March Winners and Challenge Results!

Congrats to our latest Challenge Winners!

UM swept the March drawing with Kathleen Tarkalson claiming the Montana Moves prize (Yoga Mat and Bag) and Lori Freeman winning for Montana Meals (Snapware Glasslock).  We also drew for our first quarter prize from the pool of participants who submitted a challenge from January through March.  Quarterly winners were Jane Stuart from MSU-Northern and Mary Twardos from Helena College.  Jane won an IPod Shuffle from Montana Moves, and Mary won a kitchen “Goodie Basket” from Montana Meals. Congrats to all our winners!

We had a ton of great architectural changes submitted during our March Challenge.  Some of the early submissions we shared in a previous post.  Here are some more great ideas you guys used to create small behavioral changes that can yield big results over time!  Thanks to everyone who took this challenge and shared with us!

• I turned my spare room into a mini home gym (aka put out my hand weights and yoga mat). As a result I did yoga 2x/week and strength training 1-2x/week for the month.
• I put all my boxes of cookies on a top shelf in a kitchen cupboard so I couldn’t see them…I managed to keep two boxes of cookies for the whole month instead of stress eating them in one weekend.
• I’ve…incorporated a healthier eating schedule for our elderly dog…for some reason this helps me with my own breakfast and supper…For some reason, the more I work at taking care of the others around me, the better I do for myself.
• I’ve been packing my gym clothes the night before and putting them with my purse so I don’t forget them in the morning (have not forgot my clothes once!).
• I have started making my swimming workouts meetings in my phone calendar, with reminders to do it beeping half an hour before so I have time to get ready and get to the gym.
• [I] put my bath towel in the family room at bedtime so that I would do my pushups, planks and situps each morning before I shower.   The family room is the only carpeted room in our house and is directly across from the bathroom.  If I go into the bathroom first, it is highly unlikely I will do my morning exercises — putting my towel across the hall has greatly increased my a.m. exercise consistency.
• I kept a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter stocked all month long.  I actually found my family ate even more of it and I had to restock it more often than I usually do.  My daughter requested that I buy her grapes because she preferred them over the fruit I had bought and she has chosen the fruit over less nutritious snacks.
• I’ve got about a 50% success rate on the “stand-up” task pop-up and the stair climbing reminder.  I seem to catch the reminders about half the time.  The buildup of pop-ups definitely puts the guilt trip on me, so I’ll walk a little farther, or dash up the stairs a little faster to compensate.
• [I] purchased a body media band to record daily calorie burn and sleep patterns- It is linked to my fitness pal app which I have consistently logged my meals in every day this month.
• Instead of pulling up to the mail box on my way home, I pass the box and park at home.  Then I take the dogs out with me to retrieve the mail.
• I am bringing a few days breakfast at a time, so I don’t have to rely on putting it together night before, or morning of.  It is really easy to measure out cereal/oatmeal portions in a plastic bag, and bring a few bowls, and have a container of milk in the frig at work.
• Bringing two containers of water with lemon, etc. with me to work each day.  My goal is to bring them home empty, or finish consuming on way home.
• [A] behavior modification I have made at work is I always take the stairs.  We have 3 floors at work and we are up and down quite a bit.  I think the conscious decision to do this, helps me stay fit.
• My structural design change for March was to keep my tea pot and tea bags by the stove.  This reminds me that after I eat dinner to make tea before I reach for more food [or] dessert.  The sweetness of the herbal tea is often all I need to satisfy a dessert craving.
• Cutting and washing veggies right when we got them made them easier to grab and snack on…also bought baby carrots because they are easy and snack size.

These are just a few of your great ideas!  Looks like our members have some keen architectural skills and are on the way to building great health!