New Challenge & New Goals
Today marks the first day of our new challenge and April Fools Day. We’re working on our butts this month, no joke. Many people are embarrassed by or would like to fix something about their butt.
The challenge tasks we’re doing this month will help tone and shape our butts. I know mine needs a ton of work.
My personal goals for this month are to achieve at least 13,000 steps each and every day. I got lazy in February and didn’t pick it back up much in March, I need to kill it this month.
I also need to restart my diet…again. My diet seems to be what derailed everything and swallowed up my progress. I had positive results going on but then when I went off my diet, I ended up getting lazy and gaining it all back. Now I’m back to square 1 with high blood pressure and pre-diabetes. Time to get busy.
April Challenge – 2019 – Baseline
No preparaton needed for me to begin this challenge. I don’t use a journal or anything to log my exercises because I use the tracking sheet as a checklist. I will be using a journal to keep track of my diet though.
Baseline Measurements
I’m measuring progress on my thigh but am recording my weight as well for my personal goals. My personal goal is to get my Average Step Count above 10,000 and my weight down as much as I can.
- Hips: 59″
- Waist: 53.25″
- Weight: 260.2
Starting this new challenge, I’m absolutely disgusted with myself. I’ve gained inches, I’ve gained 10 pounds this month, I’m not happy at all. It most definitely doesn’t help the depression. But I’m going to try to turn this around and use it as motivation this month to get back to where I started before and go from there.
Day 1 – Monday
So far, so good today. It is currently 2:30pm and I am 9,580 steps in. There shouldn’t be any problem meeting my step goal today. I completed my challenge tasks after the second walk of the day, mainly because I did the first walk earlier than usual and I wasn’t quite awake yet. What I’ve learned so far is that butt lifts and fire hydrants don’t work on a bed.
You really need to be a hard(ish) surface for these moves to be most effective. Getting up and down from the floor is extremely hard for me with the previous injuries to my knees, ankles, and back plus the RA…so I typically try to avoid floor work. Tomorrow I will put my workout mat down on the coffee table and see if that works out better for me. I did not restart my diet today but am hoping tomorrow will go better with that.
I apparently get very lazy in the evening time. I did not get to my 13,000 steps…but I came so close. At least I went over 10,000. Tomorrow is a brand new day.
Steps: 11,536
Day 2 – Tuesday
I did my first walk at 7:30am again today immediately followed by the challenge tasks. Doing them on my workout mat on the coffee table worked so much better than doing them on the bed.
My knees handled the squats okay but I don’t think I got as low as I really should. The butt lifts are good, I feel those working my glutes. The fire hydrants seem to work the inside of the thighs more than the butt. I’ll have to review the proper form and make sure I’m doing it right.
Steps: 7,328
Day 3 – Wednesday
It was a good day, I’m feeling a bit better than I did last week and over the weekend. I’m not exactly sure why depression hit so hard right now or what triggered it but I’m glad I’m pulling myself out. I did my normal morning walk at 8:30am and completed my challenge tasks immediately after.
I feel like these tasks aren’t working the muscles out much because there are so few of them, so I think I’m going to start doing several sets throughout the day. I did three sets to see how I feel after.
Steps: 12,020
Day 4 – Thursday
I woke up super stiff. I’m not sure if it is due to the storms going on or just a bad arthritis day, or what, but I felt as if any kind of bending would break me. Despite feeling so stiff, I forced myself to do my morning walk. I wasn’t as mobile and didn’t do all of the movements that I normally do, I just used the first walk to warm everything up. I did not do my challenge tasks immediately after the first walk like normal because of the stiffness.
After the second walk, I did the challenge tasks. I did not do them repeatedly throughout the day like I did yesterday because…stiff. On the bad arthritis days, I take it easy and don’t push my luck. I did try to keep my walks going throughout the day though as those seem to help keep from getting as stiff. I totally failed with getting my evening walks in after work though and therefore missed my step goal for the day.
Steps: 9,050
Day 5 – Friday
I feel much better today, not nearly as stiff. I got out of bed a little bit late because I didn’t sleep well, but I’m not so stiff. I did my normal morning walk at 8:30am despite my want to not being there. I didn’t do my challenge tasks until after my second walk of the day though. I needed to wake up a little, but hey, I got them done. I also managed to pull off my walks every hour which is the goal every day though I rarely pull it off. So I knocked the step goal for the day out of the park.
Steps: 13,951
Day 6 – Saturday
Saturday was a good day but I did not meet my goals for the day. We visited my parents and I started the whole day just off. We found that I was easily riled and rushed in the morning and then after the visit I was just tired and lazy. So I didn’t get my steps in and I didn’t get my challenge tasks done. I didn’t do much of anything productive. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
Steps: 7,920
Progress on My Goals
Personal goals
I didn’t do so well on my personal goals this week. While I was able to pull myself out of my depression, I was still stressed and I found it hard to get up and get my steps done each day. I cannot wait until this round of medical stuff is done and I can go back to my normal everyday routines. I think when it’s all resolved, I’ll sleep better and feel better and it’ll be easier to accomplish my goals.
Challenge goals
I got a 6/7 on the challenge goals this week, I didn’t do too bad at all. I remembered to get them done most days. I only missed one. I need to establish a routine for my days off to ensure that I still accomplish my fitness goals on those days instead of just getting lazy like I have been doing.
So, how did you do? Are you following along? Let us know how your week went in the comments section at the bottom of this page. We’re here to support you on your journey too!
For now, take care and hug your loved ones!
~Ki
P.S. If you’d like my free weight loss progress chart (shown here) to use for yourself, just submit your name and email in the box at the upper right hand side of this page and it’ll take you to your own free copy.
- For challenge worksheets and the Forget Skinny planner, see our Planners & Worksheets page!
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