* * * March challenge * * *

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:07 pm

This March I challenge you to do better this month than last month
For some of you it may be quite tough because you did very well last month. For some of us it won't take much.

For others it might be the boost they need to get going once and for all.
This is for anybody who needs encouragement and daily accountability. We will all keep tabs on each other. Think of this as your own little cheering section.

- Write down what would be your "better" at the top of your post and then update us as to how you're doing. It's O.K. to not post daily, but try to keep us updated. Accountability helps!
- *Remember* to only post once at the top and edit that first post all month. It's easier to skim-read and find each other.
- Please re-read that last one, some people don't get it.
- after March 3rd we will continue posting at the bottom for encouragement and fun.
- This challenge is meant for all of us to give support, so let's try hard to do that.
- good luck and have fun with it! March is the lucky St. Patrick's Day month and the green decorations month. It has to be a good sign, right? Let's color it all green!

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:07 pm

I'm in, and I'm going green!

My birthday is St. Patrick's Day, so all of my birthdays have been celebrated with everything from green cake to green beer. Everyone around me wears green on this day (or I pinch them) and it is know for it's irish luck. Everywhere I go I see shamrocks and green decorations. I am not Irish... I'm German... but I think since I was born on this day I am priveleged to claim it. The green-ness of the holiday will fill the month with green-ness on on calendars. Green for successful noS days. I spread my green luck around to you all!
(O.K... I know that was korny, but I felt inspired

)

Last month I started to record on the 3rd and I then had 5 fails. That leaves me with 7 fails. I better be able to do better than that! Good thing February was short!

March
1

2

You've got to be kidding me! It's only day 2 and I ate doritos packing my daughters lunch! (and not just a few) UGGGG
3

4

barely kinda sorta... I'm going with green. Company.
5

S day company. Daughter getting sick?
6

S day company still here. Sick daughter.
7

no comment
8

9

now I have 2 sick kids! Ug. Ash Wednesday and I am giving up somthing that is very difficult, so this may help me here...
10

11

Day 8 sick for my daughter and day 3 for my son. Ug.
12

S day
13

S day
14

and it was tough! Starting double green... that's strict
15

16

17

birthday and day 10 for the 21 day club. almost half way!
18

19

S day
20

S day
21

22

23

ug ... there goes the 21
24

25

S day on a mini vacation. bad bad bad girl. So I swapped Sunday for today.

26

S day
27

Good day too! I usually don't bank a day after the fact, but if I didn't, I would have blown today too. Oh, how my mind works.
28

29

fail fail fail. I "forgot" and ate, then used it as an excuse all day. duh.
30

Good grief!!! What's with that??? I bought jelly beans and it was not good. I blame it all on the jelly beans!
31

It will be green because it has to be or I did no better than last month.

But honestly, this is the best that I've done in quite a while. I will do better next month. Thanks guys!!!

coffee · Post by **coffee** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:29 pm

Sure, I'm in!
March will be a tough month for me. My dissertation hand in is this month, aaaaaghhhhhh! (Seriously, I am FREAKING OUT).
Last month I had one big red failure, so this month I want to keep it totally failure free!

Strawberry Roan · Post by **Strawberry Roan** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 7:31 pm

Hey I am in !

Trying to exercise at least 45 mins a day and eat like a sane person.

Each day I will post on how I did in each category.
So glad to see your challenges back Reneew !!

March 1 - Check - Check
March 2 - S Day - Its My Birthday !!!! Ate out twice today with DESSERT

Oh dear, I forgot to update my Challenge - have to catch the April one.

jellybeans01 · Post by **jellybeans01** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:55 am

I'm in and it will be a challenge, I will be stateside with my family this month so a lot of temtations. I can do it though.

Becoming · Post by **Becoming** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 6:20 am

I'm in...for the first time. I'm feeling very nervous because I have major issues with accountability. Goodbye 'need to fail privately'!

My 'better' thing is to practice using ways to deal with stress that don't involve food. Also to only have the coffees, not coffees and cakes, when my mum visits next week.

