Archive for the ‘Challenges’ Category
The challenge is ON!
I.have.had.ENOUGH!!
I made an executive decision last night. I’ve clearly been floundering far too much trying to do this whole weight loss thing on my own the past several weeks. So, I decided last night that enough was enough. I signed up for the monthly pass again and got my ass to a meeting today on my lunch hour. I had rejoined Weight Watchers earlier in the spring and then proceeded to start skipping meetings and, eventually, just dropping out completely.
When I was going to meetings, I was losing consistently. As soon as I quit, the floundering commenced pretty quickly. Clearly, there is something motivating to me in handing over that money each month for the privilege of stepping on their scale vs. my own. So be it! If it takes shelling out the $40/month to step on their scale to keep me on track, then I’m willing to spend it. I just can’t go on floundering like this losing and gaining the same 5 pounds over and over when I still have so far to go before reaching my goal.
So, you may be wondering exactly where the whole challenge concept fits into this. A few days ago when I posted about falling off the wagon, my dear friend Darla suggested that perhaps another of my famous 50 day challenges might be in order. I’ve had great success with the challenges like this that I’ve done in the past. So, I’ve decided she’s right, but with one slight modification. Since today is day 1 of my latest challenge, I have decided to make it a 52 day challenge which will take me to July 31. I decided it just seemed wrong to end this challenge on July 29, so I’m going to steam ahead through to the end of the month instead.
Now, for those of you who may be new readers to my blog, you may be asking yourself, “Self, what is this 50 … errr … 52 day challenge to which she refers?” Well, here are the rules for my little challenge in a nutshell:
1. No cheat days for the duration of the challenge.
2. All food must be accounted for and journaled.
3. Consumption of a minimum of 5 servings of fruits & vegetables daily.
4. Consumption of a minimum of 2 servings of dairy daily.
5. Consumption of a minimum of 48 ounces of water daily.
While I don’t have any specific physical activity goals as part of my challenge, I will definitely be working out. I have a 17-week training plan for my October triathlon which will commence the week of June 22. With the plan, I’ll be training 6 days per week, so my exercise will definitely be covered.
So, that’s it in a nutshell. You may all get sick of hearing about my progress on this challenge over the next 52 days, but posting about it here helps me stick with it. Even though I’m a Type AB personality, I lean more to the Type A side, so committing to this challenge here and regularly updating you all about it will help keep me on track.
So, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Bring on the challenge!!
Until next time … 
One Perfect Day
Kathy has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged those of us in the weight-loss blogging world to make today a “Perfect Day” on our food plans. I LOVE this concept and immediately tossed my hat into the ring. Today is actually day 50 of my 50 Day No Cheat Challenge, and I can’t think of a better way to end it than with a bunch of other weight loss bloggers all striving for a perfect day, too. 
As my regular readers already know, I’m using the Flex Plan from Weight Watchers for my eating plan. For me, it’s easy and doesn’t require a lot of thought. The most important part though, it works for me. I know that no one program is the right plan for everybody, but I’ve definitely had more success with WW than any of the other myriad of diet plans I’ve tried over the years. So, if it ain’t broke, don’t fit it.
In light of the Perfect Day challenge, here the “rules” of the Flex Plan.
- Stay within your points budget (daily points target, any earned Activity Points, plus a weekly points allowance of 35 points).
- Track what you eat and its points value.
- Follow the Good Health Guidelines:
- At least 5 servings of vegetables and fruits
- Whole-grain foods whenever possible
- 2-3 servings of dairy products
- 2 tsp. healthy oil (canola, olive, safflower, etc.)
- 1-2 servings of protein
- Limit added sugar and alcohol
- Drink at least 6 glasses of water
- Take a multiple vitamin-mineral supplement
Based on those requirements, here is my plan of action for the day:
- Reach my daily points target of 30.
- If I’m still hungry, use earned activity points or weekly points allowance as needed.
- I will journal my food for the day here on my blog.
- I will drink a minimum of 48 ounces of water.
- I will incorporate all of the Healthy Guidelines.
