Thrifty, Healthy, and Happy
Search Our Site
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

End of the Year Pushup Challenge 2014

12/30/2014

0 Comments

 
This is a one day challenge.
The challenge is to complete 2014 Pushups in 24 hours on December 31st, to close out the year.
Post by Fit2Fat2Fit.

This is our first year doing this challenge. We first saw Drew Manning from Fit2Fat2Fit do this at the end of last year when we started following him. We then started our own Daily Pushup Challenge. If you are interested in checking that out, You can start that Here:


Results are posted below. I put together this spreadsheet that had all pushups laid out in Increments of 50. Then also split into 25, or 10s in case I couldn't do 50 at a time. Completed challenge just before 10pm. Took some long breaks in between. Next year, I will plan on doing them all earlier so that I can enjoy the rest of the day.
Picture
0 Comments

2015 Pushup Challenge

12/30/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Download the 2015 Pushup Challenge Spreadsheet HERE.

How does the Pushup Challenge work?

This is a challenge where on you try to do one pushup for the corresponding day of the year. On January 1st, you do one pushup. January 2nd, two pushups; all the way through December 31st, 365 pushups.
Track your progress throughout the year.
I print out this sheet and hang it up somewhere you will see it everyday, like on your fridge.
Then cross out the pink #, and write in the new one after you complete your pushups for the day. Then once a week, month, or random interval, log on to your computer and update your spreadsheet. I then print out the new one and replace it with the old hanging one so that the totals are updated as well.

Good Luck! Let us know if you are attempting and how things are going. You can start it  it at any time. Just zero out the days before you start, and the totals will reset.

I started Jan 2nd of 2014. See my challenge for 2014. I did not hit my goal, but did get over 60,000 for the year.
0 Comments

2014 Daily Pushup Challenge

12/30/2014

0 Comments

 
The 2014 Calendar Year, Daily Pushup Challenge:
This is a challenge where on you try to do one pushup for the corresponding day of the year. On January 1st, you do one pushup. January 2nd, two pushups; all the way through December 31st, 365 pushups.

I started this Challenge on January 2nd, and for the first 5 months, I was on track... but then steadily declined. I am over 60,000 pushups with 2 days left.
The goal for the year was 66,795

I will post official results sometime tomorrow or after.

Here is a screenshot of my current progress.
Pink #s originally show the goal for the day such as the last 2 days shown.
Then overwrite them in black (or leave as pink if goal is not hit).

Picture
0 Comments

Cabbage Crust Pizza

12/25/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture

We love the Cauliflower Crust Pizza, but wanted to make a variation on it. We wanted to speed up the process and see if we could still get that great taste. And we did! At least, we did in our opinion. :)

Ingredient List:
Raw Cabbage or Coleslaw Mix (we bought it in a premixed bag already).
1 egg
Cheese (8oz or so)
Small can of sauce (or can of tomatoes, or fresh tomatoes (and we will blend it).
Onions/mushrooms (optional to add to sauce or as toppings).
Toppings - Anything and everything. We do different toppings every time. It just depends what we have.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.





Picture
Mix together some raw cabbage/cole slaw mix, 1 egg, and a small handful of cheese. You can add some spices such as oregano or basil if you have it, but it's not necessary.
Picture
Onion is not necessary, but we chopped up an onion, and put it in the sauce. Sauteed in Coconut oil (or butter) until it darkens and starts to caramelize.
Picture
Put tomato mixture in a blender
Picture
Here it is after blending
Picture
Lay flat in a lasagna pan. You can probably use another type of pan too, but this is what we used. Bake for 10-15 minutes. The goal is to harden the crust a little bit.
Picture
Add your can of tomatoes or fresh tomatoes. Let simmer for a few minutes. You can skip all of this and use a can of sauce. We have just found that its not too much work to make Great Sauce with no extra preservatives or ingredients we don't want.
Picture
Add your Sauce over the top of the crust. Then it is time to start adding the toppings.
Picture
Normally we wouldn't add sliced tomatoes, but these were left overs and perfectly good and delicious.
Picture
Mushrooms
Picture
Black Olives
Picture
Pepperoni
Picture
Sliced Serrano Peppers
Picture
Mozzarella Cheese

Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes until cheese is at its desired meltiness.

