Stomping STEPcember Challenge and Scavenger Hunt

[Baltoscott]

Stomping STEPcember Challenge and Scavenger Hunt

Anything Goes August is almost over and it is time to start a new step challenge.  So here comes the STOMPING STEPCEMBER Step Challenge and Scavenger Hunt.  Yes, STOMPING because just like kids going back to school, we know it sucks that summer is over (in the Northern Hemisphere anyway), and that it sometimes helps to express your feelings with a stomp or two.

General monthly instructions are below, but we are also continuing the practice started last month of a picture scavenger hunt:  

Take your phone or other camera on your walks and look for, snap, and post three pics or more of the following: 

1 - the oldest structure in your area (of any type, oldest house, monument, school, whatever — tell us what it is and how old it is); 

2 - storm drain or manhole or other utility cover (keep your eyes pealed — there are some very artsy manholes in the world); 

3 - a wild animal.  (Going to the zoo is OK.  The animal need not be alive.  Statutes are OK.  If you use a stuffed animal, put it somewhere usual for the shot).  I found this guy in the DC hood ...

  

Although a picture of your dog/cat other pet won’t satisfy the scavenger hunt, post those anyway.  We love ‘em.                                                           

   
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.

[Baltoscott]

STEPtember 21

15K steps/day	21/30
50 Floors/day 20 times	18/20
1 pushup/day	21/30
14 non-weight gym days	12/14
9 weight-lifting days	4/9
post 3 scavenger hunt pics	3/3
Sleep 6+ hours 12 days or more during the month	9/12
Weight loss of 2-4 lbs (Sept 2 = 162.3 on TW)	-0.6

One more old building.  This is the Battle Monument in Baltimore, and commemorates the Battle of Baltimore in the war of 1812.  It was built 1815 to 1829, with the cornerstone being laid on July 4, 1815 for different monument (Baltimore's monument to Washington).  But planners were worried that the taller Washington monument might fall over on nearby close-in townhouse that were in the area at the time, so the Battle Monument went up first in this location and is the oldest stone monument and first public war memorial in the United States.

Battle Monument

[Heather-S]

Results as of STEPcember 21st:

• At least 10,000 steps every day: 21/30
• At least 15,000 steps three days each week: 10/12 | 2/4
• At least 20,000 steps one day per week: 2/4
• 3 scavenger pics: 0/3.
• Lose 2lbs: 1/2

@GershonSurge Thanks for checking on me!  New job is great, but it's been hard getting my steps in if I don't get up early and go to the gym.  So far, I haven't been able to get to the gym right at 5am, so instead I'm getting there around 5:10am or 5:15am and I only get about 35-40 minutes to workout.  And it's hard getting up that early, but I want to keep my evenings for my husband and my dogs, not the gym.  

I was only able to get 15K one day this week, but I did do 10K at least the rest of the week.  Hoping to do better this weekend and next week now that I'm getting used to the schedule at work.  

[CatLover74]

STEPtember 21

10,000 steps on at least 10 days of the month  -  6/10.

15,000 steps on at least 5 days of the month  -  1/5.

4 walks along the foreshore of my local beach  -  0/4.

7 hours sleep on at least 15 days of the month  -  16/15.

10 wall push ups on at least 15 days of the month  -  11/15.

Scavenger hunt pictures  -  2/3.

[SunsetRunner]

Stomping STEPcember 21

20 x 13,000 steps — 15/20

20 x 40 jumping jacks — 15/20

3 x scavenger hunt photos — 3/3

BONUS *** getting to 20,000 steps — 0

[SunsetRunner]

Day 22 of thirty stomps:

• At least 5000 steps every day: 21/30 (missed out yesterday).
• At least 7000 steps on two days each week: 10/8; 3/4
• By the end of the month have the 28-day average at 7000 steps: Average = 6601 Day 1 -> 7206
  Day 21 (Showing the average of 28 days to yesterday.)
  
• One or more 2 km walks or longer on ten days in the month (can include running): 8/10 
• At least 6 hours of sleep on 20 days a month: 16/20.
• 3 scavenger pics: 2/3.

After traveling any distance I seem to need a recovery day or two. Yesterday I didn't even meet the 5000 step target. I'll probably still make all the other goals okay.

[CatLover74]

STEPtember 22

10,000 steps on at least 10 days of the month  -  6/10.

15,000 steps on at least 5 days of the month  -  2/5.

4 walks along the foreshore of my local beach  -  0/4.

7 hours sleep on at least 15 days of the month  -  16/15.

10 wall push ups on at least 15 days of the month  -  12/15.

Scavenger hunt pictures  -  2/3.

Happy birthday to me.  Got up to take a walk for an hour first thing this morning, but getting up so early has now left me feeling at least my now 44 years.  Time to ruin all my work this morning with a piece of cake (or two).

[SunsetRunner]

Many happy returns, @CatLover74 🙂

[SunsetRunner]

Happy Birthday 🎁🎂🎉 @CatLover74!!!