One Perfect Day Diary:
Breakfast:
Fat-free yogurt - 2
Coffee with 1 tbsp half-and-half - 0.5
Snack:
Banana - 2
Lunch:
Salad - 0
1 tsp. salad dressing - 0.5
Carba-Nada pasta with tomato sauce & mushrooms - 4
Gardenburger Mama Mia meatless meatballs - 2
Snack:
String cheese - 2
Z-bar - 2
Dinner:
Black Bean & Chipotle veggie burgers - 2
Salad - 0
Olive oil (2 tsp.) & balsamic vinegar dressing - 2
WW Giant Latte ice cream bar - 1
Snack:
2 cups skim milk - 3.5
Baker’s Double Chocolate Chunk cookie - 6
Total Points: 29.5
Exercise: 27 mins stationary bike - 5 miles (2 AP)
Weekly Points balance: 31.5
Water: 80 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 50
Also, as in my usual way, I will close with my WW stats from yesterday:
Total Points: 29
Exercise: 2 miles wogging - 3 APs
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 49
Until next time …
Sunday Wog
I got out this morning for a nice wog. It’s AMAZING how much cooler it was today compared to last Sunday when I had the 5k race. Today it was overcast and in the low-60’s. It was perfect weather for wogging.
I FINALLY figured out how to get my Nike+ to work, so I used it for the first time today. The mileage was ever so slightly off. I have a loop around my apartment complex that is 0.26 of a mile and the Nike+ measured it at 0.27. I’m hoping to get it more accurately calibrated sometime this week. Anyway, here is the text version of my data from my wog today, excluding my warm-up and cool-down time/distance. If you want to see the graphical version, you can see it here on the Nike+ website.
Time of Day: 11:20am
Temperature: 62°F
Distance: 2.02 miles
Run Time: 32:24
Avg Pace: 16:02
Calories Burned: 395
I was pretty pleased with how my running segments went today, too. The segments in the first mile were pretty much my normal jogging type pace which, honestly, isn’t a whole lot faster than my walk pace it seems. Today however, I decided I really wanted to finish strong, so I pushed myself in the run segments during the last half mile. I had 3 running segments during that time and each were a sub 11 minute mile pace, with the fastest being a 10:23 pace. OK, so I realize it was only for 1 minute, but it felt really good to be running at a decent pace even if it didn’t last too long. 
Today’s excursion really gave me the confidence boost I needed to believe I’ll be able to meet my goal of actually running the whole portion of the tri later this year.
My 50-day no cheat challenge is also drawing to an end. Today is day 49 for me. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to give myself the day off on Tuesday or if I’ll just keep staying on my eating plan and continuing my streak. I have found myself craving fatty carbs — think french fries 
— the past couple of days, so I may splurge and have some on Tuesday. Even if I do, I could still theoretically fit those into my points budget and continue my streak. We’ll just have to see what Tuesday holds when it gets here and see how I’m feeling then.
Here are my WW stats for yesterday:
Total Points: 33.5 (used 3.5 WP)
Exercise: None
Weekly Points balance: 1.5
Water: 48 oz
Days OP: 48
In closing today, I’ll leave you with a quote I read earlier today that really struck a chord with me. My life has been a series of overcoming “circumstances” which is probably why this really hit home with me. Enjoy!
“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.”
–George Bernard Shaw
Until next time …
Ta-Da! & Lots of Other Stuff
Ok, so I’m a few days late posting this, but I had a needlepoint happy dance earlier this week. I finished this piece on Monday and really like how it turned out. I’m planning to put it into the lid of a wooden box. This means I’ve now completed 4 out of 10 projects for my WIP Killer Challenge. 
The piece is called Dazzle and is by local designer Margaret Bendig. She is in the process of having a website created, so once it goes live, I’ll post a link.
I’ve also been spending some time on my lunch hours this week on my latest diversion. It’s a crossword puzzle I received from Nick. It’s literally titled the “World’s Largest Crossword Puzzle” and contains over 28,000 clues. Thankfully it isn’t in one huge piece. It’s made up of 6 different panels each measuring 2.33 feet by 3.5 feet. I taped the first panel up onto the wall behind my cubicle. It’s become pretty popular with a couple of my office mates as well, so it should be fun to see how long it actually takes us all to finish it.
Warning: What follows in the next section is a bit of a plus size clothing rant. If you aren’t interested in hearing my rant, skip this part.
