Category Archives: challenge

Give me some challenge ideas!

This week is my quarterly rest week from lifting.  It’s hard for me to not do it, but it is such a good thing for my body.  You always make your gains outside of your exercise, not while doing it.

So, you would think I would sleep in, right? Nope.  I woke up early as usual.  Came down for a breakfast of the 1-minute muffin with blueberries and coconut butter.

There are more blueberries underneath there.  Wouldn’t want you to think I was skimping on them or anything.

Warmer today, but dreary and drizzly.  The whole week will be warming up – finally!  There should be some blooms coming in my tulip beds.  I have a few early tulips (most are late season).

I do have a couple daffodils blooming in the pot given to me by the nieces yesterday:

Aren’t they cheery?

Lunch time came quick and some eggs sounded good.  Not an omelet today as I just wanted some cheese on there.

This is the Yancey’s Fancy Buffalo Wing cheese.  Good stuff, although a bit on the processed side.  I also snacked on some potato chips.

So the title of the post? Well, it is coming up on a new month, so I thought I would take some suggestions for some challenges for myself for May.  So just leave me a comment and I’ll see what sounds fun or interesting!

:unpictured latte here:

Trying to shake up the veggie front, I forgot I had a box of cauliflower with cheese sauce in the freezer.  I cooked up some jumbo shrimp in a little coconut oil and lemon pepper and put that on top.

Quite good! I am now completely spoiled in that I only want raw shrimp now to cook with.  We used to buy the frozen cooked shrimp because it’s less expensive, but after getting some frozen raw – I decided that is the only way to go for me.  I would love fresh, fresh shrimp, but not really around here.

Question: Any challenge ideas for me?

September Challenge drawing winner!

Thank you to everyone for participating in the challenge this month! It’s always fun to have partners to stay motivated.  I had 43 comments to pull from and Debby’s comment was chosen:

Dang, Lori! You had that great frozen yogurt, AND you lost .8 pounds! Maybe if I have some frozen yogurt today, I’ll lose more next week LOL! Anyways, today is my regular weigh in day, and I am happy enough with my .4 weight loss. Gotta keep at it though!

And hand-roasted coffee??? Could you dangle a bigger carrot in front of us?!

Debby – we’ll contact via email about shipping you the coffee! Congratulations!

Those of you participating in Steve’s Hot 100, I think today is a posting day as well. 😀

Final September Challenge Check in!

Okay everyone!  How did you do on your personal challenges this month?

I did not hit mine to lose 4 pounds.  I lost 3 for the month.  I actually did hit 4 and a little more gone over the weekend, but Monday’s Indian food and resultant bloat caused a pop up on the scale.  C’est la vie!

So, I am going to make a list of all participants, and each time you checked in over the month will give you another entry into the drawing for some fresh roasted coffee!  Again, if you are chosen and don’t drink coffee (!!!!!), we’ll figure something else out.

Come back later to see another NROWL video!

Challenge Check In!

He fellow personal challengers! Hope the month is going well for you. We are now in the home stretch!
The scale is continuing to creep downward for me, another pound so that is about 2.8 for the month so far! I am pretty excited about that 😀

Don’t forget to check in – anyone who wants coffee personally roasted! Each time you check in with the challenge, you get an extra entry for the drawing. It doesn’t matter if you are doing awesome or struggling with whatever your challenge is, just be accountable.

Talk to you later!

September Challenge Check-in!

Who wants that roasted coffee?? Check in this week and let us know how you are doing with your personal challenge for September!  We are halfway there as of today 😀

I am doing pretty well.  Down 1 pound, so that is 1.8 for the month of September.  Almost 1/2 way to my goal of 4 pounds.  Struggled a little with eating on Friday and Saturday, but was right on Sunday and yesterday.  Need to somehow come up with a better plan for F & Sat.

How are you doing?

September challenge check in!

Can you believe a week of September is gone already?  I do not know how time can be so fleeting.

How are you doing with your personal challenge for the month?   I’ve decided to give a little motivation for the challenge.  As most of you know, I roast coffee beans.  I will draw a random challenger at the end of the month and send them a bag of fresh roasted coffee!  If you are chosen and don’t like coffee (  :O  )  we’ll figure something else out (tea?).

The only catch is that you need to check in for the challenge during the month.  It doesn’t matter how you are doing so much as being accountable for checking in. We are all going to have ups and downs, and sometimes when you are in a down – that is when you need to check in most!

I have had a pretty good start to the month.  My personal challenge is to lose 4 pounds by Oct 1.  I have lost 0.8 so far.

I’m pretty happy with that.  I certainly can use a little more restraint on weekends.  That’s always a toughie for me.

How are you all doing?

What’s blooming and challenge to myself.

