August 2021 Add 'em up Goals & Habits Challenge ~Join us!
 

Come join us in setting and achieving goals to promote your overall wellness! We are a friendly and welcoming group who love to chat when we have time, but please also feel free to join us if you want to just focus on your goals. No pressure here to address everyone; share as little or as much as you want!

We have been doing this challenge for many years now. While it is not strictly about fitness goals, we agree that our daily life goals work together with our fitness goals to make us happier and more balanced, so we combine them in this challenge. Feel free to join us! You can tailor it to your schedule if you need to take a week off for vacation or only count so many days. Whatever works for you!

Premise: Choose your goals for the month. Every time you complete a goal you get a point. Multiply your number of daily goals by the number of days in the month. This is your max total points. If you choose, reward yourself for reaching a certain percentage of your max possible (I use 90% for my personal goal), multiply by your max to get your total goal points. I also give myself extra credit options.

**Take this challenge however you wish. I used to total my points all the time but have fallen away from that and now just track my goals. There really are no rules, your challenge is your own, we're just here for support and to help each other with accountability. We would love to have you join us!

Vannie's August goals

Mindfulness. Planning. Commitment. Discipline. Consistency.

1. Get up at 7:00 AM (EC: 1 pt per 15 minutes early)
2. In bed by 11:00 PM or right after post-game show (EC: 1 pt per 15 minutes early)
3. Stay within calorie allowance on MyFitnessPal
4. Stay within sugar allowance on MyFitnessPal
5. Meet minimum protein goal on MyFitnessPal
6. No seconds at supper 5 nights/week
7. Take all supplements
8. Drink chamomile/herbal tea before bed
9. Train Cyric 5 days/week
10. Listen to a dog training podcast 5 days/week
11. Brush Cyric 2 days/week
12. Brush Cyric's teeth 5 days/week
13. Workout 5 days/week
14. Glute activation/hamstring rehab 5 days/week
15. Calf/shin rehab 5 days/week
16. Foam roll 4 days/week
17. Meet weekly minutes goal (10 pts) (EC available: 1 pt per 30 minutes over)
18. No watching YouTube till after workouts and chores (doing YT workouts is fine, just no sitting and watching)
19. Read on Sundays
20. Spend at least 10 minutes a day learning Helen's database
21. Go to church when home--must rebuild this habit!

Extra credit:
1. 7 hours of sleep (10 pts)
2. 20000 steps
3. Start AM walk by 9:00



Max possible points: ( avg pts/day)
Points goal (90%): ( avg pts/day)
Reward: personal satisfaction!

June 1-6 pts (out of avg ) ~ %
June 7-13 pts (out of avg ) ~ %
June 14-20 pts (out of avg ) ~ %
June 21-27 pts (out of avg ) ~ %
June 28-30 pts (out of avg ) ~ %

total for the month: / ~ %

Here for August!

Katie's August Goals:

Daily for 1 pt each:
1. supplements/vitamins
2. Daily Devotion
3. walk
4. dvd or youtube
5. Keep up with Daily Exercise Chart
6. Declutter
7. Gratitude Journal

Total Points Available: 217 Goal: 195

Total: 158 pts

August Goals

Daily goals

Eye drops
Drink water
Drink Green Tea
Hip and Thigh Exercises BEFORE WORK
GET ON THE SCALES


Weekly Exercise Goals

Lower Body (Pilates, Barre or Callanetics) 3 times
Cathe Upper Body 3 times

BIG BAD GOAL FOR AUGUST
Stay away from the negatvity at work

I thought I would bump the thread. I'm still doing Lift and Shift.

I have a yard work project, so not sure how many workouts I will fit in. I'm shoveling up some wood chip mulch from a flower bed. We've decided bare dirt is easier to manage. But it's hot, and I'm limited on the time I have to do it, early morning or evening.

Vannie, I have a new respect for your humid weather. We had some rain the night before, I tried shoveling the mulch the next morning. At 8 am it was 80 degrees and 70% humidity. I thought I was going to die, the sweat was pouring off of me. I've never been so hot in my life! Although, I don't usually do yard work when it's 115, but I can definitely say I've never sweat that much!

How is it August already?? I need to solidify my goals!

