love2write11

kevralyn, You have been extremely helpful on my thread and it looks as if you are quite successful in your pursuit of challenges. I must say, you are a fantastic writer! It was a joy to read your posts! Your goals look pretty straightforward, though I am not sure what NLP means. I hope you feel better soon and thanks again.

Oh! What I wouldn't give to call the UK my home! I spent a week in Cardiff and two renting a flat in London and I loved every second of being there. While I was there I met some of the most wonderful people and had such a great time experiencing the culture. My husband is probably getting tired of me pulling job listings for him! lol We also live about an hour from the nearest British Imports Shop, which is where I get some of my food and tea. ....but, alas, I am across the pond in the US midwest....quite possibly the most boring and uncultured place on Earth. It seems that in the US you either find a job in your field or spend your time working retail or fast food. Since we have such a high unemployment rate here, tons of working potential exists, however, most of these unemployed lack education. The jobs that are available require a higher skill level and an advanced degree. Alternatively, when an applicant is qualified for a job the company ends up not hiring them because they lack the funds necessary to pay another salary. It's a really big mess that our graduates are stepping into, no matter their field of study. Degrees in humanities or communications seem to be more in demand. That gives me a career to add to my research list. Thanks! I actually hadn't thought about it that way. It would be much more difficult to get an English degree and become a programmer or the like. Dream job? No idea.... Thank you, I will check out that link! Useful? You ROCK! This is the most conversation I have had with anyone about this huge life decision and I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. Like I said before, I get this strange little thrill, every time my program executes correctly, so much so that I do a little mini victory dance in my head. <that is weird and I know it> All the best to you as well! Thanks again! Cheers.

I have been guest teaching about 3 class periods per semester. My mentor is awesome and he has allwowed me to come and teach in his class. I have also been judging his in class debates for a couple of years now. It's great fun when I get to come in and I have heard from students that they would gladly take any of my classes. That was a big boost in confidence for me. I have looked into adding CS as my minor but I would still have to take the math classes. So if I still have to take the math classes, why not just go for the major? That is wicked cool! I have a friend that would enjoy that as well. Thank you so much for responding to my posts, I'm blown away at the level of support I am finding on Nerd Fitness. A bit of my faith in humanity has been restored.

These goals look great! Be sure to check out the mini challgenge pinned at the top of the board! Good luck!

When you go all or nothing on something, like cutting out soda completely, you tend to crave it a bit more. At least that happens to me. Perhaps have a plan to cut down your consumption in the first week and ween off in the second. That has been working for me so far and the caffiene withdrawal headaches have been minimal. I highly suggest pre prepping lunch. That has always been the meal that makes me head to the drive thru. Since I have started making my lunch ahead of time I haven't eaten out at all. I wish you luck with the challenge!

Great idea allowing yourself a day "off"! So many people jump in too fast and end up not sticking to a plan because of deprivation. That happened to me and paleo as well. I have this same problem but I will probably address it with the next challenge. Since my schedule depends on my family, it is difficult to have a regular bedtime. When I was single and in college I used to set an alarm for 9:00 PM and be in bed by 9:30. I would not adjust your bedtime by more than :30 minutes at a time per week. If you normally go to bed at midnight, try 11:30 for the first week, 11:00 for week two...etc. Your body will have a much easier time adjusting. Teach him how to play D&D and invite him along? Have a few activities in mind for you both to do. Something that gets you both out and active is a bonus! Good luck on your challenge!

That is the hard part for me. I can envision my a fair amount of my future details but when it comes to a career, I just don't know. What I do know about about myself is that I am not a leader and have vitrually no skills that would lend themselves well to management. What I do know is when it comes to employment I have no problem pulling my weight, am a great public speaker, and usually come up with creative soultions to problems. I just have no idea where those skills would be put to the best use. The English degree would certainly allow me to enter a variety of fields based on the communication skills that course of study provides and because CS/Programming is a concentrated field with a specific skill set, the positions would be more limited. Fortunately salary is not a huge concern for me, it just needs to pay the student loan debt....which is INSANE! Thank you so much for responding, I really appreciate it! Good luck in the challenge!

