[Shello]

This challenge is the 6th chapter supporting this year's Roadmap.   I got a bit derailed last challenge after vacation and not feeling well and I never quite got back on track.   The goal of this challenge is to get back on track and reinforce consistency.  It will also see the last leg of summer so what better way to celebrate that than with Duck Races!

 

 

The end of the challenge coincides with my annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair.  Duck races isn't something we do there, that I know of, but it sure feels like a fair event.  

 

Every day a goal is hit, the 🐤 gets closer to the finish line. 🚧

Missing a goal gets a Grey Duck 🦤

Some mulligans or Passterisks are allowed depending on the situation and the goal. 🐣

I have a couple of trips and events during this challenge that I've excluded from the goals.  

 

The Goals

Food: Eat within calorie budget (100 calorie margin). 

Food is logged on the Noom app.  Calorie target is determined by Noom, according to my activity level.

Finish line at 35 🐤

 

Fitness: Daily Movement

Fitness should be about 3-4 days a week, usually a 3 mile walk around the lake or maybe some gardening.  Non fitness days calorie burn according to Fitbit should hit 2400. 

1 mulligan 🐣allowed per week 

Finish line at 35 🐤

 

Castle: Clean or declutter daily

Clean for 5 minutes or purge at least 1 item.  

Finish line at 35 🐤

 

Mind: Paint weekly

I found a 30 day painting challenge but I don't have that kind of time. Instead, I'll do one weekly. 

I'll be out of town for 1 weekend so it's doubtful anything will get done that week. 

Finish line 4 🐤 

 

[Shello]

Food

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              🚧

                                                                         

Fitness

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              🚧

 

Castle

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              🚧

 

Mind

                        🚧

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Quack Quack*

 

 

*Following

[deftona]

This sounds like a ducking good challenge! 

[RES]

 

Here to watch you get your ducks in a row...

[Shello]

10 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Quack Quack*

 

 

*Following

6 hours ago, deftona said:

This sounds like a ducking good challenge! 

Thanks!

 

59 minutes ago, RES said:

 

Here to watch you get your ducks in a row...

Good one!  I think it might be more like herding cats but we'll see. 

[MaeradCase]

12 hours ago, Shello said:

The goal of this challenge is to get back on track and reinforce consistency.  It will also see the last leg of summer so what better way to celebrate that than with Duck Races!

 

The Goals

Food: Eat within calorie budget (100 calorie margin). 

Food is logged on the Noom app.  Calorie target is determined by Noom, according to my activity level.

Finish line at 35 🐤

 

Fitness: Daily Movement

Fitness should be about 3-4 days a week, usually a 3 mile walk around the lake or maybe some gardening.  Non fitness days calorie burn according to Fitbit should hit 2400. 

1 mulligan 🐣allowed per week 

Finish line at 35 🐤

 

Castle: Clean or declutter daily

Clean for 5 minutes or purge at least 1 item.  

Finish line at 35 🐤

 

Mind: Paint weekly

I found a 30 day painting challenge but I don't have that kind of time. Instead, I'll do one weekly. 

I'll be out of town for 1 weekend so it's doubtful anything will get done that week. 

Finish line 4 🐤 

 

Duck racing sounds absolutely adorable.

 

I like that your Castle goal has a low minimum. 5 minutes is a good long song or two good short ones, and purging 1 thing can be hard but is totally achievable. 

 

30-day challenges are good inspiration, but I've either never managed to complete them, or I've never managed it in 30 days. I have a few left I'd like to get to on the set I've been doing, but I may still have to prioritize it later.

 

Good luck to you on your challenge! I'm here to cheer those duckies on! 😍

[Shello]

41 minutes ago, MaeradCase said:

I like that your Castle goal has a low minimum. 5 minutes is a good long song or two good short ones, and purging 1 thing can be hard but is totally achievable. 

I didn't even think about tying this music.  Great idea! 

[Cheetah]

Nice goals.  You can do it!

[Shello]

4 hours ago, Cheetah said:

Nice goals.  You can do it!

Thanks Cheetah! 

[Shello]

Week 0 Day 1

Off to a good start and it felt good.  It felt good to get back to eating my usual food.  We had leftover hotdogs at work all last week so I opted for those for lunch until we had to throw the last of them out.   

 

It felt good to log food again.  I took a break because I was over it and didn't want to bother.  Now I'm better.  I ate well under calories. 

🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      🚧

It felt good to go for a walk with Qbert.  DDG had the car and was out with Luigi for dinner in the next town over.  I haven't been walking as much lately and it just makes it harder.  Qbert and I had a lovely time chatting about school and life and stuff.   

🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      🚧

 

It felt good to clean off a section of the kitchen counter where the kids' stuff accumulates.  I didn't even think about the goal but was tired of seeing their stuff collecting.  I deposited Peach's in her room since she's out of town and I instructed Qbert to move his.  It's still there.   I also just grabbed a few things from the top of the pile in the hallway that were Qbert's and I've been meaning to ask him what he wanted to do with them.  1 got tossed, 1 got donated, and 1 went to his room.  

🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       🚧

 

It felt really good to get some art work done.  I found a really good resource online that I am enjoying.  I made a tint tone shade chart with all my paint colors over the weekend and then picked one of her tutorials and painted a picture last night.  And it's adorable.  Pics on Insta.  

🐤                  🚧               

 

[Rooks]

18 hours ago, Shello said:

It felt good to clean off a section of the kitchen counter where the kids' stuff accumulates.  I didn't even think about the goal but was tired of seeing their stuff collecting.  I deposited Peach's in her room since she's out of town and I instructed Qbert to move his.  It's still there.   I also just grabbed a few things from the top of the pile in the hallway that were Qbert's and I've been meaning to ask him what he wanted to do with them. 

 

This is a constant battle in our house. We all just set stuff on the kitchen island and it builds and builds until my wife loses it. I try and periodically move stuff, but yeah. There's been a lot of coaching of kiddo to deal with your own stuff, it doesn't get to live in the public areas of the house.  It's slowly gotten better, but it doesn't help that both my wife and I are part of the problem as well. That whole behavior modeling stuff. 

[Shello]

2 hours ago, Rooks said:

it doesn't help that both my wife and I are part of the problem as well.

This is how I create the situation I am in with practically grown kids.  Oh well, soon enough it won't be my problem anymore. 

[Shello]

W0D1

Another good day but this one took more effort.  I had the usual lunch again and tried to be reasonable with the chocolate that always follows.  Dinner was a leftover ground turkey and rice hotdish with some basmati rice, cauliflower rice, carrots, and peas.  I had a dinner roll with it and it still didn't seem quite filling enough so I had some baked chips.   I was still under my calorie target without any exercise calories.  

🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  🚧

DDG was out for dinner with Mario and I had papers to grade so it was a planned rest day.  But it was becoming clear by the time DDG got home that I wouldn't hit the 2400 calorie mark so we went out for a 10 minute neighborhood walk to at least get the bare minimum fitness in.  Turns out that was just enough because my calorie burn was 2400 exactly.  

🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  🚧

I didn't really feel like cleaning or purging anything but I made myself do something.  I cleaned off a surface that collects junk and threw out some papers and magazines.  

🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  🚧

What I really wanted to do was start another painting but stupid grading.  I decided to get a background painted so it had time to dry while I graded.  But then grading took the rest of the night so I never got back to it.  

🐤                 🚧

[MaeradCase]

I hope your castle keeps improving from consistent effort. I know I get stuck being okay with my messes, because I don't usually have energy for big jobs, or I don't know how to start.

 

Now I get to sift through everything by unpacking all our possessions a little at a time. I think that makes it a little easier for me, rather than tackling a mess I've allowed to accumulate.

[Shello]

8 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

I hope your castle keeps improving from consistent effort. I know I get stuck being okay with my messes, because I don't usually have energy for big jobs, or I don't know how to start.

I'm sure it will!  I was thinking the other day that at this pace I won't make any progress but after 5 weeks all those little actions will accomplish so much more than 5 weeks of not doing anything because it's 'not enough'.  

[Shello]

W0D3

DDGs family usually gets together every Wednesday night all summer.  It's been a little inconsistent but now they've got their ducks in a row so it's on every Wednesday.  I forgot to mention that I plan to account for that in my goals by allowing a higher calorie target day.  I plan to just adjust the difficulty level in Noom.  I gave my self two notches but it wasn't enough and I still went over almost 600 calories.  It's not my fault really.  DDG really wanted Dairy Queen when he left his sister's place and who am I to keep him from DQ?  And naturally if we're there, I'm going to get some too.  I was going to get a mini blizzard but we ended up at a janky DQ that was privately owned and apparently don't have to follow the franchise rules.  They didn't have the blizzard of the month flavors and didn't have minis.  And it cost $14 for 2 small blizzards.   It was quite good though so I got over it.  I brought Hawaiian sandwich rolls with the butter and poppy seed glaze over the top.  Roast beef and provolone and then ham and havarti.  They were very good and I had more than I should have.  But I skipped the hot dogs on the roll-y machine and skipped all chips to compensate.  I would have been within goal range (within the margin anyway) had it not been for DQ.  And I didn't have the heart to tell him that would put me over.  

🐤🐤🦤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         🚧

 

We didn't have time for any fitness and after we got home from dinner I had finals to grade so I had no choice but to sit and get that done.  I'm taking the mulligan for the week. 

