And The Winner Of The 2012 Golden Sneaker Award Is....

Me. That's right, meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Me. Me. ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've kinda planned on keeping myself exempt from winning any of the awards, but y'know what? This year I kicked booty. Some of you did get into it and I appreciate your efforts, but I kicked more booty than any of y'all!

Plus Keith, Regan and I all badly needed new sneakers, so we raided the cash pot for a totally great cause. Also, some of the money is going to our Not-So-Dumbbell Award winner.... Me AGAIN!

Here's just a recap of my healthy, active year and why I am so darn deserving of the Golden Sneaker:

Weekly Hiking, Scrambling, Trail Running @ Red Rock

Indoor Rock Climbing

Stand-Up Paddleboarding

Tough Mudder



Yeah, I could go on, but I'll just stop there.

I sincerely want to applaud all of you that participated in any way in this Golden Sneaker challenge. I know that many of you did stuff without reporting it or even just did your own thing and I'm proud of those that made an effort to make their life a bit healthier last year.

Thanks, also, to those that had the opportunity to keep Fit Stanley active throughout the year. He didn't make it around the entire family like I'd hoped, but we'll see what this year holds in store for him!

In regards to the 2013 Golden Sneaker challenge: Yes, it will happen... but in a slightly different format. Oooo, I know you're intrigued. STAY TUNED!!!!!! More to come, very soon!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!



Wunderbar!

Well, what do you think of 2013 so far? You don't really have to answer that question. It's mostly rhetorical.

I'm just going to assume that, at this moment, cries of "maravilloso!" or "Ihana!" or "วิเศษ!" or just plain ol' "wonderful!" are resonating throughout households in Washington, Utah, California and Nevada.

I do, however, need a real answer from those who earned any points on the 12 Acts of Fitness Challenge. Be it 1 or all 24 possible, please let me know. Even if you realize that your measly point tally won't put you in the running for winning the "Not-So-Dumbbell" award, still report in (you can just reply to this email - you don't even have to post on the blog: I'll do that) because I really want to know if anyone out there did any of it!

I accomplished 9 of the Acts.  I witnessed Mom doing Act of Fitness #4 thanks to the Wii Just Dance that we got for Christmas.  Trust me:  Gramma can bust a move!  And Keith did several of them with me so he earned a few points.  In fact he did #8 many times right in front of me.  (If you're familiar with the challenge, you'll know how funny that is).

Report in soon so I can announce the winner of the "Not-So-Dumbbell" Award, which is a $50 gift card of choice. Yeeeehawwww!

Also coming soon, of course, is the announcement of the winner of the 2012 Golden Sneaker Award! The winner has not yet been determined but I think a surprise is in store for everyone... Stay tuned!!!

Help on The 12 Acts of Fitness Challenge

There's been a few questions about some of the exercises for the challenge, so here are some answers:

First, I want to make sure it's clear that you can do the challenges in ANY order. You don't have to worry about counting down or up. Just do as many as you can by New Year's Day. And keep track so I can award your points!

Here's a link that shows how to do my favorite neck stretch and the doorway stretch: http://taylorgoldensneaker.blogspot.com/2011/11/im-thankful-for-novembers-challenge.html

Here is a yoga tree pose:

Remember, you can modify by placing your foot on your ankle or waaaaay up on your thigh.

Here are some of the squat varieties:

The classic ball squat. You can hold weights too.

The sumo squat is just a body squat but with a wider stance and toes slightly pointed out.

The plie squat has a very wide stance and your body stays more upright. You can add a heel raise for more challenge.

The chair squat just gives you a target to make sure you squat nice and low. Plus it gives you the security of knowing something will catch your fall if your legs give out! Raising arms is optional.

The sissy squat is more advanced and can be a bit awkward at first. But it's a great challenge for the quads. Make sure you have something you can hold on to for balance.

My favorite way to do single-leg squats is with the ball because I'm not ususally strong enough to do it unsupported!

Here is a reminder for the crunch.

For this challenge, hold the "crunched" position for a count of 5 before lowering, then repeat. You can also lift your feet off the ground and/or hold some weight (medicine ball) between your knees. You can do these in bed!

Those are the exercises I've received questions on so far. Sorry it took me a bit to respond, but let me know if you need any others clarified. I'll reply as soon as I can!

The Twelve Acts of Fitness

On the first day of Christmas my trainer gave to me... a really awesome fitness challenge!

See how many of these 12 acts of fitness you can perform by the New Year. You get 1 point for each one you accomplish. PLUS you get to double your points if you accomplish ALL TWELVE. Yes, that’s right: DOUBLE POINTS!!! This is a good way to really rack up the points (and perhaps make up for your slacking on the previous challenges) during, this, the last Golden Sneaker challenge of 2012!!!

You can choose to do them all at once or spread them out until the end of the month. Here's to a healthy, happy holiday season!

