Day 7 Report Card

Before the carnage began...  Thanks for the pic, J.

I was treated to a Dim Sum brunch today by a few of my favorite people. It was amazing, but lemme tell ya: me and overeating are not friends. My meals are small because I ate small meals for over a year and haven't stretched my stomach out since then. I ate a few things and then a few more things, then pretty much stuffed a couple of other things in near the end just to clear the table. I came home and fell into a coma for a few hours. It's now 8:00 and I'm still stuffed. Ack!

- 30 Day Flexibility Challenge
 -- These poses (side lunge, wide split, wide straddle) make me feel weird. I look at the side lunge in the photo and then compare to how I look and there's no similarity whatsoever. I know I can't bend my left knee like that, but seriously? My right knee looks just as nonfunctional. Oh, well, the correct things were stretched, and thus, moving on...

- 30 Day Journey to Splits
 -- Getting easier, but for reals, people, these are hard to do after waking from a coma. Please, dumplings, stay where you are!

- 30 Day Burpee Challenge
 -- Eleven down. Urp. Urp. *ahem*

- 30 Day Vocabulary Challenge
 -- This one totally fits today. alacrity: promptness in response; cheerful readiness. I will say I was awakened this morning with a new plan (no sushi today, we're doing dim sum) and responded with alacrity.

- 30 Day Back Challenge
 -- My back better look amazing after this.  Just sayin'.

- 30 Day Cleaning Challenge
 -- I did the stuff for today and most of the stuff for tomorrow. I think tomorrow will be a pre-planning day for decluttering of the bathroom stuff. I have a ton of small shampoo, conditioner and body soap samples. I might put the family on a showering-diet of small bottle-use until they're all gone.

- 30 Day Wall Sit Challenge
 -- I sat there for 70 seconds, poking my really hard thigh and nodding my head.  Yup.  I wonder how my friend J is doing on her two minute wall sit. I think she's rockin' it...on the floor.  LOL

- 30 Day Plank Challenge
 -- Okay, so I had my hubby research wrist pain for me while I sat on the wall. Planks on the hands apparently exacerbate carpal tunnel...and that's why people are switching to the forearm plank...which stinks. I don't think I have carpal tunnel, but dang. Planks hurt me. I have some half-dome stability pods that I might try out tomorrow. That will make the plank more difficult, of course, but if I can save my wrists and hands from pain and injury, fine. By the way, no shaking and I sang a ditty as I planked.

- 30 Day Arm Sculpting Challenge
 -- A friend just posted something on FB about really sculpting arms. I think I'll change to that on my next 30 Day Challenge Extravaganza. This one, however, is a fine start! I'm going from zero activity for several months (inexcusable, I know) to working these guns every other day. I already have attractive veins popping out all over, so...let's take it further. That's future talk, y'all.

- 30 Day Butt Lift Challenge
 -- You know, I just looked through this calendar and noticed that there are NO days off. I suppose that means I'll reach my goal sooner. When I took that class all those years ago, I think I only attended class three times a week. So, if math is my friend, 3 classes a week times 8 weeks equals 24 days to pow booty. I'm dangerously close to being half-way there!

- 30 Day Mom Challenge
 -- Sweet note written. I didn't nag a bit.

- 30 Day Blog Challenge
 -- Today is a challenge, for sure. I'm going to put this out there for all to hear: If I say, hey, tomorrow is a good day for a buffet or whatEVER overeating event might be available, comment with a reminder about how I'll feel afterward. Sometimes I forget life lessons...like when raw cookie dough starts to sound delicious.

One full week of challenges complete, and a little over three weeks to go, and I'm feeling confident. How is your New Year treating you?

Day 6 Report Card

Hi, Sprinkles...or rather, high Sprinkles.

I am so happy to be clumsy. I get rid of so much stuff just by dropping it. For example, I just got rid of about a cup of catnip. On the rug. The cat is extremely chill about it, and Nilla is confused. I figure I'll let the cat roll around in it for a few days, then suck it up. 

- 30 Day Flexibility Challenge
 -- I love knees to chest. It's like I'm a roly-poly after being discovered! The Posterior Kinetic Chain felt really good!  Try it!

