Monthly Archive for January, 2007

Now that you know my fitness goals, both yearlong & quarterly, in addition to my ultimate reward, today I’ll share my quarterly rewards.

Each quarter I have specific things I want to accomplish. I’m going to reward myself for accomplishing the ones I can control. Managing to accomplish the uncontrollable is icing on the cake and is it’s own reward.

In my best game show host voice, want to see what I’m working for? Make w/the mouse and clicky click click!

Q1 – Sneakers

After 3 months I think I can reward my tootsies w/some new kicks. And while I didn’t think it true, going to a true running store and getting fit for real live running sneakers was a good move. I can’t predict what kind/style I’m going to get, as I let them tell me what works best for me based on my dainty stride. I then pick the one that don’t make my boat size feet look like a yacht. I can’t WAIT for sneaker shopping day!

Q2 – Pedometer

I’m a pedo-ho. I’ve had so many, free ones, cheap ones, now I want the one Dr. Oz and The Other Guy recommended on their show, YOU: On a Diet….

…the reviews on amazon.com are really positive. Not only is it more stable than clip on models, it has tons of neat features that makes my inner geek drool. In 6 months I can retire the current pedometer, provided it lasts that long.

Q3 – Digital Camera

Over the holiday I realized my USB cord wasn’t working properly to transfer the pics. I had to jiggle it to work and now I have to leave permenantly plugged in the camera. It’s just awkward. Plus the battery cover cracked so when I hold it, if I touch it, it resets the date/time and I lose the last pic I took. Oh and Callie knocked it off my desk so the front lens is dented in a bit.

I was going to bite the bullet and get the best model I could afford, under $150, and found a 6 pixel model for $129…

…I realllllllllly wanted it, but decided it’d be too easy to just get it just b/c. Instead I want to earn it. After 9 months it’s safe to say I have. Plus @ the rate prices drop, by then I may be able to get a 100 pixel model for $25

Q4 – iPod Nano

The BESTEST gift!

When I get this baby…

…I’m going to get the talking sneakers. It’s not enough to be self motivated, I want to be like the dude in the commercial, pretending I’m running a race as the robotic woman tells me, 200 kilometers to go and shove thru a group of people as I bust through an imaginary finish line. After 12 months it’s a heckuva reward to finish the year.

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Now that I’ve spend the first two weeks of the year getting the physical plan down, next week I’ll sum up how I’m eating. That should take about an hour……I’ll also share one final set of plans: my twelve 30 day challenges.

Do you guys have any rewards planned to motivate you along your weight loss journey? I’m always looking for new ones to steal

This is an annual tradition, as I don’t make resolutions.

Unlike past years where I focused on a # on the scale, I’m changing things up. These goals are going to focus on things I can physically accomplish. Each quarter I reach my goals, I get special fitness related reward. I have already vowed no clothes this year. I will make one exception and make Quarter 1′s reward a new pair of running shoes. Trust me, you don’t want to know how long I’ve been hoofing around in my current pair…

…nuff said

Below the fold are the dates, goals I can control and just for piss and vinegar, goals I can’t.

Quarter Dates
#1 – 1/1 – 4/1
#2 – 4/2 – 7/1
#3 – 7/2 – 9/30
#4 – 10/1 – 12/30

Q1 Controllable Goals
- walk, run, precor or arc train a total of 175 miles (14.6 miles week/2.08 miles a day)
- start my 30 day challenges: January: 30 days of 30 minutes, February: 30 days of love, March: 30 days of 1 gallon of water
- per day, drink @ least 30 oz water in January, 60 oz water in February & 1 gallon of water in March

Q1 Out of my Control Goals
- Lose 12lbs (192lbs -> 180lbs by 4/1/07)
- Lose 3% body fat (38.1 -> 35.1 by 4/1/07)
- Reduce BMI 1.5 pts (31.9 -> 30 by 4/1/07)
- Reduce resting ♥ rate 3pts (80 -> 77 by 4/1/07)

When each quarter is done, 4/2, 7/2, 10/1 and 12/31, based on where I’m at, I’ll set goals for Q2 and so on and so on.

B/c this tends to get lost in the shuffle of the year and to keep my eyes focused on the controllable goals, each week, along w/my weekly weigh in, I’m going update my mileage progress here and on the sidebar.

For the next 3 months, Renee is hoofing it for a new pair of shoes!

As far as I’m concerned, the past is the past. Every success or failure I’ve had in the last 2 years on this site, all have led me to this point. I’ve gone extreme, I’ve kept it simple. I’ve had short term challenges, long term challenges. I’ve had group challenges, non-weight related challenges, food challenges ad nausea.

I start 2007 with 2 basic challenges that’ll run the duration of the year.

One night while doing my fast, I took some time to clean out my email box and came across the quote I posted to mark the New Year. It’s an oft repeated quote, and as much as I’ve read it before, I really read it that night.

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Chinese Proverb

The thousand miles part kept playing in my head.

I did a quickie calculation to see if that can be done in a year. It’s a bit under 3 miles a day and if 10,000 steps roughly equals 5 miles, 3 miles should be +/- 6,000 steps.

That’s goal number 1.

Goal number 2 came to me the last week in December.

Stumbling across a site that said you can try anything out for 30 days and later reading two people who made a goal to exercise every day for an entire year, I figured, why not me?

Just to clarify, in this example I really mean being physically active on a daily basis, not necessarily busting out an intense workout every day. Workouts are what I’ll do on a regular basis w/rest days and all.

But when I’m resting up, I still commit myself to doing 30 minutes of some physical activity.

It can be 30 minutes of running, weight lifting, a 30 minute walk around the park or it can be a Sunday stroll through my neighborhood w/Callie. The sole requirement is that it’s 30 consecutive minutes.

In the next few weeks I’ll share some rewards I’ll be working towards, my annual tradition of posting my quarterly goals, though for the Oh-7 they’ve been reformulated.

In ’05 I was on the right track deciding to get fit. Somewhere in ’06 I was all about pounds & the weight. It consumed me. The goals I once had, to be a runner, to be athletic, disappeared.

Which meant, working out felt like a chore and if the scale didn’t budge, my mood soured.

This year, I want to get back to focusing on things I can control. I can’t control if the scale’ll move. I may truly lose weight every 9.5 days so it’ll take 2 weeks for my weekly weigh in to reflect that. But, I can control whether or not I walk 2.8 miles or being active 30 minutes.

If I’ve learned nothing else in the last 2 years on this site, the best laid plans go up in smoke. I also learned I’m not a quitter. Who knows what emotional rollercoaster ’07 will bring, I’m up for that challenge too.

Have a wonderful new year to all my readers, listeners and viewers

Be fit!