Slim Down for Savannah: December Challenge!

Well hey there December!!

I know we are all trying to figure out a way to counteract the extra calories we inevitably take in during the holiday social season, and of course, since I never do things the easy way, I'm actually still trying to LOSE weight this month. Rough.

I won't mention how I have a memory of being in this same situation last year, and the difference (-5? maybe?) of my weight at this time last year as opposed to currently. Chalking it up as motivation NOT to be in the same place this time 2014.

I briefly flirted with doing the #RWRunStreak, but altering it to allow cross training to count as run days, since I think going from training for a 5K to running every day would be a little excessive, and then I realized- that ain't a streak no mo. Whomp whomp.

I'm motivated by the immediate rewards (feeling proud of myself after a good workout, rubbing it in SuperDan's face when I get in a 2 a day, etc.) by also by short term rewards, i.e. money. Yes, friends, I can be bought. What can I say? I'm a good American, and if I'm going to be hyper controlling of my diet, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm setting my sites on something bigger. But February and Savannah are a long time away. Momma's gonna need some stuff along the way.

So far, I've rewarded myself with a season of Homeland and a Polar watch/chest strap that I use all the time. I practically feel like a workout is wasted if I don't have that strap on to validate my efforts and to keep me motivated to keep my heart rate.

As we've discussed in a prior post, I'm on team inputs (Thanks Meg for agreeing with me!) while SuperDan is team outputs. Team inputs means I'll reward my efforts, aka what I have control over, and trust that the outputs will come if I keep focusing on the right inputs. So, I've decided, if I burn X number of calories by Christmas day, I can buy whatever I want off my Christmas List that Santa leaves (I'm sure accidentally!) at the North Pole.

Here's my plan:
I've made "All Day" events in my Google Calendar in my Workout calendar for these three weeks. I like this because I can drag and drop the workouts I want to get in on different days if I need to change it up.

I also found this cute (and free!) calendar at ShopHollyDays where I've blocked out nights I know I won't be able to work out, so I make sure I get my butt out of bed those mornings and make it count.

I also had to do some math. If you know me, that's more like "get to do," but never mind that. There are 21 days, including today, before Christmas. I wanted the number to be a challenge, but I also want to be able to have a few rest days where if I just do yoga or a walk I won't completely derail. So assuming 18 solid workout days, burning an average of 450 (?), that's 8100. So because I want it to be a challenge, I'm bumping it up to 9000 calories in 21 days.

I agree, 10,000 is a prettier number, but I wanted this to be a challenge, not dictating my life! :-)

I'll have to figure out how to count yoga, since I'm sure my fellow classmates would not be a fan of my Polar beeping at me when my heart rate drops. Any suggestions for the hour?

And here, the fun part, are some of the contenders for the reward: