The month of August often is the month of harvest here in the Palouse. Not only are farmer’s busy in the fields but home gardens are overburdened with bounty. It’s an interesting month as my scrawny little plants transform into heavy bushes, filled with more food than we feel we can use. It’s my favorite time. It’s a time of canning and eating fresh foods that we gathered ourselves.
This is a great month for some healthy challenges. On August 11th, my family will follow an elimination diet. My mom has been on this same diet for the past few weeks and says she’s never felt better. My dad gave up dairy and his health has improved as well. I figure it can’t hurt and we hope to learn a lot about what foods benefit us and what seem to harm us. It’s also a chance to give our diet a healthy kick start.
A few weeks ago, Slimkicker.com contacted me about hosting a giveaway. I thought about it while I played in their site. I absolutely love their site and was glad that they contacted me.
Slimkicker is a healthy living/diet website. They have trackers for food and exercise as well as challenges to improve health.
They describe themselves as – “SlimKicker is a calorie tracker and game that turns your diet/fitness goals into a level-up game with points and rewards. You rack up points by tracking healthy calories, and completing challenges such as quitting soda for a week. You upload a picture of a reward such as a cheat food, or iPod, and we’ll remind you to reward yourself with that reward as you reach a certain number of points. We also have diet recipe ideas as well.”
They have a small community that is open and friendly. I love the trackers – they are not only user-friendly but they offer easy to access information about your diet. I like that they allow you to put together recipes easily and at the bottom of the page there are suggestions to alter your diet such as foods that are higher in fiber or protein. It does take some playing with to figure out all the parts but that’s the same with all tracking systems.
I love the reward system – you upload a picture of what you want and work to earn points by tracking and challenges. You get extra points for healthy choices such as good sources of protein or servings of vegetables.
So here’s the giveaway – Slimkicker is offering a brand new Hamiliton Beach 6 quart crockpot to the best idea for a new fitness or diet challenge. Check out the site and see if you can come up with a creative challenge idea. Post your idea in the comments by August 10th. Slimkicker will pick the best idea. Feel free to enter as many times as you like.
*I am not receiving any compensation for this giveaway or the promotion of Slimkicker.com. You do not have to join Slimkicker to participate in this giveaway.
My idea of a challenge is to be more mindful when I exercise instead of watching TV while running the treadmill, or plugging in earbuds.
Congrats – you’re the winner, contact Slimkicker at team(at)slimkicker.com
I’m not sure how creative this is, but I would make a challenge not to eat any fast food for a week. It’s my biggest downfall in weight loss. I’m not sure what my reward would be yet, I’m still thinking about that part!
I gave up fake sugars a couple of years ago, things like aspartame will kill you but are very addicting. Dropping them from your lifestyle isn’t easy, but you’ll feel a lot better after the cravings stop. They can be tough to avoid (aspartame hides in sooo many products, including many gums and drink mixes) but it’s worth learning to read labels. Seriously, NEVER put anything into your grocery cart without reading the label. Your body will thank you!
Another good challenge (slightly more creative) would be to plank (or another similar strength exercise) during every commercial break for a week.
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A really great challenge may be to eat only healthy desserts for one month! The twist of course is we usually consider desserts out of the question when dieting, but there are healthy choices. I got into raw food desserts a couple months ago, and they were yummy AND good for me! I also found that my cravings for “bad” desserts decreased significantly. I have fallen out of the habit, and should probably give that a try again.
We’ve experimented with healthy desserts over the years. Recently I made a blackberry crumble – whole fresh blackberries (picked out in the woods so they were free) with just a touch of sugar topped with oatmeal mixed with coconut oil. It was allergy friendly and rather tasty. We had company with two little boys and the youngest couldn’t get enough.
Hi Sara. I have been reading a lot about wheat lately and I have been attempting to give up all wheat products – seems I may be allergic. So my challenge for people is to give up wheat – read “Wheat Belly” and your life might change for the better!
I have one of these mini start climber, very portable, and I could, though I haven’t yet, set my computer on our tall breakfast bar and write so that I could be on the stair climber moving at the same time. Guess, I better get to it.
Here’s another for you… I’d recommend an “idle cheeks” challenge. You know the saying about idle hands? Well, idle cheeks are also up to no good. Whenever sitting idle (waiting rooms, on the computer, in class, at work, brushing your child’s hair, etc) do some clenches. Just tighten and relax those butt muscles over and over again. No one will notice that you’re doing anything at all, but you’ll feel your muscles working, and you’ll feel better for having used those idle cheeks for good.
Hmm great giveaway! A good challenge would be to have more optimistic positive thoughts throughout the day. Every time you have a negative thought, compensate with a positive one.
Tina – I like that idea. I am battling negative thoughts all the time and keep thinking I need to be more positive. Might be a good self challenge.