MAYhem Monthly Step Challenge--MAYbe it's time to step it up and get a little crazy with your goals

[Baltoscott]

So April was a reset month, a restart of the January goals you dropped in February ;-).  For the MAYhem challenge this month, get a little creative; sure, get your steps — always gotta do that — but add some floors, or do a 5K, or post a pic of something 2 or 3 miles away from your couch! You get the idea, it’s MAYhem!!

   
How It Works:

The primary purpose of these monthly challenges has been 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 and that will give the rest of us incentive to update our own progress.

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.

[Jotex]

May 19
10,000 steps a day average - 15/31
15,000 steps a day x 5 - 4/5

Two days I did not reach 10,000 (much less 15,000) steps. But I hope at the end of the month the average steps/day will be over 10,000. 

@Baltoscott - congrats on finishing your bike marathon. Great pics of you and your better half.

@Ennay - agree that your garden is looking good. It’s still cool here to plant out too much, but I’ll have veggies and flowers on the terrace this year. Sorry about all the drama in your drama meetings. 

@NellyG - I like your dance goals. I mean, I know it is hard work; but is it also fun with the music?

@GershonSurge - intrigued with your combi-goal and research on weight / training / food cost. I avoid a lot of starches because of recurrent candida overgrowth. I do better with veggies, fruit, meat, and healthy fats. I look for bargains (after 5 pm in some supermarkets they start marking down fresh food — first come, first served). I made my own flaxseed crackers and some mustard today (no artificial ingredients and not expensive to make). I also made chili today with ground chicken (cheaper than beef). 

[Baltoscott]

May 19

-15K steps/day for all 31 days. 19/31
-1 pushup/day for all 31 days 19/31
-13 16 weight-lifting days: 9/13 16 
- 50 floors or more for 20 days: 13/20
-Sleep 6+ hours 12 days: 2/12
-sign up for and do one organized event: 2/2   There was a lot of rain, but I got the event done today.  Yay!

[NellyG]

20 May

Steps 10,000 per day                                       18/20

High step day over 20,000                              1 👍

Swim twice per week                                       2/2     6/8

Fitbit Coach or bike ride - one per week      4/1      6/4    

Dance 6 hours per week                                 3/6      13/24

@Jotex Yes it is fun. I am really missing it at the moment. Well I'm  still dancing a bit but my partner has knee problems so I am doing stuff on my own and it is just not the same. It is a great oportunity to practice steps and sequences and run through routines, but it does get a bit boring after a while. But my rumba has improved big time with all the work it is getting (latin teacher will be happy 🤣). I am hoping Jim will be back next Sunday, at least partially.

@Baltoscott great photos of big smiles! Well done on the event.

[Ennay]

I think about 8 or 9 K steps yesterday?  My fitbit didnt sync yesterday.  Hopefully tonight it will.  More baseball tournament.  I need to figure out a way to get steps in today. Yesterday I ran errands all morning and then tournament all afternoon and evening. 

[Jotex]

May 20
10,000 steps a day average - 15/31
15,000 steps a day x 5 - 4/5

Did not make my 10,000 steps yesterday. It seems my body has fallen into a pattern of pushing to meet the goal about every other day. Hmmmmm...?!! 

[GershonSurge]

I'm still battling the weight issue. It looks insignificant, but it's disconcerting not to be able to gain weight at will. I took some time to examine the numbers and it appears that I'm going in and out of adaptive thermogenisis of some sort. This is mildly supported by the fact that long-lived populations who eat the way I do tend to burn about 2,500 calories a day regardless of their activity. Maybe my set point is a couple pounds lighter than 158. I don't know.

@Baltoscott,

Great pictures. Looks like you had fun.

@Jotex,

If you like, we can use private messages to go into some detail about how to eat inexpensively without compromising nutrition. It's a process that took me about eight years off and on to develop. The type of diet doesn't matter. 

For your candida, I suggest contacting Doug Lyle at True North in California. He has been treating various uncommon illnesses for 31 years. He will do telephone appointments. I think they run about $150/hour. I've read about candida, but I can't vouch for the quality of what I read or my interpretation since I had no personal experience to motivate me to study it deeply.

Hang in there everyone. There are many false summits on a trail up a mountain and the trail gets steeper at the top forcing the pace to get slower. My son put it best at the top of the continental divide in Colorado. It was our third attempt. The first time we were turned back by snow; the second time it was thunderstorms. Finally, after taking shelter from a thunderstorm and battling fatigue we made it to the top. He looked out at the panoramic view in all directions staring it down with his steely eyes and said, "I crapped in those woods!" It doesn't seem bad now, but everyone has their internal battles nobody knows about. 

I've been absent the past few days because of time constraints. 

[Ennay]

All goals except high day are weekly.  All weeks begin on Monday

	April	May	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Total
steps per week	106393	105000	95373	104290	94709
burn per week	19990	21000	19475	19857	18801
weights per week		3	2	0	0
HIIT per week	0	1	0	0	0
High day	25031	25000
Weight loss	-6.8		-3.6	+0.6	-2.4

Gardening made up for some of it.  But I am not very focused on the goals right now.  But its all good, still keeping me going in the right direction.   Very sore and tired from the tournament yesterday (What!  I was not playing!) but they won!