Truthfully I am having a little trouble with soda. Laying off the iced coffee has been pretty easy. I had one yesterday and one today. Maybe I will try to step down to half a serving for the rest of the week. You know, like weening off. This is going to be a struggle! Everything else is going well, of course it's only two days in.

Hey team! This is my first challenge so I'm not sure how all of this works yet. I noticed a couple of other groups posting links to each others threads and I thought it was a good idea. All the information in one place. If you would like me to remove your link please let me know and I will take it down. As the team grows I will add everyones pages. love2write11 candi I wish the entire team the best of luck in this and future challenges!

Yes! Fruit absolutely does help with sugar cravings. When I crave gummy bears I eat grapes, that seems to do the trick. I am very much a right brained type of person so creative outlets are my strong suit. That is why I struggle so much with math. I breezed through college algebra but fell short as soon as I hit pre calculus. These next six weeks are going to take a lot of time and thought in this goal area! I tried going vegetarian for about six months but got kind of bored with the food I was eating so I reverted back to the typical American diet, my body hated me for that! Thank you and good luck to you too!

Thanks for coming to find me, I really appreciate the feedback! I do love tea! I am an earl grey drinker (in my Captain Picard mug!), a ginger tea drinker, and a youthberry tea drinker (from Teavana). I also do really hate water and I am drinking so much of it, its really not fun to have to pee every 20 minutes..lol. WOW, a doctorate! Congrats, that will be an awesome achievement! I also much prefer technical writing and studies in rhetoric, but I just can't leave programming behind. What classes do you teach? My education is also at a very slow pace since I homeschool my daughter. It is time consuming to prepare curriculum and activities! I know I can complete college it's just taking a ridiculous amount of time. Yes, the goal of "losing weight" is too vague. I also refuse to put a number on weight loss. I will be happy when I feel better overall (less tired) and have more energy. Thank you and to you as well! Cheers.

RRS, Your goals sound pretty ambitious! Since you state you have little to no background in fitness I would suggest re-examining your exercise goal. You should ease into working out. Going all out for 45 minutes to an hour is a lot for a newbie and may result in injury. Remember you have 6 weeks to work toward the goal so plan attainable steps to reach this goal. Perhaps starting off with 15 minutes the first week and working your way up would help you avoid injury. Same for the push-ups goal. I'd start with the NF Beginner Body Weight Workout and work from there, 50 seems like a lot but I guess it depends on how many you can already do now. I can definitely appreciate the GPA goal, I am a student as well! Good Luck! Cheers.

ErisDiscordia, you have some great goals here! To be more specific I would encourage you to define what "bad food" is to you, I believe clarification will allow you to have an easier time with this particular goal. I would also suggest more specifics in regards to exercise, also allowing yourself at least one rest day. For example, you could plan to exercise 5 days per week, so you would make 5 different exercise routines and choose one each day to accomplish while meeting a specific time or calorie burn goal. My bestie is also cutting back on smoking, she is on her way to quitting, and while it is tough the reward of better health is worth it. Cheers.

Hey Stellalihr! Your goals look great. I'd like to share what works well for my family. We have two checking accounts. One is for bills and the other is just a general account (where the check gets deposited). For each bill, I take the total per month and divide it by 4. After I have done that I take each total and add it together equalling what we spend weekly on bills. So 1/4 of the total bill amount gets automatically deposited into the account weekly and the money is always there in the account to pay the bills no matter what time of the month they hit. Everything also comes out of the bill account on auto payment and I review these numbers quarterly. The remaining money (after paying bills) is allocated to food, fuel, and extras allowance. The money for fuel remains in the general checking account while the money for food and extras gets withdrawn as cash. Once it's gone, it's gone. This system has worked for us for as long as we have been together (10 years). Before that I racked up about 30,000 in credit card debt and worked three jobs for four years to pay it off....this is why we don't use our credit card for anything other than emergencies. I hope this helps you. Cheers.

