Star Charts

So long ago, ok so like 2.5 years ago, I had two roommates who were with me in trying to work out on a regular basis and just more in general. It came down to none of us being able to keep track of when we worked out so the teacher in me came up with an idea. I printed a simple month calendar for each of us and hung it on the wall just outside of our doors. Every time we opened our bedroom door there they hung on the wall. Then, for each day we did 30-minutes of physical activity more than our usual activity (walking to class and such did not count) we could get a star on that day. The one who got the most work outs at the end of the week or two weeks got to pick an activity for all of us to do. Well, it worked surprisingly well except the group activity part... we ended up not hanging out so much. And when i say it worked out, there would be nights we would come home from class exhausted and really really REALLY want that star for the day so we'd drag ourselves down to the gym.


I brought the star charts back the following school year with my new roomies. There was not much competition in it as I was doing 28 (dropping to 26) credit hours and they were both doing classes and working in their respective labs as they were grad students and I was just an over achieving undergrad. I did make deals with myself though and that helped me push to keep working out. One month I told myself if I worked out 15 days that month I would get new shoes. Not just any shoes, but I would fork out the money on a new pair of nike running shoes. I did it and now own my favorite pair of shoes EVER, on clearance!!! Only, now I am pretty much going to have to order online if I want new ones.


Long story short, I am thinking of doing this star chart thing again. I do not have an ideal place to keep my stars though so that's a bit of a problem. I am going to see if I can create a star chart on here somehow and keep track of my exercise. A star is earned for any exercise that goes above and beyond normal activity for at least a half hour. Once I counted moving boxes continuously up and down at work, going for a walk, working out at the gym, running, swimming, stand-up paddling, etc. It sounds so childish, but it definitely gives you the extra push to get that star on there.


Oh, and my free juicer came today!!!! Only, the tool to get the blade out to clean the rest of it is being sent separately. :( So juice will have to wait.