- 30 Day Journey to Splits
 -- Okay! Day six means I add that sixth pose.  I felt like an awkward giraffe, trying to get a drink at the watering hole. Please, clock, move faster. I like my awkwardness to last as little time as possible.

- 30 Day Burpee Challenge
 -- Nine, nine -- feelin' fine!  Pretty soon, I can count this as a HIIT routine.

- 30 Day Vocabulary Challenge
 -- Words used correctly make me happy. This one - quash - is supposed to mean to nullify especially by judicial action. However, I sometimes use it like this: to quash rumors. I've heard people try to squash rumors. :-( No.

- 30 Day Back Challenge
 -- So...I finished these exercises and am winded from it all. Nilla got in a few hand-licks, as well.  I did a few more Posterior Kinetic Chain stretches after that superman.  *bliss*

- 30 Day Cleaning Challenge
 -- Sink is super-clean, and under the sink was organized a few months ago. I looked, with a flashlight even, and all is well.

- 30 Day Wall Sit Challenge
 -- Definitely getting better. This time, the countdown was correct and, once again, I started trembling with seven seconds to go. My secret now is that I have yoga shoes and a yoga mat under my feet. That means no sliding and - BONUS - I get some cushioning for my poor, trembling toes.

- 30 Day Plank Challenge
 -- Day off! I don't even know how to give up a day of planking!

- 30 Day Arm Sculpting Challenge
 -- Day off!

- 30 Day Butt Lift Challenge
 -- I wrapped my knee for this one since I kneel on it for a couple of sets. My poor knee has been rather nice to me through this whole process but is a bit achy today. Is it the cooler weather?

- 30 Day Mom Challenge
 -- The weekend before a school break ends is always sad. Knowing your kinder hasn't completed the assignments means there is tension in the air. If a few things are finished before I go eat, I'll get her some Funnel Cake fries...which are always a hit.

- 30 Day Blog Challenge
 -- I can't believe it!  Seven days in a row! I should reward myself with dim sum!

Life will begin again soon, so I will have to be a little less lazy about completing the challenges. I do them all day long in little spurts between laundry and eating and being on pinterest...and everybody knows how long pinterest can take.

My weekiversary is tomorrow! So excited!

Day 5 Report Card

As I was cleaning out the 'fridge yesterday, I figured I'd put the salad fixings to good use and make some Mason jar salads. Aren't they pretty?  These are just basic salads this time, but I do have a Mason jar salad book that I'll be testing out this year. I like the idea of fixing weekday lunches on Sunday and being lazy about shaking and serving them to myself later. If I find one that makes me swoon, I'll let you know.

How did I do today?

- 30 Day Flexibility Challenge
 -- Cobra stretch is lovely. Bow stretch is not so lovely. I could tell you how long it's been since I put my leg behind my head, but I won't. Okay, yes, I will.  I just did it. I will now call the chiropractor.

- 30 Day Journey to Splits
 -- I am so good at this. Tomorrow I will add a move and I think I'll wrap my entire left knee into a knee burrito. Did you look ahead to that move? I'm already cringing.

- 30 Day Burpee Challenge
 -- I did seven, and Nilla didn't get excited for me until the end. She knows when I'm about to pass out, so she gets all concerned. She's a Canine Companion trained darling, don't you know?

- 30 Day Vocabulary Challenge
 -- They are good! The word is appropriate for today. annus mirabilis: a remarkable or notable year. Will 2016 be our annus mirabilis for the home building project?  We hope so!

- 30 Day Back Challenge
 -- Skip a day and then double my number of additional reps?  I'm a sad super-monkey.

- 30 Day Cleaning Challenge
 -- Some sinks just aren't built for washing 'fridge drawers. I need a big swimming pool in which to dump them, and that would make cleaning them fun. Instead, I end up inadvertently flooding the kitchen floor after each drawer. Also, I hope one day to find a use for seven bottles of Dale's Seasoning.

