July 2021 Personal Challenge Update

Summer is in full swing!  We only had one travel this month and that was to celebrate my stepson’s and husband’s birthday.  My apologies for the delay in blog post.  Learning the ropes in my new job does that.  Moreover, I’m trying to get my routine straight.  Anyway, here’s how the month go.

Health:

• Averaging 10,000 steps a day: For July, my aim was to average 3,500 steps a day.  I’m happy to say that my average in July is 4,977 steps.  I really tried hitting the 3,500 steps per day and didn’t miss any.  For August, my goal is to average 4,000 steps a day.
• Eating more fruits and vegetables: Fruits is still a miss. My stir fry ground turkey with tomatoes, mushroom and spinach is a weekly staple.  The grilled chicken berry salad from Kickback Jack’s is also making an appearance at least every other week.
• Drinking water: I really want to track it but it’s difficult using different glasses or water bottles.  However, water is still my go-to drink.  Green tea in the morning and chamomile or peppermint tea before bed.

Blog/Instagram:

• Instagram: I think I only missed a day posting on @bear.prototype … As for my main account, @chefclaudine … it’s dying.  I think I’ve only updated it once in July.  My other account, @thecoffeedisciple .. I rarely update it as I’m not the coffee drinker but my hubby.
• Blogging: I had a hard time posting this month with catching up with class.  I was able to post some towards the end of the month but not consistent.  I don’t think August will be good to me as well since I will start on my new job and trying to settle in a new routine. 
• Blog traffic: In June, my blog traffic count was 63.  In July, it went up slightly to 84.  I’m hoping it will consistently be on an uptrend.  That means, I need to write more.

Finance:

• Cashback Apps: My ReceiptHog coins went up from 5,071 coins to 5,248 coins. My Fetch Rewards points went up from 17,395 to 18,071 points. I wasn’t able to take photos of my receipts consistently.
• Balikbayan Box:  Box #5 was shipped to the agent towards the latter part of July.  Hubby was busy and wasn’t able to schedule a time.  Box #6 is almost full and we’re hoping to ship it on the second Saturday of August together with my mother-in-law’s box.  I guess this would be my last box for the year.  I’m quite sad as I won’t be able to reach my 8 box goal.  COVID really did a number as the shipment is taking longer to reach the receiver.
• Stock Market: I earned $2.45 from dividends and interest this month. I bought DADA stocks and $20 worth of DOGE coins (cryptocurrency). That $20 won’t be added and will just sleep there. My husband just ok’d that amount. Whether it goes up or down, I won’t lose sleep if I lose $20. My portfolio increased 3.79% in July.

Education:

• Payroll Specialist Class: I got my $750 in the mail.  Class will end on Aug 12.  I was cramming as I want to finish everything before I start working.  Well, I finished the lessons in our Payroll Accounting book and took all the tests.  The only thing I need to do is complete my assignments
• Eat Smart, Move More Class: We had two classes this month and had our final class last July 30. I will be expecting my $30 back in the mail as I met the attendance and health tracking in class. I surely learned a lot and will tell you more about it in future posts. This is one class I enjoyed that the state offers to their residents.

That’s it! Hopefully, I can write more post as I settle in a routine at work.

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June 2021 Personal Challenge Update

Another month passed and we’re halfway through the year. Time really flies so fast. Next thing I know I will be a year older. For the month of June, 3 of my aunts in the West Coast and Australia celebrated their birthday. We had 3 zoom parties with raffle, bingo and other games. It was fun and a good way to catch up with everybody. Aside from parties, here’s the rest of June’s update.

Health:

• Averaging 10,000 steps a day: For June, my aim was to average 3,000 steps a day. I think I started really aiming for the 3,000 step goal mid-June. I’m happy to say that my average in June is 3,556 steps. That New York day trip really helped as I hit 16,781 steps that day.
• Eating more fruits and vegetables: It’s slowly getting there. I try to cook the stir fry ground turkey with tomatoes, mushroom and spinach at least once a week.
• Drinking water: As much as possible, I drink water every meal or throughout the day. I don’t go turkey with sweetened beverages but try to limit it to twice a week. When I’m sick, I do lemon juice with honey.

