June Monthly Challenge: Greek yogurt, exercise routine & giving

All right, it’s time for Go Fit Girl’s June Monthly Challenge.
I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in Go Fit Girl’s Comment Contest Tuesday. There were lots of great ideas for future Monthly Challenges. And I promise to use them in the upcoming months. But I did have some ideas already for June’s challenges.
Ready for them?
Nutrition: I got this idea when we ended up with a vat of plain Greek yogurt recently. If there are any vegans out there I did find a vegan version of Greek yogurt. I’m sure that isn’t the only brand available.
Experiment  and get inventive with plain Greek yogurt and use it in various meals. I found multiple ways to use it. I will write about my meal/snack experiments sometime this month.
If you absolutely don’t want to work with Greek yogurt come up with something else.
Exercise: The New York Times recently wrote about The Scientific 7-Minute Workout. I am not 100% excited about the routine proposed. But with modifications I think this is a great exercise routine.
It has been scientifically proven that adults need 30 minutes of cardio five days a week. You can read more here.
Feel free to read the article, but this is what I propose:

• First off, try this routine at least once in the month of June.
  
• If you want it as a full workout (it’s great, because you can do it at home or at the gym or outside) I suggest doing each exercise for a minute and do the routine at least three times. This will give you roughly 30 minutes.
  
• Make sure to have a short period of time for recovery between each exercise.
  
• If there are certain exercises you don’t want to do or can’t do modify.
  
• Since summer is starting we all will start traveling. This is a great routine to do while traveling, which I plan to do while traveling.
  
  

I do agree with this from the NYT magazine column: Interval training requires intervals; the extremely intense activity must be intermingled with brief periods of recovery.
The article mentions the words discomfort and unpleasant. You should work hard while exercising. But those are the wrong adjectives to to be used. One of my spin teachers says you should be able to smile while exercising. Let’s think about the idea of intensity and sensation while exercising.
Another flaw with this routine is that it is exactly the same every time you do it. Your muscles need to do different things otherwise you will eventually plateau. So I don’t propose this is your only exercise routine in June.
And let’s add a third challenge this month …
Challenge of the Heart: I am a big fan of supporting a variety of charities. Kids are always a big focus for me.
As school is letting out for kids I thought this would be a good time to remember that we should give throughout the year.
Many kids rely on free breakfast and lunch at school. There is a Summer Food Service Program, which makes sure low-income kids still get meals during the summer break. You can get involved in different ways. Go here to find out how.
Supporting the food bank in the summer is always a great idea.
And, of course, feel free to support any charities you want to with time or donations.
Feel free to comment below on your progress or on the Facebook event page.