March Madness 2019 (last year - Don't Post)

[Baltoscott]

It is the third month of 2019 and for college basketball fans the start of three weeks of hoop madness (beginning on March 19).  My Kansas Jayhawks are a little short-handed this year, but in a one-and-done 64+team tournament the luck of the draw often brings favorable matchups.  You just never know what will happen. 

In the meantime, it is time to commit to another month of health goals.  

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

Last month the theme of the photo scavenger hunt was to find three ‘odd duck’ type-photos, and we had several, with one being pretty literal.  Thanks @WendyB .  Though I suppose the goose might take offense to being tagged as odd. 

March will be the last month of winter for most of us (and summer from some of us).  It is usually a good excuse for a mini-vacation, or maybe a big vacation, so the task this month is to get out of the house (or hotel), walk about and find three pics that represent play or relaxation — maybe people, or animals — swimming, skiing, hiking, sunning; or fun places, or places like tourist attractions, playgrounds, circus tents, festivals … [edit] Thanks @SunsetRunner suggesting funny hats as a subcategory for  the play and relaxation pics.  Sadly, your suggested name of Madhatter March for this month came a bit to late, but I've updated my profile picture with a funny hat.

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.

[SunsetRunner]

BMANintheUP I'm loving all the pictures, so anything you come across that you like I'm sure we will all enjoy and appreciate the beauty.

[GSaldiveri]

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@WendyB wrote:

March Madness Day 9

Did not make 250 goals today. Too busy drinking beer and eating lobster tacos.

---

Now if there was ever a good excuse for not making a goal!!.... LOL

My wife and I decided to take 1 day a week off from this madness as well 🙂 Going to sit on the front porch, read a book and watch the clouds roll by. I'll probably still get my 15k in somehow, but not going to push hard.

March Goals	Day 9
	Goal	Met
70 oz Water	31	8
20k Steps	22	8
15k Steps	31	9
125k Steps/Week	4	1
150k Steps/Week	2	1
Lose Weight	3 lbs.	1 lb
Cardio (30+ min)	20	4

I've been cranking them out so far this year. 10lbs down too so it's been worth it 🙂

[benvegi]

March Madness goals:  

Steps 20,000 per day, 25+ floors p/day, 8+ miles p/day

2 sets of 12 reps of dumbbell curls, triceps, shoulder shrugs, and chest flys, 3 times a week. Increasing weights used and adding more stretches/yoga. 

One or more pics of each scavenger hunt topic. 

Check in at least Once a week.

3/9 steps 27,650, floors 65,  miles 13.28   

OK, this is strange!  Char, Jake & I took our normal walk up the hill, the same walk we did on March 5-8. On those days we had between 33 & 39 floors for the day. Yesterday about noon I checked my step count and noticed I had 48 floors already.  I asked Char what her floor count was and she had 44! The rest of the day I stayed close to the house for my walking and did not go back up the hills. Be early evening I had 65 floors!  

My only clue to what happened was the weather yesterday - Fog early morning, changed to strong thunderstorms by 7 am, then abruptly cleared up by 11 ish, followed by sunny skies and very windy! Probably a huge pressure change during the day.  Has anyone else found large floor counts on certain days? Any other ideas besides weather? 

We both have charge 2s

9/30 on steps, 7/30 on floors, 9/30 on miles, check in 3/4

weights 4/12

[GSaldiveri]

@benvegi- I use an Alta so I don't see anything related to stairs but when I had my One I noticed that the weather did play into it quite a bit as well as when I rode my motorcycle. A 2 or 3 hour bike ride was good for a about a hundred flights of stairs...

i.e. 117 floors on March 31, 2017

Trust me, I did not climb those steps lol

[SunsetRunner]

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@GSaldiveri wrote:

@benvegi- I use an Alta so I don't see anything related to stairs but when I had my One I noticed that the weather did play into it quite a bit as well as when I rode my motorcycle. A 2 or 3 hour bike ride was good for a about a hundred flights of stairs...

i.e. 117 floors on March 31, 2017

Trust me, I did not climb those steps lol

---

Same has happened to me a few times, @benvegi. Either too many, or too few floors (sometimes it only counts half as many floors as I climbed. Que sera sera.  Someone else posted this same question years ago, and this was the answer marked 'SOLVED':

06-07-2015 04:09

Yes, weather condition can affect floor count. Fitbits detect floors by measuring a change in air pressure. Winds or weather fronts passing by can affect the air pressure and thereby affect the floor count.

