Active April 2018 Challenge: Week 1 (4/1-4/7)

baconslave

It's Active April folks.
Time to get moving.
No need to make your "heart gargle in your throat." Unless that's what you're into.
Active April is about making your goal an improvement in your fitness. As Elizabeth Benton always says, "Whatever constitutes an improvement for YOU. Do that."

So whether you want to train for a 5k or 10k, start HIITing your head off, or just start exercising, period, it's all good.
If your exercise is already on-point, but you'd like to increase your daily NEAT burn, that's a great target as well. (What is NEAT, consult this thread from which I have been inspired: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1)

There will be a sticky at the top of the group with a list of the weekly threads should our thread get buried in this (awesome) group.

Go ahead and post your goals.
Update us daily and receive encouragement and support from your compatriots in the challenge.
Go get it!

baconslave

Bump

FIT_Goat

I think some of you know my fitness goals. Around here, I won't be very specific. But, the goal would be to keep up with the rest of the class I am with. We'll call it a "goal-specific fitness class." So far, it's been ok but it has been tough.

More specific parts: Daily physical exercise including multiple miles of walking/hiking. Daily strength exercise, including weighted squats and lifting unwieldy objects. That and bodyweight stuff like pushups, leg lifts, planks, etc.

myhands4God

I have lacked consistency and I want to make that a goal this week and month.

kialey89

I really want to track my food for the next week and get 20,000 steps in a day.

kpk54

The theme of "Active April" sounds like what I need. I was a slug in March. Got over 10,000 steps in today which was mostly 3.5 brisk walking miles to the grocery store then to the library...which I forgot would be closed for Easter. My typical daily steps are about 2000.

Violet_Flux

Our Apple watch has suggested an April goal, as an oddly specific target of burning 28,882 'active' calories in the month.

Not sure we'll be able to achieve it, as that is nearly 1,000 calories per day, every day of the month. But, the watch tracks things its own way and it says we did 942 calories yesterday, so maybe it's possible.

So, that'll be our goal.

tishsmith101

I had started ramping up my activity in March but wasn't seeing or feeling much difference so last week rehabbing my meal plans came into the picture. I carb loaded the last 3 days in hopes of resetting my metabolism and back to LCHF today.

My April goals will be more weekly than daily-
45 min Spin class on Mon & Thur ( I usually arrive early and ride easy 15 addtl min)
45 min Elliptical either Saturday or Sunday
30 min Strength training Wed or Fri

taylok23

I like the idea of improving my neat burn. I’ll start with never using the elevator at work and parking farther away. I’ll try to get creative and see what else I can sneak in.

heatherrk45

My goal is just to be consistent...I'm going from a very sedentary lifestyle to exercising again. So my goal is 3 times per week for April.

baconslave

I too will be working on my NEAT burn. I exercise pretty hard, and then sit on my rump the rest of the day. It's hard since I'm stuck in one room teaching my kids for several hours. So I'll work to get over 6000 steps on days I don't get a walk as my exercise, like on strength training days. Of course it will be over 10k on days I do walk.

Cadori

I'm switching up my routine from a 2 day/week strength program alternating 2 workouts to a 3 day/week strength program alternating 4 workouts. I was doing strength on M and Th with cardio Tues and Wed. Now I'll be doing M/W/F strength and T/Th cardio.

I'm also changing my cardio workouts from flat to hills. I'll still keep it at a low heart rate, so I'm sure my mile time will go way up.

I'll reassess at the end of April to make sure I'm seeing progress, but I have every week mapped out until the week of 7/2 which is my next deload week.

Today was the first day of my new routine. While 2 of the exercises were exactly what I would have done on Monday before, the new exercise I added in was hard for me and the switch was more difficult mentally. While I've been making strength gains, I had definitely gotten comfortable in my old routine.

All were supposed to be 4x10, but I only had time for 3x8 because I slept for crap and was moving so slowly I almost talked myself into skipping today entirely.

Workout 1:
1a) SLRDL - 3x8 @ 30 pounds - holy wobble. I can RDL much higher, but the added need for balance on one leg...I had to go way down in weight.
1b) Pushup - 3x8 - still modified, but much improved in angle. I really felt these today.
1c) Inverted row - 3x8

kpk54

Brilliant minds! @taylok23 and @baconslave. I saw a "stickie" the other day in the main forum regarding increasing NEAT and thought, yes. So simple to do. Most days I have the entire day to myself. There's no reason I can 't be inefficient to get in more steps. I was about to place a basket in my home office to store a couple pair of slip on shoes and decided it would be more beneficial to keep having to go upstairs to get them. My efforts may fizzle out but for now I'm getting a few things done around the house simply by thinking, "do it for the NEAT"!

mcbluesky

Consistency is my goal for April. Switching to Keto today. Fitness goals - 3 Bike Rides, (or Spin Class), per week. 3 Strength Training sessions per week. Nightly walks of 2-3 miles after dinner.

Keto_Vampire

I'm with @baconslave for trying to up my NEAT...mostly time spent standing vs. laying for non-work/"rest" days. Mixing in some short bursts of spring cleaning/rearranging to deal with the upcoming summer/hot weather (no AC in my apartment so rearragement & airflow changes are huge for making things tolerable)

canadjineh

Sticking with my supplements goals from last month...
More moving around outside during non-work hours will have to wait until I get my parents moved to the senior residence (and the weather settles a bit.
Anyhow, got all my supplements in yesterday and so far today- pretty sure of my mag & GABA before bed. Feeling better since I finally got 7 hours of sleep this morning.

kpk54

The day started slow but about 7:30 pm I put on my walking shoes, walked to the library, returned my books then fast paced my neighborhood til I hit 10,000 steps.

solska

April goal is hitting 177 by April 30th. Right now I'm 189ish I think. Last year at this time I was 178. And exercising in some form, everyday. Eating healthy. And sleeping better. Sleeping well. Taking vitamins. And finding time to relax. Work wise and health wise in other ways it will be a tough month for me. Keeping these other things together will make me feel better physically but also emotionally.

baconslave

Rainy off and on yesterday so no outside walk. I usually do 45min to an hour depending on whether or not it's a strength day. It was strength but that was moot thanks to the weather. I did 2 interval walk vids that added up to about 34 min of steps. I jogged instead of walking. I almost hit 9k. I would have if I'd walked longer, but I had kids to pull off video games to finish their schoolin'.

As far as NEAT, I made inefficient trips, taking only part of an arm-load upstairs at a time. Made sure to fidget. And did a lot of pacing while messing with the app checking up on things. This weekend I need to get the floors in the house mopped. I do a lot of sweeping to keep them clear but the kids have nastied them up royale lately, so that'll take 4 hours We'll just have to see how that goes. The sickness we've been passing around is due to hit me any minute so...

Cadori

First day of low heart rate + hills level 1 = 14:55/mile. I was expecting much worse.

winonajosephine

Good Morning! My Active April goal is to do some sort of exercise (30minute min) 3x/this week and then hopefully 4x/next week and so on to be 6x/week by the end of the month!