Matsurika

Hello! I'm just putting in my intentions for participating in this challenge! I've got 3 goals 1. One Strength Training/week 2. Food Prep/Planning 3. Lose 6lbs in 6 weeks! (Let's get me in Onederland for good and not just hovering!) Bonus House Cleaning I Promise I will elaborate on these Monday morning - I just need to get to bed so that I can start my walking Challenge Monday morning!

Hands down - I'm In! Wahoo!!

Alright! Great job everyone! I think I'll be more actively talking in my next challenge (Already excited!) I believe I'm going to get a fitbit or something along those lines just to see the difference! Strava never counts my 12 hour wedding photography days so I'm super excited to see how much I actually walk on those days! I aimed for the moon and fell along with the stars - Shooting for Platinum next time again! I know that this challenge got me walking way more! I mean WAY more than I would have normally walked - So THANK YOU! Not to mention Great job (yes again) - we all deserve it!

WoW! Where have I been?! @Luciana - I have Not tried kickboxing yet - been uber busy and just trying to fit everything in I agree with Zombies Run! I'm about to start another book to up my walking this week Day 37 Check-in EEP! Where did the last *Couts* 21 days? go! It's been a rough ride - let me tell you I'm definitely not disappearing for 3 weeks again Week 4 was a little bit rough. It started out with a really bad lower back pain on the Sunday. I felt like when ever I was bending or something my back was pinching. I did a yoga class the Friday before and I think that with all of these inverted back poses it did something not so fun to my back. Monday I went to see my Osteopath and he fixed me up. I didn't want to muck anything up and kettlebell is only monday/tuesday So I didn't get my strength training in. I did walk though!. I took a break through the week to let all of the pain in my lower back dissipate and it's all good! Near the end of the week I had an opportunity come across my desk - the next level in my life? I needed to pretty much drop everything and work on getting a portfolio together for a new position withint the company I work for. Once I got my website updated with my portfolio in place - I submitted my resume and waited to hear back. Saturday I had a wedding to shoot and I can't remember what happened to Sunday! Week 5 Well I had applied for that position and Monday was asked to go in for an interview on Wednesday. I needed to pull all the stops I had to get together a half descent portfolio. Tuesday the Interview was moved to Thursday which made me happy that I had more time to work on my portfolio. I was up really late, got a few hours of sleep and then went in for my interview. This meant that I didn't bike all week because I was trying to get ready for my interview. I would have biked but my priorities are more towards walking my dog. If there's time to bike but not time to walk my dog, biking is replaced with walking. Kettlebell was a no no as the time was being used to make my portfolio. Honestly it took up my nights. Week 6 So far week 6 has been fun! I need to find a way to put in a strength workout into my week. I was able to get to Zumba last night but not Kettlebell this am. Again time is an issue . No biking for me today but I plan on getting on my bike tomorrow! and Thursday - which leaves Friday! And with my new shift, I should be able to bring her now Woo hoo! I made it down to 199 last week, but am back up to 202 thanks to bad eating and little exercise I'll be back on the wagon and I am already planning my next 6 week challenge along with my The good news is that for the most part, my cleaning is doing well! I plan on doing some Food Prep tonight so that I'm not eating out again! I'm back to no eating out (This is part of my next challenge!!) Week 6 Bike Rides: 0/3 Strength Training: 0/1 Food Prep: 0/1 Cleaning: 1/3 Week 5 Bike Rides: 0/3 Strength Training: 0/1 Food Prep: 0/1 Cleaning: 3/3 Week 4 Bike Rides: 0/3 Strength Training: 0/1 Food Prep: 0/1 Cleaning: 3/3 Week 3 Bike Rides: 2/3 Strength Training: 1/1 Food Prep: 1/1 Cleaning: 0/3 Week 2 Bike Rides: 3/3 Strength Training: 1/1 Food Prep: .5/1 - I Did my food prep last night! Woot! 1/2 point I'm awarding myself, late is better than never! Cleaning: 2/3 Week 1 Bike to work: 2/3 Strength Training: 1/1 Food Prep: 0/1 (Mission failed this week) Cleaning: 3/3 Bonus Quest: Walking: 131/200km