Blog/Instagram:

• Instagram: I didn’t realize a lot of people are into posting the day to day of their plushies. Well, I created an instagram account of our bear plushie named Prototype. You can catch his antics on @bear.prototype … I update his account every two days. As for my main account, @chefclaudine … I missed the 3 days and sometimes update it on the 4th day. My other account, @thecoffeedisciple .. I rarely update it as I’m not the coffee drinker but my hubby.
• Blogging: the vacation earlier this month didn’t help me. It seems like it took me a long time to recover and get my groove back. I was able to only post 4 articles and a quote. No review or anything and most of them were written later than the post date.
• Blog traffic: If April was my previous low at 72, June is now my new low at 63. I really need to write more articles and consistently. (crossing fingers)

May 2021 Personal Challenge Update

Sorry for the delay but I wasn’t able to write this in advance of our Memorial Day trip. The trip was more than a week and I didn’t have my laptop with me. It was a long drive to New Jersey and quite tiring. I’m thinking never to do anything more than 5 hours drive. I don’t know how I survived our west to east coast trip early last year. In any case here’s an update of my personal challenges. I’m telling you right now it’s not pretty.

Health:

• I failed in logging food, 10 flights of stairs a day, strength training, planking for 2 minutes for this month. Either I forgot to log them, I’m traveling or I don’t feel like exercising. Usually my motivation is when I see the scales going up.
• Average of 10,000 steps a day: I did hit the 10,000 steps a day during our travels but when I’m at home, I average 3,000 steps a day. I tried to keep it up to more than 3,000 steps a day and I hope I would be able to increase it to an average of 3,500 steps by next month. Slowly but surely. Also, I hope I won’t get sick or feel sick to lower my average.
• Eating fruits and vegetables: It’s strawberry season, so I have at least 1 cup of fruits a day for at least 2 days a week. Towards the latter part of the month, I saute mushroom and spinach with ground turkey (Healthy!)
• Health checkups: I was quite busy with doctor visits this month. On May 5 was my 6th month post op, the surgeon requested for an MRI and it came out clean. I had a mammogram the next day and nothing significant to report. I had my annual physical in the latter part of the month and my A1C is down by 0.1%. I’m not yet out of the pre-diabetes stage but 0.1% down is an achievement already. I’m happy to say that my cholesterol level which the doctors in China were asking me what I’m doing is keeping my doctor here happy.

April 2021 Personal Challenge Update

This month, the travel bug has bitten me. We had 3 trips in one month (Washington DC, Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA). You might have noticed a lot of travel posts this month and that’s the reason. This update is a scheduled post as we’re in Savannah, GA as it’s posted on the blog. So what happened and did I miss anything?

Health:

• Lose It App / Logging food: still going strong. There are days where I forgot to log it but I make it up the next day. I’m just happy that I’m having breakfast every day. Not because it’s the most important meal of the day but it’s one of our KPIs in our ESMM class. Also, it’s not healthy to miss meals.
• 10 flights of stairs a day: I missed days when we are traveling or the day after our second dose of COVID vaccine. I’m just glad that other than those days, I look forward completing them.
• Average of 10,000 steps a day: I’m trying to get back to this habit which I was consistently doing from July 4 to Sep 26 of last year. I still haven’t gotten my steps up since my surgery last year. I also don’t know how my apple watch record my steps. It was easier to do it with Fitbit. I’m hoping I can get my 2 mile walk at least once a week. Recommended moderate exercise is 150 minutes a week or roughly 22 minutes a day.
• Strength training: My fear has been realized, I’m losing interest in my strength training even if I added some sets to my routine.
• Plank for 2 mins: I missed planking when we were traveling. I can now do 35 seconds straight planking.
• COVID-19 vaccine: I had my 2nd dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on April 6. The side effects was the same as the 1st dose. I had a mild fever, body aches and fatigue the day after the shot.
• Eating vegetables: I’m still behind on this one. I’m hoping I can incorporate more vegetables in our meal. I’ve resorted to frozen vegetables as the fresh ones usually rots in our fridge.

