Anything Goes August Step Challenge and Scavenger Hunt

[Baltoscott]

Jaunty July is coming to an end and it is time to start a new step challenge.  @Jotex suggested calling this one Anything Goes August as in the great Cole Porter song. 

Anything Goes?  Like July it’s hot in the Northern hemisphere, but this month we also begin to lament the end of summer and rush to cram in vacations and finish summer projects we should have started in June.  With all that it is easy to forget to take care of yourself so now is your chance to write down your step and a few other goals for the month.  Then you can report in every few days to keep yourself honest.  And in the spirit of Anything Goes, maybe add a few taps to your basic step goals.

General monthly instructions are below, but this month I’m adding a picture scavenger hunt:  

Take your phone or other camera on your walks look for, snap, and post three pics or more of the following: 1 - some sort of Danger or Warning sign or image like “falling rocks” or “slippery when wet,” the odder the better; 2 - a posted map of something like a downtown walking map, or a park trail map; and 3 a movie or theatre marquee.  Just post here as you find them and add a line or internet link about what you are posting.   (Thanks @Ennay for the pic)     

inspiration :                                                    

   
How It Works:

The primary purpose of these monthly challenges is to keep track of your daily step goals for the month; though many of us track other things as well, like body weight exercises, sleep, trips to the gym, logging food, etc. This is not a competition to see who can do the most of whatever, instead it is a challenge to measure your consistency. So whether you do 1k, 5k, 10k or even 40k steps a day, this is measuring how many days out of the monthly total you can hit your goal.

Some might have a constant goal of 10k steps every single day and others might have a variable goal throughout the week, (and some might even plan days off!) for example.
Monday -> Friday = 10k steps a day
Sat & Sun = “6k steps a day,” or “not tracking”

Regardless of how you structure your daily goals, the only thing that matters for the monthly challenge is whether or not you reach what you set out to do.

Suggested Posting Format.       
1) Post either your constant or variable step goal.
2) Keep track of the # of daily goals achieved out of the monthly minimum and or monthly total

Although you certainly don’t have to post daily, you’ll likely stay closer to what you set out to do by updating the thread several times/week

Injury Notice
If you injure yourself during the month and need to scale back due to the injury, then all you have to do is adjust your goal for that period. If you normally do 10k steps a day but pull a hamstring and decide to do minimal walking (2k steps a day), then all you have to do is change your goal.

[CatLover74]

August 9

10,000 steps a day for at least 20 days of the month  -  7/20.

1 walk per week along the foreshore of my local beach (should be fun in an Australian winter)  -  3/4.

At least 7 hours sleep on at least 15 days of the month  -  8/15.

10 wall pushups a day on at least 15 days of the month  -  9/15.

Post 3 scavenger hunt pictures  -  3/3.

[NellyG]

As you are probably aware, I live in Western Auatralia. Generally not a very cold place. There is only one place in WA that ever gets enough snow to lie on the ground and that is Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges, about 50km from where I live. It has been a cold winter this year and Bluff Knoll has has snow three times (some years we dont even get one lot). This photo was in our local paper this week and I thought it was funny so am sharing it. This man has just broken the Bluff Knoll distance record on skis! The record, formally 4m is now clearly broken and is now 4.51m! I had to laugh (I didnt even know we had a distance record).

[WendyB]

@CatLover74Love the photo!

@NellyGThat is funny. He sure is happy he did it!

There is a record for everything just about

[SunsetRunner]

Day Nine of August.

1. Steps=5000 - 9/31.

Traveling today. It's occurred to me that wearing a fitbit makes for more responsible driving. You're inclined to stop and exercise at least once every hour instead of plowing on :).

2. 2 km walks - 4/8 - got in a walk on arrival along one of the local walking/cycling tracks. Lots of bird life, and cows, and more cars than I'm used to. Where I'm staying it sounds as if there are possums on the roof, which is quite likely.

3. 3 scavenger pictures: 2/3. Still haven't found a picture theatre, let alone one with a marquee. I think they've all but disappeared except for in the larger cities.

[waluouija]

I'm late to the party, but this sounds really cool!! I've been doing really good at watching my calories, but I haven't been very active, and I want to change that. Here are my goals:

(Also, my step goal will be for 20 days of the month--I'm 9 days late, and I'm giving myself a little wiggle room for today because I didn't plan on changing my activity level when I woke up this morning, so I may need a day or two to adjust to a feasible routine.)

• 10k steps for 20 days
• Continue to track calories accurately and completely every day
• Write net calories in planner every day
• Run 3 days per week (except for this week since I'm starting on Thursday and I'm not going to be home where my running shoes are tonight!!) 
• Hike 3 times this month
• Scavenger hunt pics!! (This is the goal I'm most excited about tbh)
• Stealing inspiration from Baltoscott here and gonna try his 1 pushup a day goal.