Day 16 Check-in WOW I am impressed with myself! A bit of a struggle, but I completed a lot in the past 5 days! My biggest focus right now is exercising and eating well. Sunday I got my strength workout in for last week and yesterday I got my strength workout in for this week... On top of a 10 km walk yesterday and a 20k total bike ride! By the time I settled down I couldn't even finish my movie! My biggest motivation for walking right now is listening to audio books! I limit myself to ONLY listen to them while walking. That way if I want to know what happens next I need to strap on my shoes and go! It makes it fun and it makes it for something I can do alone. My eating has gotten WAY better now that I don't depend on 'I don't have time so I'll just buy something'. I'm making all of my food and enjoying it! Omnomnomnom Week 3 was a struggle to succeed. I had a lot of issues with Time. My co worker called in sick which meant that I had to do a 10 hour day and then go to work at 8am the following day. This meant that I didn't have time to bike because I need to walk the dog in the AM. Even my walks were short because I found myself staying up until 11pm to spend time with my husband seeing as I wasn't going to see him much over the weekend. I managed to bike to work 1 day, and then the other 2 days were other kind of bike rides. Sunday was definitely a Killer - Biked to the gym. It's hilly the entire way so definitely had a great warm up! 202.0 on the scale this AM though! Woot! Week 3 Bike Rides: 1/3 Strength Training: 1/1 Food Prep: 0/1 - I still had prepped food from last week that I'm finishing up Cleaning: 0/3 Week 2 Bike Rides: 3/3 Strength Training: 1/1 Food Prep: .5/1 - I Did my food prep last night! Woot! 1/2 point I'm awarding myself, late is better than never! Cleaning: 2/3 Week 1 Bike to work: 2/3 Strength Training: 1/1 Food Prep: 0/1 (Mission failed this week ) Cleaning: 3/3 Bonus Quest: Walking: 36.6/200km

Hey hey hey! This is not how we think! You are going there for you. Think of it as you're the one out of the bunch who is putting themselves out there and doing what needs to be done! Who cares what other people think. you're not happy with where you're at so you're doing something about it! Do you know how many people don't? - Stay confident, you got this! Learn to Love your Inner Shmexy Beast! And one day you'll be able to say "I came - I conquered - I am Great". Wait.... You CAN ALREADY SAY THAT! Look forward to your next post, keep up the great work and go go go!

Day 11 Check-in Over all, yesterday went really good. While I wasn't able to get much walking done - Or get my biking in.... (Hektic week) - I did manage to prep all my veggies for use! Fun story, I was at the grocery store and went and bought a ton of Veggies along with 1 package of ground beef. When I got to the cash register and emptied my basket, there was a younger boy in front of me, just out of high school maybe. When I looked at the conveyor belt - everything he had to purchase was fruit rollups, cookies, chips, fruitopia. All I could think of was - that's a lot of sugar!!!. The bar separating the two was barely needed. all I had was fresh food! I didn't even go down any other aisle . We both spent about 26 dollars and I walked out knowing I didn't have any junk in my bags. I plan on getting my strength workout in on Sunday as I have a 12 hour wedding to shoot on Saturday and I need to make sure I can move/pickup my camera! I'm excited for my next Kettle bell class! Woohoo!. Biking Plan - I plan on going out for a ride tonight, and then tomorrow after work I'm gonna go for a nice ride at RIM Park! My Final ride will happen Sunday - Maybe I'll bike to my Kettle bell class and back! #OnASuicideMission Week 2 Bike Rides: 0/3 Strength Training: 0/1 Food Prep: .5/1 - I Did my food prep last night! Woot! 1/2 point I'm awarding myself, late is better than never! Cleaning: 2/3 Week 1 Bike to work: 2/3 Strength Training: 1/1 Food Prep: 0/1 (Mission failed this week ) Cleaning: 3/3 Bonus Quest: Walking: 36.6/200km