Sherry, the sun and humidity make more difference in how it feels than the temp, in my opinion. Some of my runs this summer have been pretty steamy!

Yesterday hubby and I went to another Ren Fest and had a good day. Today I went back with our friend and her kids. A different but still fun day. I don't get to spend a lot of time with the kids bc get togethers are usually adult events. I am exhausted! Yesterday we got up at 5:50. Today I overslept till 6:30 so didn't have enough time to really choose an outfit and get ready so I wore normal clothes. Plus I slightly sunburned my chest yesterday and didn't feel like exposing it to the sun again so soon.

Last week was kind of a bust with workouts. I had to take some time to rest my calf but then I just wasn't feeling like working out. I did enough to meet my minutes but nothing too hard. I need to set out my plan for this week. Tmrw will be my virtual 5k, which I admit I'm not looking forward to after not running since last Monday.

I was so exhausted last night after two days of being up by 6:30 (and all the nights before of staying up till midnight at least) that I actually went to bed at 9:45!! And then a horrible headache woke me up around 5 smthg. I tossed and turned in pain a while, knowing I needed to take smthg for it but not wanting to get up. I finally did at 5:50 and moved to the recliner since lying flat with a headache is worse for me. I know I turned off a 7:20 alarm but then slept through two more. I'm just getting up! Headache is better but still not gone. I hope I start feeling better after fresh air on our walk and breakfast. I have so much I want to get done today!

Man, the 3rd day of the month is almost over and I still didn't get my goals set and spreadsheets printed!

Yesterday, I started the first week of month two of Lift and Shift. I think I'm a week behind the schedule. I did sub a workout for the HIIRT, and did Jessica's 21 Day Shed and Tred. Not the same intensity, but after yard work and house work, I was not up for it! Today I did the Fine Toning workout.

Vannie, I hope your week goes better for you, and you get your goals set and spreadsheets done.

Sherry, nice job keeping with the rotation and subbing as needed! Thanks. I stewed in a pool of pity party for a while today about my calf and another headache but finally shook it off and did PT stuff while I watched Beat Shazam. The calf is still tight but I'm hoping to try my short run on the elliptical tmrw where there won't be impact.

Goals set, spreadsheets printed and I'm marking them off for the first three days, feeling better and calmer already! :sun:

I did Walk Strong 1 Prehab routine. I am really tired today. I think I overdid it with Lift and Shift, yard work and house work. I’m 61, and have never been good at endurance anyway. I’m going back to two L&S strength workouts per week. I can manage that. I’m just anal about following rotations, so it’s hard!

Vannie, I’m glad you are better!

Vannie, I am glad you are better. Don't you just love a good spreadsheet???

Sherry, I agree about rotations. I want to follow them exactly as they are printed but I very rarely follow through.

Katie, What's new with you?

We go back to work tomorrow. We have 6 days of inservice. Luckily our principal sees the importance of giving us time to work in our rooms. I've had principals in the past who would make us sit in the freezing cafeteria for days with no time in our rooms. His response was "You can come up here Saturday and Sunday." :(

MT, so hard to believe school already! I'm so glad you have a principal now who sees the sense in allowing you to have time in your rooms. How is your hip doing?

Sherry, That's great all the projects you get done in your home and outside. Good job on the work outs too. I don't have much endurance either. I have to work on things in small segments.

Vannie, glad you got your spreadsheet done. It took me years to get one going. I know I'd ask you and MT for advice on how to get one organized. Now I rely on it so much and it's so helpful.

I'm late to getting on the thread this month. I'm hoping for August to be a calmer, cooler and a wetter month. We are still relying on two window AC's instead of our central air. It's better than it was certainly but my exercise/office room still gets pretty hot...as it's on a second floor. The last few days of July we had a wildland fire a few miles from us. Had the wind come from another direction, our house could've been easily threatened. But it made a big run in another direction. Thankfully lots of resources were on it quickly and it was out in a few days. No one lost any homes or livestock. It was very unsettling though and took a while to decompress from that but the fire danger is still unusually high so everyone is keeping an eye out.
I've been doing my exercises and working on youtube videos. I've decided that Citizen Athletics is on my top list for info and exercise resources. Redefining Strength is still strong too. I really like Guerilla Zen Fitness a lot but they don't post much anymore ever since the pandemic.

