Fitness/Weight Loss Challeneges at Work

It’s amazing when you decide to make a positive change in your life how other positive changes start to happen around you.

I’m participating in two fitness challenges at work!

One involves my entire team at work and includes a health and fitness portion each day of the week. The other is a weight loss challenge with two other co-workers.

Fitness Challenge w/ All 

• Fresh Start Monday’s
• Health: Give up your guilty pleasure for something fresh.
• Take the Stair’s Tuesday’s
• Health: Eat breakfast by 8:30am
• Fitness: Take the stairs all day
• Workout Wednesday
• Health: Eat breakfast by 8:30am
• Fitness: Stairwell workout: step-ups, squats, dips, crunches 4x30 seconds (roughly a 12 minute workout)
• Thirsty Thursdays
• Health: Drink 1.5 liters of water today
• Fitness: Park in the far corner of the parking lot today
• Fitness Friday
• Health: Eat breakfast by 8:30am
• Fitness: 23 minute group walk or cycle. Go for a walk outside or use the treadmills/stationary bikes in the gym.
• Saturday/Sunday (think about including your family)
• Fitness: 20-30 minutes of your favorite activity….(the wii counts)

We have a point system for the lifestyle challenge which will be tracked using a sticker board (yeah! Think Kindergarten style).  The winner will get a free one hour massage!  This challenge starts on Monday, January 25th.

Weight Loss Challenge

There are three of us at work that have decided to ramp up our efforts and challenge each other to a weight loss goal. The goal: 10 weeks to lose 20 lbs. We are each chipping in $20 and going to ask our manager to chip in an additional $40 for a total of $100 prize for whoever gets the closest to the goal. The idea here is that the money would be a good start for some new clothes (which we would surely need after losing 20 lbs). We weigh 180, 190 and 209 lbs - of all varying heights are between 5’5” and 5’10”. I should note here that this was wearing our work clothes which are heavier then when I weight myself at home.

We are going to do a group weigh in each Wednesday until the final Wednesday, March 31, 2010.

Wish us luck.

A Deal

On my last post, I mentioned some learning from a recent Health & Safety meeting we had at work. In one of the comments, my mom issued a challenge.

Does this mean that the diet coke and chocolate bar theory is busted? Oh no! And I shouldn't buy diet coke any more? I do know that it hasn't helped me lose weight. If you do the stairs I will stop buying diet coke. ( but I can't waste or waist what I have)

Mom, I accept your challenge. I will stop taking elevators if you stop drinking diet coke.

I work on the sixth floor, and this morning - walking hurt. I hope that in a few months, it doesn't hurt so much and I get to the feeling good part.

Are you who you want to be.. or even who you think you are?

A few months ago I moved my horse to the city.  Up until that point, it’s been several years since I have been directly responsible for her care.

I have to question if I have ever been directly responsible for her care.

She was given to me when I was 12 years old – I had asked my dad if I could have a horse for a full year up to the day when he said I could.  I won’t get into the whole story, but after a few weeks (a month?) of looking, my grandmother found a horse for me.

Starlight was only two at the time, and could not be ridden until she was three – so for that first year we spent a lot of time walking, talking, and grooming.  I worked with a trainer the next year who taught me how to be a better rider and my horse how to listen/interpret my queues.

I really enjoyed being a western horse back rider.  I liked telling people about my horse, my riding – my travels.  I loved spending time with my horse.

During that time, my parents bought a few more horses, horse trailers, and all the horsey-stuff you can imagine (saddles ect).

Then I went away to college.  I came back home every summer for the first five years of school and always rode – probably not as much as I should have, but I rode.  The following year a cousin was looking for a few horses for a horse-back riding adventure tourism thing he was working on and I said he could use starlight as a tour horse in exchange for board/feed – the deal was done.

Then, two years ago my mom and dad sold their horses, trailers, bridles and bits (everything except dad’s saddle).   They actually sold just about everything to an aunt/uncle of mine – the uncles kid, was my cousin who had starlight.

Well – last year cousin could no longer care of starlight, and his plans had all landed on his lap.  That brings us to present day, where a few months ago (August) I brought starlight to my city.

I promised myself that I would give myself a year to figure out if I really was the horse-back riding person that I wanted to me, and that I thought I was.

The first month was great, I went out just about every other day, I got all of her vaccinations up to date – and was off to a great start.  The second month I got my saddle organized, and went out to ride – that was a big fail because I actually forgot how to do up my saddle.

I forgot – I couldn’t do it right – I felt stupid.

After three hours, I went home.

I’ve been back a few times to drop of cheques for her board, and to make sure she’s doing well – but I haven’t tried riding again.

Now it’s cold and dark when I get home – and I haven’t found the time to make it work.

Am I really a horse-back rider?  Am I?

I want to be, I thought I wanted to be, I thought I could be.

I feel like I’m doing her a disservice by not riding and visiting more often – I know she’s not getting the exercise she should be.  I know I need to get her feet shod.  I feel like I have no resources here when it comes to my horse – I don’t know who to go to.

I don’t know if I’m this person anymore and it scares me.  

I'm Having Deja-Vu

or some such thing.

Jordan just called.  The Edmonton part's shop wants to borrow Jordan for a couple of days in December so they he can help them organize their shop.  They recently let go of their parts person, so want to make sure things are a-okay.  They're going to pay for his travel, and food and board while he's up there which will be nice.

At first my breath hitched because when we dated a few years back, he was needed on Ontario for a couple of weeks and it turned into 6 months (we broke up while he was away).

This time it's different.  Jordan called me straight off and said he'll try to organize it so its a wed-Friday and then I can drive up after work on the Friday and we could spend the weekend in Edmonton together and then drive home together.  It'll be a nice weekend away.

This whole common-law thing is pretty cool.