Malva

Solid! That is for sure - you ought to get an A just for keeping to your goal while on vacation! That is a toughie...

Final word on this challenge - didn't meet a lot of secondary goals - but I am so happy about finishing the C25k that I don't care! Gem - In like a lamb, out like a lion... March Challenge Name: Gem - I may be running but I am still a druid! Goals: Fitness: The primary goal is to continue c25k training program, running according to the schedule as weather permits. A++ Not only did I continue, but I finished! Secondary is to integrate some kind of non-running day exercise that includes upper body strength training(?) - I will use this month to try out different fun methods for upper body workouts, like boxing or fitness bar, I am interested in range of motion + strength exercises too like kettlebell and the clubbing (someone posted an awesome video of this a while back), maybe some martial arts movements? I don't know, I just want to try some things. In the meantime, keep up my pushups (modified! - not on the ground yet, even LOL) D Blew this off almost entirely Eating: I am actively trying to lose weight. Counting calories, eating less carbs in general but when I do have them, they are slow carb - trying to just BE AWARE. Trying to make my calorie needs be in sync with my intake. Trying to make it work to eat the food I grow on my farm but still be fit - i.e. not too much pork I have lost 14 pound during this calendar year Primary goal is to continue to track foods/exercise, and continue to lose weight. I am not setting a weight loss goal, just want to keep moving steadily in the right direction. Today: 220 pounds. A I continued to track food/calories and did lose pounds during this challenge period - also dropped at least one pant size Today's weight: 216 Secondary goal is to improve meal planning for me and the kids at lunch. Dinner is virtually impossible to plan except in the vaguest way, as my husband wants food totally on a whim. However me and the kids can have smoother days by planning lunches (we homeschool). I want to plan three lunches a week with their input. We just finished a nutrition study so they should have fun with this. D did a bit of this but still found myself losing track of time and scrambling for lunch most days. Did not integrate the lunch planning at all, really. Life:I have a goal that I carried over from the last challenge, as I did not finish it. It is to clean up/prep the outside area where we are planning an addition onto our house. Need to get this done. Badly. F did not lift a finger :sigh: Second, I want to do two blog posts for my business www.SunshineForDinner.com. This was a goal last time as well and I did it! Need to do it again...have one post planned and pictures all ready, so I am progressing on this goal already. D Only did one post, not two - what is my problem? If I do a post today, does it count? Third, I want all books on the shelves by the end of the challenge. I have a ridiculous amount of both books and shelves, and get more all the time (I did mention homeschooling...got one kid just entering the age where you dive into a pile of books and come up for air when you satisfied your curiosity. I am not going to slow down on the book buying if I can help it.) Some of the old books have just got to go, in order for these piles of books to go on the shelves. Must get books on shelves. No more floor piles or boxes under the table LOL. B Did a lot of work on my shelves, as well as some other major decluttering and housecleaning efforts, now that I have my vacuum cleaner repaired. There are some hidden book caches that are not shelved, though. Bonus goal: I realize I am getting to many life goals listed here - but I really want to finish my resume and writing sample to put in a job application with eHow. No work on this. THIS CHALLENGE FINISHES ON APRIL 4 - two days before my 40th birthday. I need to finish strong for this milestone. okay, minor nervous breakdown is under control now - although may be first of many over the next month. My birthday is tomorrow - Happy Birthday To Me!