- 30 Day Wall Sit Challenge
 -- Oh, mah gawsh! I did it! I had to laugh at myself, though, because I set the timer for 50 MINUTES instead of 50 seconds, so I'm adjusting myself on the wall and wiggling my toes, really starting to struggle, when I look down and notice that the timer says 49:17...and I only had 7 seconds to go.  Ha!

- 30 Day Plank Challenge
 -- Completing the plank after the wall-sit disaster yesterday makes me think I've redeemed myself. Research opportunity to figure out how to keep my wrists comfortable.

- 30 Day Arm Sculpting Challenge
 -- I feel like Jessica Jones, you guys. Strong and powerful -- and super! -- and maybe it's all in my head.

- 30 Day Butt Lift Challenge
 -- Do I detect a little pow in that boom-boom?  Judge me in a month.

- 30 Day Mom Challenge
 -- Yes. She's fifteen. She'll be old enough to drive soon. That means it's almost time for me to send her to the store for a loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter!  Awesome!

- 30 Day Blog Challenge
 -- I'm cruising right along, writing snippets of hilarity...right? I do, one day, hope to begin my own writing challenge, also known as writing the novel before I'm fifty. My uncle, Rooster Morris, has reached his goal of writing books for kids. I know it's possible, and one day, I'll take his advice and just get it done!

In the meantime, I'll observe people, dream of plot twists and develop characters that I think people will love. The fun part will be the villains. Are there any real-life villains you love to hate?  Fill me in.

Until grade-time tomorrow...

Day 4 Report Card

Time to pack up the decorations...and 2015

At this point, I have figured out which challenges I'm going to have an easy time completing, and which challenges are going to make me snarl. Have you figured it out?

- 30 Day Flexibility Challenge
 -- I think my mind is also getting a workout with this challenge, trying to figure out all these moves. Today, however, they are pretty much yoga moves that I like, so no problem...except my favorite: child's pose. Can't get there anymore as my knee won't bend like that. *cries*

- 30 Day Journey to Splits
 -- Am I turning a corner? Are my ligaments forgiving me? Maybe...but Snap, Crackle and Pop aren't just for breakfast anymore. They are accompanying me on my journey to the splits.

- 30 Day Burpee Challenge
 -- I think these are my jam! Boom-chucka-lucka-lucka! I'm going to have to put Nilla in the kennel for these, though, because dog drool and burpees don't mix. Gah-ROSS!

- 30 Day Vocabulary Challenge
 -- I think this one is hitting home. reticulate: resembling a net or network. It brings to mind reticulated, as in reticulated pythons, as in those things that someone had as a pet and then just let them loose in Florida and now they're wreaking havoc down here. *deep breath*

- 30 Day Back Challenge
 -- Rest day! Why, thank you!

- 30 Day Cleaning Challenge
 -- This is a weird order of things to me. Scrub the refrigerator before you go through and find expired food?  No. I've taken a stand and re-ordered this one. Today was the 'throw out' day, and tomorrow will be the scrub and organize day.

- 30 Day Wall Sit Challenge
 -- Forty seconds is rilly, rilly hard. My knees started knocking at 36 and wouldn't stop.  Horrid.  Is it cheating to break these seconds into two, four or eight different sessions?

- 30 Day Plank Challenge
 -- Thirty seconds. I'm bored. What should I think about during this time? Resolutions? Okay. First one? Build a house. 28 seconds left...

- 30 Day Arm Sculpting Challenge
 -- Another day off. I keep flexing in front of the mirror.

- 30 Day Butt Lift Challenge
 -- Workin' it! NOT flexing in front of the mirror. I have my limits.

- 30 Day Mom Challenge
 -- I might fail on this one. She doesn't sleep much.  ha ha!

- 30 Day Blog Challenge
 -- I think I've set a record for myself. Is this helping anybody? If it is, great. If not, it's at least helping me.

Is everyone ready to make resolutions? I've seen a trend lately to avoid it all. I try to make changes throughout the year, so the New Year event just makes it an official day for lining up at the starting line. I wish you luck if you are making changes!