[rant on]
Why is it that plus size clothing, most especially activewear for exercising, is so fucking expensive?! Yes, I realize that there are more costs in making larger sizes as it requires more fabric, but come on?! It surely can’t cost double, yet that’s what I find myself paying. It just ain’t right, I say!
For example, I have been wanting to get a running skirt. I happened to get a catalog from Champion which listed their Women’s 14″ Performance Skort at $25. Of course, it’s only offered up to a size 16. I need a size 22/24. So, instead I ordered a QuikWik® Power Play Skirt from Junonia which set me back $50. I ordered the skirt, a pair of QuikWik® running capris, and 2 QuikWik® t-shirts. With shipping, it came to nearly $200 for 4 freakin’ items. 
It just seems SOOOOO wrong to spend that much money on workout gear, but there just aren’t many options for those of us over a size 16/18 when it comes to activewear. I guess that should just help inspire me all the more to get rid of the extra pounds, but it just frustrates me more than anything else! 
But, since I need the proper type of wicking clothing for training, I pony up the money they ask. (sigh)
[rant off]
I realized today that I’ve been very remiss in updating my status on my 50 day no cheat challenge with my eating plan. Yes, I’m still on track and going strong. Today is day 46 for me. I can’t believe it’s been nearly a week since I posted my stats! So, in closing, here they are for the past 5 days:
Saturday:
Total Points: 29.5
Exercise: None - rest day prior to tomorrow’s 5k
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 41
Sunday:
Total Points: 36 (used 5 APs and 1 WP)
Exercise: 5k race (54:24) - 5 APs
Weekly Points balance: 34
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 42
Monday:
Total Points: 26
Exercise: Post-race rest day
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 43
Tuesday:
Total Points: 32 (used 2 AP’s)
Exercise: 27 mins stationary bike (2 AP) & 18 mins brisk walking (2 AP)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 80 oz
Days OP: 44
Wednesday:
Total Points: 29.5
Exercise: 27 mins stationary bike (2 AP)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 48 oz
Days OP: 45
Until next time …
Cool new shirts & Weekly Update
I ordered a couple of new tech shirts recently from the Run Athena website. They arrived earlier this week, but I’m just now getting around to posting about them. Here’s a photo:
For those not into the crazy world of endurance sports like marathon running or triathlons, there is a separate category at races for those us who are *ahem* larger than the typical athlete. For women, that category is called the Athena category and is compromised of female participants in excess of 150 pounds. Please don’t even get me started on what a ridiculously low weight that seems to me for an “Athena”. Oh well, at least Athena sounds pretty cool. For men over 200 pounds, their category is called “Clydesdales”. Yeah, Athena sounds much better.
Anyway, back to the shirts. I was really pleased with the quality given they were only $12 + s/h each. The shirt itself is from Bike and they come in size L and XL. I ordered the XL knowing it would probably be a bit before I could actually wear them. Well, I was really surprised when I tried them on to see that it won’t be long at all! They are cut quite generously. It actually fits me already, but it’s tighter than my current comfort level would allow for me to wear in public.
I’m think they’ll be just about right in about 10-15 more pounds. I will wear them proudly! I’m still in the (hopefully) final stages of recovery from the tonsillitis/sinus infection. I still have a bit of congestion, but it’s a lot better than it was last weekend. As a result of still being in recovery, I didn’t get in very much training this week. I got in 4.05 total miles of walking/wogging (walk/jog combo) and 3 miles on the stationary bike.
My wogging miles will definitely increase tomorrow since I’ll be doing the Coaster Run 5k with Darla. I went by and picked up my race packet earlier today, so I’m all ready to go. After the race is over, we’ll be heading over to the LNS for an all day stitch & bitch and potluck, so tomorrow should be a really fun day all around.
This morning was also my weekly Weight Watchers meeting. I went to it hopeful for a bit of a loss, but realized that it might not happen since I’ve been on Prednisone for the past 8 days. I was THRILLED when I stepped on the scale and saw I was down 2.2 pounds this week. It’s the first time I’ve EVER lost weight on Prednisone! So, this now brings my total loss thus far for my 50 day no cheat challenge up to 13.4 pounds.
