Concept2 Holiday Challenge – 100,000 meters to go!

Posted by On Filed under Health
Concept2 Holiday Challenge – 100,000 meters to go!

Just as I was getting sick and tired of the elliptical machine, I found out about the Concept2 Holiday Challenge!  (Talk about good marketing – their message showed up in just the right physical, mental, and emotional space for me to hear it loud and clear.)

Between November 26th and December 24th, I’m going to attempt to row 100,000 meters on a Concept2 machine at First in Fitness in Montpelier. Every day that I row, I’ll log onto my free personal log book and try to rack up the meters. With my normal workout schedule, I’ll have to row about 5000 meters per session (I go to the gym 4-5 days per week). I’m definitely shooting for this goal and envisioning myself rowing, rowing, rowing, but those 100,000 meters are going to be quite a stretch for me!

But that’s the best part of a challenge, right?

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Simplify the Holidays

Posted by On Filed under Health, Voluntary Simplicity / Minimalism
Simplify the Holidays

Local radio stations started playing Christmas music today. It inspired me to blog about how to simplify the holidays.

The Center for a New American Dream releases an annual brochure on celebrating the holidays with “more joy, less stuff.” You can download the brochure or visit the website for more helpful tips. I’m a fan of the edible decorations and I also plan to make a photo album of pictures for my grandmother – shh, don’t tell her!

About.com has a whole entry on a Holiday Survival Guide. It’s filed under the stress management section, which makes me wonder about the trade-offs between health and the holiday hoopla.

On Facebook, check out the Simplify the Holidays discussion from the Kokua Hawaii Foundation. Their website is pretty cool and I’m jazzed about their Facebook widget.

When it comes to gifts, I have three options I always choose from. I either shop local, shop handmade at Etsy, or go the really altruistic route and shop at Alternative Gifts International or Oxfam International. Instead of heading out to the mall, I like supporting my local shops, galleries, and any store that will sell a gift certificate or Capitol Cash. Etsy is a marketplace for all things handmade and just blows my mind at the amount of amazingly unique, well-crafted, individualized gifts I could give myself…er, I mean, friends and family!

AGI supports humanitarian and environmental causes with the donation(s) you make in the name of relatives, colleagues, family, etc. Oxfam America is a large relief organization and it’s Unwrapped program has a wide array of charitable gifts. I love these services because there’s nothing that says Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa,  or Happy Hanukkah like giving a solar water boiler or manure or a flock of ducks. It’s serious fun to give these gifts to loved ones and it makes a huge impact on the communities the gifts go to.

When it comes to Thanksgiving celebration, I usually try to fast if I don’t have plans with friends. This year I’ll likely be observing a day of fasting and reflection. The Boston Globe ran an article on how these actions might more closely reflect the original Thanksgiving celebrations. Fasting is not something to take lightly, so talk to your doctor before attempting this, and research articles on how to enter and break a fast.

For me, fasting and reflecting definitely simplify the holidays and make me more, well, thankful. And isn’t that the point of this week?

 

Photo credit: Horla Varlan