Picture
Here is what ours looked like afterwards. Cut with a spatula and serve like lasagna.
Picture
Single Serving View
Picture
Add Parmesan and red peppers if you like.


Enjoy!
Please leave us a comment and let us know how your experience went with this recipe.
0 Comments

Zucchini Lasagna (no carb)

12/23/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
We have made a few variations of this, but this is the last one that we made recently. Ingredients list can vary to your liking, But this is our latest recipe below.

Ingredients Needed:
Zucchini - Approx 4 if smaller ones, but only 1 if you're able to find the giant ones.
Fresh tomatoes, or approx 16 oz can of fresh tomatoes. (to make sauce).
Toppings of your choosing: We used Onion, (mixed in sauce), mushrooms, raw cabbage (cole slaw mix), can of french green beans.
1lb ground meat (beef, turkey, pork, chicken). We found pork on sale this time.
8oz of Mozzarella Cheese (or cheese of your choice)


Start by browning the meat in a pan. You may season the meat to your desire with a little salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, or spice that is desired.  While that is browning, you can start slicing the zucchini.
Slice the Zucchini the long way as seen in pic below. I was able to use a cheese slicer to slice evenly.
Picture
Place one row of raw zucchini in the bottom of the pan as the base liner as seen above.
Picture
Optional: Use raw cabbage or other veggies to fill in any gaps. We used raw cabbage as it fills in easily.

Next we made our Red Sauce which I neglected to take any pictures of. But here are the steps:
Place raw tomatoes or canned tomatoes in a blender. We did not add any spices, but did add a few Arbol Chills to give it a little heat. Blended until it made a tomato sauce/paste, then added that directly to the meat when its almost done browning.  Let it simmer for a little bit so all the flavors can blend together.


Picture
Add the layer of meat on next.
Picture
Add another layer of zucchini if you have it.
Picture
We Added our French Style Green Beans here, but you can add any veggies.
Picture
Add Cheese.


Place in the oven on 350 Degrees for 30-40 minutes. If you have no frozen ingredients 30 should be plenty. Let stand for a few minutes to cool and for the juices to thicken. Then serve and enjoy!
Picture

Please comment or send us a private message if you have any questions. Thanks for checking out this recipe.
0 Comments

No Sugar, No Carbs Until Christmas

12/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
2.5 weeks of no sugar, and no carbs.

What this really means, is that we are giving up all processed sugars and carbs. No Bread, Pasta, or Rice. No Sugary Sodas or Juices including anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup. No Artificial Sweeteners of any kind. We do not want anything processed during this time. We will however still have natural sugars and carbs from fruits and vegetables.


We have seen others give up sugar for 10 days, but we wanted to go a little further. We would've said 1 month, but we know the temptations will probably be too high on Christmas Day, so we opted for 2.5 weeks, and may then reward ourselves with some Christmas Cookies or Pie.

What will we be eating during the challenge?
We will do our best to get pictures of some of our meals on here, but here are some of the things we plan on eating: Raw Fruits (mostly bananas, apples, strawberries, and mangoes), Veggies (lettuce, spinach, carrots), Eggs, Meat (mostly frozen chicken cubes that we purchased from GFS (no added ingredients)), and Nuts (pecans and almonds mostly). Rereading the above description, I realize it sounds boring, but can assure you that we've done this in the past and enjoyed some very delicious meals.

Picture


Today is Day #3 (12/3/2014).
This is where people say they start to have a difficult time with the challenge (between days 3 and 7). So far I haven't experienced any crashes during the day like I normally do when having a soda, or other snack for lunch, so we will see how the rest of the day and week goes. Below is a photo of Dinners from the first and second day. More filling than it looks and than I would have thought, and delicious as well. Also a reminder that in the first few days, it is recommended that you drink EXTRA Water and even add a little salt to your food. This is because when your body is cleansing itself from carbs, it takes a lot of water out of your system with it.