Today is actually day 41 of my challenge. It’s amazing to realize that I’m already over 80% done with it! Things have been going so well lately and I’m feeling so good where I am on my journey that I may just keep going with it for a while. I don’t know that I’ll extend it out to another specific point, but I figure since I’m not really struggling and wanting to have a cheat day then it only makes sense to stick with it. I have just over 6 months until the Subaru triathlon and I would really like to be about 35 pounds lighter by then, so sticking with my no cheat plan will definitely help with that.
Ok, this is starting to get crazy long, so I’ll finish off for now. As usual, I’ll close with my WW stats for the past 2 days since I didn’t get around to posting yesterday.
Thursday:
Total Points: 28
Exercise: Cycling (1 AP) & Wogging (2 AP) - 3
Weekly Points balance: 34
Water: 88 oz
Days OP: 39
Friday:
Total Points: 29.5
Exercise: Walking - 1 AP
Weekly Points balance: 34
Water: 72 oz
Days OP: 40
Until next time …
30 days down - March recap
WOO HOO! I’ve completed 30 days with no slips, cheats, or tweaks to my diet. I can barely believe it’s been a month already since I started this latest challenge with myself. Things have been going really well and I actually managed to drop 9.6 pounds for the month of March. So, I have 30 days down, and 20 to go to meet my 50 day challenge.
I really want to thank everyone for the kudos for me signing up for the triathlon. I can’t believe just HOW excited I am about this venture. So, I’ve got about 6 weeks to get really comfortable on my bike before my formal training plan kicks in on May 18. It’s a 22-week plan that will take me right to race day.
My walk/running miles for March were much lower than normal because I was taking part in a bike challenge on the tri board where I post. Virtually all of my cycling miles were doing on a stationary bike, but that was allowed for this particular challenge. Here were my final totals (time & distance) for the month of March:
Bike: 6h 30m - 78.9 Mi
Walk/Run: 4h 12m 22s - 15.9 Mi
I’m also taking part in another challenge during the month of April. It’s a multisport challenge, so you had to set a goal for a minimum of 2 sports for the month. I set mine for cycling and running. I’m really hoping to make good strides in my bike riding confidence this month, so hopefully there will be more miles done outdoors and less on the stationary bike during April. Here are my goals:
Bike: 50 miles
Walk/Run: 30 miles
On the stitching front, I haven’t really done any stitching in the past several days. I did get in 4 days of stitching time last week for the Hannah Beeby SAL. I think I made really good progress for round 1. Round 2 will take place on April 20-27. Hopefully I can make as much progress during the next round as I did this time. Here’s a photo of where I ended round 1 (again, pardon the wrinkles):
Well, I guess that’s it for now. I’ll close with my WW stats from the past couple of days.
Monday:
Total Points: 23.5 (skipped usual evening snack for early bed time)
Exercise: 1.3 miles walking (1 AP)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 29
Tuesday:
Total Points: 31
Exercise: None
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 72 oz
Days OP: 30
Until next time …
Siren Song of the Triathlon
OMG! I did it!! I have officially registered for my first triathlon. I’ve wanted to do a triathlon for a long time (since watching the Kona Ironman the first time many years ago). I’ve always put those feelings aside though because 1) I was so overweight, and 2) I didn’t know how to ride a bike. 
After volunteering at the Ironman California 70.2 over the weekend, I can’t push down the desire any longer. So, today I plunked down my money and signed up for the Subaru US Women’s Triathlon Series that will take place in San Diego on October 19, 2008. I signed up for the Super Sprint distance which means I’ll be swimming 375m, then biking 13k, and ending with a 3.35k run. In English measurements, that translates to roughly a quarter mile swim, an 8 mile bike ride, and a 2 mile run. So, I have about 6.5 months to improve my swim, finish learning to ride a bike, and build up my running time/speed. 
I took a few pictures with the phone on my Blackberry while I was volunteering. Rather than posting them all here, if you’re interested, you can check them out at the link below. I’ll take some time later in the week to write more about the experience and all the cool people I met this weekend.
Before I headed down to Oceanside on Friday to volunteer, I went by and weighed in at a WW center since I wouldn’t make my normal Saturday morning meeting. I was down 1 pound last week which puts me at 9.6 pounds gone for the month of March when I recommitted to staying OP and started my 50 Day OP Challenge. It would appear that if one actually stays on program that one can lose weight. Who knew?! 
