MAYbe try a bit More in May 2024— Step Challenge and Photo Scavenger Hunt

[Baltoscott]

MAYbe it’s time to add a little more to your daily activities? MAYbe new route for your daily walk?  Or MAYbe start a daily walk :-). MAYbe weekend hikes, or bike rides, or MAYbe a spring 5K? The 2022 version of this month was Maybe Try Something New. At the time I was getting into bird photography which I still love doing, but as I’ve gotten better, I noticed that I’ve slowed down when I’m birding. Standing still for minutes while listening for possible subjects. Slowing down as I move to the edge of the water to avoid scaring off the birds I’m stalking. I’ll still do that, but this year some of my May hikes will be a bit longer and a bit faster, and MAYbe with no camera other than my iPhone.

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

Picture Scavenger Hunt — 3 pictures

The theme of the photo scavenger hunt this month is to find at least three different kinds of May flowers (blooms), and three different animals on your daily walks. The more colors and critters the better. Some other May picture ideas (in the US, anyway) are Memorial Day events and Mothers day celebrations; it is graduation day for for any number of schools around the world.

Purple Clematis

Posting

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.

[NellyG]

9 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      5/15

10 days over 12,000                                         4/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 4/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   10/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      1/3

[NellyG]

10 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      6/15

10 days over 12,000                                         5/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 5/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   13/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      2/3

Millipede

 

[Vidd]

There are some great pictures being taken by everyone this month!

MAYbe Try A Bit More in May - DAY 10

3 walks with Walter the collie every day, wherever we are.	10/31
Play the piano to Walter every day.	10/31
In bed by midnight every day.	10/31
..and by 11pm at least 26 days.	9/26
Cleaning/DIY/gardening every day when I'm at home.	10/31
5,000 steps per day	10/31
Get to the bottom of my mysterious shoulder pain!	0/1
3 Scavenger Hunt photos	0/3

Quite a lot of this month's and previous months' DIY is making our house mouse-proof - an ongoing project.  We first found them a couple of months ago in our understairs cloakroom, which includes several shelves with board games on, and, below them, a couple of big bags of dog food and any wine-making kits that there wasn't room for in the pantry.  First, there were the telltale signs of rodent occupation, so everything in that room had to come out, firstly to clean the room and then to search for points of entry.  Mice are amazingly tidy!  Inside the box for an old board game (Peter Rabbit's Race Game) there must have been at least a hundred small dog biscuits all carefully arranged.  They'd even undone part of a loo roll to make some bedding.  

We got some humane traps, which contain the mice without hurting them, and baited them with more dog biscuits.  Five so far have been escorted a quarter of a mile into the woods at the end of our road, but we did see that sometimes they'd managed to get the food out, and escape, springing the trap after they'd left.  One of them even had a go at making a hole in the end of the trap - in hard plastic! - safely away from the closing door.  The back door of the house has a lot of extra wood fastened to and around it, with steel wool packed into small holes that they could squeeze through.

[Jotex]

May Goals with Days 8, 9, 10

• 5,000 Steps  4/x8 days
  8,000 Steps  4/x8 days
• 10,000 Steps  1/x8 days
• 12,000 Steps  1/x3 days
• Line Dance Class  0/x2
• Pilates Class  1/x2
• MTT 1/x8 

 

Some friends took this at 1:35 am from their balcony (in Switzerland). 

 

Spring plants are finally blossoming! 

[jantonini]

MAYbe Try A Bit More in May goals and day 11

10k steps per day (Sundays) -  1/5 days

Over 13k steps per day -  4/14 days

Over 16k steps per day -   4/7 days

Over 20k steps per day - 2/5

Weights - 6/15 days 

Yoga/pilates/stretch - 7/15 days

90 oz Water every day -  10/31 days

5 lb weight loss -  /5 pounds lost -More focus here!

Mindfulness/Meditation at least 3 minutes-    1/7

Asleep by Midnight at least 22 days-  3/22 days

May pictures.  2/3  

Photos : Aurora Borealis in Central Illinois (Has not happened hear in my lifetime!) --2 (one was at our friend's house across town.) Also some of my Iris's.

Our friend's houseAurora B over our lakeMy Iris's

[Baltoscott]

@jantonini @Jotex - how cool to see Aurora Borealis in your backyard. I might get a chance to see it tonight (Sunday). Too much cloud cover the last couple of nights.

