Archive for August, 2008
Buddy’s Contest: 4th (and final) WEEK - win ec’s and a t-shirt
Sunday, August 31st, 2008This will be the final regular contest for the month of August. All contestants from this week and the previous weeks will be entered into a final Grand Prize drawing on Wednesday.
I will be taking a couple weeks off from this contest as hockey season is starting up and work is still busy.
THE CONTEST:
Just leave a comment in the comment section of this post about how many miles (or minutes) you (and/or your doggie) walked this past week, and your in. If you’re not a walker, but you spend time on a bike, or in the gym on an elliptical, bike, or treadmill - those entries count as well. NO SPAMMENTS, PLEASE. Comments must be received by 10pm EST Tuesday night. The winners will be chosen by The Randomizer.
The purpose of this contest is to bring a little awareness to how much (or how little) cardiovascular exercise each of us gets. I’m just trying to encourage people to get moving to improve heart health. With our filled up busy schedules, and our modern conveniences, we tend to neglect our body’s basic needs of good nutrition and exercise. Adult humans should get a minimum of 30 minutes to 10,000 steps a day to maintain good health. This translates to be approximately 1 to 4 miles a day. Doggies needs vary by size and breed, but believe it or not, even smaller toy breeds are supposed to get about 2 miles per day!
THE PRIZES:
The prize amounts will remain the same this week as last week. First place will receive a “Heart Healthy Hounds and Humans” t-shirt as well as 100 Entrecard credits, 2nd will get 200 ec’s, 3rd - 125 ec’s, and 4th - 75 ec’s.
Also, all qualifying (non-spamment) participants will be added to Buddy’s Monthly Mile Challenge Club blogroll in the right sidebar.
LAST WEEKS RESULTS:
here is the screenshot from the randomizer:
Our four winners were: 1st Prize - BlueWorkhorse, 2nd - Sherry, 3rd - lvs, and 4th - Sassy Mama Bear. Thanks to all who participated.
Photos Of The New Fitness Equipment
Sunday, August 31st, 2008
Buddy proudly showing off his new toys
Petunia likes how the paint job on the home gym matches her eye color
Moses demonstrates how the recumbent bike makes a great cat perch even while it’s still in the box!
My New Fitness Equipment Has Arrived
Saturday, August 30th, 2008Yeah, yeah, yeah… I know… just when I just got done writing a post where I whined about all the equipment and memberships I got sucked in to buying, what do I do? I go out and buy more fitness equipment! What can I say?
I’ve decided to simulate my gym experience at home by buying a recumbent bike and a home gym. Since working a full time job which requires longish hours on my feet combined with other physically demanding activity has put a crimp in my previously lackadaisical lifestyle, my days of fitting a gym membership into my schedule are gone. 1. I am not a morning person, 2. I refuse to leave the house without showering, 3. I require about two hours recovery time after work, and 4. I just don’t feel like spending all of my money filling up my gas tank. Most importantly, let’s face it - I grew up in a fast food drive thru window world, so convenience is the determining factor for anything I do these days, including exercise!
Of course, my mom will probably sh*t herself when she reads this. She knows about the recumbent bike, but I neglected to share with her my other impulse purchase of the home gym. I had made mention to her that, like an idiot, I gave away my weight bench and free weights a few years back - so I was in the market for a replacement of those items. And actually, I was shopping around for something within a reasonable dollar amount when that pretty machine caught my eye. Okie dokie!
I bought the home gym last weekend, it sat in my van in huge boxes for a couple days, then I finally had to open the boxes in the van and carry the components in the house. A couple of the parts were a two person job. The only place it’ll fit is the middle of my living room. It’s not like I have friends or entertain guests, so who cares! (Well, I do have friends, but they’re not the type who judge me for my interior decorating style or the fact that I run a full time petting zoo in my house!)
The recumbent bike just arrived yesterday. I had ordered it online, and it came with silver service delivery - in other words - a couple big burly guys carried the humungo box into the house, up the stairs, and into the room of my choice.
Sooooo - looks like my holiday weekend will be spent assembling! I will share photos and reviews of my new toys in later posts.
Buddy’s Contest: WEEK 3 - Win Entrecard Credits and a T-Shirt
Monday, August 25th, 2008Sorry folks, this post was supposed to go out on Sunday night - so I’m a few hours late, will you forgive me? I’ve had an extremely busy week and weekend with work, overtime, a hockey meeting, a fundraiser, and other goodies… I just wasn’t really in the mood to spend what little time I had leftover in front of my computer!