March 1: Success
March 2: Success
March 3: Success!
I could have taken this as a sick S-Day, but I didn't and now I'm really happy about it!
March 4: Success
This was a hard one.
March 5: S-Day
March 6: S-Day
Both S-Days less "wild"!
March 7: Success
March 8: Success
March 9: Success
Sooooo close to eating chocolate chip cookies
March 10: Success
Didn't eat cake when I had coffee with Mum. Woo Hoo!
March 11: Success
No cake again today!
March 12: S-Day
March 13: S-Day
March 14: Success
I made the 21 Day Club for the first time today!!!
March 15: Success
March 16: Success
March 17: Success
March 18: Fail
It was kind of a 'planned fail', but it went way overboard. Very educational!!
March 19: S-Day
March 20: S-Day
Lots and lots of esses! Didn't feel good at all.
March 21: Fail
Feeling unwell. Resistance to snack low. 'Small' fail.
March 22: Fail
Or Sick Day. Couldn't do big meals.
March 23: Fail
Still sick, but snacked 'inappropriately'.
March 24: Success!
Sigh of relief!!
March 25: Success
Back on track.
March 26: S-Day
March 27: S-Day
Feeling pretty good about both S-Days.
March 28: Success
March 29: Success
March 30: NWS-Day (event)
otherwise Success
March 31: Success
All in all, not so bad. Bring on April!

mrsj · Post by **mrsj** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 8:48 am

I'm in! In March I challenge myself to do at least 30 minutes of aerobic movement with purpose every other day!

01 Mar: GREEN! Movedfor 30 mins.
02 Mar: S Day! Did heavy duty cleaning all morning.
03 Mar: Green. Urban Ranged
04 Mar:

Ate candy bars. Couldn't I have waited 36 hours?
05 Mar: Green. Day 1 for 21 day club. Urban ranged
06 Mar: S Day!
07 Mar: Green
08 Mar: Shrove Tuesday, therefore an S. I'm going to gobble like a turkey and eat like a hog! Hah!
09Mar: Green
10Mar: Green
11Mar: Green
12Mar: Green
13 Mar: S
14 Mar: Green
15 Mar: Green
16 Mar: Green. Day 12
17 Mar: Green
18 Mar: Green Day 14
19 Mar: Green Day 15
20 Mar: Green Day 16
21 Mar: Green Day 17
22 Mar: Green Day 18 did a lot of gardening
23 Mar: Green Day 19 Did a little gardening
24 Mar: Green Day 20 Already? Hah!
25 Mar: GREEN Day 21

26 Mar: Pink. I stuck with the spirit of No S, but my plates sure were piled high! I actually ate too much.
27 Mar: S That's why I'm posting already.
28 Mar: Green. Day 2 for 21 Day Club
29 Mar: Green. Day 3
30 Mar: Green. Day 4
31 Mar: Green. Day 5 It's over!!! Onward!!!

Sienna · Post by **Sienna** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:30 pm

I'm in too. With at least 15 minutes of exercise at least 5 days a week. I'm striving for N day exercise, but I'll let a week be green if I sub in the exercise for 1 or 2 N days on Saturday and Sunday because time is often a limiting factor in me getting exercise.

No substitutions in diet, though. Time is no excuse. Vanilla NoS for March!

Oh, and since it is hard to read yellow, orange = yellow

March
Week 1 = Green, total 85 min exercise
. Diet . Exercise
01

.....

- 30 minutes DDR
02

.....

- 15 minutes walking - not much, buy it was something...
03

.....

- I'm really annoyed at myself - I just forgot to exercise... but I can still have a green week if I exercise this weekend
04

.....

- 20 minutes DDR
05 S! .....

- 20 minutes DDR
06 S! .....

Week 2 = Green, total 260 min exercise
. Diet . Exercise
07

.....

- 60 minutes DDR+ab exercises
08

.....

- 90 minutes DDR - today was a super stressful day, but I opted to work out instead of eat, so that's good
09

.....

- 15 minutes DDR
10

.....

- 15 minutes walking
11

.....

- 20 minutes walking
12 S! .....

13 S! .....

- 60 minutes walking

Week 3 = Green, total 90 min exercise
. Diet . Exercise
14

.....

- headache, hurts to move (fine as long as I don't move my head

) so no exercise, I'll make it up over the weekend though...
15

.....