I'm thinking about making a protein goal too--I'm a vegetarian, and I'm really bad about not getting enough protein because carbs and fats are much easier for me to come by. I'll update this if I decide to create that goal, but for now I think I should focus on what I've listed already to test how sustainable this all is. 

[NellyG]

9 August

10,000 steps a day for 20 days                   8/20         

Swim 2x per week                                         2/2         3/9                 

Dance 6 hours a week                                  2.5/4         7.5/26    

One Interval walk or bike ride per week     1/1         1/4

Post 3 Scavenger Hunt Pictures                 3/3

[Ennay]

No sync.  Pretty sure I ended up a bit short yesterday on both steps and burn, started a new job function - we have an elected board of 9 people who do everything, 3 people change each fiscal year.  Then we shuffle jobs to make the best fit.  Since I have been around the longest, I tend to slide into whatever is needed.  Sigh.  This means 5 totally different jobs in 4 years (covered 2 when we had people leave) but never quite getting rid of the old job(s).  Still have a few hundred hours of unfinished tasks from last fiscal year spread out over each of my last 3 job functions.  I swear I will quit if I ever have to do publicity. 

This year I am doing the books, got the stuff yesterday and holy hell, the guy who did it last year really screwed it up. (and he used to be a CPA!  But I think he never learned how to do books on a computer & dementia has started in a bit ) I may have to go through 13 months of paper files to fix it all. Haven't gotten the paper files yet, a bit afraid that they are just a box of paper with no files.

Anyway, spent all day and evening trying to make heads or tails of his entries instead of walking. 

@SunsetRunner- funny I think here the marquees are easier to find in the small towns.  Not suburbia, but the old small mainstreet towns almost all have an old 1 screen movie theatre with a marquee.

[benvegi]

@SunsetRunner, glad to hear that someone else stops every hour to get their hourly steps! Char and I have been doing that on our car trips.  We don't stop along the road anymore, too many people stop to offer us help. 🙂

[Ennay]

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@benvegi wrote:

@SunsetRunner, glad to hear that someone else stops every hour to get their hourly steps! Char and I have been doing that on our car trips.  We don't stop along the road anymore, too many people stop to offer us help. 🙂

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I used to, but now I don't even notice it buzz at me!

[benvegi]

Here are my goals for Anything Goes August.

15,000 steps a day

7 miles per day

30 floors per day

I am modifying this by adding 4 days off so as to not feel guilty when we have a "town" day & can't get the steps.

Aug 7th 15,898 steps, 8 floors, 7.46 miles  Knew I shouldn't have mentioned Branson, MO in one of my posts. My wife got a sale flyer in the mail for a Branson Mall and said we had to go.:) Went early in AM to avoid the traffic. Had a bit of shopping and a nice lunch.

8/8 17,684 steps, 50 floors, 8.2 miles.  Took a nice 2.6 mile walk in the moring. Was supposed to be sunny all day. At 4 PM is started thundering, then very windy, heavy rain. Ended up with 2 1/2 inches in less than an hour.

@NellyG I really love the "Bandicoot Crossing " sign!

[SunsetRunner]

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@benvegi wrote:

@SunsetRunner, glad to hear that someone else stops every hour to get their hourly steps! Char and I have been doing that on our car trips.  We don't stop along the road anymore, too many people stop to offer us help. 🙂

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Ha ha. The highway I mostly travel has a lot of rest stops, often with a nice little walking trail.

How lovely that people stop to help. Reminds me of one time when I stopped to help someone. It was raining cats and dogs. This was on an interstate highway and about 300 km from my current home, and not much less from my home town. We discovered that we went to school together in my home town - IIRC his sister was in my class at school.

[lavabelle]

Aug 8  Update

15 000 Steps a day 8/31

1000 calorie deficit per day - 20 days minimum 7/20

Scavenger Pictures 2/3

We are having another heat wave with poor air quality here...Only managed to get morning walks in...I drag my butt indoors to my couch with a fan instead of my afternoon walks 🙂 Been walking my lunch break and that nearly does me in. Not a fan of heat.

I am not winning any challenges this week, someone else's turn 🙂  On a high note, I am completely pain free and thinking of repeating my hike from last weekend...I feel full of energy from all of this couch surfing 😉 Also cloudy forecast for the weekend, woot woot!

[NellyG]

@benvegi  Yeah I like that one too

 We had a bandicoot living in our garden for a while. He was a sweet little thing, but has now moved on somewhere else.

[GershonSurge]

 

@waluouija

Welcome to the party. It looks like you have some great goals.

