March Madness -- Monthly Step Challenge

[Baltoscott]

March Madness -- Monthly Step Challenge

Time for a new monthly challenge.  I may add some variation related to the collage basketball tournament coming up this month in the US, but for now just the standard stuff.

 
How It Works:

The primary purpose of these challenges has been to keep track of your daily step goals for the month; though we tend to 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, for example.
Monday -> Friday = 10k steps a day
Sat & Sun = 6k steps a day

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

The March Madness Variation.

Will there be one?  I have an idea perculating, but thoughts are welcome.

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

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.

[WendyB]

13K steps/day 18/31 

Exercise bike 40 minutes/day 21/31

Boxing 30 Minutes/day 21/31

12 weight lifting days 9/13

Stomach exercises 200 a day with Ab roller 21/31

13 days Yoga/Pilates 9/13

Did not make step goal. Went out to celebrate our anniversary. Going to make a nice dinner later and relax.

[Julia_G]

@Ennay, feel better soon!

@Jotex, yes, I did have to watch my step!  And I aslo had to watch my little toy poodle who is afraid of just about everything except sheep.  Sheep, she wants to chase.

@WendyB, happy anniversary, and have a great evening out!

[Baltoscott]

March 21

15K step/day: 21/31
1 pushup/day: 21/31
16 weight-lifting days: 12/16 
12 6+hour sleep days: 8/12

It has been a while, but I got another +6 hour sleep day!  Woohoo! 

It was a snow day today.  Maybe 8".  The only significant accumulation we've had this year, so not much to complain about.  And we are in the 40s tomorrow so the melt is already on the way.  Worked from home and got most of my steps pushing a snowblower around.  Thanks to the snow plows doing my street out front --- pushing it all into my yard -- I got to do that sidewalk twice!

Happy Anniversary @WendyB.  

[NellyG]

22 March

Step Goal                 -/5     16/23

Swim                         1/2        7/8

Fitbit Coach/Bike    -/1         4/4

[Ennay]

March 21 - 10164

28 day avg - 13338

Days>10K - 21/26

Dots- 235/310

Food - 21/31

Felt extremely queasy all day yesterday. Walked to work and back which took me up to about 8700 steps and then lay around on the couch most of the rest of the day.  First time since getting the fitbit that i had 4 gray dots in a row on the hourly activity.  Kind of shocked it eeked out over 10K for the day.  Still not 100% today.  Will see how things go after breakfast.  Was hoping to walk to the son's PTC conference this morning but it is raining sideways and while I dont mind walking in the rain, walking then sitting in his classroom wet and then walking again doesnt sound great.

MTA: fitbit finally synced - holy moly 8 hours and 2 minutes of sleep last night.  That is insane.  Yup really am sick!

[WendyB]

Hope you feel better soon @Ennay

I would stay out of thr rain when not feeling well

[Ennay]

@WendyB- I am an Oregonian!  We scoff at rain!  I have some kind of GI bug, but nothing respiratory or fever.  Rain wouldn't stop a walk today.  Throwing up on the neighbors lawn might.  They are kind of picky about their lawn

[WendyB]

@Ennay I love walking in the rain as well. Unless it's blowing in my face. I find it peaceful. Can't get away from it lately. I don't think spring is going to ever come. 

[WendyB]

13K steps/day 19/31

Exercise bike 40 minutes/day 22/31

Boxing 30 Minutes/day 22/31

12 weight lifting days 10/13

Stomach exercises 200 a day with Ab roller 22/31

13 days Yoga/Pilates 10/13

[Ennay]

March 22 - 16389

28 day avg - 13460

>10K - 22/26

Dots - 246/310

Food - 22/31

Wanted to have a big walking day today but its also the last day to do all the shopping and stuff for spring break.  It's a lot of driving on the menu today.  And it's snow/raining today.  ick. I like snow, I dont mind rain, but falling slush should be illegal. But since it is supposed to be sunny next week I need to buy all the gardening stuff today since I may or may not have a car for 8 days.

[WendyB]

March 23

13K steps/day 20/31

Exercise bike 40 minutes/day 23/31

Boxing 30 Minutes/day 23/31

12 weight lifting days 11/13

Stomach exercises 200 a day with Ab roller 23/31

13 days Yoga/Pilates 11/13

[GershonSurge]

I was at 17.4% fat today, but I can't really show that I've lost fat. The numbers are too random to know. I think percent fat is the wrong metric for people in maintenance to focus on. If people lift a lot, the muscles will grow. 

[GershonSurge]

I've been working on extending the time I work quickly without taking any breaks. I'm using a method I call nesting. For example, when I start to simmer something for 44 minutes, I fill the time with other tasks. I'm building a list of micro-jobs that only take a few minutes.