The bad news is that there isn't anything we can do to stop this.

The good news is that only the floor count is affected - the calories burned are not influenced by the floor count so the extra floors in error are not affecting your other stats.

[SunsetRunner]

Yes, weather condition can affect floor count. Fitbits detect floors by measuring a change in air pressure. Winds or weather fronts passing by can affect the air pressure and thereby affect the floor count.

The bad news is that there isn't anything we can do to stop this.

The good news is that only the floor count is affected - the calories burned are not influenced by the floor count so the extra floors in error are not affecting your other stats.

[WendyB]

Yep @SunsetRunner  is correct on the floors.

I always get huge amounts of floors when its windy

[WendyB]

March Madness Day 10

Steps: Goal 13,000 31 days: 10/31
Boxing 31 days: 10/31
Bike 3 times 31 days 10/31
Weights DVD 17 days: 6/31
Stomach YouTube 31 days : 10/31
Wall Push Up/Counter push ups 31 days: 10/31
250 Steps per hour 31 days: 9/31
Post Scavenger hunt photos: 4/3

[SunsetRunner]

March Madness Goals - Day 10

12,000 steps: 7/15 days

20,000 steps: 1/5 days

25,000 steps: 1/1 day

Train w/weights: 4/15 days
40 jumping jacks: 9/20 days
Line Dance: 1/4 days

Eat a piece of fruit: 7/20 days

Scavenger Hunt Pics: 3/3 pics

A pic of 3 typical Swiss men who spontaneously decided to make the most of a cold winter evening with a cheese fondue! 

Peter (hubs) left invited 2 friends over for a fondue.

@WendyB - all I can say is Bravo!!! Cheers! 🍻 

[BMANintheUP]

Day 10 Goals

Step Goal: 5825 Steps  8/31  (I was sick on Day 8 again with low steps, but I was over 7,000 on days 9 & 10 so I believe my weekly average will still beat the goal.)

Days over 9000 Steps 1/4  

Active Hours 6 hours a day  10/31

Sleep 7 hours a night 8/31

Hit peak heart rate 3 times a week  8/12

Cardio heart rate 60+ every day  10/31

Plank 1 minute every day  6/31

Yoga 20+ minutes 3 days a week 4/12

Log food and water intake every day  10/31

My exercise for the day, (besides loops around the driveway, playing ball with the dogs, and shoveling 4-5 inches of snow from our walkway) was working on socialization with my 9 month old puppy at Home Depot.  She is afraid of strangers, so we have been walking here alot during these cold months.  She seemed to be getting better, but we tried around lunch time and she did really poorly.  So we went back a few hours later to try again.  She was much happy this time!

Marquette, MIMiner's MuseumMarquette, MI

[Baltoscott]

March Madness Day 10

15K steps/day		10/31
1 pushup/day		10/31
14 weight-lifting days		6/14
post scavenger pics		2/3
Sleep 6+ hours 12 days or more during the month		7/12
1 pull-up/day		10/31
Complete Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nasrat		4/4
Complete Cooked by Michael Pollan		1/4

So the Pollan book "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation" is basically a four part book too: Fire, Water, Air, Earth.  I'm on Fire now (he is learning how to barbecue whole pigs in Ayden North Carolina).  Anyway, that puts me at 1/4 for progress on the book.  I probably will not be slow roasting a whole pig anytime soon, but it is interesting reading.

Our snow is gone @BMANintheUP.  But the dogs seem pretty happy with the mud in the back yard.  I've been trying to cut it with straw, but it is a losing battle.  And Cali, probably with Jayhawk's help, found and emptied the treat jar we keep in the back porch.

I like mud. Jumping in it. Rolling in it. Chasing in it ...Empty Treat Jar? What empty treat jar?

[WendyB]

Good Kids Callie and Jayhawk:) Sure @Baltoscott  does not agree

A whole pig?  I have been to cook outs that do this. But it has to be a ton of work that I will never even try.