How do you plan to celebrate, young lady? 🌷

[CatLover74]

Had some time alone at home to enjoy a long hot shower, and be able to down a whole cup of coffee while it was still hot, while my husband took our 4 year old daughter to her jazz ballet class (whereas any other Saturday morning, that would be my job).  Then I had to wait for my mother-in-law to call from interstate to say happy birthday before I could do anything else.  Went to be a mall-rat for a few hours, and bought myself an electric neck massager, and used the money my husband gave me for the day to buy a picnic set (and coming into summer in Australia we'll probably get a bit of use out of that).  Had a hot chocolate at a cafe with my husband and daughter; then home for tacos / nachos and birthday cake for dinner.  I think that's enough celebrating for one year - at 44, I don't feel so young any more. 😛

[Heather-S]

@CatLover74 Happy birthday!  That cake looks delicious!

[Baltoscott]

That’s a pretty cake @CatLover74.  But at 44 you’re just a kid 😀 My 58th Birthday is tomorrow— starting the weekend with some avocado toast

[NellyG]

@CatLover74 wow - the cake looks amazing! And as @Baltoscott said 44 is just a kid (mind you 58 is only a teenager @Baltoscott)

22 September

10,000 steps a day for 20 days                  18/20            

Swim 2x per week                                         2/2      6/8                             

Dance 6 hours a week                                  5/6     20/24                           

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

Post 3 Scavenger Hunt Pictures                  3/3    

[Baltoscott]

New iPhone camera ...

Experimenting— sometimes my iPhone pics are too big to upload here.

[GershonSurge]

@Baltoscott

@Baltoscott,

Sometimes, you can select the picture and drag a corner to make it smaller. You can also go to the HTML tab and edit the height and width.

 @CatLover74

That's a great looking cake!

[lavabelle]

WOW! @Baltoscott your camera is amazing! That blur is super nice!

[SunsetRunner]

---

@Baltoscott wrote:

New iPhone camera ...

Experimenting— sometimes my iPhone pics are too big to upload here.

---

Your pic is amazing! I often have similar problems with a pic file being too large to upload. I take one of two routes (I am sure there are others). Easiest: select the photo choose to email it to myself. When the option comes, select 'medium' size (rather than original). Open the email, select the photo and choose 'SAVE' to photos. Then upload that. Second, and a great way to save photos in other formats, is to use a simple, very affordable program called Graphic Converter. It only costs $39.95 (or $59.95 for family plan). You can then open the photo and save at 50%, then pull the File Menu to 'SAVE AS" and rename (or name) the photo. We've used this application for years, including my husband who has worn photography competitions.  https://www.lemkesoft.de/en/image-editing-slideshow-browser-batch-conversion-metadata-and-more-on-yo...

[benvegi]

September goals

Steps 15k per day

30+ floors per day

7+ miles per day

Three or more pics of each scavanger hunt topic. 

Check in at least 2x a week.

Last but not least, lose 4 ugly pounds, now just 3 to go.

10/19 not a great day. Char & I were headed out to load our horses for a weeks stay at a horse camp. Realized her horse had lost a shoe. Called a friend who rides with us and he said to stop by and he would put a new one on. Since it was so hot, we unloaded both horses and put them in his barn, he repalced Black Lace's shoe. As we started leading both horses from the barn, my horse tripped on a rock with her left hoof, she then quickly brought her right hoof up to catch herself. Unfortuately, her right hoof caught my Achilles tendon, slid down and hit my heel. Also clipped my right ankle. Down I went and Lady Ace stopped and looked down and me - as if to say "what are you doing down there?"

9/20

Thankfully, nothing was broken and the only cut was on my right heel. Both ankles started swelling right away. Char said we were going home, I was injured, it was 93 degrees, and supposed to rain the next day. Spent the afternoon on the couch reading with ice packs on my ankles, four hours later Char switched me over to heat pads. Her nursing worked and the swelling went down some. Still a little stiff. 

 My step count for the19th wazs only 10,300, 13 floors, 4.78 miles most of which occured prior to the accident.

9/20  Steps, 15,267, 7.08 miles, 12 floors

9/21  steps (feeling better) 17,337, 13 floors, 8.29 miles

Not sure what today brings as it's raining and chilly.

[benvegi]

Happy birthday @CatLover74!    

[Baltoscott]

Thanks @GershonSurge — as I continue the test today everything seems to be loading.  Maybe iOS 12 is downsizing attachments now .... 

@lavabelle thanks.  @SunsetRunner - the email trick is what I was testing Jayhawks blur pic, but when I saved it back to photos ithe app seemed to delete it because I already had the original there.  May try the app you suggested if the problem crops up again, but I’m hoping iOS 12 and Safari compress the pics automatically like the mail and text apps always have ...

Anyway, here is some street art from my ride last Saturday and another shot of the Battle Monument 

Baltimore city art

Baltimore city art

Battle Monument

[WendyB]

Happy Birthday @CatLover74 Cake looks good!

Awesome Pictures @Baltoscott