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October Schedule of Challenges!
I am super excited about our slate of October challenges as October is Habits Month here on the Building Healthy Habits group! Now, I know what you might be thinking…”Denise, don’t we focus on habits every week in this group?” And we do, but in October we’ll be taking a closer look at the scientific research on habits…
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Learn Habits from an Expert for FREE!
Hi Everyone, Our weekly challenge that starts October 8 will focus on creating new, small healthy habits. We will be exploring how habits work, the 3 components of habits, and how we can tweak an existing habit to make it better work for us. I’m very excited about this challenge and I hope you are too. Whether we realize…
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Sept 24 Weekly Challenge: Balancing Act
Theme: Exercise and Movement Challenge: Balancing Act This week, let's focus on improving our balance. Better balance improves coordination, joint stability, agility, reaction time, and prevents falls and fractures. Balance is a core asset to our health and fitness and one that is frequently overlooked. As one balance…
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September Monthly Challenge: This September I Will...
Theme: Healthy Practices Challenge: “This September I Will” I am so excited about our new monthly challenge series as I believe it will help us make sustained progress on our health and fitness goals! But first, I need to back up a bit. When I took over as group leader in May 2017, I wanted to change the focus of this…
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Sept 10 Weekly Challenge: Nice to Meet You
Theme: Sharing Your Wisdom Challenge: Nice to Meet You! As we wrap up the summer (do we have to?) and transition to fall, our group will have a spike in membership. It's happening already and I expect it will continue through October. With so many new folks joining us and wanting them to feel welcome, I thought a round of…
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Sept 17 Weekly Challenge: Unsweetened
Theme: Healthy Eating Challenge: Unsweetened Having spent last week getting to know each other a little better, our challenge this week is kind of the opposite. This week, let’s put some distance between us and something that most of us love, but always seems to be thwarting the goals that we’ve set and the life we are…
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September Schedule of Challenges!
Are you ready for Fall? Hard to believe but September is knocking on the door. August is typically a very quiet month around here but I expect a lot of new members will be joining us in September. If you are new to our group, welcome! If you’d like to receive an email notification when a new weekly challenge is posted,…
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Aug 20 Weekly Challenge: New Years in August
Theme: Healthy Practices Challenge: New Years in August For this week’s challenge, let’s roll the calendar back a few months to the beginning of the year. Do you remember when 2018 was all sparkly new? Chances are you made a few goals or resolutions for the new year. Things that you wanted to accomplish this year…
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Aug 27 Weekly Challenge: Sticking With It
Theme: Exercise and Movement Challenge: Sticking With It Our challenge this week is simple but it's not easy. This week, let's stay on track and not veer away from our exercise habits and routines. Granted, there's a lot of competition for your time right now. It's the end of the summer and that means children and…
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Summer of Sleep
Please Note: Our June 4th Weekly Challenge: Better Sleep has morphed into a summer long effort to get more sleep. If you’ve joined us late or you know you need to make sleep a priority, please join us. We’ll be regularly tracking our progress and lessons learned. Theme: Healthy Practices Challenge: ZZzzzzzzzz For as long…
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August Schedule of Challenges!
And now we turn the corner into summer’s homestretch: August. I’ve again tried to select weekly challenges that are easy to work into our crazy summer schedules. We will continue to start off each week with our Move It Monday challenge and our Summer of Sleep challenge continues as well. If you struggle to get enough…
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July 30 Weekly Challenge: New to Me
Theme: Healthy Eating Challenge: New to Me We are squarely in mid-summer and with summer comes an abundance of fruits and vegetables, many of them locally grown. Grocery stores, farmer's markets, roadside stands, and CSAs are teeming with all kinds of interesting and delectable choices this time of year. But many of us buy…
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July 9 Weekly Challenge: Summer Declutterfest
Theme: Healthy Practices Challenge: Summer Declutterfest! Let the opening ceremonies of the 2018 Summer Declutterfest BEGIN! I am only too happy to make this challenge a quarterly event. I made great strides at our Spring Declutterfest in April on the upstairs bedroom and happily it remains reasonably clutter free. This…
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Aug 6 Weekly Challenge: No Snowballs
Theme: Healthy Practices Challenge: No Snowballs It all starts innocently enough. You join in your family’s nightly ritual of snacking while watching TV at night, despite a pledge to yourself that you’ll close your food diary and stop eating at 7pm. Or your schedule gets thrown for a loop one day causing you to skip your…
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July 23 Weekly Challenge: HIIT IT
Theme: Exercise and Movement Challenge: HIIT IT! Our challenge this week is to focus on HIIT, or High-Intensity Interval Training. Very likely you’ve heard of HIIT as it’s getting lots of press recently and may even be worthy of its reputation as a miracle exercise that can dramatically slow the aging process. You may…
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July 16 Weekly Challenge: One Small Word
Theme: Greater Happiness Challenge: One Small Word The goal of this week’s challenge is to boost our gratitude for the many gifts and blessings each of us has in our lives. We’ve had gratitude challenges in the past, and we will again, but this week’s challenge has a twist. Let’s see what a difference it makes in what we…
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July Schedule of Challenges!
