6 week PUSH YOURSELF challenge, WEEK 1

TracieJ65

Good Morning, Good Morning one and all! Well, here we all are, day one, of week one, of our 6 week PUSH YOURSELF challenge. If you don't remember the rules you can always go back to the original thread, or even the roster thread, and remind yourselves. If I may offer some words! This is a PUSH YOURSELF challenge. So, hence, PUSH YOURSELF. We all have the same ultimate goal in mind so lets use this six weeks to PUSH OURSELVES to get closer to that goal. We are all here to support one another and work together. If you find you are having trouble, and need encouragement, ask for it. If you need advice, ask for some. Some people from my friends list, that are doing this, and myself, have been here for a long time and we probably have some words we can offer, and we all can always offer words of encouragement no matter how long we have been with MFP.

The whole point of this challenge is to get/stay motivated and to see if we can PUSH OURSELVES just a little more week after week. I know what I have in mind for myself and I just hope my body will follow suit. I really plan on PUSHING MYSELF hard these next 6 weeks.

Quick intro from me: My actual name is Tracie. I am 45, live in Minot, ND, I have three girls, 23,21,17. I have been married for 19 years, together for 20 and we met while we were both stationed overseas in the Air Force. I have been on my weightloss/ get healthy journey since January 14, 2010 and on MFP since March 18, 2010. In fact, today is my 365th continuous day to log into MFP. I have lost 102 pounds, on this journey, and plan to continue to lose, but about a month ago changed my focus more on trying to firm up "loose" areas. I had hit a platueau and decided it was time to focus on muscles more than just getting the weight off. I will be seeing immediate family, in just over 5 weeks, for the first time since I started this journey, and that is why I wanted to really PUSH MYSELF.

I will be doing a daily check in, on my progess, and will post it here, on this thread each day. You can do the same, if you want, but the rules state that you must, at a minimum, do it once a week, by Sunday. So, if you don't want to, you don't have to. But, coming back and reading the thread, quite often, my be of some motivation, or even help give you ideas of different things to do for a workout.

I honestly look forward to getting to know you all and helping you PUSH YOURSELVES through these next six weeks.

NOW, LET'S GET STARTED! GET GOING EVERYONE! HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK!

Marrissam

I'm ready Tracie. Weigh In this morning says I am still 179lbs... I have everything I need to PUSH MYSELF for the next 6 weeks. YAY!!!! I'm so excited.

kanakike8

Good Morning Everybody! I'm just getting over a nasty cold but feeling ready to start pushing myself. I weigh-in on sundays so yesterday I was at 186lbs. I need to focus on my eating and water intake. I'll push myself as hard as I can this week!
Good Luck Everyone! :happy:

skinnywithin

Im super excited. I started my 30 day shred and I will promise to do 90 min of workout monday thru friday every week ! I will measure tonight and maybe take a photo to compare when the challange is over YIKES !

TracieJ65

@ mazie129, the total amount of minutes you have to do is 350 minutes for the week, if you chose to do minutes. Of that 350 minutes, 90 minutes MUST be cardio and 30 minutes MUST be strength training. Then, that leaves 230 more minutes of some kind of exercise left to do in the week. It doesn't matter if you do light, more cardio, more strength, or whatever, but a total of 350 minutes of exercise.

jsteras

So excited to do this, I have pushed myself over the last 4 days just to get in gear for this. I will be getting the 30 day shred dvd in the mail today and the indoor walking dvd's just in case there is a day I can't go to gym. Good luck to everyone.

NanoReefDiver

Hey everyone! I'm in college and am getting ready for summer. I picked this challenge as exercising every single day is something that is vital to a health issue of mine and I've been slacking on it more than I should. I'm trying to increase my strength to better my belly dance (on the university's performance team) and attempting to limit as much weight loss as possible to fat.... Any tips decreasing that fat percentage? I'll be using measurements and weight to compare the before and after.

I am following the minutes rather than calories plan. I'm on a beta blocker so high calorie output is my weak point. My plan of exercise attack is as follows: complete Jillian's No More Trouble Zones at least 2 times a week (40 mins of weights not including warm up or cool down). On days I don't do No More Trouble Zones I will be doing the 30 day Shred (counting 14 mins weights and 6 mins cardio) as part of another challenge. I plan to do either Zumba Wii or Jillian's Banish Fat Boost Metabolism video at least 5 times a week or 200 mins.

Min Minutes Weights---
No More Trouble Zones: 40 x 2= 80 mins
30 Day Shred: 14 x 5= 70 mins
Total: 150 mins

Min Minutes Cardio---
Zumba Wii or Banish Fat/Boost Metablism: 40 x 5= 200 mins
30 Day Shred: 6 x 5= 30 mins
Total: 230 mins

Grand Total: 380

I hope I did the math on that right. Of course things are flexible to change but I wanted to go into it with a rough draft at the very least! I've been up most of the night cramming for an exam (YIKES!). I also have dance practice once a week and a few performance showcases coming up but that is too variable to rely on (and I am terrible about sticking to a strict calorie limit, esp with Finals coming up!).

TracieJ65

DON'T FORGET the water everyone! That is part of this challenge too! A minimum of 8 glasses a day!