@NellyG

I had to laugh at that guy breaking the distance record on Bluff Knoll. My sister cross-country skis and got a kick out of it.

@WendyB,

It looks like that bird is sitting on a flying stick. Haven't seen too many of those around here.

It looks like about half of us are suffering from the heat and half from the rain. 

[Baltoscott]

August 9

Use Instapot 4 times	2/4
15K steps/day	9/31
1 pushup/day	8/31
13 weight-lifting days	5/13
post 3 scavenger hunt pics	2/3
Sleep 6+ hours 12 days or more during the month	4/12
Weight loss of 2-4 lbs	0.6

Got my steps in early today.  Headed over to the White House and took a few scavenger pics along the way.  (I also took some extra theatre pics to make @SunsetRunner jealous). 

The last pic is the General Andrew Jackson Statute in Lafayette Park across from the White House.  Was watching Bruce Willis in Die Hard the other day, and I modified a phrase from the movie for my caption as to what General Jackson might be saying as he tips his hat to the current occupant.

@NellyG -- it is always nice to see another world record -- 4.51m on Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges, Wow!  Maybe you can take a trip and take a pic of the historical marker for our scavenger hunt next month ...

WELCOME @waluouija.  You are never too late to join 🙂

Heritage trail map in DC

 National TheatreFords Theatre - Modern additionFords Theatre - Lincoln TimesNational TheatreFords TheatreYippee Ki Yay. Mr. President

[WendyB]

Aug 9

Steps: Goal right now is 9000 9/31
Boxing 31 days: 9/31
Bike 2 times 31 days: 9/31
Weights 14 days: 4/31
Lose 3 Pounds 2.5/3
250 Steps per hour 8/31
Post Scavenger hunt photos 3/3

Welcome @waluouija!

@GershonSurge LOL on the Stick even turtles sit on the stick. Lots of things seem to love that stick
We have a ton of these birds as well as Blue Herons

This is my fave part of my walk and my fave Blue Heron pic. Its a different stick poking up as well. Other side of ranch

[Jotex]

Totally lost it yesterday. Not an item, not my temper, nothing like that. It was a full day with fiddling around, watering plants (“Having a Heatwave” :musical_notes:), shopping, ... Our daughter and grandson came after 2 pm and boy did we have fun. 😊 Aless later helped me get dinner ready: tacos with soft flour tortilla ‘boats’, pulled beef, spicy stir-fried chicken, guacamole, refried beabs, black beans, mango, homemade salsa, tortilla chips and wine. A friend of my husband’s dropped by about the time Aless and family were leaving. I sat down to catch my breath and read all y’all’s posts and facebook, next thing I knew, I was asleep. 😴 So, only 5,000+ steps; but I feel like a million dollars! {Now to get that kitchen cleaned up!} TGIF and happy weekend, Peeps! 

[CatLover74]

August 10

10,000 steps a day for at least 20 days of the month  -  8/20.

1 walk per week along the foreshore of my local beach (should be fun in an Australian winter)  -  3/4.

At least 7 hours sleep on at least 15 days of the month  -  9/15.

10 wall pushups a day on at least 15 days of the month  -  10/15.

Post 3 scavenger hunt pictures  -  3/3.

Missed a couple of days here and there with step and sleep goals; but I think I should still be able to meet them all by the end of the month.  The step goal will be challenging with the rain we're getting, but I could always just walk to the bus stop, catch a bus to the nearest shopping centre, and walk around there a bit.

[Jotex]

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@CatLover74 wrote:

 ...  The step goal will be challenging with the rain we're getting, but I could always just walk to the bus stop, catch a bus to the nearest shopping centre, and walk around there a bit.

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I know what you mean @CatLover74. I’ve gone mall walking a couple of times lately but to get out of the heat, not due to rain, 

@NellyG - impressive (!) world record! 😂 Speaking of which, a Texas longhorn set a new world record the other day. Nine year old Sato  measured an incredible 125 and 3/4 inches!  That's 10 feet 5 and 3/4 inches! {Congratulations to the owners of Sato, the Evans of Bay City, Texas.}

[Jotex]

Great shot of the Blue Heron @WendyB!  I am, in fact, in awe of all y'all's beautiful walking areas. I can't always comment on your photos, but I am ENJOYING them! @Baltoscott - great shots of Washington, DC, and the Andrew Jackson 'quote'. I was only there for about 5 days, 4 years ago; must go back!

Since I will only might 'happen' to scenes to take authentic photos for the Scavenger hunt (like last week at our friends' place), shall I take screen shots of the TV shows / movies I'm watching while on my treadmill?  😂 Currently I'm watching The Closer (already on the Fourth Season!), wondering what I'll watch next!?!!