To Independence Day... And Beyond! July 2022 Exercise Challenge

[Elizabeth Smith]

Welcome to the July 2022 exercise thread. This month, we're looking at Disney Americana. Walt Disney was all about the American dream and this month, we'll celebrate his version of it as it appears in the Disney Parks and movies (even if, like me, you're not always the most patriotic person).

How it works: Each person chooses a time goal and posts minutes towards that goal as they exercise. The host (me) will keep track here on the front page and will announce color changes as they occur. You can post daily or just catch up when you can. You decide what movement counts towards your goal - which can be a nice round total for the month, a specific number that means something to you, or a calculation based on a target number of minutes per day.

Common goals for our 31 days of July:

15 minutes/day = 465
20 minutes/day = 620
30 minutes/day = 930
45 minutes/day = 1395
1 hour/day = 1860

One of the special motivations of our Disney challenge is color changing!
10% Stars and Stripes White
25% Amber Waves of Grain
50% Great Plains Green
75% Sea to Shining Sea Blue
90% Purple Mountains Majesty
100% Rocket's Red Glare

Our challenge officially starts July 1st, but feel free to jump in at any point! Just post a goal and I'll add you to the list. You can PM me with questions or check out old threads to learn how we do things around here.

Participants:
Elizabeth Smith 800/800
piglet1979 1122/930
PollyannaMom 605/600
Bethislucy 730/1400
Raya 499/650
sophy1996 1405/1400
Twilight Sparkle 1760/1500
Oneanne 510/465

Team 7431/7745

 

[piglet1979]

I am in for 30 minutes a day. So 930 minutes.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Love the theme, and I'm in for my usual 600 minutes. (I'm away for a couple of days right now, though, so I may get a late start.)

 

[Bethislucy]

Fun Theme. I'm going to aim for 1400 this month.

 

[Raya]

Ohhh interesting colors! I'm in for a bit of stretch goal - 650. I made 600 by the skin of my teeth last month, this month I want to see if I can do just a little bit more. Nothing to post about yet though!

Question for y'all: I'm 90 days away from my trip home and trying to think of a 90 day challenge to make the time go faster. I want it to be something related to health, but not something impossible like work out for 90 minutes every day for 90 days. Any ideas? I'm already running every other day - and loving it, if that helps.

 

[sophy1996]

In for 1400 again this month. Started with 90 as I spent the morning at the food bank packing beverages.

90/1400

Raya, could you do a challenge that would be some gradually increasing exercise? Like 3 sit-ups or jumping jacks or burpees or whatever each day of a week, then 4 each day the next week, and so on.

 

[Raya]

54 minutes. Dramatic story - I had a good run, finished strong but looked down and saw blood smeared around my knee. After a minor freak out, I skipped my stretch to find a tiny little scratch that probably happened during the first 10 minutes. I never even felt it. But oh the shock! I ended up putting the smallest little dot band-aid in the box over it post run. It's amazing how I much I zone out when I'm running.

54/650 - 8%

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

Welcome to July! Yesterday was our final day of VBS, so I was busy doing crafts with children, then tearing down decorations. I also had to take the dog to a vet's appointment (dental work ). But I did manage to squeeze in a 25 minute walk at the park, lol.

Tonight I'm at our town's 4th of July celebration on the square! I've been looking forward to this all week, and not just because I was excited for VBS to be over.

To kick off the month, I wanted to talk about the American city that inspired Walt's Main St. U.S.A., Marceline, MO.

Walt Disney lived in Marceline from the ages of 5-10, but he would go back and visit periodically through his life. He was quoted as saying, "More things of importance happened to me in Marceline than have happened since or are likely to in the future."

In Marceline, you can find the Walt Disney Hometown Museum, which features four thousand artifacts donated by the Disney family. And the museum is only a three minute walk from the original Main St. U.S.A.

It's not currently available, but there is a three hour walking tour called Walt Disney: Marceline to Magic Kingdom Tour which explores key moments in Walt's life which inspired elements of the parks. I hope they bring it back. It's advertised as being a lighter version of the Keys to the Kingdom tour. Have any of you ever taken the tour?

To me, Main St. U.S.A is classic Americana, an idealized version of a real American town! If any of you have pictures of Main St, feel free to share! I'm posting from my phone right now, so unfortunately I can't upload one of my recent Disneyland pics.

 

[sophy1996]

+60

150/1400

Marceline isn't the only inspiration for Main Street USA, but I don't want to spoil any future posts . . .

 

[sophy1996]

Here I am on DLR Main Street for last year’s return of Halloweentime.

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

Marceline isn't the only inspiration for Main Street USA, but I don't want to spoil any future posts . . .