TammyBee

Ready to go! I can't do much at the office but i did a 10 minute stretch/yoga before my boss came in this morning! I have a 24oz. water bottle and i have already finished one. My goal for every day is 3. I plan to do Water Zumba twice a week and 30 day Shred or Walking/Jogging the rest. I might throw in some regular Zumba on the Kinect also. I have problems getting motivated after work so i am actually going to try and get up early and do some. WooHoo! Lets go!

christinaberlyn

Hi I do have a question. Are the Insanity videos considered cardio or strength training?

kgillikin

I have gotten in 2 glasses of water already this morning. Only 6 more to go. I am going to try and workout on my lunch.

skinnywithin

Hi I do have a question. Are the Insanity videos considered cardio or strength training?

To me I would think Cardio since it made me feel as if I was having a heart attack !!! LOL

jodik11

Hi! It's nice to see another North Dakotian on here! This sounds like an awesome challenge!

jodik11

I sit at a desk all day and I sit on a stability ball. I bounce up and down on it or side to side and I flex my stomach at the same time and it does wonders! It makes the day go by faster too

Grammymax

I'd like to join this group. Today is the first day of my training for a 5K run. I have walked a couple of 5K's but this time I want to run. I would like to join the thread for accountability and to encourage others in their challenge.

christinaberlyn

Mazie129 - BAHAHAHAHAHA Hilarious. Yeah it does but dang I was hoping strength training. Not sure what I'm going to do for strength training now. *sigh*.

Kforest0714

I weighed in Friday at 197. I just got a new Biggest Loser dvd. I plan on doing that one,walking at home dvd,step aerobics,and the shred. Im going to alternate dvds each day and see what that does. I have already got in two glasses of water. I will measure tonight and post. I also added a ticker to keep up with my 350 minutes. So excited to see everyones results.

chickadee2010

So excited to do this, I have pushed myself over the last 4 days just to get in gear for this. I will be getting the 30 day shred dvd in the mail today and the indoor walking dvd's just in case there is a day I can't go to gym. Good luck to everyone.

I'm sort of interested in the walking dvds. I've never really looked for them at Wal-Mart (I've always kept my eye on the dancing ones lol, even though I can't dance). I never got a workout dvd, either. What do you do with the walking one? (walk of course:laugh:) But do you have to have a certain amount of space?

chickadee2010

I have a water bottle and I'm not sure how many ounces it is. But I measured out 8oz a few months ago and have been estimating. Right now I'm going to go measure out some water, pour it into my water bottle, and use a Sharpie to mark where the 8oz line is. Then keep doing that till the bottle is filled. I'll introduce myself later today, or in less than an hour lol.

So I found out that it holds 2 8oz for sure and then I continued to put the other 8 in, but it had like a few milimeters probably left, so I'd say it could hold 3 8oz. And then I could drink a few extra sips to make up for that little bit of water that won't fit in the bottle.

TracieJ65

@ christinaberlyn I do not know about the Insanity videos as I do not have any, but it looks like some others have replied to it, that have them. Cardio would be anything that keeps your heart rate above 100 and you are continually moving. Strength training you usually have a lower heart rate and you are actually working muscle groups. Although sometimes cardio and strength can be combined like a kettlebell class.

@ jodik11 Would you like me to put you on the roster as being a part of our challenge? Also, I just started working with that ball, in my muscle pump class and a strength class, last week, and it is a bugar! Wow though it is quite a workout. I really feel it in my Ab's.

@ Grammymax I put you down on the roster, welcome to our challenge!

@ christinaberlyn again you can do various strength training things right in your own home. You can take two canned items, or large water bottles, something with a little weight, and use them to work your arms in various ways. You can use a broom/mop and use that for strength. Push up, sit ups, leg lunges, squats. I think there might even be some Utube videos if you did a search for strength training.

chickadee2010

Hey Everyone! My name is chickadee2010. I've been here -officially- since December 2010. Maybe late November, but I just say December. I first found this site a few years ago, but I got so stressed trying to log everything that eventually I just quit MFP. Then I came back again in March 2010 (as underneath my UN says), and then left once again. Stress and me just don't go together. But I am here again and I'm here to stay. In 2008, I weighed 150, my highest. I cut out pop and exercised some and got down to 130. Last year of high school was when I gained those 20 pounds back. Now I'm here to lose them. I just ended a 90 Day Challenge on Saturday that had started January 1st. In those 90 Days, I lost 5 pounds. I'm ready to really push myself during this challenge. I think this challenge is going to be very helpful and not stressful at all, because it's simple. There are no weekly challenges or weighins that I have to keep up with (I already have enough of those lol). So I'll be focusing on just getting my time in, which is going to help with my other challenges as well.

There is some days when I don't drink 8 glasses of water, but I think the vast majority of days that I do. I will be doing the minutes instead of calories, since I don't have an HRM. I'll be going to Zumba when the classes are not cancelled. It's supposed to be three times a week, but one days is cancelled this week already. Other than Zumba, I'll be doing everything my other challenges require. One is 'spend 20mins outside every day this week' so that'll help me rack up some numbers. In addition to Zumba and other challenges, I do magazine workouts. These are the magazine ones I'm doing for the month of April:
-Cinch It Secret
-Walk 1, Walk 2, Walk 3, Walk 4, Walk 5
-Allover Toners For Walkers
-Chair Dips
-Lose More Fat
-Sexy Legs In Four Moves