I’m also thrilled to report that I did indeed manage to stay on the straight and narrow with my OP streak over the weekend. I was a little nervous about it because I wasn’t actually journaling the couple of days I was down there other than in my head. I even managed to fit in a couple of snack size candy treats! I put it all down on paper when I got home Sunday just to make sure I hadn’t calculated wrong, but it was all good. 
So, I’ll close this entry with my stats for Friday, Saturday, and yesterday.
Friday:
Total Points: 29
Exercise:
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 26
Saturday:
Total Points: 32 (used 1 AP)
Exercise: 7896 steps on WW pedometer (1 AP)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 48 oz
Days OP: 27
Sunday:
Total Points: 31
Exercise:
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 28
Until next time …
NCAA Round 1
Nothing really new on the stitching front because I haven’t gotten any done the past couple of days. I’ve just been really tired at night and haven’t felt like concentrating enough to even stitch.
The past couple of days have definitely been a challenge on the WW front, too. I had lunch with a group from work at a local Mexican place on Wednesday. I limited myself to 8 tortilla chips and had a veggie fajita salad with fat-free mango lime vinaigrette. I was thrilled when it arrived to see that the veggies were raw and not grilled. So, I ended up making a really great choice.
Yesterday was the next challenge. My department decided to have a spring potluck lunch. Everything looked sooooo good … especially the cheesecake my boss brought. I was a good girl though and didn’t have any of it. I looked over everything and decided which would be the best choices points-wise. I filled half of my plate with green salad and then took just a couple of bites of the things that I decided were the best choices. By my calculations, I had 17 points for lunch, but by reigning things in at my other meals for the day, I stayed within my daily points target and didn’t even have to dip into my activity points or weekly points allowance.
So, as of yesterday, I’ve completed 18 days of my 50 day no cheats, no slips challenge. I have to admit that I’m amazed it’s been that long already. I doesn’t really seem like that it’s been nearly 3 weeks since I started this. Hopefully the scale will show me a nice number tomorrow at my WW meeting.
Total Points: 31
Exercise: 20 mins walking & 40 mins stationary bike - 4 APs
Weekly Points balance: 26
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 18
Until next time …
Day with the Classics
Let me start off by saying, “WOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!” The Tennessee men won their game against South Carolina yesterday which earned the team their first SEC conference championship since 1967. Now it’s off to the SEC tournament. Our next game will be on Friday against the winner of the LSU/South Carolina game taking place on Thursday. After the SEC tourney ends (championship game is March 16), it’s on to the NCAA tournament, a.k.a. March Madness. We should be going into the NCAA tourney as a number 1 seed, so I’m VERY excited! 
I also want to give a big shout out to the Lady Vols, too. Yesterday they won their 13th SEC Championship at the women’s tournament in Nashville. As usual, the Lady Vols are rockin’ it! They finished their season at 30-2 and are going into the women’s NCAA tourney as a #1 seed. Anyway you look at it, it’s been a gooooooood year for Tennessee basketball.
In other news, it seems I have some sort of technical issue with my satellite receiver/DVR. Unfortunately, for some reason, the sound isn’t working on the connection to the living room TV. It works fine on the connection to my bedroom, and the sound on the LR set is fine if I watch over-the-air broadcast TV or watch a DVD. So, I’m guessing it must be the audio output on connection 1 from the satellite box. I need to call Dish and have them either send someone out to check it or send me a new DVR.
So, since I couldn’t watch TV or stuff off my DVR yesterday, I decided to catch up on some DVDs. I ended up spending the afternoon with the classics. I think it was partially prompted from the book list meme I did a few days ago. First I watched Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1996 version with William Hurt as Rochester). Next, I watched Jane Austen’s Emma (1996 version with Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role). I still have a few other DVD’s of Jane Austen works, so I may very well continue with this trend and keep watching them.
While I was watching the movies, I did work a bit on my Broom Hilda’s Hat counted canvas. I haven’t taken an updated picture yet, but will try to get one uploaded in the next few days. I’m really enjoying this piece as a TV project because there is lots of repetition in the stitching which means I don’t have to look at the chart much. Also, since I’m stitching it with Mandarin Floss, it requires very little laying which is a good thing when it comes to canvas work. This is also one of my projects on my WIP Killer Challenge list.
Dana - Yes, Netflix DID have the first 2 seasons of Lovejoy available. I’ve already added them to my queue and can’t wait to see them again!
