Through the better part of July and August I participated in the Courthouse’s Zults War. Over the course of six weeks I was able to spend time with really great people and lose eight pounds of body fat and add six pounds of lean by making small changes to my diet and participating in three or four Courthouse classes every week.

I’m proud of these results. Zults showed me that being healthy doesn’t mean eating carrots and celery for every meal and completely giving up beer and donuts. (I like beer and donuts…a lot.)

What being healthy is about is having a plan to give your body what it needs when it needs it. Educating myself and how the food I eat impacts my body is the single biggest reason I’m much healthier right now than I was a year ago. It feels good being healthy and I still have a long way to go to reach my goals.

I’ve decided to use the resources available at the Courthouse to make my long term goals a reality.

Every month I’ll be giving myself a new challenge and will work with Trainers and Instructors from the Courthouse to achieve them.

The plan is to set up small monthly challenges that will each bring me closer to my long-term fitness goals.

This month my goal is to run or walk a total of 30 miles while training for a 5K in October. 30 miles in the 21 days remaining in the month breaks down to about 1.4 miles a day. This number will seem impossible for some and more like a weeks work for others. For me personally, it is going to be a challenge.

I’m not looking to win the 5K in October, or even race competitively. I’m just using it as a way to motivate myself to get out and run and move on a consistent basis.

Interested in joining me? I’ll be running (a very slow) 2 miles at Bush Park every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8am. Walkers, joggers and runners are all welcome to join me by the finish line of the soap box derby hill.

And even if you can’t make it out in the mornings, take the challenge for yourself. Write down the miles you’ve done, take some pics, have fun with it. Tag it @courthouseclubs on Instagram or Twitter.

Make it out and I’ll have some free Courthouse swag ready for you.

Feel free to email me at JakeEspi@gmail.com if you’d like to join or have any questions at all. (I respond to ALL emails.)

Looking forward to Making Awesome Happen!