Blog/Instagram:

• Blog post every 3 days: I wasn’t able to complete it in March. While traveling, I wasn’t able to post as well. I had some scheduled posts done in the first week of April but in the middle of the month was difficult to schedule. I’m planning I will have at least one quote, one review, one recipe and one personal challenge update each month.
• Instagram post every 3 days: starting April 8, I was able to post in IG every 3 days. There was a point at that time where I was looking at my IG everyday and was checking if it has been 3 days already. That was the easist thing to do while I was trying to finish my Accounting class.
• Increase blog traffic to 1,000 visitors a day by year end: I missed a lot of posts this month and I still haven’t caught up with it. It was painful to see my visitor numbers went down from 156 to 72.

Finance:

• ReceiptHog and Fetch Rewards: I missed one week on ReceiptHog. I haven’t redeemed anything yet for ReceiptHog or Fetch Rewards. My coins in ReceiptHog increased from 4,201 to 4,248. For Fetch Rewards, my points increased from 13,485 to 14,030. Do use my referral code as it will help both of us with points. For ReceiptHog, my referral code is jut33746. For Fetch Rewards, my referral code is JBJQ1.
• Balikbayan Box: Box #3 was sent out this month. Box #4 is slowly being filled. It’s a bummer though that there’s port congestion in the Philippines and that boxes are taking longer than usual for my friend to receive it. Box #1 has yet to be received.
• Stock Market Income: My dividend income this month is $2.37.
• Budget Tracker: For March, we’re in the green as my husband received his side hustle for Jan and Feb. For April, I’m hoping that his side hustle income for March will come in. If not, I feel like we’ll be in the red. We had a lot of travel and it took a toll on our budget.

Education:

• Accounting Specialist Course: Our class ended April 29. I’m not sure if I like online classes. It doesn’t make me accountable to complete everything. I finished all chapters of my Excel and Accounting Basics book, but I didnt even open my Quickbooks book. In any case, I will continue to practice what I’ve learned in the book. I’m just glad that I learned something from it.
• Payroll Specialist Course: I’m going to attend the summer class as the Fall class is not yet assured. Class starts May 12.
• Income Tax Course: Still in the back burner as no schedule yet.
• Eat Smart, Move More Class: We had two classes this month. My weight is in the low 130s. My goal is to get it down to 120 lbs. Moreover, I’m hoping to lower my A1C and get out of the pre-diabetes range.

That’s it! Take care everyone and stay safe!

March 2021 Personal Challenge Update

Spring has sprung and I would like to thank my readers for being my accountability partners in my personal challenge. For this month, here’s an update on how I’m doing. I know it’s not my usual post but I really need to write it all down to be accountable.

Health:

• Log all food I ate. – Going strong. I’m not sure though if the calories intakes are correct.
• 10 flights of stairs a day – There were three days in March that I missed completing this goal. On one of them, I missed it by 1 flight of stairs. I really thought I completed it but apparently not. On the second missed day, I was sick and my husband forbade me to complete it. On the third missed day, I had a late start and by the time it hit 12mn, I only completed 9 flights.
• Strength training twice a week: This is still going but sometimes I don’t feel like doing it. Getting bored perhaps?
• Plank for 2 mins: I added planking mid-month and started with 30 mins. I will gradually increase it till I hit my goal of 2 mins. Hopefully, I will be able to reach that 2 min goal. I’ve tried it several times before but I wasn’t able to complete it ever. The longest I’ve ever done is 1 min.
• Eat salad once a week: I was able to eat salad once this month. I’ve been eating a lot of crab cakes too. I think I will remove this on my challenge for next month.
• 6 months seizure free!!! I can now go back and drive!!
• COVID-19 vaccine: I got my first dose last March 18 with my second dose scheduled on April 13.