I’m still plugging away on my 50 day OP challenge. Yesterday was day 7 and it went really well. Here are my stats for yesterday:
Total Points: 31.5
Exercise: 40 mins stationary bike & 38 mins walking - 6 APs
WPA balance: 35
Water: 48 oz
I really need to work on the water intake today. While 48 oz does meet the recommended minimum for Weight Watchers, I would ideally prefer to have a minimum of 64 oz per day. My actual goal is 80 oz per day, but as long as I reach my minimum, I’m OK with that.
Hope everyone has a great Monday! Catch ya’ tomorrow. 
Go Vols!
Saturday was my weekly Weight Watchers meeting. During the month of February, I had gotten WAAAAY off track and ended up putting on quite a bit of weight, especially in the last 2 weeks. So, I dusted myself on March 1 and recommitted myself to my plan. Well, it definitely paid off! When I weighed in at my meeting, I was down 6.8 pounds this week. I was THRILLED! Of course, this now motivates me all the more to keep myself on track.
I haven’t blogged about it yet, but I also set a goal for myself when I recommitted of going 50 consecutive days with no cheats or slips. My goal is to follow the WW plan AS WRITTEN without any of my “Melissa tweaks”. This means sticking with my daily points target, but it’s still OK to use my 35 extra weekly points or any earned activity points since that’s how the program is written. So far, so good. Today will be day 7 for me, so I’m closing in on already being 20% of the way complete. I’ll try to remember and get in the habit of posting my total from the previous day here in my blog. Here are Saturday’s numbers:
Total Points: 33 (used 2 AP’s)
Exercise: 30 mins VERY slow bike riding - 2 APs (still learning how to ride)
WPA balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 6
Another goal I have for myself for the upcoming week is to get back into a better routine with my exercise, too. I have two 5k races coming up back-to-back in 4 & 5 weeks respectively. I really need to step things up in order to be properly prepared. I would really like to beat my 5k time from the event I did in early February, so that’s all the more reason to step things up over the next couple of weeks, too! Here’s my schedule for the end of March & early April for races:
March 29 - Volunteer at the Ford Ironman California event in Oceanside, CA
April 6 - Compete in the Carlsbad 5000 event in Carlsbad, CA
April 13 - Compete in the Knott’s Berry Farm Coaster Run 5k in Buena Park, CA
I’m also considering a couple of other races in the next couple of months as well. I’m not actually registered for them yet, but they are definitely a strong possibility for me:
June 14 - Compete in the Downtown Anaheim 5k in my hometown of Anaheim, CA
June 22 - Compete in the Iron Girl Del Mar 10k in Del Mar, CA
Yes, I realize I have a VERY bad habit of looking at races in back-to-back weekends. I’m not sure why that is, but it just seems to happen. Of course, if I’m training properly for the 10k event on June 22, finishing a 5k the weekend before shouldn’t be a problem. You can always find the links for any events in which I plan to compete in the Countdown Timers section in the right-hand column of my blog over there. –>
Speaking of the columns in my blog, a friend of mine stumbled upon a cool feature of my blog theme that I hadn’t even realized. If you click on the green dot in the right-hand corner of any of the boxes in either column, it will collapse it so that it takes up less room on the screen. So, if you have no interest in my upcoming races, you could collapse the Countdown Timers section by clicking on the green button for it.
Another cool thing is that you can drag and drop all of the column boxes around and put them in the order you would like them to appear. Simply click on the title bar for the box you want to move and drag it anywhere else in that column. Please note that you cannot move things from one column to the other. You can only rearrange items within the same column.
Your system will set a cookie for how you have arranged them, so each time you visit my blog, it will remember how you want it to be displayed. If you access my blog from multiple computers, you would need to arrange it initially on each one as the cookie is stored on your local computer and not on my server.
In close, today is the final game for the Tennessee men’s basketball team before heading into March Madness. It’s very likely we’ll go in as a #1 seed, so I’m hoping for the guys that perhaps they’ll win their first ever NCAA championship! 
Unfortunately, the game isn’t being televised out here in California, so I’ll have to either track it online or go out and sit in my car to listen to it on my XM radio. Don’t think for a second that I’m not strongly considering the latter option either.