I am so lucky that I found Nerd Fitness! Finally I have a resource that I can understand and stick with! Okay, stats.... Age: 29 Height: 64" Starting Weight: 228 Current Weight: 226 (-2lbs so far) *It's been a week* Goal #1: Eliminate soda and iced coffee (sugary drinks) from my diet. (CON +1) The past week I have started to eliminate those sugary drinks, I'm down to one per day. It is difficult because I have spent years drinking iced coffee in the morning and soda for lunch and dinner. I will replace these drinks with more water which over the past week I have been drinking A LOT of. I used to only drink something with meals and nothing in between so drinking water has been an adjustment. I am going to eliminate the one per day sugary drink as well as multiple refills of soda when I eat out. All water all the time! Grading System: A (No soda or iced coffee) B (Half a serving per day) C (One serving per day) D (>1 serving per day) F (>3 servings per day) Goal #2: Finally decide on a major! <To level up in a big way!> (WIS +3) I desperately need a deadline for this. I love to learn and am interested in tons of topics so narrowing my choice to a field of study has been difficult. Since I am just about to achieve junior status (as far as credits are concerned) its time to make a decision. So far, I have changed my major (officially) twelve times. My initial major was Computer Science, which I love, but had to abandon it because I just do not have the math skills necessary to obtain a bachelors degree. I just don't have a mathematical brain. To date, the best and happiest I have ever been occured on the very first day of C++ lab when I successfully executed my first program. I even cried because I was so proud. Something so simple made me ridiculously happy....but then there's the math thing. Since then, about three years ago now I took an upper level English Composition course. The professor pulled me aside after we handed in our first essay and told me that he thought I had real talent. He has been my mentor ever since and believes I would make an excellent teacher (post-secondary). Ever heard the quote "I hate writing, I love having written"? Well, thats me in a nutshell. I spent an entire year surrounded by a pile of crumpled papers drowned in tears to break out of the conventional writing method I had been taught since childhood. So, you see, I have a very heavy decision to make. My family is tired of hearing about this struggle that I have been going through so I am hoping to use this forum, if anyone is willing to listen, to work this out. I know ultimately it is my decision because it is my life but talking it out helps, as you have just read. So, my dilemma: go for an AAS in Computer Science (to avoid the math) or BA+MA in English? I plan to research, list pros and cons, and possibly job shadow. To be continued..... Grading System: A (complete one research activity per major considered) F (no research or consideration) Goal #3: Consistantly consume 1800-2000 calories per day. (CON +2) I have been trying to lose weight for YEARS. I believe my biggest obstacle in weight loss so far is that I was not feeding my body properly. When I would get into the "diet" mode, I would restrict to 1200 calories. I was always hungry, tired and irritated. For one such 6 month period I lost a measly 5lbs with that method. 5lbs was not worth feeling sick all the time. I have been reading, on sites like NF that losing weight can be as simple as providing your body with the appropriate fuel. So, using my tracker, I will ensure that I reach the 1800-2000 calorie goal which I have been working toward over the past week. I also plan to stock my fridge with nutritious meals and snacks which I have preportioned. In order to help with this goal I will be tracking all of my food intake in My Fitness Pal. Grading System: A (1800-2000) B (1600-1800) C (1400-1600) D (1200-1400) F (<1200), Average weekly grade after six weeks for achievement. Goal #4: Spend thirty minutes, two times per week, using my elliptical. (STA +2) My approach to fitness has always been cardio, cardio, cardio. At my fittest I was a runner (5K,10K) but with winter and weight gain I haven't gotten outside to exercise. I would like to run again but my cardiovascular fitness has taken a huge hit due to inactivity. In the past two weeks I have worked my way up to a continuous fifteen minutes, twice per week, on the elliptical. In 6 weeks I'd like to double that time to improve my cardiovascular health. Grading System: A (30M2W) B (25M2W) C (20M2W) D (<20M2W) F (<20M<2W), Average weekly grade after six weeks for achievement.