Blog 7 - Hula hooping!




Challenge 38 - Hula Hoop!

 Yes my hula hoop arrived so I thought I may as well give Challenge 38 a go! Previously I have tried to keep a hula hoop up, but mainly using a child's small hoop and have failed miserably! So, I bought an adult weighted hoop and although there were a few very rubbish attempts and my technique looks more like a weird cowgirl jolting around rather than a sexy and sultry technique that you see most hula hooping ladies do, I managed to complete 40 revolutions... just! As it was a slightly easier challenge than I expected I will try and get my mate Jo to complete the 40 too! At least I now have a new hobby and can try and make my technique a little bit less strange!

Other progress on the other challenges... no word from the game shows (Challenge 30), I attended an interview for a new volunteer job (Challenge 12) and got the job so will be starting training at the end of October. I have also registered with the Blood Donor Wales and have made an appointment in October to give blood. (Challenge 25) I know it seems a relatively simple challenge again however I tried multiple times last year to give blood but they always turned me away as they were too busy or I was under the weather. So this time I have made an actual appointment.

I have also done my 40 sit ups every day (Challenge 6), lost half a stone in weight (Challenge 26), on my 7th reading book (Challenge 11), had 5 date nights with the hubby (Challenge 14), visited 7 pubs (Challenge 17), listened to countless CDs (Challenge 36) and committed 5 acts of random kindness to strangers (Challenge 28).

I have spent some time planning out some of the challenges and spacing them out throughout the year. Next month, I'm going to try and tackle swimming 40 lengths, turning my phone off for 40 hours and finishing off the kindness acts.

But for now enjoy proof of my ridiculously unsexy hula hooping!!

Blog 6 - More publicity...

CHALLENGE 22 Completed - I am now the proud mum of Jubilee the baby Asian orphan elephant! My adoption pack complete with my little cuddly elephant now proud of place on my daughters bed, arrived today with details on the elephant I adopted through the Born Free Foundation.

In my attempt to get as many charity donations as possible for CHALLENGE 2 – the RSPCA Cardiff branch (my chosen charity) published details of the challenges and the Just Giving site on their website to help raise awareness and hopefully money. It also means I really do need to complete these challenges even more now!

http://www.rspca-cardiff.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=547:michelles-40-challenges&catid=36&Itemid=101  

As my mate said though that photo of my first sandwich after the FAST will haunt me for some time!!

Blog 5 - the first cooking challenge!

Last night I managed to cook my first meal from scratch - CHALLENGE 35 - a chilli con carne (quorn and a meat version). I managed to cook it without too many traumas through the tears from the onions, although I did almost have a minor catastrophe when I tried to drain off the excess fat from the mince and almost tipped the whole lot in the sink!. Disaster averted, I was very proud of myself until I saw the faces of my two children and husband when they tried it! I must admit it wasn’t the best and was pretty bland with very little flavour but hey for a first attempt at least< I was proud and  it wasn't burnt! The family can't wait till my next attempt... NOT!

Onto the next challenge, I thought I would try and do some random acts of kindness to strangers (CHALLENGE 28) for the next couple of weeks and hopefully cheer some people up!

Blog 4 - FAST complete!

Challenge 9 completed! Yes I managed along with my fellow challenger Karen Daniel to complete the 40 hour FAST!

I celebrated my wedding anniversary on Saturday 31 August so had a lovely slap up meal and was necking champagne just before my 9pm curfew when I needed to stop eating all food for 40 hours. For the next 40 hours I then drank cold water, flavoured water or boiled flavoured water (Fruit Tea!).

Karen and I text each other throughout the challenge to keep us both motivated and weirdly both of us suffered with headaches as the worst complaint - both big caffeine drinkers I think we suffered more from the lack of caffeine than food!

The first thing I ate was a bread roll! which I had to wait an extra 20 minutes for as I was stuck in the pony rides queue for my daughter at 1pm!!
It did amaze me how well I coped without food to be honest, not too many grumps! It was definately better starting at night and I kept myself very busy and distracted most of the time, but nothing too physical. I craved tea and different drinks much more than food although I did wake up several times in the middle of the second night with stomach cramps and had a banging headache the whole time. In the last 3 or 4 hours I did become a little light headed too but all in all not too bad!

It really did make me think of all the people in this world who sadly have to go to bed lots of nights with those hunger cramps which made me more determined to get through it really and stop wussing out!

Anyway enough about that challenge as it is now done and dusted! I have not heard back from the game show applications yet and I am still trawling through Guinness Records for a suitable World Record attempt - any ideas let me know. I have recruited a few people for the physical challenges, Mudrunner, 40k runs and swimming etc. but Im still looking for someone to attempt the 40 hour silence - any takers??

Today I am attempting my first cooking challenge for CHALLENGE 35 - COOK A NEW RECIPE EACH MONTH - which to lots of people would seem easy enough but as a lot of you know I am the most rubbish of cooks in fact Popty Ping (Microwave) and the freezer and generally my best friends and as close I come to cooking anything from scratch! But tonight, drum roll please...... I am attempting to cook a chilli con carne (meat and seperate veggie one!). Hopefully I won't poison anyone!

I also had my first donation of £10 for my charity - Thank You Chris Bullen - very much obliged!

So for now my lovelies, I'd better get chopping some onions - where are my protective goggles??