Here’s the sad truth, I didn’t even qualify for my own contest! Yeah, you read that right - I walked ZERO minutes or miles this week! I did, however, spend a considerable amount of time shopping and walking around the mall this past week, but none of it would even come close to what I consider anything near a cardio workout for me. Ever since I got my van back a week ago, I’ve stopped walking to and from work - not a good thing. The kids clocked some miles this week though. Buddy, Rudy, and Precious each clocked about 2 miles each - still way below what they should be getting too! Doggies are supposed to be walked 2 miles A DAY!
THE CONTEST:
Just leave a comment in the comment section of this post about how many miles (or minutes) you (and/or your doggie) walked this past week, and your in. If you’re not a walker, but you spend time on a bike, or in the gym on an elliptical, bike, or treadmill - those entries count as well. NO SPAMMENTS, PLEASE. Comments must be received by 11pm EST Tuesday night. The winners will be chosen by The Randomizer.
The purpose of this contest is to bring a little awareness to how much (or how little) cardiovascular exercise each of us gets. I’m just trying to encourage people to get moving to improve heart health. One of my inspirations for this is the fact that my husband, who was not very active and was very overweight, died of a heart attack this past March after years of congestive heart failure. We live in a day and age of convenience and comfort which our bodies are not designed for. We don’t even have to get out of the car to get our fast food!
THE PRIZES:
The prize amounts will remain the same this week as last week. First place will receive a “Heart Healthy Hounds and Humans” t-shirt as well as 100 Entrecard credits, 2nd will get 200 ec’s, 3rd - 125 ec’s, and 4th - 75 ec’s.
Also, all qualifying (non-spamment) participants will be added to Buddy’s Monthly Mile Challenge Club blogroll in the right sidebar. Those who make the blogroll will be a part of a grand prize drawing (yet to be announced) at the end of the month.
LAST WEEKS RESULTS:
here is the screenshot from the randomizer:
We had six qualifying contestants last week, four of which won prizes. They were: 1st prize - Andi from Suka Download, 2nd - Michael Aulia Technology and Reviews, 3rd - Julia from Juliadamus Oracle of a better world, 4th - Sherry from iLUVcontest.
Previous week’s winners t-shirts will be going out midweek this week. You will be sent an email notification when they are sent.
Are You A “New Year’s Resolution” Type Of Person?
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008Most retailers have Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season, but the health and fitness industry has New Year’s week and pretty much the rest of January as they celebrate a sharp increase in sales and memberships. Gotta love those impulse shoppers!!!
I’ve left a few gyms in my wake which had had the opportunity to laugh all the way to the bank, wad of cash in hand, knowing they just signed up another sucker who would lose interest in a month’s time.
Are you like me? You give yourself that big pep talk, and you take that long hard narcissistic self-pitying look at yourself as you wallow over your past failures, and you promise… and I mean you PROMISE that this time you’re gonna go through with it, you’re gonna stick with it, and you do all that visualization of what you picture yourself looking like in 6 months, 9 months, a year’s time. You even calculate the number of pounds you’re going to lose… “let’s see - if I lose even just 5 pounds a month - hmmm… wow, in 6 months I’ll be 30 pounds lighter!”
The problem is, you’ve gone through this before. How many times have you made and then failed to keep your New Year’s resolution to lose weight, get into shape, or improve your health? How many times have you squandered hundreds of dollars on gym memberships or fitness equipment just to let it go to waste? How many infomercial products have you sent away for? Sh*t! Do you know how many fitness gadgets, videos, and dvd’s I have laying around my house? I have a decent treadmill in my room which makes a great cat perch and clothes rack. I’m into the thousands of dollars now in wasted gym memberships and fad diet programs.
WHEN WILL IT END?!!!
Most yoyo diet folks seem to do their pilgrimage to diet/exercise hell around New Year’s. Personally, my calendar revolves around hockey season.
Right around February/March I do my empty promise pep talk and visualization crap, then in a desperate effort to get into shape (because I didn’t do sh*t all summer!) I get all Jane Fonda around Septemberish. Ok, I know… Jane Fonda is sooooo 1980. Am I really that old? Well, whatever! I get all gung ho “gotta get in shape for hockey” a month before the season gets into full swing, as though a few weeks on an exercise bike is really going to reverse the effects of years of sloth and fast food!
I just got the official email a couple days ago. Hockey season officially starts in 3 weeks. Yeah, THREE WEEKS! And though I did manage to lose 25 pounds since last season ended, I’ve gone into full anxiety mode once again.
Can anybody relate to this?