🐤🐤🐣                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         🚧

 

 I didn't take much time to clean but after cleaning off a surface the other day, every time I walk by it and see the dried up reed diffuser I figured that was an easy win.  It got added to the donate box in the garage. 

🐤🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         🚧

 

No time for any painting or creative projects.  The canvas with the background painted mocks me everytime I walk in the house since we walk right into the office from the garage.  

🐤                      🚧

[Shello]

W0D4

Food was on point.  I had the usual for lunch and snacks at work.  I had a little extra candy knowing we were planning to go for a walk.  Dinner was the last of the turkey and rice hotdish with a dinner roll then a few bits of candy.  I was over 400 calories under budget leaving the exercise calories untouched. 

🐤🐤🦤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  🚧

 

We went out to the lake trail and walked around the lake and then kept going a little further and circled back on a loop from the road and got an extra half mile in.  3.65 miles total.  It was a gorgeous day, not too hot and not too humid.  I'm glad we got to take advantage of it. 

🐤🐤🐣🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  🚧

 

I needed to look for something that I suspected was in the junk drawer in the kitchen.  I keep remembering when I'm not at home and then promptly forget as soon as I walk in the house.  I finally remembered.  The item didn't immediately jump out at me so I started pulling stuff out of the drawer and tossing junk.  I found coupons from 2013.  I did find the thing.  Once I got to all the miscellaneous debris at the bottom we just took the drawer out and tossed whatever was left.  I'm counting it as 1 purged item but really it was probably 50 tiny items. 

🐤🐤🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  🚧

 

No time for any painting again.  After our walk and dinner I had papers to grade.  I finished around 10 and was brain dead by then.  I just scrolled on my phone while DDG watched Youtube.  We went to bed early. 

🐤                      🚧

[MaeradCase]

5 hours ago, Shello said:

DDG really wanted Dairy Queen when he left his sister's place and who am I to keep him from DQ?  And naturally if we're there, I'm going to get some too.  I was going to get a mini blizzard but we ended up at a janky DQ that was privately owned and apparently don't have to follow the franchise rules.  They didn't have the blizzard of the month flavors and didn't have minis.  And it cost $14 for 2 small blizzards.   It was quite good though so I got over it.  

Wow, sorry they were janky, but I'm glad it was still good. I like ice cream treats.

 

5 hours ago, Shello said:

 I didn't take much time to clean but after cleaning off a surface the other day, every time I walk by it and see the dried up reed diffuser I figured that was an easy win.  It got added to the donate box in the garage. 

🐤🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         🚧

Easy win is still a win! Good job taking action!

 

4 hours ago, Shello said:

Dinner was the last of the turkey and rice hotdish with a dinner roll

Yummy!

 

4 hours ago, Shello said:

We went out to the lake trail and walked around the lake and then kept going a little further and circled back on a loop from the road and got an extra half mile in.  3.65 miles total.  It was a gorgeous day, not too hot and not too humid.  I'm glad we got to take advantage of it. 

🐤🐤🐣🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  🚧

Good job!

 

4 hours ago, Shello said:

I needed to look for something that I suspected was in the junk drawer in the kitchen.  I keep remembering when I'm not at home and then promptly forget as soon as I walk in the house.  I finally remembered.  The item didn't immediately jump out at me so I started pulling stuff out of the drawer and tossing junk.  I found coupons from 2013.  I did find the thing.  Once I got to all the miscellaneous debris at the bottom we just took the drawer out and tossed whatever was left.  I'm counting it as 1 purged item but really it was probably 50 tiny items. 

🐤🐤🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  🚧

EPIC WIN!!!!

[Shello]

On 7/29/2022 at 1:35 PM, MaeradCase said:

Wow, sorry they were janky, but I'm glad it was still good. I like ice cream treats.

 

janky ice cream is still ice cream!  

[Shello]

W0 Update

Friday was pizza night.  I opted for perfectly portioned Tortino's pizza to stick to the goals.  It was even more important since I succumbed to donuts when I walked into work.  Someone had brought some in to share and since I couldn't decide I had an apple fritter AND a sprinkle donut.  And then remembered a coworker was retiring and there would be cake.  Yes, I had cake too.  I got roped in to helping to serve and naturally caved as a result.  Although to be honest I would have had a piece regardless.  Even with exercise calories for our walk Friday I went over by just over 150 calories.  

 

Saturday was a tough day to stick to the goal too.  We headed to Kansas City for a Sporting KC game so we planned to eat down there.  To start the day DDG and I had breakfast skillets to keep using up food from the freezer. Hashbrowns, eggs, cheddar, and bacon.  I made them in the cast iron skillet and I think they were the best skillets I've ever made.   We let Mario pick the place for dinner and he picked a pizza by the slice joint.  It was a new place so we went a little crazy ordering the extras to try - sausage rolls, pepperoni rolls, cheese bread.  I was also craving ice cream on the drive back home so I grabbed a Ben and Jerry's pint slice.  I did go over for the day but by less than 50.  That's still a win.  