Day 3 Report Card

Bacon French Toast Sammich

It's Bacon Day. I celebrated accordingly with the above snack. Did you celebrate in any way? Maybe next Bacon Day, I can be a little more prepared with a bacon sculpture or something. Perhaps I could challenge myself with a bacon taco shell or a bacon house.  Suggestions?

The day was full of non-events, such as cutting all my nails super-short because one of them tore a quarter of an inch past the quick. Another?  Outside Christmas lights and decorations taken down and stuffed into our Texas basement (aka the garage). Very exciting.

- 30 Day Flexibility Challenge
 -- I have no idea what a wide runners stretch might be, so I posed like a sumo wrestler for 20 seconds. It seems legit.

- 30 Day Journey to Splits
 -- This journey is making me walk funny. Obviously, these muscles need stretching more than once every couple of years, and they are giving me the what-for! I used to be the most flexible person in the room and today, I look back on those days fondly. I'll get there again!

- 30 Day Burpee Challenge
 -- I've skipped rest day and done five anyway. I did them without shoes and I felt five pounds lighter!

- 30 Day Vocabulary Challenge
 -- Word. wormhole (I'm going with the less-boring, non-literal definition): a hypothetical structure of space-time envisioned as a long thin tunnel connecting points that are separated in space and time.

- 30 Day Back Challenge
 -- Okay, those renegade rows are getting challenging. I might have to break them up over, say, a couple of hours.

- 30 Day Cleaning Challenge
 -- Wiping down the pantry is a nice way of saying pull everything out, reorganize and repaint. It looks so innocent there on that list, doesn't it? I'm all about organization. Keeping things organized is another matter altogether, since I'm not the only one accessing it. By the way, we have a lot of peanut butter.

- 30 Day Wall Sit Challenge
 -- Blimey, walls are hard to sit on. They are. Try it.

- 30 Day Plank Challenge
 -- I have abandoned the elbow plank and am full-on straight-arming it. I closed my eyes during this plank and pictured myself in a hammock. This form of distraction didn't work.

- 30 Day Arm Sculpting Challenge
 -- My arms are taking this challenge seriously. Not as seriously as the 'Journey' regions, though.

- 30 Day Butt Lift Challenge
 -- Years ago, my sis L saw me after I had taken a two-month class at the gym and that class had lots of squats in it. She said I had pow-booty...so that's what I'm going for. I'll continue the challenge after 30 days for maximum effect.

- 30 Day Mom Challenge
 -- The hugging was a challenge since one of us is sneezing. It happened, though, and we'll see if the other of us is sneezing in a few days...  It's allergies, as the saying goes.

- 30 Day Blog Challenge
 -- Yay! Again! The blog update allows me to take a break between challenges. Did you know it takes a whole hour to write a few sentences?  Believe it.

Yes, these things are getting harder. I expected it, and expect more of it on down the line. I am so looking forward to the day 30 report card so I can reward myself with a router or a drill press. I'm taking suggestions.

Day 2 Report Card

My Challenge partner, Nilla

Not gonna lie.  I'm sore. Most of my aches and pains are from the stretching, I assume, so I will be extra warmed-up when I attempt those. Also, I weighed myself this morning and thought I'd been body-snatched last night as the scale indicated I was less than 100 pounds. It was just sitting wonky on the tile. *sad trombone*

- 30 Day Flexibility Challenge
 -- All yoga moves that make me hold my breath. A whole minute and a half of yoga and I'm a mouth-breather. Have to work on that, I guess, if I am to be accepted in genteel society.

- 30 Day Journey to Splits
 -- All this kneeling on the knees stuff is rude. I don't know why we even started that. They are one of the least-padded parts of our anatomy and here we are, putting weight on them. I have knee pads. I'm gonna use 'em, y'all. Ugh!  I'm so out of sorts, my accent is piping up!  Also, stretch number five is the devil.

- 30 Day Burpee Challenge
 -- The five burpees weren't so bad today. I was interrupted on the first one by a happy dog, so I laughed my way through them. Distraction seems to work.  Hmmmm...

- 30 Day Vocabulary Challenge
 -- Here again, and this one is easy! petulant: insolent or rude in speech or behavior. Hey, you guys! What is that fine line between being petulant and being heard? Is it the foot-stomping? The smashing of innocent glassware? The calling out of one's mother? This will be an ongoing study.