- 15 minutes walking
16

.....

- 15 DDR
17

.....

- 15 minutes walking
18

.....

- 15 minutes walking
19 S! .....

- 30 minutes walking
20 S! .....

Week 4 = Green, total 130 min exercise
. Diet . Exercise
21

.....

- 20 minutes kickboxing video
22

.....

- 40 minutes kickboxing video
23

.....

- 10 minutes walking.... just couldn't get in the other 5

24

.....

- 15 minutes walking
25

.....

- 15 minutes walking
26 S! .....

- 30 minutes walking
27 S! .....

Week 5
. Diet . Exercise
28

.....

- 20 minutes walking
29

.....

- 15 minutes walking
30

.....

- 20 minutes walking
31
01

sarah.grace · Post by **sarah.grace** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 1:33 pm

I'm in! My "better" for March will be- zero RED days. I made it through February green for NoS but had 2 failures on my running plan.
I think this is a good - moderate - goal for me. I thought about requiring myself to do the running plan 3 days/week and a workout video every other day... too much- I would fail and get frustrated.

March (Success is indicative of NO failure- neither running NOR NoS.)
1 Success
2 Success
3 Success
4 Success
5 *Success (S Day for NoS)
6 *Success (S Day)
7 Success
8 Success
9 Success
10 Success
11 FAILURE

running fail. I should know better than to plan to run before work.
12 S Day
13 S Day
14 Success
So. I've kind of given up on my running- due to injury/lack of motivation/scheduling... not any legitimate reasons. I might finish the program- I have 4 days left, or I might not. I just need to figure out something that will work for me, for exercising. I want to be a runner, but I hate running. I was hoping I would learn to like it. I'm hoping to start walking during my lunch hour so that will be a start.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 4:07 pm

My goal is to stick to Vanilla No S all through March.

March 1: SUCCESS
March 2: SUCCESS
March 3: SUCCESS
March 4: SUCCESS
March 5: S day
March 6: S day
March 7: SUCCESS
March 8: FAILURE / NWK S day from 4:30 pm to 6 pm (Mardi Gras party)
March 9: SUCCESS
March 10: FAILURE
March 11: FAILURE / NWK S day from 6:30 pm (a friend's birthday party)
March 12: S day
March 13: S day
March 14: SUCCESS
March 15: SUCCESS
March 16:
March 17:
March 18:
March 19: S day
March 20: S day
March 21:
March 22:
March 23:
March 24:
March 25:
March 26: S day
March 27: S day
March 28: NWK S day (my birthday)
March 29:
March 30:
March 31:

Post by **reinhard** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:11 pm

I'm with you with a focus on glass ceiling this month (last month's focus on weekend luddite worked). Thanks for keeping these challenges going, ~reneew. They've helped a lot of people here, and now me, too!

Reinhard

Giarc · Post by **Giarc** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 6:17 pm

I'm in!!!!

Giarc · Post by **Giarc** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 6:17 pm

I'm in!!!!

Except for this Saturday. Its my birthday.

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 6:26 pm

I'm in. Still focusing on Regular yoga practice. 3x/week minimum, but shooting for 5 of 7 for "gold".

Thanks, ~reneew!

Over43 · Post by **Over43** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 10:16 pm

I'm in. Staright No S and 120+ miles on the Airdyne.

LoriLifts · Post by **LoriLifts** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:01 pm

Count me in!
My goal is to complete the 21 day Vanilla S challenge.

March 1 SUCCESS
March 2 SUCCESS
March 3 EXEMPT (48 hours before a race rule)
March 4 S DAY
March 5 S DAY
March 6 Uh-oh
March 7 Nope, not yet
March 8 A successful day is around the corner
March 9 Not this one
March 10 Or this one either..
March 11 S DAY
March 12 S DAY
March 13 Back on track! If I count from March 11, I can still squeeze in 21 days. No more red days this month!
March 14 SUCCESS
March 15 SUCCESS
March 16 SUCCESS
March 17 SUCCESS
March 18 S DAY
March 19 S DAY
March 20 nope
March 21 nope
March 22 not today
March 23 not yet
March 24 no
March 25 S DAY
March 26 S DAY
March 27 ack!
March 28 I can't wait until this %#&* month is over
March 29 is it over yet?
March 30 I need a do-over
March 31

Done! You did it!:D

thtrchic · Post by **thtrchic** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:26 pm

I'm in too! I'll be doing Vanilla No-S and 4 days a week of exercise.