[jantonini]

@Baltoscott I hope you do!!  BEAUTIFUL!

[Jotex]

May Goals with Days 11, 12

• 5,000 Steps  5/x8 days
  8,000 Steps  4x8 days
• 10,000 Steps  2/x8 days
• 12,000 Steps  1/x3 days
• Line Dance Class  0/x2
• Pilates Class  1/x2
• MTT 2/x8 

First rose of 2024, just in time for Mother’s Day.

[NellyG]

13 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      7/15

10 days over 12,000                                         6/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 6/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   15/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      2/3

[NellyG]

14 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      8/15

10 days over 12,000                                         7/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 6/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   18/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      2/3

[Vidd]

MAYbe Try A Bit More in May - DAY 14

3 walks with Walter the collie every day, wherever we are.	14/31
Play the piano to Walter every day.   We're back on Beethoven late sonatas.  He loves them!	14/31
In bed by midnight every day.	14/31
..and by 11pm at least 26 days.	13/26
Cleaning/DIY/gardening every day when I'm at home.	14/31
5,000 steps per day	14/31
Get to the bottom of my mysterious shoulder pain! I've just had a call from the neurologist I saw a fortnight ago.  He had been taking a look at an MRI scan I had back in August 2022, and which I had been told was normal.  This doctor said he could see a disc bulge in the place where it would cause the pain I'm getting.   He'll talk to the neurosurgeon about next steps.  There's hope at last!🙂	1/1 provisionally!
3 Scavenger Hunt photos	0/3

[NellyG]

15 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      9/15

10 days over 12,000                                         8/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 6/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   20/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      2/3

[NellyG]

16 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      10/15

10 days over 12,000                                         9/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 7/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   21/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      5/3

Two cats in a house I passed

 

 

 

[Jotex]

May Goals with Days 13, 14, 15

• 5,000 Steps  7/x8 days
  8,000 Steps  4x8 days
• 10,000 Steps  3/x8 days
• 12,000 Steps  1/x3 days
• Line Dance Class  1/x2
• Pilates Class  2/x2
• MTT 5/x8 

[NellyG]

17 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      11/15

10 days over 12,000                                         10/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 8/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   23/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      5/3

[NellyG]

18 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      12/15

10 days over 12,000                                         11/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 8/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   25/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      5/3

[NellyG]

20 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      13/15

10 days over 12,000                                         12/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 8/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   27/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      5/3

[NellyG]

21 May

10,000 steps a day for 15 days                      14/15

10 days over 12,000                                         13/10             

6 days over 15,000 steps                                 8/6           

35 exercise sessions (swim, bike, walk, gym, dance)   30/35

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                      5/3

[Vidd]

MAYbe Try A Bit More in May - DAY 21

I'm having to revise my goals as walking is now extremely difficult.

3 walks with Walter the collie every day, wherever we are, when I'm fit enough.	19/19
Play the piano to Walter every day.   We're back on Beethoven late sonatas.  He loves them!  At the moment, I can'\t play for more than a few minutes, though.	20/31
In bed by midnight every day.	21/31
..and by 11pm at least 26 days.	20/26
Cleaning/DIY/gardening every day when I'm at home and able	19/19
5,000 steps per day until May 19th. No targets beyond that for the moment.	19/19
Get to the bottom of my mysterious shoulder pain! I've today had another call from the neurologist.  He advises me to have an up-to-date MRI scan before the surgeon takes a look, so I'll do that.	1/1 provisionally!
3 Scavenger Hunt photos	0/3

[jantonini]

MAYbe Try A Bit More in May goals and day 21

@Vidd  glad to hear that you have options now

Great pictures everyone!

10k steps per day (Sundays) -  3/4days

Over 13k steps per day -  8/14 days

Over 16k steps per day -   7/7 days

Over 20k steps per day - 3/5

Weights - 10/15 days 

Yoga/pilates/stretch - 10/15 days

90 oz Water every day -  19/31 days

5 lb weight loss - 1 /5 pounds lost -More focus here!

Mindfulness/Meditation at least 3 minutes-    2/7

Asleep by Midnight at least 22 days-  5/22 days

May pictures.  3/3  

Photos : crazy clouds over our lake and an unlikely butterfly on some marigolds and planting.