Challenge: Burn 31,000 calories in May – RESULTS

At the beginning of May, I set out to burn 31,000 calories throughout the month, equating to burning 1,000 calories per day. Despite my optimism going into the month and plans for some mammoth workouts, often with these sorts of challenges, life gets in the way. Well I say life, but I suppose it’s a combination of life in addition to a good dose of laziness!

As you can see from the results below, I fell some 10,492 calories short of my goal of burning 31,000 calories. All in all, I’m a bit disappointed with my results. Whilst I was a bit more active throughout the month than usual, I undoubtedly lacked consistency. Granted, May was surprisingly wetter than usual and there were a few days in which I forgot to charge my Apple Watch fully (doh!), but that doesn’t excuse for the overall inconsistencies throughout the month.

If we look at the individual days in which I burned calories, the period from 15^th May to 17^th May was where I burnt the most calories and this can be pinpointed to a trip to Scotland. Prior to going to Scotland, I knew I was going to hit at least 1,000 calories a day as this was a primarily a hiking trip in which we were taking our full-of-energy Border Collie. Regardless, the sense of achievement on the 17^th when I checked my Apple Watch felt great and definitely emphasised the feeling of accomplishment you can get from exercise.

On the flip side, if we look at some of the worst calorie burning days in the month, the 22^nd and 23^rd of May were simply awful. I took my Apple Watch off early in the day of the 22^nd as I was going out with friends for a few drinks, hence the low-calorie burning count. On the 23^rd, I was sporting a rather painful self-inflected hangover, so the only real exercise I did was getting up from the sofa and walking to the fridge!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, consistency is key when it comes to these sorts of challenges. You need to get off on the front foot right at the beginning of the month and have a dedicated workout regime and not take the “oh the weather looks nice, let’s go for a run” technique which I adopted. I’m frustrated at my overall lack of urgency for the challenge as prior to starting it, I was quietly confident.

Despite falling so short on my calorie burning goal, I still enjoyed the challenge and those moments of satisfaction like checking my watch during the day and seeing that I wasn’t a million miles away from my daily goal, felt great. I think if I was to do this challenge again, I would certainly formulate a manageable routine and maybe not set the bar so high!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my calorie burning challenge! Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever tried anything like this before and how you got on.

Challenge: Burn 31,000 calories in May – UPDATE

We’re over halfway through May and over halfway through my challenge of burning 31,000 calories through the calendar month of May. After a decent start to the month where I went on a few lengthy bike rides and dog walks, my activity did being to tail off up until last week.

As of yesterday (19^th May), to be on target with my goal of 31,000 calories burnt by the end of the month, I should have burnt 19,000 calories. Now, I’m some way off where I should be, some 4,726 calories to be precise, but that being said, I’ve just come back from a pretty active few days in Scotland and it’s inspired me to really push on with my challenge and achieve my calorie goal.

Thus far in May (as of yesterday), I’ve burnt 14,274 calories, meaning I have 16,726 calories left to burn in the 12 days which remain in May. This equates to burning approximately 1,394 calories per day, a number which I have only surpassed once so far in the month of May. It’s going to be easy and I do really need to commit to planning some big workouts to hit the target, but the added challenge is all part of the fun!

If we look at my stats so far in the month of May, undoubtedly my best day for calories burnt was the 17^th May which unsurprisingly, was the day I climbed the Scottish mountain of Ben Vrackie! Ben Vrackie is an 841m tall mountain located north of the town of Pitlochry and took around 2 and a half hours for us to complete. Despite not taking a hugely significant amount of time to complete, the final half an hour climbing Ben Vrackie is outrageously steep and this steep incline definitely helped contribute to burning many calories!

My worst day in May for burning calories was the 13^th May, burning only 306 calories, closely followed by the 9^th May, where I burnt a meagre 378 calories. In fairness, on the 13^th my Apple Watch did decide to run out of battery half way through the day, although this was partially my fault for not charging it properly the night before! Regardless, it’s somewhat disappointing that I’ve only burnt over 1,000 calories on 4 out of the 19 days, with 3 of which coming when I was adventuring in Scotland. 

If I’m to reach my target of burning 31,000 calories by the end of May, then there’s nothing else I can do other than pull my finger out and get exercising! 

Challenge: Burn 31,000 calories in May

I love a challenge and despite often not always completing every challenge I set for myself, I do love giving them a good go! It’s been a while since I’ve set up a proper challenge for myself and what better way to do it than trying to burn a buttload of calories?! 

Why 31,000 you ask? As you may very well be aware, there are 31 days in May, so the target equates to burning 1,000 calories per day. 31,000 calories equate to approximately 584 Oreo cookies, 221 cans of full fat coke, 61 McDonald’s Big Macs or 13 large Pepperoni Passion pizzas from Dominos!

In terms of difficulty, I don’t think the challenge will be overly difficult to complete, it will just require dedication and consistency to tally up the calories burnt. To help me in my challenge, I will be using my trusty Apple Watch to count the calories and utilising the useful Activity app which comes pre-installed on all iPhones.

If we look at how many calories I burnt in April, in total I burnt 17,054 calories, some 13,946 shy of my target of 31,000 for May. Granted, April does contain a day less than May, but if I am going to succeed I need to consistently burn a high number of calories per day.

As you can see above, I only burnt over 1,000 calories on two days, both at the beginning of the month. In contrast to this, one of my worst days was earlier this week, where I only managed to burn 127 calories in the day – although I do think I forgot to wear my watch for the majority of the day!

The challenge is going to require lots of dog walks, bike rides and runs but I’m up for the challenge and confident I can achieve my goal.