Gorgeous Sunday here, absolutely gorgeous!  And I have to work LOL!  Although it has been really slow, so I am getting stuff done around the house.  Went to Panera Bread for our ritual bagel:  Asiago cheese here:

bagel10

Then grocery shopping.  Lots and lots of good stuff, including some new Chobani  greek yogurt flavors:  Pomegranate and Pineapple.  You’ll see those this week.  I was so excited to find them.  I think I embarassed John about how excited I was to find them.  Or maybe it was my dancing to the store music 😀

And these were in and on sale!

clems

So, I after some thinking and pondering, I decided that part of me is just being a baby about getting off the last bit of weight.  It’s because I love food ( ya think??), and tend to not want to limit myself.  I think the possibility of going to Cancun in January also makes me want to work a bit harder. I won’t have to do much, just trim back some of the extras for a bit (like those little cinnamon rolls!).  In general, just tighten up the food.  The exercise portion is totally fine.  So, I decided I am going to give myself a challenge to lose 4 pounds during September.  Those long-time followers know this is going to be hard, I am the turtle queen even when things are going well LOL!

Anyone want to join me in a personal challenge for September?  It doesn’t have to be weight loss; it could be exercise, or eating more whole grains, keeping your desk free of clutter, or saying something positive to yourself each day.  We can just check in once or twice a week here to be accountable.

Lunch was a deliciously sweet/tart kiwi with a grilled wrap stuffed with chicken and cheese spread and broccoli (yep, broccoli at lunch today, not dinner!).

lunch17

John made up some homemade chocolate sauce, so I had to have some on my latte today.  We have a squeeze bottle for it so I can make pretty patterns. For those curious, we drink 1% milk at home.

latte5

Met with one of my tenants today (the good one) and he gave his 30-day notice to leave as he is buying a house.  I am a little bummed since he was such a great tenant.  Always on time with the rent, very polite, etc.   Will be speaking with the other tenant in a few days to see what he wants to do.  If he wants to move, I will probably try putting it on the market, but I imagine he will get a room mate and stay.  Anyone want to buy a house? LOL.

It was so nice out that I took a run before dinner.  I just wanted to do 2 miles and hopefully get under 10 minutes for each mile.

Total time:  19:20  (9:40 per mile).  I was pretty happy with that (and sweaty).

sweatyWe were going to make a vegetarian chili for dinner, but I was hot and sweaty, and I wanted something lighter and cool for dinner.  So yogurt, cereal, and berries it is!

dinner20

Starting to get some fall blooms in the garden!

Liriope:

liriope2

lirope

Sedum:

sedum

Aster:

aster

Mums will be blooming soon.

Question:  Anyone up for a personal September challenge?

Challenge Day 12 – Finished!

Felt like a busy day today.  Went to the Y and did a bit of biking and walking, then the extra bonus NROLW workout – goal to do as many reps as possible at starting weight.

Dead lifts – 25 # bar  32 reps (I could have kept going, but got bored LOL)

Pushups at 45 degree angle = 30 reps

Seated lat rows at 40# = 25 reps

Step ups with 20 pound dumbbells = 30 reps each leg

Stability ball jackknife = 18 reps.

Now I have a whole week off from strength training!  I’ll take that time to concentrate on bricks and fueling.

Came home to protein pancakes:

brekkie

I left out the protein powder today since I had a lighter workout.  That makes them a little fluffier without the extra protein.

Got started at work early – since I have a 3-day weekend starting tomorrow! Woo Hoo!  Sooner I got done, the sooner my mini vacay starts 😀

Dinner was a buffalo chicken wrap.   I had some cooked chicken breast which I chopped up and put on a smart carb wrap with a tiny bit of blue cheese dressing, lots of hot sauce and some spring mix salad.  So good!  And fresh blueberries.  I am going to turn purple pretty soon!

dinner

After dinner, we went for a bike ride and got some frozen yogurt.  I tried carrot cake flavor, which was pretty good, but not great.  The ride there and back is around 13 miles or so, which is great to have a treat and burn off all the calories getting there and back!

So the challenge ends today!  I ate pretty well today to finish off the challenge.  I had 10 good days and 2 not so good days, so overall I am pleased.  Plus, I lost about 2 pounds, which is awesome for me!  I have gained a few while training for the triathlon, so it is nice to see the scale go the other way.

Tomorrow is my birthday (41 eeek!), and I have a nice long weekend to enjoy!  I’ll post pics of my dinner tomorrow.

Challenge Day 11

Here is a picture of my run this morning on the GoWear fit:

gwf

Note how the rest of my workday is quiet.

I did very well on the challenge today!  Yay!  Lots of calories burned and stayed within calories (even with the bagel).  1 more day of challenge to go!

Challenge Day 10

Daily challenge up date.   Not real great on the eating.  Big time PMS cravings (sorry TMI!).  I need to really concentrate tomorrow and Thursday to end my challenge strong!

Talk to you all tomorrow!