· Spend 1 minute doing a yoga tree pose on each foot. (Foot can be placed on thigh, calf or ankle – avoid placing on the knee)*

· Do 2 minutes of stretching. Must include a neck stretch and doorway chest stretch.*

· Do 3 varieties of squats, 10 X ea. Choose from the following: body squats, ball squats, sumo squats, sissy squats, jump squats, plié squats, chair squats, single-leg squats, or choose your own! *

· Spend 4 minutes dancing to a song you love.

· Eat 5 servings of fruits/veggies in a single day.

· Do something active 6 days in a row. This can include anything from an actual workout to standing and marching in place during the TV commercials.

· Eat 7 shelled Brazil nuts; or 26 almonds; or a handful of shelled pistachios. Find out what 1 serving of your favorite nut is and make it a regular snack… just don't over-do it.

· Take 8 deep breaths before responding to someone who just really ticked you off.

· Take no more than 9 bites of a particularly indulgent treat. Depending on what it is, this could be quite a lot or not nearly enough!

· Spend (at least) 10 minutes doing something that will make you feel like a kid again: hula hooping, trampolining, playing hop scotch, jumping rope (But you MUST also do a chant. Y’know: Cinderella, dressed in yellow went down stairs to kiss a fellow…), skipping to your Lou (or is it loo… I’ve always wondered).

· Perform 11 crunches with a 5-second hold. Too easy? Do them with feet elevated and squeezing a medicine ball between your knees.*

· Knock out 12 pushups (wall, kitchen counter, knee, standard). Too easy? Make them burpees instead.*

* email me, text me or leave a comment if you have any questions about the technique of any exercise.

October Halloween Challenge

I challenge you to not buy any candy until the day you need it. Too late?

Okay, if you've already bought your candy, don't open it until the moment you need to hand it out. Too late again?

All right, all right - here's the REAL challenge:

By the way, good job to any of you who have accomplished either/both of the above challenges but assuming that most of us haven't been that disciplined, I'm focusing on improving the aftermath of the nutritional debacle known as Halloween:


Aww, makes me wonder
what little Grant will be
for Halloween!

Challenge: Get rid of any Halloween candy you have left by the end of election day, November 6. Give yourself/your kids a week to enjoy the spoils of All Hallows' Eve.... maybe even celebrate the outcome of the election (because Obama WILL be out... we hope, we hope, we hope) but come daybreak on November 7, the leftovers go promptly in the trash.

So make sure you've eaten any of the good stuff you want, then throw it out and clean up your eating for a few weeks before the next round of holiday goodies! I think we should enjoy our holidays, but we don't need to prolong the debauchery so that it becomes a two-and-a-half-month-long "chew-chew" ride on the (literal) gravy train. (Can you believe I just made that up... I know - waaaaay clever).


So.... you get 1 point if you wave bye-bye to your left-over candy by November 7.

And don't forget to vote!

The First Great Commandment (of Unlaziness)

Of all the fantastic messages I managed to hear during this General Conference, Elder Holland's words really struck a chord within me. I take this excerpt from his talk:

Elder
Jeffrey R. Holland

“’Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.’ Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back.

“To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, ’Do you love me?’ And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, ‘Yea, Lord, we do love thee.’ And having set our ‘hand to the plough,’ we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world.”

This resonated with me because to show God we love Him requires conscious effort from us in both our thoughts and actions. It requires from us a lifetime of service to our fellow man. It requires the discipline to overcome negative and complacent attitudes. It requires us to overcome Lazy in spirituality, attitude and action!

Let's show God how much we love Him!

Did anyone else listen to conference? You get a point if you did!!!

Overcome Spiritual Lazy(ness)

This man has probably never been lazy
a day in his life.

This is the first challenge in October; there will be another one coming. This one is for this weekend and involves General Conference so I wanted to get it out there, pronto!

CHALLENGE: Pay attention and select a principle/thought/teaching, etc. from any talks from this General Conference that you will incorporate more fully into your life to help you overcome spiritual laziness.

This challenge was inspired by a portion of Sister Carole M. Stephens' talk during the General Relief Society Broadcast where she talks about becoming more "spiritually awake" in order to fulfill our duties. This concept really hit home with me as I realized how easily I can become lazy in my spiritual attitude and actions. I really needed to hear her words: "It isn’t enough to just be on the journey (of life); we must be awake to our duty and continue with faith as we draw upon the comforting, strengthening, enabling and healing power of the Atonement.”

Since this challenge will be hard to quantify and thereby reward points.... how 'bout this: If you watch any part of General Conference, you get 1 point!!! This should be a gimmee for everyone, right???

So, pay attention to the talks and I would love, love, love it if any of you emailed or posted about the principles that stood out to you this session.

Overcome... snoozing during conference! (You thought I was gonna say Lazy, as usual, huh?)