March 1 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 2 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 3 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 4 SUCCESS - food
March 5 S DAY plus success on exercise which makes 4/4 for the week
March 6 S DAY
March 7 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 8 FAILURE -- ended up eating a bunch at a theatre event post-dinner
March 9 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 10 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 11 SUCCESS - food
March 12 S DAY
March 13 S DAY plus success on exercise which makes 4/4 for the week
March 14 SUCCESS - food
March 15 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 16 SUCCESS - food
March 17 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 18 SUCCESS - food
March 19 S DAY
March 20 S DAY -- didn't make my exercise goal this week; I was sick for 2 days, though, so am going to call it exempt rather than failure. I also had one day where I ended up getting home too late. I called that day a failure in my habitcal rather than exempt. It was more a failure of planning, but still the plan was the exercise that day and I didn't and I didn't suddenly get sick so I feel its the right call.
March 21 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 22 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 23 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 24 FAILURE -- ate 2 large cookies mid-afternoon for no good reason at all
March 25 SUCCESS - food
March 26 S DAY plus success on exercise which makes 4/4 for the week
March 27 S DAY plus success on exercise which makes 5/4 for the week
March 28 SUCCESS - food
March 29 SUCCESS - food
March 30 SUCCESS - food and exercise
March 31 SUCCESS - food and exercise -- That's 2/4 for the week so far. I'm planning pre-work yoga tomorrow and then a bunch of walking on Saturday to complete the week successfully.

So, 2 failures this month. That's definitely me doing better than the previous month. In fact, it's me doing the best I have in a very long time. I wish it'd been one less failure (or two less I guess, but since I didn't have any NWS days I actually feel fine about one), but still I feel good about how I did. Next month is a harder month for me and I'll have 3 NWS days -- given all those definitely looking forward to no failures. I'll be quite proud of myself when I see that success next month.

Julie

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 1:04 pm

Hey everybody! Lets go!

Walkerlori ~ good idea. I'm going to shoot for the 21 club too. I've let my membership expire.

mrsj · Post by **mrsj** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:18 pm

I've let my membership in the 21 Day Club expire too. What a great idea! I wonder what ever happened to the Wannabe Club?

sarah.grace · Post by **sarah.grace** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:29 pm

We're a third of the way through March- looks like everyone's check-ins are going well!

Keep it up!

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 6:22 pm

Sienna · Post by **Sienna** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 1:40 am

3 weeks down, 2 more to go!

We can do it!

thtrchic · Post by **thtrchic** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:23 am

Let's keep up the good work everyone!

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:32 pm

I am impressed by some of you guys!!!

mrsj · Post by **mrsj** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:51 am

The month is almost over, only 4 more days to go! And, today is S! So, only 3 more days to survive....

Post by **reinhard** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:29 pm

Hi All,

I'm afraid I didn't quite make it with "glass ceiling"...

Fascinating details here:

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic ... 6688#96688

Looking forward to redeeming myself in the April thread,

Reinhard

P.S. great work the rest of you. Here's your chance to beat the founder at his own game! Just 2 more days...

lokerola · Post by **lokerola** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:58 pm

You all are very inspiring. I missed March, but count me in for April.

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:52 pm

Made my 3x/week for yoga, but didn't make my 5x "stretch" goal.

But that's okay. There's always another month...

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:12 pm

me... I did better.

coffee... failure free? If not, April is almost here!

Strawberry... happy birthday, and don't forget us!

Jelly... did you survive the temptations?

becoming... made it to 21!!!

mrsj... Wow! And your "fails" are always so cute.

sienna... amazing all around!

sarah... sit up, brush off the crumbs and get going again.

anoulie... party! *see above*

Reinhard... redemption in April!

Giarc... ?

KCCC... good yoga, stretch in April.

over43... ?

walker... 21?

thtrchic... tons of green!

I hope I didn't miss anyone!

Hope to see you in April!

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:52 pm

bumpity bump bump