Final word on this challenge - didn't meet a lot of secondary goals - but I am so happy about finishing the C25k that I don't care! Gem - In like a lamb, out like a lion... March Challenge Name: Gem - I may be running but I am still a druid! Goals: Fitness: The primary goal is to continue c25k training program, running according to the schedule as weather permits. A++ Not only did I continue, but I finished! Secondary is to integrate some kind of non-running day exercise that includes upper body strength training(?) - I will use this month to try out different fun methods for upper body workouts, like boxing or fitness bar, I am interested in range of motion + strength exercises too like kettlebell and the clubbing (someone posted an awesome video of this a while back), maybe some martial arts movements? I don't know, I just want to try some things. In the meantime, keep up my pushups (modified! - not on the ground yet, even LOL) D Blew this off almost entirely Eating: I am actively trying to lose weight. Counting calories, eating less carbs in general but when I do have them, they are slow carb - trying to just BE AWARE. Trying to make my calorie needs be in sync with my intake. Trying to make it work to eat the food I grow on my farm but still be fit - i.e. not too much pork I have lost 14 pound during this calendar year Primary goal is to continue to track foods/exercise, and continue to lose weight. I am not setting a weight loss goal, just want to keep moving steadily in the right direction. Today: 220 pounds. A I continued to track food/calories and did lose pounds during this challenge period - also dropped at least one pant size Today's weight: 216 Secondary goal is to improve meal planning for me and the kids at lunch. Dinner is virtually impossible to plan except in the vaguest way, as my husband wants food totally on a whim. However me and the kids can have smoother days by planning lunches (we homeschool). I want to plan three lunches a week with their input. We just finished a nutrition study so they should have fun with this. D did a bit of this but still found myself losing track of time and scrambling for lunch most days. Did not integrate the lunch planning at all, really. Life:I have a goal that I carried over from the last challenge, as I did not finish it. It is to clean up/prep the outside area where we are planning an addition onto our house. Need to get this done. Badly. F did not lift a finger :sigh: Second, I want to do two blog posts for my business www.SunshineForDinner.com. This was a goal last time as well and I did it! Need to do it again...have one post planned and pictures all ready, so I am progressing on this goal already. D Only did one post, not two - what is my problem? If I do a post today, does it count? Third, I want all books on the shelves by the end of the challenge. I have a ridiculous amount of both books and shelves, and get more all the time (I did mention homeschooling...got one kid just entering the age where you dive into a pile of books and come up for air when you satisfied your curiosity. I am not going to slow down on the book buying if I can help it.) Some of the old books have just got to go, in order for these piles of books to go on the shelves. Must get books on shelves. No more floor piles or boxes under the table LOL. B Did a lot of work on my shelves, as well as some other major decluttering and housecleaning efforts, now that I have my vacuum cleaner repaired. There are some hidden book caches that are not shelved, though. Bonus goal: I realize I am getting to many life goals listed here - but I really want to finish my resume and writing sample to put in a job application with eHow. No work on this. THIS CHALLENGE FINISHES ON APRIL 4 - two days before my 40th birthday. I need to finish strong for this milestone. okay, minor nervous breakdown is under control now - although may be first of many over the next month.

As this challenge is coming to a close, I want to say how much I enjoyed being on a squad with all of you! Thanks for all the good running companionship.

Yes I am feeling like I will have to make an extra effort now to continue my running pattern. The next week will be crucial! I am tempted to start a bridge to 10K program, just to keep a focus, but the problem is, I am pretty happy with the time I am spending running now. I don't think I have more than 40 mins or so to spend on this activity. I have RunKeeper, so I will explore that and see how I can apply it to my situation - no GPS, no clearly visible path on Google to mark.

(I am totally copying this from my post at the Woot Room yesterday - but I wanted to share with my squad!) I finished the Couch 2 5k training program! Yes, I did! I finished yesterday. It did take 3 months instead of 9 weeks LOL but I did it. Hard to believe that when I started I could barely finish the one-minute interval sessions, and now, only a short time later, I can run for 30 minutes. This is especially amazing when I reflect on all the things I have put in place to support finishing this program - I have integrated exercise time into my weekly schedule, I have learned and practiced dynamic stretching, good posture and breathing, I have worked to improve and maintain the running trail on my property, I have spent hours trying on shoes and have improved my overall quality of life through the purchase of two good pairs of running shoes. I have enjoyed a guaranteed time to listen to podcasts or audio books - the more I run, the farther I get in my book LOL. YAY! for c25k Now to keep up the running now that the training program is over...

Sunday 4-3-11 Totally happy that I finished the C25K program!!!! Week 9 complete! Such a great feeling.

Good work! I really enjoy the interval running more than the long runs, and I have gone back and repeated a few of the week 6ish 10 min interval runs. I don't know - although I can run for 30 mins it is definitely not 5K lol. I need to find a really ssslllllooooowwww partner to run with me. Damn you Vader! I had decided that I wasn't going to go into the 10K training, but since you mentioned it I have a sudden urge to go browse in the Dark Side (i.e. app store).

Yes, I did! I finished yesterday. It did take 3 months instead of 9 weeks LOL but I did it. Hard to believe that when I started I could barely finish the one-minute interval sessions, and now, only a short time later, I can run for 30 minutes. This is especially amazing when I reflect on all the things I have put in place to support finishing this program - I have integrated exercise time into my weekly schedule, I have learned and practiced dynamic stretching, good posture and breathing, I have worked to improve and maintain the running trail on my property, I have spent hours trying on shoes and have improved my overall quality of life through the purchase of two good pairs of running shoes. I have enjoyed a guaranteed time to listen to podcasts or audio books - the more I run, the farther I get in my book LOL. YAY! for c25k Now to keep up the running now that the training program is over...

I really did a double take when I checked in just now...thumbs up from me, too!

Fantastic pictures! Thank you for sharing - looks like awesome fun!

Very good work!

Sounds like a great day. Geocaching is fascinating - I wish we had more scenic stuff around here so there was a place people wanted to do that. My challenge so far - not great, not awful. Just got my mind on so much work related stuff that it is hard to pay attention to the goals I made for the challenge. Should have made them work related LOL.