Can you believe it is almost July??? I hope your summer is off to a great start! I’ve tried to select weekly challenges for July that are easy to work into our often hectic summer schedules. We will continue to have a new weekly challenge each Monday, though I typically post the new challenge on Sunday evening. There may…
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July 2 Weekly Challenge: Bean Counters
Theme: Healthy Eating Challenge: Bean Counters This week’s challenge is the first in a series of challenges we’ll be having periodically. I’m dubbing them, “Blue Zone Challenges”. If you are not familiar with the term Blue Zones, these are specific regions in the world where residents are healthier and live longer than…
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June 25 Weekly Challenge: You Can Quote Me
Theme: Sharing Your Wisdom Challenge: You Can Quote Me Losing weight and becoming a healthier, fitter person doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a long-term process. And since it’s a long-term process, it can help to have a regular dose of inspiration. Do you have a favorite quotation that has inspired and motivated you? Maybe…
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May 28 Weekly Challenge: Mindful Eating
Theme: Healthy Eating Challenge: Mindful Eating Our challenge this week is to practice mindful eating at least one meal a day. Since mindful eating is a term that has gained popularity recently but can have lots of different connotations, let's start with a definition: This week, let's focus on really paying attention when…
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June 18 Weekly Challenge: Accident Proof
Theme: Healthy Practices Challenge: Accident Proof This week, let's take a closer look at our homes. Let's do a room by room inventory and look for potential accidents waiting to happen. According to the Home Safety Council, home accidents cause 20,000 deaths in the United States each year, and what's just as striking,…
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June 11 Weekly Challenge: Lots of Squats
Our exercise challenge this week is squats. Bluntly, I know very little about squats, but I do know they’re an important tool in our exercise toolbox. Fortunately, my good friend Jen is a certified personal trainer and health coach and Jen has agreed to help craft our squats challenge. I greatly appreciate Jen’s…
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5/15 Tuesday Day 15 SLBC: What's Working and What's Not?
Theme: Reflections: What's Working and What's Not? Today's Challenge: Today's challenge is to pick any activity that you enjoy that will have you up and moving. While you do your activity, please review your last 2 weeks. What's working and what's not? Are you sitting less and is it become easier and more natural? If not,…
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June Schedule of Challenges!
Well, after a one week post Boot Camp hiatus, our weekly challenges resume here on the Building Healthy Habits group! We’ve got an exciting lineup of challenges planned for June! And since we have some new members in our group, if you’d like to receive an email notification when a new weekly challenge is posted, send me an…
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5/21 Monday Day 21 SLBC: Please Share Your Accomplishments
And now we cross the finish line of Sit Less Boot Camp! Theme: Our Sit Less Accomplishments! Today’s Challenge: On the last day of Sit Less Boot Camp, please share the progress you’ve made in sitting less and moving more. Nothing is too small or too big to be noted and celebrated. And if you’ve encountered some frustration…
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5/19 Saturday Day 19 SLBC: Spring Project 3
Theme: Spring Cleaning Project 3! Today's Challenge: What's the last spring cleaning project will you accomplish today for this month's challenge? We've all got small projects around the house that we've been meaning to get to...now's the time! After this challenge, you will now have completed three house projects that…
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5/20 Sunday Day 20 SLBC: Keeping the Movement Going
Theme: Keeping the Movement Going Today's Challenge: As Sit Less Boot Camp draws to a close, it's a good time to think about what comes next. How is your transition out of the chair going? Are you sitting less and moving more? Are you still practicing your “One Thing” or has it become a habit you just do now without…
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5/18 Friday Day 18 SLBC: The Great Outdoors
Theme: The Great Outdoors Today's Challenge: Outdoor activities offer lots of health benefits. Whether you enjoy going for a walk, run, or bike ride, tending to your garden, doing a little yard work or grass mowing, or participating in sports, getting outside regularly will give you fresh air, sunshine, Vitamin D, and…
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5/17 Thursday Day 17 SLBC: Make Your Day Harder
Theme: Make Your Day Harder Last week I mentioned that there are 3 strategies to keep in mind if you want to make sitting less a lifestyle change. We've already explored 2 of them: Now let's add the third: A colleague might email you about an issue and you respond by going to talk to them in person. You might need to…
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5/16 Wednesday Day 16 SLBC: Stopping Cues
Theme: Stopping Cues Today's Challenge: How we consume media and information certainly has changed over the last few decades. I grew up in the 70s when you couldn't sit for hours and binge watch your favorite TV show or lose track of time completely going down an internet rabbit hole or getting sucked into social media…
