Shivani

Thanks guys So, progress update: Uni is finished for the year. No more coursework to worry about, wheeee. I did all my workouts this week. I've started working out before but never managed to stick to a schedule, so I'm pretty proud of this. I've managed to get up before 12 every day this week, for a total of 22 points. Whoop whoop! I seem to be going to bed earlier without even noticing it as well - when I woke up today I started calculating how much sleep I got and had a moment of confusion: "Did I really go to bed at 12?" Goal for next week is to keep this up, and have at least one pre-8am wakeup.Spreadsheets are awesome. How did I not know this?!Haven't really made much progress on my projects. Technically I counted my coursework as a project and spent a lot of time in uni doing stuff related to that, but I didn't really spend any focused time on it. Since the point of that goal is to overcome procrastination/train my ability to focus I don't really feel right including that time here. Might make another spreadsheet to make it easier to track the time I do spend though. (Someone stop me, I'm addicted!)I ate smoked salmon yesterday, after having been a vegetarian for a year. Not quite sure what to think of that yet. Logically it seems like paleo is the healthier diet, but I have a lot of concerns about factory farming/mass produced meat. For the moment I'm compromising by only eating ethically sourced meat (pastured, welfare standard branded etc). Either way I don't think I'll be eating as much as I did before I went vegetarian.

Gluttony gets us all sometimes Are you sure you're getting a sustainable amount of calories? I know when I haven't eaten enough I get: EAT ALL THE NUTELLA. ALL OF IT. from my brain. You're making amazing progress with the spiders! My reaction is still this: I went to google to find more cute spiders for you, but they lie. Some of those spiders ARE NOT CUTE ;____; -consoles self with your adorable kitties-

Love it Eating well is hard when you're away from home, but you seem to have done as well as you could in the circumstances. Go you!

I think everything short of methylmercury is better than wheat, but I'm biased Wheat and I are feuding, although evidence suggests it has it in for all of us. http://www.rodale.com/wheat-free-diet That blog post is consoling, though. Yay non-evil rice!

Vegan -> Paleo? Wow, that's quite the switch. I'm glad it's working well for her though. Ouch, that sounds really nasty, not a bit of wonder you were fed up with it. Rice is so hard to cut out, I totally understand your difficulty here! I'm not Asian myself, but I'm gluten intolerant, so I live on the stuff. I tried raw veganism once, but the cravings for rice were absolutely unbearable. I caved after about three days I think. It does seem very hard to find good quality meat - especially if you're avoiding factory-farmed meat. Your plan of action seems sensible here - and I wouldn't worry about the "non-paleo" stuff as long as it isn't junk food or grains like wheat. Better to start off with a diet you're comfortable with and enjoy and then tweak it for extra healthiness than put yourself off by trying to force it too soon. I'll definitely check out her book - that's something I struggle with for sure. Eating 200g+ of rice a day is probably not that good for me... Both interesting AND helpful, thank you

Wow, you've done great today I'm super super impressed by the pushups - well done you!

Thanks! I'm being helped by the fact that there's a lot of end of term stuff on at uni that requires us to be in at 9am, so I really can't afford to lie in for too long. I think next week will be the true test, since summer officially starts for me then. *dance* I've got some setup done for the projects (baby steps, baby steps), and done my workout - had a few issues with pushups and dumbells (stopped pushups halfway through because my form was wrong and I was starting to hurt in weird ways, and I've decided to remove dumbbells since I don't have any proper ones, just a heavy textbook that keeps falling out of my hands - not sure it's doing the job properly), but overall I'm happy. I knew today was going to be hard, but I've kept it more or less even with last time or improved, and when I was doing my stretches I managed to touch the floor for the first time :D Oh wow, I've never even heard of half of those! *scribbles them on the summer watching list* The two anime I watched religiously were Air and Naruto, for a lot of the others I preferred the manga versions - so things like Bleach, One Piece, Ouran High School Host Club, Full Metal Alchemist, Fruits Basket, Fairy Tail etc. Too restless to sit down for half an hour to watch something {/attention span fail} Have to agree though, Naruto has something special about it. Just love that little blond goofball - even if he does make me crave ramen every time I watch it. Have you ever watched Baccano or Code Geass? My brother raves about them, so they could be worth a watch if you're ever in need of new anime. If only we needed less sleep... Alas, it does not do to dwell on anime and forget to live! Hobbies are good too

Hi flowerpower, great goals there! I'm a vegetarian considered adding meat back into my diet, so I'll be very interested to see how you find this. If you don't mind me asking, what made you decide to change to paleo? Good luck, you can do it