Hey, guys! Still around and working out, just haven't felt like posting, I guess. Not sure totally why, although I think some of it may be bc I have a whole list of things every time I workout!

Feeling lazy and aimless lately. I need to get a plan together and get back on track. I did so much better in May and June!

I'm still doing Lift and Shift, although I've pared it down to two strength workouts per week. I just can't do three, and keep up with housework and yardwork. I also can't do floor ab work, so those are out. And I don't like the Mobility workouts. That kind of eliminates a third of it, lol.

But on my light weight day, I've been trying other instructors. Last Friday was a Lively Ladies strength workout. Today was a Senior Shape Strength workout. I liked both of them. Lively Ladies does low impact cardio with light weights and high reps. Senior Shape was just strength, but with 8 pounds and it moved slower. I really liked this one, and it felt challenging. I'd like to work up to heavier weights.

Vannie, you do have a long list of workouts! But good job on doing them all.

Got my new run schedule so I'm feeling a little more excited now that I can plan out the next 10 weeks! The base training plan had me doing short runs 4 days a week and the actual race training plan has 3 days a week, which is what I generally aimed for before I started using this app so I'm happy about that. Hoping it will help me not try to pack so much into a day!

Vannie, do you have some races coming up this Fall? Your training schedule sounds like a nice goal.

Sherry, awesome that you're able to balance work outs with yardwork and housework. I wish I could be that organized but for now, not so much.

MT, how are things with you? School now in session full time?

I haven't posted much as our summer has been a pretty frenetic pace. It feels like things are starting to tone down a little except for the fire danger. The next few days will be "fire watch" days with heat, wind and very low humidity(like 10% or so). Continued prayers for rain for the whole region.

Workout wise, I've been doing my exercises, and taking dogs for walks. I have somehow managed to lose about 3-4 lbs so I'm kind of excited about that! I'm going to try very hard to keep that ball rolling. I continue to see the Physical therapist that specializes in myofascial release once or twice a month. I'm so fortunate to have come across her. She's been really helpful in helping me find and free up restrictions(or blind spots as Jill Miller would say) that were effecting my range of motion. We still have a little more work to do but I feel good about it and I'm getting more out of my exercises. yay!

Katie, glad you're continuing to see improvement! I found a YouTube channel called Movement Parallels Life that has a lot of mobility stuff. I've watched several videos but haven't actually tried them. I chose a few to add in over the next week or two.

Fire danger is bad here too. My dad heard there have already been 100 wildfires in MN this year. We are nearing the worst drought in MN history. It's surprising how green things still are considering that. Northern MN is worse than where we are but we still need rain.

There's a tough trail race in late Oct that I'm hoping to do, but we still haven't been able to choose a time for Mom's celebration of life so I figured if I train and can't do it there's no harm done!

Today already went off the rails as of last night when I realized the kennel forgot to put Cyric's collar for his muzzle in his bag so had to run up to get that this morning (we were at my father-in-law's for the weekend). Then I realized I still had a roast in the fridge that I hadn't cut in half and frozen so I decided we would have roast for supper so took time to get that in the crockpot with veggies. The kitchen was a mess so I cleaned that up. I had planned to pull weeds this morning while the garden was still in shadows bc the landscapers are supposed to come Wednesday to clean up some areas beyond my ability and I would hate to have that little patch look as awful as it does when that's smthg I can handle! Anyway, sun is out full force and it's 80 degrees already so I guess that will have to happen tmrw morning.

Vannie, School started today. It seems like we just got out. I have some really big classes. Only 177 more school days to go! LOL.....

Katie, good job on your weight loss. I have found them, so when you are ready for them back just let me know.

Sherry, are those weight workouts on YouTube?

I have been doing Callanetics. It really helps with all my aches and pains.

MT, I think those pounds really want to come back but I'm trying so hard not to let them. :D Glad the callanetics is working out well for you.

Vannie, I would've never guessed MN would have so many fires! I think of the motto "Land of 10,000 Lakes" and it doesn't seem possible but that's just how dry this summer is. We got close to 1" of rain the last day and a half. I hope the system goes into MN. I know it's supposed to go through ND. We are so grateful for what we got!!

