Blog for Stephanie Bryant, a 30-something writer who travels full-time. And her husband, Johnnyb.
Date: 05/18/2008
Date: 02/17/2008
Date: 08/05/2008
As you all know, I like a challenge.
2002 was the year of NaNoWriMo. I’ve done it every year since then, but 2002 was the year I really got to it.
2003 was the year of…. new cars?
2004 was the year of the marathon.
2005 was the year of videoblogging.
2006 was the year I got sick. Sad, but true. It was also a year of contracting, but the sick is what I remember most.
2007 was the year I stopped shopping as a hobby and moved into an RV.
What will 2008 bring?
We now have four members signed up to walk to Hawaii over on America on the Move! This is awesome! If you’d like to sign up and join us, comment here or drop me an email and I’ll send you a registration code. AOM is free to use– create a full access account so you can sign up right proper. Once you do, sign up for the Pacific Crest challenge, because its goals are similar to the ones we’re aiming for. We’ll delve into more of the tools later. I’m thinking we should set September 30 as the close date for signing up. I’d like us all to get to Hawaii around the same time, after all.
Anyway, Click here to download the Excel spreadsheet I’m using! Feel free to tweak it to your own needs!
In the plans: Some way to talk to each other about our goals/progress. I’m going to send out a short poll to find out: do you want a LiveJournal community, an email/web group (Yahoo! group or Google?), a private listserve, or just swap everyone’s email addresses? Do you want a non-LJ group blog where we can post our progress, or something more private? If you’re in the challenge, think about this and watch your inbox.
I LOST FOUR POUNDS!!!!
Now, I’m sure some is water weight, time-of-day, time-of-month (not really), blah blah blah, but since starting the Walk to Hawaii plan, I’VE LOST FOUR POUNDS!!!
Now who wants to walk to Hawaii with me? Think about it– Hawaii, white sand beaches, and the scenery will be nice, because I won’t look like a whale in my swimming suit (and neither will you!)
Yesterday, we took the first major steps in our walk to Hawaii.
Eh?
Oh, very well, you want me to explain.
I am a VERY goal-oriented person. I’ve come to the conclusion that I won’t get anywhere with my exercise program if there isn’t a really big carrot at the end. The stick (obesity and ill health) hasn’t been working, and in case anyone was in doubt: Nagging does not equal Motivation. It doesn’t. Nagging, criticism, any negative training or reinforcement only serves to add negative feelings to something that already feels negative.
However…. the carrot…. the carrot works. In this case, the carrot is a trip to Hawaii, after I’ve logged 2,340 miles (the distance from Santa Cruz to Hawaii). At 2-5 miles a day, it will take over a year, even if I never take a day off. It’s about 4,690,000 steps (a good goal for health is 10,000 steps per day, or about 5 miles). On Friday, I logged just over 1200 steps. Saturday, even less than that. Sunday: 12,159 steps! We went for a hike– it was awful. I mean, it should have been great and everything, but I just don’t “get” hiking and walking and such, and the return hike was all uphill and painful. Meh.
BUT I got my 10,000 steps in for the day!
Only 4,675,741 to go!
It actually feels a little like doing NaNoWriMo, you know? Make a daily goal. Hit the daily goal. Make a goal for tomorrow…. Of course, this isn’t a one-month project, which makes it rough– I like shorter-term goals. But I’m going to look for goal-settings to make for the in-between goals. Like maybe I’ll have one for number of days in a row that I make my 10,000 step goal, or something.
Also: I invite ANYONE who wants to have a motivation to walk and lose weight to join me in this challenge! At my moderate rate, I figure I’ll be able to get to Hawaii at the beginning of 2009, so there’s not just a walking goal, but a saving one as well! You can walk, run, bike, or swim to Hawaii, though I think if you bike, you’ll probably get there faster than me! 
And you can start in Santa Cruz, or in your own hometown (unless you LIVE in Hawaii, in which case you should walk to the Taj Mahal or something). I’m using Kahului as the end-point for the journey, simply because it’s on Maui (MAUI!!!) and there’s an airport there.
With any luck, I’ll even look good in a bikini when I get there (although, I look pretty good in my bathing suit already!)
Three weeks ago, I joined The Compact, which is a commitment not to buy any new products for a year.
Well, I can’t quite commit to a year. Seriously– it’s just not in me to do anything for a whole year. But for 100 days? Sure– and if I’m going to develop a good habit, it takes me about 100 days to do it in.
Like a diet, I sometimes fall off the wagon, and I did so last week when I ordered Fluxx Español from Looney Labs. Fluxx is our favorite game around here– my Fluxx deck is so big from adding custom cards, I had to buy a special box for it (not to worry, though– there’s a whole line of card boxes for gamers, thanks to the popularity of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games).
But aside from the card game, which was bought from an eco-friendly, independent hippie game publisher, John and I haven’t bought many new things since starting the Compact. This becomes challenging when we head out on a Sunday afternoon, presumably to go do our weekly shopping trips. Things like mouthwash, which isn’t available at the local grocery store, are particularly bothersome, because the drug store is like, well, a drug. But a store. Last week I entered the drug store for packing tape and video tapes, and had to exert a lot of willpower to stay away from the office supplies!
So, some of the things I’ve done to help keep myself from going out and spending money:
So, tell me. What are your non-spending-money activities and ideas?