Here is an hour and thirty-six session this morning:

[Jotex]

March 23
Steps 10,000/day x 8/15 days
Lifting Weights x 7/15 days
Trampoline 15-min x 7/15 days
Sleep 7+ hours x 8/15 days
Lose 2.5 kg - currently 68.2 kg - 1.9 kg loss!! 😍

[WendyB]

@Jotex WTG on the loss!

[Ennay]

3/23 - 11652

28 day  - 13391

>10K 23/26

Dots - 258/310

Food 23/31

Changing up the way I do things - yesterday I procrastinated then shopped thinking I would walk later.  But I was exhausted by the shopping and the mental stresses and limited on time so got in only a short chunk.  So now I have a minimum before I get in a car.  Monday I have to be at work at 8:30 - which is early for me - with a bunch of paperwork.  Trying to decide if I will be able to walk.  I may have to if I don't get a chance to pick up the car that I am borrowing for the week. 

I am getting frustrated with not being able to run even a little bit.  The only way I stay awake on the treadmill is to run on the commercial breaks.  But right now I can only walk in my tevasandals and trying to run in them would be a disaster. 

@GershonSurge- what are you using to measure bf% ?  once you get down to a certain range even the relative accuracy (repeatability and reproducability) gets tough.  I actually had better reproducability with navy circumference which is a measurement based method.  When I was training I would actually use 3 methods (but not daily, not that kind of time) and take an average.  I found that foot pad impedence was the most sensitive to fluctuations in water weight.

@Jotex- congrats on the weight loss!

[WendyB]

March 24

13K steps/day 21/31

Exercise bike 40 minutes/day 24/31

Boxing 30 Minutes/day 24/31

12 weight lifting days 11/13

Stomach exercises 200 a day with Ab roller 24/31

13 days Yoga/Pilates 11/13

[Baltoscott]

March 24

15K step/day: 24/31
1 pushup/day: 24/31
16 weight-lifting days: 13/16 
12 6+hour sleep days: 8/12

Been enjoying the basketball tournament; probably why I haven't gotten any 6+ sleep days since Wednesday.  Nice bike ride to the gym and then the inner harbor in Baltimore today.  

Baltimore Inner Harbor From Federal Hill24.5 miles in Baltimore @GershonSurge -- it is very difficult to measure true changes in fat -- especially when you are maintaining weight.  Agree with @Ennay that food pad impedance is very sensitive to changes in water weight, but really all the measurements are.  I measure my waist weekly and it seems to go up and down by as much as an inch.  On average it has been going up as I gain weight -- no surprise there -- but last week was back down to 32.3" compared to 33.5" the week before, even though my TrendWeight went up half a pound over the same time period.  If I measured every day I am sure it would vary a bit every day just like my weight and my scale/foot pad impedance fat percentage.  I have more confidence saying something went up or down when I look at two to three month time periods. 

[Ennay]

March 24 - 16358

28 day - 13357

10K days: 24/26

Dots:270/310

Food 24/31

Yesterday was another day that showed me (again!) that it is pretty easy for me to get 10K if I just have the intent to do it, get steps throughout the day, but to get 13.5K takes getting out early in the day to do exercise.  BUT if I do that I almost always go above 15K. 

I have a brunch today and the only ride I could get was with the hostess so I have to go 2 hours early, BUT I know her well so I think while she is prepping for guests I will walk in her neighborhood and hopefully grab a quick shower before everyone else gets there.  It will probably be cold rain when I walk so I don't want to freeze.

Family leaves today for spring break so 6 days where I don't have to arrange my schedule to accommodate theirs.  6 days where I can cook food that I like and not worry about picky 1 and picky 2 (Husband and daughter - my son will eat anything).

I woke up at 3:45 this morning and at 4:30 gave up. It's now 5:30 and I have almost 2000 steps in.  With everyone gone a nap after brunch seems likely.  Assuming I can get a ride home.  I haven't figured that part out yet. Odd, I have ridden public transit all over the metro area, but never to my home.

@Baltoscott- your weather seems to have recovered rather quickly!  We are still getting a rain/snow mix but I think that will blow through today and hopefully some sun next week. 

[GershonSurge]

@Ennay, @Baltoscott, 

Yesterday, I was 18%. 

I am working on taking unnecessary things out of my day so I can have more time to do other things. I'll still track my fat percentage this month, but after this month, I'll just use Trendweight's charts

In 2,000 or so, Eliyahu Goldratt published a book named Necessary but not Sufficient. This works well for toilet paper, but not for other things. I'm reversing the title to Necessary but Sufficient. I'm only going to do the minimum amount of tracking necessary.

@Jotex, I haven't forgotten your question on love handles. I've been paying attention to what exercise work that area, and the answer is almost all of them. My weight lifting routine is quite extensive and too complex to explain in one post. My other activities play a part. And, of course, there is my way of eating that nobody here likes.