Yup! I wasn't actually going to make a post about it, since it was another imagineer Harper Goff's hometown, but Ft. Collins, CO also served as inspiration for Main Street, USA. Here's an article that points out some of the similarities.

Since tomorrow (or Today, depending on your time zone--I'm posting late) is the 4th of July, I thought I would share Epcot's new patriotic lighting display. The ambient lighting design debuted on July 1st and will continue through the 4th.

 

[sophy1996]

Yup! I wasn't actually going to make a post about it, since it was another imagineer Harper Goff's hometown, but Ft. Collins, CO also served as inspiration for Main Street, USA. Here's an article that points out some of the similarities.

Fort Collins is an easy drive for us and we have relatives there. Old Town is quite nice. It’s fun to think of it influencing Disneyland!

+50

200/1400

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

I'm late but count me in. Dropping my goal since it looks like the temps are going to remain flaming hot furnace-like indefinitely. Going for 1500 this month. Probably going to do the bare minimum with the horses until things cool down.

185 so far - horses, obe cardio boxing, obe yoga

185/1500

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

Had a busier 4th of July than I was originally anticipating! There was a Stranger Things store experience in the Grapevine mall that my husband got us tickets for this morning, so we went there and checked out the merch/displays, then walked around the rest of the mall. (I'm granting myself 20 minutes of walking for that today). Then we got lunch in the Korean market. While we were out, we were invited to some friends' last minute get-together, so we got some cake ingredients and got baking as soon as we got home. All in all, it was a very fun 4th!

Also, congrats to Twilight Sparkle and sophy1996 for reaching Stars and Stripes White!

Tonight, I'll be simple and share this year's 4th of July firework display in Magic Kingdom.

 

[Raya]

I've done Marceline to Main Street! It was one of my favorite tours (beaten only by the VIP tour). There's a lot of great general Walt info - like I had never heard that the idea of Disney started when he was a boy and couldn't afford to visit the electrified garden, basically a garden area with lots of lights. He would peak through the fence and day dream about a time when he'd be able to go to the garden whenever he wanted. Also, that tour (for us) was very heavy on Haunted Mansion which is my first and best love at any Disney park so a perfect tour for me!

58 minutes on Monday. I wasn't really feeling the holiday due to recent events, but the run was really good. I've switched the incline on my treadmill to be a bit higher. It was great at the time, but I think it makes stretching or yoga on the days I'm not running mandatory.

112/650 - 17% (in case you can't read the white version)
112/650 - 17%

 

[Bethislucy]

47/1400
I did some time in the pool but i have no idea how long so I'm just not going to count it.

 

[Oneanne]

I'm new and a bit late. I participate in another Healthy Living thread (hi @PollyannaMom and @piglet1979), and thought adding this one would help to get me moving more.

I'll start with a 465 goal for July
So far a whopping 45 minutes.

The only Main Street photo I could find is this holiday one. I've done Keys to the Kingdom, but not the Marceline tour.

 

[Bethislucy]

Adding 95 for yesterday 142/1400

 

[Raya]

51 minutes to add. Is anyone going to attend DisCon? It's a convention the boards are putting on at WDW in October. I just got tickets to the private After Hours party they're doing at EPCOT. Was curious to know if I might have a chance to meet any of you IRL.

163/650 - 25% Excited to make it to Amber!

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

I finally did some real exercise yesterday with a 60 minute Grow with Jo video and today I got 60 minutes of indoor walking and stationary bike action. That finally puts me at Stars and Stripes White! BethisLucy is also! Yay! Congrats also to Raya who achieved White and is now already Amber Waves of Grain.

I'm new and a bit late. I participate in another Healthy Living thread (hi @PollyannaMom and @piglet1979), and thought adding this one would help to get me moving more.

I'll start with a 465 goal for July
So far a whopping 45 minutes.

Thanks for joining us and thank you for sharing your Main St. pic!

Today I want to talk about Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, a stage show featuring an audio animatronic of Abraham Lincoln which has been running at Disneyland since 1965. The show started as the main showpiece of the State of Illinois Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's fair.

Originally, Walt wanted to create a tribute to all of the US's Presidents and include this show in a proposed extension of Main St. USA. However, the technology of the 1950s would not allow for something of such a great scale, so the imagineers instead decided to focus on Walt's boyhood hero, Abraham Lincoln. This audio animatronic show at the World's Fair featured a short film about Illinois at the beginning. The next year, a duplicate version of the show was introduced in Disneyland.

In 1973, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was replaced with a show about Walt Disney, which was seen as a tacky move, so they made a hybrid show in 1975 that featured both Walt and Lincoln. Several minor changes were made over the years and more major changes in the early to late 00s.

I got to experience this attraction on our recent Disneyland trip. The audio animatronic is still pretty impressive, even after all these years!


I also can now share the photo I snapped on Main St. USA in Disneyland during my trip!