Day 9 Check-in So it was a pretty crazy weekend last weekend! I planned on getting Day 3 of biking checked off - but this kind of ruined my plans: We were camping and enjoying ourselves when this monsoon of a storm decided to hit us! I did get in about 2 hours of swimming/running around on the beach. Had plenty of time playing with the puppy, walking to/from the washroom and over all a fairly active weekend!. I'm currently about 20k behind my goal for hitting the platinum challenge. I wasn't able to get meal planning in yesterday, but I still haven't eaten out and I've been eating really healthily (minus camping, that was a planned splurge) I did manage to get my 1 strength workout completed last week! This week will be challenging. I got called into work this morning and so I wasn't able to bike to work. Friday is a no biking day because I need to drop my dog off in the AM for daycare. Saturday I'm shooting a wedding (on my feet for 12 hours) so I'll need to squeeze in a bike ride on Sunday! I haven't fully planned my strength workout this week yet - I may try and get it in tonight though All in All I feel like I'm doing OK. My meal planning is not going well but I think I may change that to no eating out. I started that at the same time and I think it may be a little more effective for me. Are we allowed to amend challenges? Week 2 (/total for 6 weeks) Bike to work: 2/18 Strength Training: 1/6 Food Prep: 0/6 (Mission failed this week ) Cleaning: 1/18 Week 1 Bike to work: 2/3 Strength Training: 1/1 Food Prep: 0/1 (Mission failed this week ) Cleaning: 3/3 Bonus Quest: Walking: 27/200km

Pelee Island?!

KDub! (AKA Kitchener/Waterloo) - But I tend to travel often, go up to St Jean Sur Richelieux QC (family there) and Northern New Brunswick (Bathurst/Tracadie). Apparantly out west too! Edmonton for my brother! Ouuuf. But mainly in KDub! Anyone else nearby? Saw lots of Hamiltons!

Day 4 Check-in I still can't lift anything above my head this morning. Legs are working better but showering proved difficult this morning! On to a new day as preparation for camping come closer! I was unable to bike this morning. 1. too sore. 2. too tired. 3. needed the time to make it to Costco after work. Sigh all horrible excuses IMHO, but it's how I talked myself out of it this am. I am bringing my bike on my excursion! And I'll be going out at least once, probably sat am or something for a nice bike ride to complete 3 rides this week! (Since I can't bike tomorrow either ). FOOD - This week has been a WIN. Minus my fake planning haha I was able to eat properly and healthily all week. Yesterday/Today is full of WIN! Yesterday morning I started with an egg sandwich! Mmmmmm And for lunch more veggies and chicken. - Come Dinner time, I wasn't hungry at all. I ate a couple bites of the spicy chicken I made, but couldn't bring myself to eat anymore. I've been doing really good on Sugar this week. I mean really really good! I wasn't lazy yesterday though! I still did my walk, and went for another walk this morning with the puppy! Feeling great and trucking along Week 1 (/total for 6 weeks) Bike to work: 2/18 Strength Training: 1/6 Food Prep: 0/6 (Mission failed this week ) Cleaning: 2/18 Bonus Quest: Walking: 22.10/200km

Day 3 Check-in Oh my! I am SO Sore today!! Gotta love strength building days! Yesterday I think I did really good. I've really cut down on sweets and I'm eating a lot more properly. I had Turkey and veggies for lunch and Salmon with rice and veggies for supper! - For exercise I biked to work, did a kettle bell class, walked my dog and biked home. All in all it was about 3 hours and a half (according to google fit!). This morning I walked 7k with the hubby and the puppy - I don't think I could have biked even if I wanted to! Tonight we're going for a yoga class, hopefully that'll help stretch my muscles - Or it'll make me feel worst for my bike ride tomorrow! Friday right after work we leave for a weekend of camping! I'm uber excited - burgers, hotdogs, sandwiches Beach time, walks and biking! Who could ask for more?! The deal with cleaning between my hubby and I is that I clean Monday/Wednesday/Friday. He cleans Tuesday/Thursday/ and Saturday or Sunday (Unless we host an event, then we both do it). Say he doesn't clean on a Tuesday and I did on Monday, then he would have to clean on Wednesday AND Thursday. That's part of the deal. This happened which means that he gets to clean today after not cleaning yesterday. This means I get a free day at cleaning! (I'll probably still help him out tonight either way 'cause I'm cool like that ) Either way I feel like I'm off to a great start! and my weight has come down to where I wanted it to be last week 202.3! Woo! Let's get under 200! PS: I haven't stumbled across where to make those cool signatures with the bars! Anyone know? Week 1 (/total for 6 weeks) Bike to work: 2/18 Strength Training: 1/6 Food Prep: 0/6 (Mission failed this week ) Cleaning: 2/18 Bonus Quest: Walking: 9.4/200km