Sorry for no update yesterday, was on the run all day. Got up at 10 (+2 points) - had intended to get up earlier, but some of my hallmates decided that 2am was the perfect time to start a really loud party, so I didn't get to sleep until after three. I don't do well healthwise when I don't get enough sleep, so I decided to take a slightly safer option there. Today was even worse sleepwise - after having gone to bed at 5:30am (a standard pub visit with my friends somehow ended up taking us to a gay bar, and then when I got home I remembered I had a report due in by 10am - whoops! Frantic last minute writing there. Great night though ) I got up again at 9(+4) for a lecture. Ouch. Hopefully I'll manage to go to bed at a reasonable time tonight! Total points for Goal #3 - 10 Haven't done my workout for today yet, and I've been neglecting #4, so the plan is to do an hour or two of work on my projects now, then do the workout, then reward myself with food and shower. (Am I the only one who loves these smilies a ridiculous amount? They're so fun! ) Thanks guys! Good luck to you also It does seem to be! At least, it's making the "falling asleep" bit a lot easier, when I actually manage to get to bed. Thanks I'm a Computer Scientist, I can't help it - spreadsheets are in our blood! xD Being able to watch anime sans subtitles would be absolutely amazing. From what I know of the language, it's fairly regular (not like crazy old English!) which makes it easier, but then you have all the different levels of formality to deal with ... What sort of anime are you into? I remember being traumatised by Air when I was younger. It's so sad ;____;

Thank you, this is very helpful! I'm always terrified I'm not doing proper form exercises, since I have no-one to check (or video me to check).

When I was at school, I often woke up just before my Dad came to wake me as he left for work, but it wasn't consistent. If I'd stayed up particularly late the night before, or I wasn't feeling well, I slept through until he knocked on the door. So it can happen, but I'd recommend keeping the alarm anyway, just in case.

Getting up early is difficult, and that's an improvement for sure. It doesn't need to hit the target right away, just go in the right direction. Good going

Great goals wassermelon You can totally make these! For your #4, I speak B1-B2 level German and will be working in Germany in July & August, so if you want anyone to practice with/cheer for you I'd be more than happy (especially since I'm going to need to rapidly improve this month!), or if you just want me to track down a native and ask questions for you that would be grand as well

Yay, levelling Good advice, will give it a go. Thank you!

Yeah, definitely *pom poms* I think tomorrow & wednesday will be the really hard days for this though, if I can get past those I think my body will start adjusting better. Of course, go ahead I haven't tried that, I don't have a huge amount of space in my room, but I might be able to rearrange things and give it a try. Thank you

Those aren't legs, they're snowy pine trees. Totally benign

Thanks haha, I love that we have our own mini-rebellion against group sizes going on. I can be found here (Health Warning: Beware morning induced grumbling)

Hopefully they get the AC fixed soon, that sounds dreadful! *can't cope with heat* Good on you for sticking to your routine anyway

Off to a good start! Woke up at 8:30 after going to bed at 2, but had problems actually getting up. Got up at 9 instead (still a four hour improvement on my average wakeup time ) Did today's workout as well - may have pushed myself a little too hard (or not eaten enough beforehand) because I felt a little sick afterwards, but I got through it. Goal for wednesday is to maintain today's level rather than improve on it I think.

I'm the same - stopped a few years back (with a brief return to procrastinate on revising for my A-levels) and now I wouldn't even know what to do if I went back. It's so different these days - prettier, though! Haha, yeah, I may have been a little too enthusiastic with the goals - I think I may end up relying on the accountability thing for weeks 2-4. It's nice to have a community that doesn't look at you like you're crazy for wanting to work out though. Just gotta keep the momentum up. And of course you can use the spreadsheet Aahhh, someone else who follows Benny I love that guy! Definitely prime inspiration for my polyglot goal. I tried Duolingo a while back, but I wasn't really impressed with the accuracy - to be fair to it, though, that was just after it was released, and they may have tuned up the algorithms by now. Have you ever tried Rhinospike or Forvo? If you have a teacher they might be less useful, but they're pretty handy for checking how something is pronounced.

Welcome, Dorothy & Lt_Laurel *waves then runs off to subscribe* I went ahead and added us to the Cross-Guild sheet (hope no-one minds) - set it to green in honour of Lee's spandex, but we can change that if you like Edit: kawatan, you ninja'd me! xD

I only have squirrels and pigeons, I'm afraid, but you're welcome to take as many as you'd like. They could make useful scouts?

I love your theme - so much nostalgia, and such a great idea! Good old Runescape Do you still play? I'm also a Computer Science student doing bodyweight exercises (and studying Italian next year), so I'll be cheering you on Buona fortuna!

Hi all! I'm Shivani, a 19 year old Computer Science student and fitness newbie reporting for duty. Nice to meet you all. Same issue with the spreadsheet as a couple of others, but I guess I'll just squat instead and hope you guys don't evict me This is my first challenge, it's all very exciting Good luck to everybody.

Awesome idea I'm in! Lee has such a great work ethic, definitely one of my favourite Naruto characters. *ahem* Hello, my name is Shivani and I'm a fitness newbie. I've had trouble with habit-forming in the past, hopefully this is the time I'll make it! Nice to meet you all