I've got Christmas pics, and family pics, but not with me, so I'm not going to post those right now. I do however have an interesting challenge going on. Ben Davis, author of the blog Bendoeslife.com, is pretty amazing. He lost a lot of weight and is a real inspiration to a lot of people. I wish I would have found him when Allen was losing all of his weight. Anyway, he has a website dolifemovement.com, and on it, he is issuing weekly challenges. I will repost them here and invite you to do them with me. Robin and I will be working our way through them and hopefully I will post our results. If nothing else, it should be entertaining. We've had a slow start to this week, since Allen was here, and I just took him back to the airport today. I'm going to jump in this afternoon with running during Cael's gymnastics class. Here's the first week's challenge. WEEK ONE CHALLENGES: (Since we're all at different places in our health and fitness journeys, there will be some differing challenges.) Write down five quantifiable goals for yourself. Emphasis on quantifiable. And they must be realistically achievable within one month (more on this below the challenges). Assess yourself and write down your current stats in all five areas. Do you want to lose six pounds? Find out exactly where you are now. Do you want to run a 35-minute 5K? Write down your current time. Etc. You might need to get creative with assessments. That's okay. There is no requirement on your goals or your assessments. By Monday night, get on the floor an do as many pushups as you can. Modified (from your knees) or regular. It doesn't matter how many you can do. Write this number down in a notebook or word document. Pushups will be a "fun" recurring litmus test throughout the 12 weeks. Beginners: Do 120 minutes of exercise this week. The exercise can be anything physical as long as you're working that heart rate. Walking, running, cycling, rollerblading, yoga, weight-lifting, anything. Intermediate/Advanced: Add 30 minutes to your average week and push the intensity during those 30 minutes. It doesn't matter if it's five intense minutes during six different workouts or one extra intense 30-minute session. Identify your biggest excuse. Write it down on a wall in your house. Then in your notebook write a way to eliminate that excuse. Not enough time in the day? "Eliminate American Idol and Glee." Sorry Each night before bed, write four things you did well that day.