Picture
Day #1 Dinner: Romaine Lettuce Salad with Tuna, Jalapenos, 1/2 an Avocado, and a few Green Olives stuffed with Garlic. I also added a few small squirts of hot sauce (no sugars/natural flavors added to it).
PictureDay #2 Dinner: Stirfry with Chicken. Used an entire onion and a handful of cranberries. Then added frozen veggies and frozen chicken cubes (100% chicken, no added ingredients). Then Cook and Serve. :)











Picture
Day #3 Dinner: Chilorio with onion, tomatoes, sport peppers, carrots, brussel sprouts, and half an avocado.
The salad above is on a regular size plate, but the other dinners are on small appetizer plates. We are trying to use smaller portions now. If not, I would keep eating until everything was gone from the plate, even if I wasn't hungry anymore.

Picture

Today is Day #18:
We have been slacking a bit on the posts. But it has been pretty uneventful. We have been going through day by day and staying away from sugar and all processed carbs. We do have some recipes that we need to post, such as our Zucchini Lasagna. We replaced all of the pasta with zucchini, and made our own sauce.
We will have more to report this last week, but wanted to get this one out there to let you know we are still going strong. :)




Picture
Today is Day # 22


Only 3 more Days until Christmas and completing a successful challenge!
Over the past few days we have had dabbled in creating a few new recipes. The best, is probably our Cabbage Crust Pizza, which we baked in a lasagna pan. So delicious, we had it for dinner on Saturday, and again on Sunday for lunch. :)  -- Its been over 3 weeks since we started the challenge, and now only 3 days left.

Picture
From Saturday Night: Raw Coleslaw Blend, Homemade Tomato Sauce (Onion, tomatoes, mushroom blended), Sliced Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Jalapenos, Black Olives, Pepperoni, and Mozzarella Cheese.
Picture
From Sunday Night: Raw Coleslaw, Homemade Tomato Sauce (Onion, Tomatoes, Mushroom, and Tabasco Sauce blended), Mushrooms, Jalapenos, Black Olives, Pepperoni, and Cheddar Cheese.
Picture

Today is Day #23
Only 2 more days to complete the challenge. No big updates here. just checking in.




Picture
Today is Day #25, Christmas Day!
We have completed the 25 Day no sugar/carbs until Christmas Challenge! Overall, it was a great experience, and we plan to continue for the most part not having much sugar, nor refined carbs. I believe this challenge wasn't as difficult as when we initially started our first journey over a year and a half ago, but still had struggles, especially leading up to Christmas with our family making Christmas Cookies and other goodies.



After Midnight, as a treat for our efforts, we decided to indulge in a special treat to reward ourselves. And because we thought these were so cool and had never seen them before.
Check out our 1 lb Candy Bars below! 
Don't worry, we only had a couple bites.

Picture
1lb Snickers Candy Bar!
Picture
2 half pound Peppermint Patties.


Throughout Christmas Day we had our fair share of sugar and carbs. I personally feel pretty lethargic after everything. I did manage to have 2 cans of Pepsi as well (made with real sugar, no High Fructose Corn Syrup). After a few sips of the first one, the carbonation was a little much... but again, I did drink it all. And then craved another one later and had that as well. We won't be drinking much of this in the future. Probably just for special occasions when it is available at a get together.

We Highly suggest everyone tries a 10 day no sugar/carb challenge. Or at the least a no sugar challenge if you "need" to eat bread.

Please leave comments below, especially if you are planning on doing a challenge or have attempted one.
0 Comments

    Archives

    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014

    Author

    Chris & Elena currently reside in Oshkosh, WI.

    Categories

    All
    Challenges
    DIY
    Fit2fat2fit
    Health / Detox
    Recipes

    RSS Feed


Thrifty Healthy and Happy dot com
Blogging and Vlogging since 2014
Oshkosh, WI 54902