I've been figuring out more myofascial release techniques on my own using the YTU therapy balls. Probably my most used prop.

Waves to Sherry! Have a good evening everyone!

I’ve been sick with a bad cold the past few days so no workouts. I’ll start again next week. I did get a covid test and it was negative.

We’ve had a cooler than usual and wet summer. Broke all records last year for most days over 110. Then this year most of July and August has been in the 90’s. A lot of rain, which we needed. Although the weeds have over taken our front yard!

MT, yes both Lively Ladies and Senior Shape are on you tube. Good luck with the school year. Summer does seem to have flown by.

Katie, congrats on the weight loss. So glad to hear you got some rain. Your PT sounds great, that’s awesome she is helping you.

Vannie, I hope Minnesota gets some rain soon. Good luck with your training for the October run.

Sherry, hope you get to feeling better soon. I'm glad to hear the covid test was negative.

Thanks, Katie. I feel better but haven’t shaken it completely yet. But I came down with it five days ago, so I probably have a few more days.

Sherry, I hope you feel better soon. I think Covid tests are awful. I felt like she was trying to touch my brain.

Katie, How is the weather in your part of the world.

Hugs, Vannie

The second week of school is looming large.

http://forum.videofitness.com/showth...37#post2938337

September thread is up!

Second virtual Getting Buff 5k is in the books! It also happened to be the second most miserable run of the summer, I think! So hot. Weather 81/86, hum 73%, wind 8 (supposedly), partly cloudy. 4 min wu walk then 3:1 intervals to start but last mile had a lot of extra walking. At 3 mi I just gave up and walked the last bit. Left calf cramped on first run interval so at the next walk break I paused Garmin and stretched both calves on the curb. Paid close attention to it the rest of the run so I didn't aggravate it. I know I should have done the warmup I've been doing but I needed to get done ASAP and it was already so hot I just had to go do it. I had at least been walking around at the grocery store and didn't just jump off the couch and run!

Garmin stats: 3.1 mi in 34:49, avg pace 11:14, best pace 8:10. Not my worst 5k ever but definitely not my best either. Glad I got it done! It felt like a zombie mission in the truest sense: just survive!! :D

Still a bit congested and tired, so not working out.

Vannie, great job on the 5K. For how hot it was, it sounds like you did awesome.

MT, since I went through the CVS drivethrough, I swabbed myself in my car. I wonder if I did it right and went up high enough. I tried to follow the instructions, which said to insert the swab an inch. I forgot on the first nostril, it was probably a half inch. I tried for an inch on the second nostril, and it did sting. But I'm guessing on the measurement. It makes me wonder how accurate the test is if you don't do it quite right.

Vannie, thanks for getting the September thread up. Way to go to finish the 5k...I don't know when, if ever, I've experienced humidity over 70%.

Sherry, hope you get to feeling like yourself again soon.

MT, our weather has gotten cooler thankfully. One morning in particular, it magically felt like Fall!

Doubtful I'll make my goals this month but I think I can still narrow the gap. My weight loss is maintaining and I even lost another pound, maybe 2. I'm also planning to add to my goals a new habit that was on youtube's Upright Health channel. The 25/5 rule....if you are sitting at your computer for 25 minutes, you have to get up and move around/stretch for 5. This is one that I've tried before and I haven't done very well. I'm going to try harder to make it a habit.

Have barely skimmed the last few days as I was camping up north with my dad and uncle. Had a great time but a bit scary driving home today in a bad storm in a tornado warning. It was dark as night except for a band of light above the horizon and I kept looking for funnel clouds. I even pulled off the side of the road with a bunch of other cars bc the rain was too heavy to see. Thankfully I made it out of that safely and later had completely dry roads.

My dad will be here next week so I haven't figured out what workouts will look like. We only have a few days before he goes back home.

Vannie, Enjoy your time with your dad.

Thanks, MT!

I did Walk Strong 3 Total Body today. After Lift & Shift, it seemed pretty easy. I'm on the fence again about Lift & Shift. It does tweak my lower back more than usual, lots of lunges and bent over moves. I think I'm going to do other workouts for awhile. It's so effective though!

Vannie, that does sound scary. I'm glad you made it home safely. I hope you have a nice visit with your dad.