I just happy to work with my Instra Pot 🙂

@SunsetRunner Looks like they are having fun

@BMANintheUP  Im sure it will take time He/She is a beautiful dog

[benvegi]

@SunsetRunner  @GSaldiveri Thanks for the info!  I thought floors were done with GPS location/elevation. I don't think air pressure does a great job, have wondered why my floor counts were off a bit on identical walks. 

March Madness goals:  

Steps 20,000 per day, 25+ floors p/day, 8+ miles p/day

2 sets of 12 reps of dumbbell curls, triceps, shoulder shrugs, and chest flys, 3 times a week. Increasing weights used and adding more stretches/yoga. 

One or more pics of each scavenger hunt topic. 

Check in at least Once a week.

3/10 steps 22,805, floors 16,  miles 11.41   

10/30 on steps, 7/30 on floors, 10/30 on miles, check in 3x

weights 5/12

[WendyB]

March Madness Day 11

Steps: Goal 13,000 31 days: 11/31
Boxing 31 days: 11/31
Bike 3 times 31 days 1131
Weights DVD 17 days: 7/31
Stomach YouTube 31 days : 11/31
Wall Push Up/Counter push ups 31 days: 11/31
250 Steps per hour 31 days: 10/31
Post Scavenger hunt photos: 4/3

[SunsetRunner]

March Madness Goals - Day 11

12,000 steps: 8/15 days

20,000 steps: 1/5 days

25,000 steps: 1/1 day

Train w/weights: 4/15 days
40 jumping jacks: 10/20 days
Line Dance: 1/4 days

Eat a piece of fruit: 8/20 days

Scavenger Hunt Pics: 3/3 pics

[Autumn43]

March 12

minimum 10,000 steps: 12/31

15,000 steps: 2/5

Pushups: 12/31

Drink 1.5 litres of water: 12/31

Photo scavenger hunt: 1/3

[NellyG]

12 March

10,000 steps a day for 20 days                                   9/20   

4 days over 15,000 steps                                              3/4           

1 day over 20,000 steps                                                 1/1

Swim 2x per week                                                           3/8                  

Dance prac 6 hours a week                                           17/24

5 bike rides or interval walks per month                      1/5            

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                                     1/3 

[SunsetRunner]

March Madness Goals - Day 12

12,000 steps: 8/15 days

20,000 steps: 2/5 days

25,000 steps: 1/1 day

Train w/weights: 5/15 days
40 jumping jacks: 11/20 days
Line Dance: 2/4 days

Eat a piece of fruit: 8/20 days

Scavenger Hunt Pics: 3/3 pics

[WendyB]

March Madness Day 12

Steps: Goal 13,000 31 days: 12/31
Boxing 31 days: 12/31
Bike 3 times 31 days 12/31
Weights DVD 17 days: 8/31
Stomach YouTube 31 days : 12/31
Wall Push Up/Counter push ups 31 days: 12/31
250 Steps per hour 31 days: 11/31
Post Scavenger hunt photos: 4/3

[NellyG]

13 March

I really must look for some scavenger hunt pics. I am being slack!

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

4 days over 15,000 steps                                              4/4           

1 day over 20,000 steps                                                 2/1

Swim 2x per week                                                           3/8                  

Dance prac 6 hours a week                                           17/24

5 bike rides or interval walks per month                      2/5            

3 Scavenger Hunt pics                                                     1/3 

[benvegi]

March Madness goals:  

Steps 20,000 per day, 25+ floors p/day, 8+ miles p/day

2 sets of 12 reps of dumbbell curls, triceps, shoulder shrugs, and chest flys, 3 times a week. Increasing weights used and adding more stretches/yoga. 

One or more pics of each scavenger hunt topic. 

Check in at least Once a week.

3/11 steps 26,035, floors 35, miles 12.77

3/12 steps 31,254, floors 37, miles 15.34

  Big storm coming thru later today will be sure to watch my floor count and barometer. 

12/30 on steps, 7/30 on floors, 12/30 on miles, check in 4x

Have to brag about our UPS delivery guy - yesterday about 5:30 pm I hear someone coming up the front steps. Went to the door and the UPS guy was ready to knock, so I opened the door and he hands me the package, then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a doggie treat and hands it to Jake! The big deal about this is that he parked by my outer gate and walked up to the house, my gate is 500' from my front door. 

weights 6/12