My next challenge

Following on from my failed attempt at earning £5,000 in 4 months, I’ve decided to set myself a less number oriented money making challenge! Whilst I’m not going to set a target figure, basically I have just purchased my first home (WOOOOOOOO) with my partner so we are saving up all we can for that, plus we have a trip to New York coming up in November so we desperately need to save as much as we can for spends!

I’m going to employ the same tactics I did for the previous money making challenge, however I’m going to try and invest some of what I make initially into more money earning ways. Again I’ll be posting monthly updates so you can see if I’m smashing it or well and truly failing! And hey who knows, maybe it will give you some inspiration into earning extra cash as well!

If you are in a similar situation to myself and are a bit cash strapped yourself, one of the easiest methods which I have used to make a bit of extra money is by doing surveys. Surveys don’t pay huge amounts, but doing them a couple of times a week you can easily make around £20ish a month – not loads, but every penny counts!

The survey site I use is QMEE. QMEE is actually a fantastic survey site, it allows you to withdraw any amount of cash you earn via Paypal or via a gift card and is generally really user friendly. The amount you can earn from each survey varies, but QMEE brilliantly tells you how long each survey will roughly take, so you can weigh up whether or not the survey is worth your time.

I generally do the surveys whilst I have breakfast, on my lunch or whilst watching TV and if you do it consistently, you can actually earn some pretty decent extra cash. Check out the table which shows how much I have earned over the last couple of months.

I would definitely recommend using QMEE and as an added bonus, sign up using this link which will give you 50p following on from your first Paypal withdrawal!

Check back soon for my first update on my money saving challenge!

£5,000 in 4 months: November Update

I’m going to jump into it and just say it, £5,000 in 4 months is not going to happen, especially after this month’s performance. I’m almost embarrassed to say how much I’ve saved but here goes… since the beginning of October I have managed to save a grand total of £38.26.

Here’s the breakdown:

£10 loose change I found in my room

£12.51 from completing surveys

£12.83 from selling an old Xbox game

£2.92 savings left over from October’s salary

Yep not exactly the £1,250 which was need this month to reach that goal of £5,000, however October was a fairly productive month by all accounts.

I have a brand new job which I started today which is on a slightly higher salary than my old job which means hopefully I will be able to save more than £2.92 from my salary.

I’ve created a neat looking spreadsheet so I can document all my earnings and spending’s and keep on top of what is actually going out – an attempt to limit impulse purchases!

I have started collecting any further loose change in a money box which I am going to open come February (and I know there is roughly around £20 in there currently so hopefully this figure will increase)!

I also have a few good leads on a possible part time role doing some hours over the Christmas period!

So overall, not a great month in terms of savings however there have been some great revelations which will hopefully see a lot more being saved in the coming months!

£5,000 in 4 months?!

Today is the 1st of October. I need roughly £5,000 in savings by the 1st February. Yup I’m screwed! Due to a certain someone’s 21st birthday and having booked a trip to Thailand, its safe to say I need to be saving as best as I can these next couple of months! 

Currently, I work Monday to Friday 9 to 5 in an office job. My wage from this is already pretty stretched out to cover my expenses, petrol, food etc so it’s unlikely I will be able to save any significant amount from this. This means I am going to have to find alternative methods to earn £5,000 in exactly 4 months!

This means I have to be earning £1,250 a month, on top of working full time! It looks to be a damn near impossible task, however I am fully determined and that’s why I am going to document everything and update you guys on a monthly basis to ensure I am on track.

So far, I’ve looked into a possible part time evening job, doing some freelance writing and doing car boot sales, but is there anything else you guys can think of which I could do to earn a bit of extra cash and make those cocktails on the beach in Thailand that little bit sweeter?! Let me know in the comments!

WE DID IT!

So yesterday my girlfriend and I completed our first 5 kilometre run in a time of 30 minutes and 45 seconds. This was just 45 seconds over our target time, but we were very happy nonetheless and this now gives us a time to beat for our next run!

The run itself was surprisingly enjoyable, it was only until the last kilometre that I actually found myself struggling! I am already looking forward to our next run and intend to aim to complete a couple of runs a week on a regular basis.

Not only was this run a boost for our fitness and a great experience, but we also managed to raise over £100 between us for the stroke association!

Here’s to the next 5K!

4 days to go…

Just 4 days left now until I run my first 5K for charity and I couldn’t be more excited! 

On Sunday, my girlfriend and I got in our first practice for our 5K which we are running on Sunday 12th March for the Stroke Association. We took things easy and managed to complete 2K in a time of 12 minutes and 6 seconds. We both found this not too difficult to complete and this made us feel a lot more confident about completing the full 5K.

Disappointingly, on Monday we did not go for a run and similarly yesterday we only got chance to complete a 3K walk. We have however planned to complete at least another 2K this evening and hopefully maintain some form of routine over the next couple of days before competing the big one on Sunday.

We have set a target of completing the 5K in under 30 minutes, and hopefully this will spark the beginning of our running careers!

Also on a side note, as today is International Women’s Day I would like to take this opportunity to thank my wonderful girlfriend for absolutely everything she does, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for her. Plus she cooks a mean curry!

7 days to train for a 5K?!

Whilst this would probably be no problem for the Average Joe, months of beer guzzling and pizza eating have not left me in good stead to run this 5K next Sunday! 

Me and my girlfriend decided that if we signed up for an impromptu 5K, this would help motivate us to keep active and healthy – this is the theory anyway! 

Not only are we doing this for fitness purposes but we are also doing this to help raise money for the Stroke Association. Both of us know someone who has been effected by stroke in one way or another, or have had someone in our own families suffer.

Tomorrow we are aiming to complete a 2K run as starter for ourtraining. I will be posting updates later in the week so check back soon to see how we are getting on!