Last week for me to really hit it hard and try to come closer on some of the goals.

[Jotex]

May 21
10,000 steps a day average - 16/31
15,000 steps a day x 5 - 5/5

Got my act together today and got 15,000+ steps in. YES! 

@GershonSurge — thanks so much for your very generous offer to share your valuable knowledge and experience. Can I take a raincheck? 😊

[Baltoscott]

May 21

-15K steps/day for all 31 days. 21/31
-1 pushup/day for all 31 days 21/31
-13 16 weight-lifting days: 11/13 16 
- 50 floors or more for 20 days: 14/20
-Sleep 6+ hours 12 days: 3/12
-sign up for and do one organized event: 2/2   

Started a new weight-lifting routine on Sunday and today it called for pullups.  I haven't done any of those for the past month and a half because of shoulder and elbow pain on my left side.  The pain had dropped off some over the past couple of weeks, but came right back on the third set.  So those are back out!

[NellyG]

22 May

Steps 10,000 per day                                       19/20

High step day over 20,000                              1 👍

Swim twice per week                                       1/2     7/8

Fitbit Coach or bike ride - one per week      -/1      6/4    

Dance 6 hours per week                                 2/6      15/24

[benvegi]

Hmmm, was sure I posted my 1st week of May stats, but didn't see them on here.  Here is week two

Average steps this week: 14,729 per day. Had one town day of only 8.8k

avg floors 30                                                                    one day of 14

avg miles 7.4                                                                     one day of 3.7

So my May goals are to Average:

14 k steps per day 

30 floors per day

7 miles per day

[Ennay]

16K today.  Full blown ear and sinus infection and cant find my sudafed.  WAAAAAH I live in a sign over your first born child state so getting more is not simple.  My ENT always wants me to have it on hand because I am super prone to sinus pressure causing ear blockage.

[Baltoscott]

---

@GershonSurge wrote:

 ...

I'm still battling the weight issue. It looks insignificant, but it's disconcerting not to be able to gain weight at will. I took some time to examine the numbers and it appears that I'm going in and out of adaptive thermogenisis of some sort. This is mildly supported by the fact that long-lived populations who eat the way I do tend to burn about 2,500 calories a day regardless of their activity. Maybe my set point is a couple pounds lighter than 158. I don't know.

---

@GershonSurge -- Adaptive termogenisis of some sort may be it. My weekly weight average was 159 to 160 lbs from August through December last year, so you'd think I ate about the same amount of calories during that timespan, but for the month of August I was eating an average of around 2500 cal/day, in September it was 2720, in October it was 2850, in November 2900, and in December 2970.  I remember deciding in September that i wanted to start gaining weight, but it wasn't until I started averaging between 3000-3200 calories that my recent weight gain actually started to happen.  

I am starting to think that once a body is at stable weight, that it takes a fairly dramatic calorie change to move it up or down.  

[GershonSurge]

@Baltoscott,

Thanks for taking the time to make a detailed post and give me valuable information. For now, I'll take the simple answer and eat a bunch more while not worrying about the process. 

[NellyG]

23 May

Steps 10,000 per day                                       20/20

High step day over 20,000                              1 👍

Swim twice per week                                       1/2     7/8

Fitbit Coach or bike ride - one per week      1/1      7/4    

Dance 6 hours per week                                 2/6      15/24

[Ennay]

12K I think yesterday. 

@Baltoscott@GershonSurge- yes  - adaptive thermogenesis is real.  As you keep slowly increasing your intake you will slowly be able to eat more without gaining (to a point).  It works both directions.  It's one of the reasons I went through a period in my life where I was gaining weight at 1300 calories, and now I am losing weight fairly quickly at well over 2000 calories.   With marathoning I had conditioned my body to be incredibly efficient with fuel and even though I was eating enough then, I wasn't able to eat little enough to compensate when running stopped cold. 

Also one of the reasons I hate when women dive right in to 1200 calories and then forevermore feel that if they eat 1300 they will gain.  It can take years to recover from that kind of set point. 

[GershonSurge]

@Ennay,

Thanks for relating your experience. I think your theory has merit. I went back to not counting calories, and now, the problem seems to have been resolved.

[NellyG]

24 May

Steps 10,000 per day                                       21/20

High step day over 20,000                              1 👍

Swim twice per week                                       2/2     8/8

Fitbit Coach or bike ride - one per week      1/1      7/4    

Dance 6 hours per week                                 2/6      15/24

[Ennay]

around 6K steps yesterday.  Felt a little woogy in the morning and skipped my walk, decided I am not sick, just my old GI stuff being a PITA.  But couldnt shake my crappy mood.  Probably annoyed my walking partner to no end and she might need a break from me. 😛

The hurrier I go the behinder I get.

[Jotex]

May 24
10,000 steps a day average - 17/31
15,000 steps a day x 5 - 5/5

Missed getting my steps in a couple of days. {Stuff happens.} Still have fingers crossed my monthly average  will be 10,000/day. 🙏🏻