Day 2 Check-in Day 2 - I'm a monster today! Maybe tomorrow I'll be a worm, but today I've already done lots! Food Prep Smood Prep (bahahaha just kidding) But needless to say my food prep hasn't happened this week so far. We've got a camping trip this weekend and I have officially put a ban on fast food for the foreseeable future. There are better things I'd like to spend my money on! My morning started at 5:15am. Headed to the gym and did a kettle bell class (Strength training anyone?! ) - Came home, walked the dog, and then biked to work! WHEW! And it's only 10 am Now I can relax in my chair and work towards some kind of recuperation. OO I did do my cleaning last night! Kitchen was really shiny and it made it easy to cook my meal this am! Week 1 (/total for 6 weeks) Bike to work: 2/18 Strength Training: 1/6 Food Prep: 0/6 (Mission failed this week ) Cleaning: 1/18 Bonus Quest: Walking: 9.4/200km

Day 1 Check-in Day 1 so far is awesome! My alarm went off at 6am and I grumbled as I picked up my phone to turn off the alarm. 'Why did I wake up so early" I thought to myself.... OH RIGHT! It's DAY 1! I've got to get my 5k in this morning with the puppy! So I walked out and my husband decided to join me today! I made a delicious lunch - It's a bunch of peppers with some mushrooms and turkey! Mmmm mmm good and planned for tonight was butter chicken! Yayyyy! I'm currently working on my food prep. I'm just having trouble finding enough protein to eat while losing weight. I'm contemplating either Shakeology or just getting a bucket of protein powder and have a smoothie every lunch. I'm humming and aweiinnngg about everything I want to do . Week 1 (/total for 6 weeks) Bike to work: 1/18 Strength Training: 0/6 Food Prep: 0/6 (I didn't get chance over the weekend! Looks like I'll be trying to do this tonight!) Cleaning: 0/18 Bonus Quest: Walking: 5.7/200km

Oh Wow! Where were my notifications?! I've been neglecting all of you! So so sorry Thank you everyone for all your encouragement! I came here to post my first 'check in' for Day 1 of the challenge! In order! @AvitusXenoi - The photo was taken in Quebec just out of St Jean Sur Richelieu - Mont Gregoire! I know I can do it if I get out of my lazy thinking and just do stuff while I'm waiting for things to cook. Good luck on your cleaning quest and well definitely show these guys what great recruits we are! @Greenjasper - (First off, your name makes me think of the 100 and how excited I am for the next season!) WELCOME! If ever you have any questions on biking please feel free to PM me! Biking is absolutely amazing, and the fact that it takes me about 7 minutes longer on my bike then driving makes it more acceptable for me to bike. My city is VERY cycling friendly and I'm lucky to have so many paths and bike lanes. I think either by the end of this season or early next year I'm going to aim to bike to my old home town and get a ride back (about 50k/each way) And it's absolutely not strange! I'm positive there are plenty of people who don't know how to bike @Blaidd - I completely agree 100%. Cleaning is about the last thing I want to do but I do know that I need to do it in order to become healthier. I'm never going to want to use my kitchen if it's dirty Which will make my whole 'let's eat healthy' thing a bit more difficult. And no kidding! We've been wanting to hire someone to come through weekly as well, but we're working on getting out of debt before we find it acceptable to pay someone to clean our house I still don't know exactly where I belong. I have such a wide range of things I like - I'm a little all over the place! But thank you!!! @Luciana Valerosa Culming - I am indeed interested in Kickboxing! I love love love kicking.... stuff I'll definitely look into that. My best friend is a Karate Sensei and he owns his own Dojo. I'm going to start with returning to class sans sparring and ensuring I can handle a bit of a lower key of a class than kickboxing. I'll definitely swing by the courtyard and seek for some advice though! Cycling 20km to work (10/each way actually ) is fantastic! I did this same challenge for June and missed a couple of weeks in July! It's doable and awesome!! If you like biking that is! @wanderingcavegirl - You got it! I used to be super flexible!! But I lost most of it (Could practically get into the side splits and almost the front and back splits too!!) Stretches are always my fav part to a workout @Bekah - Thank you Bekah! I'm checking out Flylady - but it already sounds like we have very similar views on how central the kitchen is!! *checking website out now *