- 30 Day Back Challenge
 -- Not bad, and those bridge pullovers! I can feel those lats working!

- 30 Day Cleaning Challenge
 -- Cleaning the inside of a dishwasher is disgusting. We went all in (yes, I got help from D), unscrewing stuff and dispatching with the foodball we found inside. Everyone should do this, but if you are prone to gagging, have a trashcan nearby. I predict a dishwasher that does a better job in the future.

- 30 Day Wall Sit Challenge
 -- Um, twenty seconds was cake today. However, my feet are sliding on the tile floor. I'm going to have to work this out before I have to sit there for half an hour.

- 30 Day Plank Challenge
 -- The plank yesterday seemed harder, with what I assumed was an easier form (on elbows). Today I was on hands and toes and breezed through. More research...

- 30 Day Arm Sculpting Challenge
 -- Halleluyer, it's a rest day! By the way, can someone brush my hair?  My arms. They're semi-floppy.

- 30 Day Butt Lift Challenge
 -- Six of each with help from Nilla. She's a keeper.

- 30 Day Mom Challenge
 -- Go the whole day without yelling, which is hard since the invention of headphones. And closed doors. And music.  I'm gonna leave the heavy-voice-lifting to D. Also, changed our activity plan to a Home Depot class, which should be fun!

- 30 Day Blog Challenge
 -- Here I am again! This is my accountability. Blog about what makes you better! I can do that. Harder for me? Blogging about my weaknesses, namely cookies and bread (especially those everything bagels, toasted, with butter? Mmmmama!).

I'm preparing for a great new year, namely because I'll be taking a family trip to a dude ranch, building a house, getting back on the workout train and *sob* purging my books. In purging my books, I have plans to donate locally and, yes, you heard it here, give some away to those who take the time to read my blog. Most of those will be cookbooks. Hardly any of those will be about healthy food. Hee hee!

Day two down. *whips and nae nae's*

Day 1 Report Card

Strapped on my shoes!

As promised, I'm updating you on my overload of 30 Day challenges. Today was meh. I know it's an easy set of tasks as the authors do not want people to quit on day one. Meh because I have figured out that knee issues are no reason to just stop everything and whine. Noah Galloway would chastise me greatly!  Below are my comments on the activities of the day...and I got straight A's!

- 30 Day Flexibility Challenge
 -- Good gravy, I'm out of shape.

- 30 Day Journey to Splits
 -- Did someone stick my ligaments with needles? Ouch.

- 30 Day Burpee Challenge
 -- I only did five, and I want to throw up. It's hot here, so I'm blaming the heat, for sure.

- 30 Day Vocabulary Challenge
 -- I chose this one, so the word today is kinesics: a systematic study of the relationship between nonlinguistic body motions (such as blushes, shrugs, or eye movement) and communication. Someone should study the body motions of out of shape people with the words that usually come out of their mouths when people ask how they're doing:  "Oh, this is fun!"  *puke, eye roll, faint*

- 30 Day Back Challenge
 -- Ooo, that superman pose is brutal. Ten seconds of it and I wanted a nap.

- 30 Day Cleaning Challenge
 -- That was easy since at least one of those things cleans itself. hee hee hee

- 30 Day Wall Sit Challenge
 -- 10 seconds and the shakes begin.

- 30 Day Plank Challenge
 -- 20 seconds and more shakes.

- 30 Day Arm Sculpting Challenge
 -- I have to say that I have never in my life had a charley horse in my bicep, but today?  I screameth.

- 30 Day Butt Lift Challenge
 -- Boom. Done.

- 30 Day Mom Challenge
 -- We planned something for tomorrow! Fun times!

- 30 Day Blog Challenge (my own goal, so I haven't made a chart)
 -- Well, here I am! I even slept in and got it all done!

I should have included a 30 Day Goodwill challenge, since we dropped some stuff off today. We weren't the only ones, either!  The drive-thru drop was overflowing!

Okay! Onward! I have 29 days to go, and here's to making it happen.