile backpacking trip last weekend and was able to complete a certain programmed HIIT workout on my treadmill that I could not do just a few weeks ago. Thank you!

The encouragement I received from others in the challenge was wonderful! Hearing all the stories of perseverance, hope and joy was very uplifting! 

I definitely feel strong again. After having a baby 2 years ago, I struggled to get back into an exercise routine, but this challenge jus sparked a desire in me to do it, stick to it and to my shock, I made it all 5 weeks! I experienced anxiety for a while after my second baby and exercise and scripture has really helped me heal. Thank you a million times over! 

And the testimonies go on and on. I love seeing your love for the Lord renewed and knowing that God will and can use your physical body is why I keep on keeping on with my message! Thank you, Lord!

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Remember, those of you who check-in with me every week (on this blog and more on that to come!) and meet both requirements will be eligible for one of the GRAND PRIZE PACKAGES!

Here are the challenge basics:

Physical:

Many of you are already in an awesome routine with your workouts, so I want you to keep that up. But for those of you who need a little guidance, I’m here to help! I will provide a set of workouts you can do from your home (or take to the gym!) All you need are one or two sets of weights, an exercise band (similar to this), and a big exercise ball. These are great basics to build your home gym. They are also fairly cheap!

CHALLENGE GOAL: Exercise (with your routine or mine) 4 days a week for the 5 weeks we are in it. (25 minutes is minimum time)

Spiritual:

My faith lays the groundwork for everything I do and the upkeep of my body and health is included in that! So I want to take us through some key principles to get us “living and active” in both our physical and spiritual lives. I’ll provide a small devotional and insight to each principle along with a challenge for us to consider each week. Scripture memorization is also a great discipline, so we will be adding that on too! (I call that our “Soul Food”)

CHALLENGE GOAL: Memorize the new weekly verse/Soul Food (as well as maintaining prior weeks) and do the key challenge.

Accountability:

This all is great, but if we don’t have accountability, then chances are we won’t stick with it. I have a few ways this is going to happen:

– Facebook: Periodically through the week, I will check in with you who are a part of this. This is your chance to check in, ask questions, claim victories, express frustrations etc. so make sure you “like” me on Facebook! I’m also going to get on the FB live again, perhaps one of my favorite pieces to this challenge. I also encourage you to create your own facebook accountability groups. (For those of you who don’t have FB, I’ll get the video up on a blog post and youtube)

– Twitter: I’ll be doing the same thing on twitter with hashtag #livingandactive. Follow me there

– Instagram: I know there’s a lot of you out there! I post a lot of pictures of my food during the week on there and will continue to do so. I would love for you to join me–it’s great accountability! Make sure to tag #livingandactive and #claresmith

-Blog: Weekly, you’ll come here and get the new info as well as check-in. I’m hoping to expound a little on the new scripture which leads me to….

Food Challenge:

I want to keep it simple and work on the 2 disciplines of exercise and scripture memory! Each week, I’ll provide something for you to add or remove in regards to eating. The goal is to progressively add on as the 5 weeks go on. So what I tell you to do for week 1, you’ll also do for week 2 and so forth! This will NOT be part of the weekly check-ins because the area of food can be really hard and I don’t want you to drop the rest of the challenge because you weren’t able to keep up with this part.

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This is a TOTALLY FREE challenge! I will have all the basic info you need to do it as we’ve done for the past years, next week, but, for those of you who want to take it up a notch, you can grab my “training guide.” IMPORTANT: This guide is NOT MANDATORY to do this challenge!

Everything that you’ve received from the challenge over the past 5 years will stay the same (free scriptures, devotionals, suggested workouts) but this will be an enhancement and a spot where everything is in one place for you! Note: The scripture passage and food challenge is NOT in this. The format is the exact same as last year!

Included in this 44 page training guide is:

• weekly scripture memory
• weekly devotional
• weekly journal/non-scale victory spot
• weekly tip (a recipe, playlist, or tip!)
• 2 BONUS workouts
• weekly calendar check-off to keep progress of your workouts and scripture

Full disclosure: The scriptures and devotionals are part of the FREE material you can get on here, but the beauty is that it’s all in one spot which is kind of nice so you don’t have a lot of papers all over the place!

You can purchase this training guide on AMAZON for $11.99! Give yourself enough time to order it so you can get it and start the challenge on Monday, October 2nd! The other cool thing about this guide is that it will ALWAYS be for sale which means you can do this 5-week challenge on your own or with a small group of ladies anytime throughout the year! Click here to purchase!

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NEW for this year!

Now for the fun, new thing I added in our preparation phase! I know that some of you struggle with an exercise program or resources.There are many out there nowadays and I try my best to share with you the ones I trust and love. I want to give 2 of you the chance to have access to on-demand streaming workouts from Lindsay Brin, “Moms into Fitness.” I’ve been following Lindsay online for quite some time now and I love her balanced approach to health. She is a wife and mom to 3 children, runs a busy business, and also loves the Lord! I think her programs do an excellent job of educating you (especially for you mamas out there) and give practical ways to get those workouts in and eat nutritionally without hating your life. (A key component for sure!)

In order to get a chance for you and your friend to win a 2 month on-demand streaming workout, simply:

1. “like” our both accounts on either instagram or facebook
2. tag your friend and have them “like” us too!
3. If you aren’t someone on social media, then leave us a comment below with why you would love to win a 2 month exercise program!

Moms into Fitness

• instagram : @momsintofitness
• facebook : www.facebook.com/momsintofitness
• www.momsintofitness.com

Clare Smith

• instagram : @claresmithofficial
• facebook : www.facebook.com/claresmithofficial
• www.claresmith.me

GIVEAWAY ENDS Friday, January 11th 11:59pm PST. Winners will be notified then!

We officially start Monday, January 14th which means you have some time to prep! , but you have some things to do now!

1.) Order the book! OK–you don’t HAVE to because as I mentioned above, most of the material will be online but I think you’ll love it! (Free material goes up next week!)

2.) Grab a friend, sister, daughter, roommate…whoever…and ask them to join us! (HINT: Headstart to Key Principle #1!)

3.) Take your before picture(s)

4.) Get an idea of which 4 days a week you’ll work out. (I’ll provide a calendar next week)

5.) Go like and tag both Moms into Fitness and my page for that streaming program!

6.) Pray through your commitment! I want you to really be successful over these 5 weeks. If this is a bad season in life for you, then maybe this isn’t the time to join as it would leave you more discouraged than encouraged. But if you need a kick in the rear, get focused, dust off those weights or gym membership card and let’s get going!

So, are you with me? If you’ve already done this challenge in years past, then I encourage you to do it again. Perhaps start and lead your own group! There will be new scripture for you to memorize and honestly, who doesn’t need the accountability in exercise too?! If you are already receiving my email posts in your inbox, you don’t have to do anything, but for those of you who don’t, make sure to sign up here so that you don’t miss a thing!

I’ll be back in a few days with some more info and updates! I’m so excited! Leave any questions you may have, below!