Well I guess the title about says it all - wearing a pair of jeans today that haven't fit for two years! Glad I decided to try them - as they had been in my "not yet" pile. They are the jeans I bought when I decided to stop fighting with trying to get into my too tight pants and just face facts and buy a larger size. Unfortunately it didn't stop there - a larger size followed that one... So I am very happy with this accomplishment, and going to run my errands in a cheerful mood, with cute jeans on - and now I know that next I can get down to all my faves that I hope are packed up somewhere! Hoping I didn't declutter them...love to go shopping in my own storage area.

Hmm - this article is interesting to me as regards my kids. Last year's BMI report (from pub. school) on my then six yo indicated that he was overweight. I have talked to a lot of people about this and pondered it at great length - because this kid seems totally normal to me. He is not one of these little butterball kids at all. Just regular. And the main point here is, I started to wonder if I had a realistic idea of what a normal kid should look like. I mean there are a lot of overweight and obese children in our community - not teens, but little kids. Am I so used to these extremes as what an overweight kid looks like, that I can't recognize that my own child is overweight? Because I swear the kid looks fine. In the time since that report, I have still thought about it from time to time, and after reading the article I started looking at the child again - when he is crouching down, like in play, you can see his backbone and ribs. That sounds kind of awful when I write it but it looks normal to me, for a kid. He does have a little bit of plumpness in the thighs, perhaps. I just ran his BMI again for his current weight and height and now it gives him a reading of 18.2, in the 90th percentile, or at risk of becoming overweight. ??? Well I guess every american is at risk for becoming overweight, but really? Because if something dangerous is going on with his health I want to know. I don't know where I am going with this except to say that the bmi has been a source of confusion for me with this case, and I am glad to have some info that maybe indicates that I am not crazy and the kid looks normal!!LOL If you really want to torture yourself there is an ideal body weight calculator that you can use to see what you "should" be - the difference between Max's current weight and his ideal weight? 3 pounds. Good grief he grew 3" in about 4 months recently. I just don't know -- the bmi seems even more ridiculous when applied to kids - there has to be a better way for schools to give parents information.

I have only one scheduled run left to finish the c25k program - week 9 run 3! Wow - it is hard to believe that only three months ago I was being tortured by the one minute runs in the first week of the training. My endurance has increased so much and I have seemingly made a habit of some of the tips for breathing a posture that I got here at the squad thread - when I think to check on them while I am running, the posture is good. The soreness and tension I was getting in my lower back while running have disappeared. Now to see if I can get into a good routine without the program as an aid. Actually I may keep listening to the long run segments of the program for a while to keep me going. I have been feeling less than enthusiastic during this challenge period - so many things vying for my attention, mostly work related. I seem to be at a plateau with weight loss - the previous two challenges I have lost 7 lbs each month, but this challenge I have lost 1 lb? Maybe I have gotten sloppy with my calorie counting, maybe I am just in one of those inevitable plateaus that people despair of - but I am trying to keep up my good habits without the reinforcement from the scale that I have been getting. I was reading this thread Staying-on-diet.-Help and feeling so frustrated because there is no trick, it is just a grind and you do it! But through that reading I was led to our squadmate's interview with Steve Kamb on the NerdFitness blog - good stuff, 67alecto! I realize that I haven't gone off my diet - the numbers work out, but my body is not a calculator, it is doing whatever it is that it needs to do, I just need to look to the long term and keep up the grind. Anyway, I don't know what the point of all that was - I am obviously having a some complicated fitness-related feelings or something, I am all over the place.

That is so awesome Faline! So how did it go at the climbing gym? I'll bet it was fun!

Wonderful that you are exercising with your kid - mine go running with me sometimes and I am always amazed at how strong they are. How old is your son?

Tuesday 3-29-11 week 9 run 2 of the c25k - only one scheduled run left and I graduate! Actually, this second 30 min run was better than the first. I felt like I increased my pace a bit.

Monday 3-28-11 did a 30 squats and 30 inclined pushups should have been a running day - but life had other plans :sigh:

Wow - Aidan that is amazing! I loved reading your race story - two hours...that is so far outside my comfort zone right now. You deserve a good rest!

hmm good idea - I like to listen to an audiobook or podcasts while running, sometimes I choose short ones and when they end I know how long it has been - will have to think about developing this strategy.

Saturday 3-26-11 Started week 9 c25k - run one accomplished. 30 minutes of running. This week the audio weans you to 10 full minutes of running between progress updates - up till now she was telling you when you had run for 5 minutes, so that is different. I kind of enjoyed the more frequent updates just to break the monotony.

Friday 3-25-11 did 3 sets of 10 incline pushups

A lot of my favorites have already been mentioned - but lately we have been having a blast watching Red Dwarf on netflix! What a freakshow!