 

Sunday was better.  Breakfast was breakfast sandwiches to use up some sausage patties and biscuits from the freezer.   For dinner I made ricotta meatballs and we made meatball subs as Qbert's request.  We just had baked chips with them and then had some of the leftover cake I had brought home for them from Friday.

Overall I would have liked to do better but it is zero week.  The average daily calories were below budget so that's a step in the right direction.

🐤🐤🦤🐤🦤🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                          🚧

 

Lots of walking got done.  We went for a 5k walk around the lake Friday night.  Then Saturday we ended up parking in the furthest lot and walked to the stadium and back to the car.  Sunday we walked around the lake and added an extra mile. 

In total I walked 14.2 miles this week plus whatever the stadium walk was.  Easily 15 miles.  

🐤🐤🐣🐤🐤🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                         🚧

 

I got my cleaning done every day over the weekend.  Friday I cleaned out the snack corner on the kitchen counter.  The pile is high but no one really eats most of it so I don't know where it comes from.  I threw out a bunch.  But perishables don't count as purging.  

Saturday I cleaned our bathroom.  DDG kept trying to convince me I didn't need to and we could put it off but I know that only means that he would end up doing it, again.  It was definitely my turn.  I got the cleaning done and purged 1 item.  

Sunday was a productive day.  We were finally able to defrost the freezer!  Everything that was left either fit in the freezer with our refrigerator or could be left over (bread and baking staples).  There was even room left in that freezer for the pizzas that came in our grocery order.  DDG took care of defrosting the freezer and I scooped litter and cleaned up the laundry room.  While I was there I tossed an old litter box that I had saved while I made sure the cats liked the new litter box.  That was probably 9 months ago so we clearly don't need the old one anymore.  

And look at that, a perfect score!   This is not the duck I expected to win.  

🐤🐤🐤🐤🐤🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                        🚧

 

I did find time to paint over the weekend but have not finished a new painting yet.  I've redone the background 3 times though and finally moved forward with the 3rd.  I planned to paint Friday as Mario was expected to come over.  He changed his plans.  I still could have but by Friday evening I was just tired.  I did do a little work on background #1.  Sunday I abandoned that for background #2 but didn't like that either so I started over again.  

🐤                        🚧

[Shello]

I have already logged all my food for the day and updated my spreadsheet in expectation of meeting all goals today. 

 

[MaeradCase]

10 hours ago, Shello said:

Friday I cleaned out the snack corner on the kitchen counter.  The pile is high but no one really eats most of it so I don't know where it comes from.  I threw out a bunch.  But perishables don't count as purging.  

They don't?! But they are taking up space, and they are being removed... I would've classified that as a success. 

 

Speaking of which, while we sift through things at my house, it may be the kitchen sifting time for me since I told Cidran he can organize the shelf this time (he hated whatever I did to it last time).

 

10 hours ago, Shello said:

And look at that, a perfect score!   This is not the duck I expected to win.  

🐤🐤🐤🐤🐤🐤🐤                                                                                                                                                                                                        🚧

You're doing great! I've already had a mulligan in this category, so your duckies have got past mine.

 

10 hours ago, Shello said:

I did find time to paint over the weekend but have not finished a new painting yet.  I've redone the background 3 times though and finally moved forward with the 3rd.  I planned to paint Friday as Mario was expected to come over.  He changed his plans.  I still could have but by Friday evening I was just tired.  I did do a little work on background #1.  Sunday I abandoned that for background #2 but didn't like that either so I started over again.  

🐤                        🚧

I had a revelation for a new art plan based on a 30 day challenge I've still yet to finish. (Yes, I'll be trying to finish it first. I think I had 5 left in it)

I've been using the prompts to draw one D&D character, but since I have more character sheets than I need, I'm going to use the same challenge to draw 30 of them!

...after all our unpacking is done... and after I finish my previous challenge... 😕

[RES]

On 8/1/2022 at 1:54 PM, Shello said:

I have already logged all my food for the day and updated my spreadsheet in expectation of meeting all goals today. 

 

I find this to be helpful for me as well, sometimes I'll even log the whole week on Sunday so I don't have to think about it...occasionally I don't even eat everything I've entered

 

[Shello]

4 minutes ago, RES said:

I find this to be helpful for me as well, sometimes I'll even log the whole week on Sunday so I don't have to think about it...occasionally I don't even eat everything I've entered

 

Sometimes it's a good reminder that I am in control of what I eat and I can just eat what I plan, assuming I plan well.