sonilyj

So, we are almost at the end of this Challenge. My goals were: Interval Training every Monday and Friday, Body Weight Exercises every Tuesday and Thursday. Regular Sleep Schedule of 10pm in bed 6am wake up About half way through, I realized I was trying to do too much, and that my exercise plan wasn’t optimised and I needed to change it. (I kinda had an emotional break down which Swampling was kind enough to help me through.) I knew from the beginning that I didn’t really know what I was doing and that I had just kinda randomly chose something. With that in mind, I decided that whether I succeeded or not would be based on whether I kept trying and not how many times I messed up. Although, I was pleasantly surprised at how few I missed. I found that if I changed ‘Interval Exercises’ to ‘1 hour of walking or 20 minutes of running’ and moved that from Monday/Friday, to Saturday/Tuesday, (Which just kinda happened on its own due to constant rescheduling) and changed the body weight exercise days to Monday/Thursday everything just fit better. I guess we’ll see how well I keep to this after I go home. I will probably have to change it again, but I am looking forward to doing the arm curls with a milk jug and not with two bricks stuck in a sack. (Milk is sold by the liter here. Not heavy enough!) As to the sleep schedule, I finally got it to where I was able to give away my alarm clock, I was so regular! I haven’t been able to do that since Freshman year! The change I made to that was allowing myself two days a week where I could stay up late and/or sleep in (not always consecutively). With these provisions, I missed only one day of running/walking, two days of body weight exercises, and had two days of poor sleep habits which effected my work negatively the next day. (Both caused by staying up late talking to a person I liked, and getting up early to talk to them again before going to work…). By my math, that is an 83% which is passing! If you are wondering why I stopped talking on the forum well… I stopped having time. I found out that I had failed a test and needed to study for it all over again to be able to take it before I left Germany. I also had a couch surfer stay with me for a week and every weekend became ‘visit all of the home towns of my german friends before I leave’. So my weekday became: 6AM wake up, dress, breakfast, bus, train, work, walk home as warm up, exercise, study, cook, talk with friends 9pm-10pm sleep. And my weekends became: 6AM wake up, dress, breakfast, bus, train, talk and walk around town, eat, museum, eat, visit club or bar or buy alcohol and drink by flowing body of water, 10 or 11pm sleep (if Saturday) or take train home (if Sunday). Not a whole lot of time for internet. :/ As for the looking different, unless you are in physical contact with my body as I am exercising, you can’t really tell there is a physical difference, except when I suck in my gut. I now have two large dimples in the fat there. Still, I can tell there was a huge influence on how active I am just with the small increase in exercise! Last Saturday, I spent 5 hours hiking in the Schwarzwald (Black Forrest), something I never could have done (and enjoyed) before. I feel like velvet covered steel rather than a fluffy snuggle toy. Also, hanging out with one of my friends who has like 8-10% body fat made me realize that I still want to keep SOME softness because I don’t want to lose my ability to give awesome hugs. Overall, a positive experience. I am glad I did this challenge and I fully intend to continue doing regular exercise!

Second: if squats hurt or "feel wrong" - have your joints looked at! Seriously. Been there with the whole dislocated kneecap routine, it's not much fun. See if you can find an alternative workout until that's sorted out. Do you have the same uncomfortable feeling during running? Or is ist "just" the squats? Just Squats feel bad. I found if I warm up better it takes longer before my knee starts to hurt, so I changed so that I was doing the body weight work out in reverse. And then, yeah, those off days really suck. Shrug it off, if possible, because *dusting off the hoop skirt dress*: "Tomorrow is another day!" (you can leave out the hoop skirt dress part, I hear it's not mandatory). Lol. My mom totally has hoop skirts too! Regarding sleep: I have to admit, I can't really help you there. I know that everybody is different in how much sleep they need. I usually do well with 7 or 8 hours, my husband doesn't know how much sleep he would ideally need, since he usually can't get more than 3 or 4 hours a night. My sister needs more like 9+ hours, like you (though she'll sleep longer if she doesn't have any commitments). She also needs her dose of caffeine in the morning in order to resemble anything close to human, no matter how much sleep she had... I find that I always feel MORE tired and horrible if I drink caffeine. Not the day that I drink it, but a day or two after. Regarding diet: having to deal with leftover food is not good. Don't you have the option to give it away to let somebody else poison themselves? (OK, that might sound a little harsh, but I hope you know what I mean?) I have a problem simply throwing food away, even if I don't really want to eat it. Still working on that. I pretty much just gave up on the diet when I found out I still had to study because I failed one of my test (my friend that usually gets 95%-100% got 71% as an example) so I need to retake it before I leave . Sugar has become me reward system for getting myself to study and focus. It used to be kisses and snuggles, but I lack someone to kiss or snuggle in Germany so… Fatness ensued! And (probably waaay back in mom mode), same with the off days: Get a fresh start today, do your best. Tell us what works for you and what doesn't. Maybe your fellow nerds can give you some ideas with what worked for them (I wouldn't recommend the getting drunk and puking part, the dancing all night sounds like a healthier option ). What's your first and foremost problem, considering your diet? Well, I am not bringing any food with me back home, so I can start completely fresh. That will help a lot. Plus, I won’t be eating by the cantina everyday either. I will have to go back to making all of my own food, but that is fine. Love the story about your new roommate and her friends! ‘Her friends’? Huh? Oh! I was using the gender neutral singular ‘they’ not the plural. The Spanish female roommate that used to drink and dance all night was replaced by the roommate from Ghana.

First, I'd like to say thank you very much for replying. You actually sounded very much like my mother, however, she is an awesome lady and you should be proud of the comparison. Although I think you miss understood one part, my problem is that I sleep too MUCH, not too little. 9pm-7am is 10 hours. I need exactly 9:15 to avoid tiredness. As to why I had this rant well... I had had a very frustrating day. I had left work early in order to hopefully finish three things I needed to do before being able to leave Germany. I was not able to accomplish any of them. At the end of the day, I did one squat and was like 'I can't. I just can't.' Friday, I was able to do the work out by moving the squats to the end of the work out. Then I did lots of running both Friday and Saturday although not specifically an interval training Friday. I may try looking up doing something other than squats because they are really really... on the edge of painful. Like, two bones rubbing against each other aren't initially painful, but it just feels so WRONG. That is kinda how squats feel. I would rather go all the way to sitting on my ankles and then back up, than one regular squat. I don't even know how that works. I know that diet is 80% so I was trying to do that, although I purposely didn't list it as a goal because I knew I would fail. I actually did pretty good until one of my roommates (the spanish one) left for home and gave me all of her food. :/ I'm not sure how she keeps skinny on her diet, but I think it involves drinking until she pukes and dancing all night on a regular basis. Anyway, I am feeling much better today. In part because my new roommate is hilarious. I was standing at the fridge after a nice swim with some friends wondering what to eat and they come home, drop their bags and go 'wow. You are hot.' and then just stare... I said 'Take a picture. It lasts longer.' So they took out their phone and actually take a picture of me, in my swimsuit, standing next to the fridge with the door open (I also had a shirt on, but it wasn't anything special or form fitting). However, it is rather a mixed compliment because it is well know that fat is attractive in Africa, and my new roommate is from Ghana.

So. In the beginning, I was starting a new job. I was learning spanish. I was trying out the new Paleo diet. I was sticking to my exercises. I was making leaps and bounds with my book! It seemed like everything was better. I was even going to bed at 9pm, although, I'll admit I only ever once got up at 6am. So... >_> Yeah. I stopped learning spanish pretty early on. I am not sure if I ever really had a truly Paleo day, but now I am back to treating gummi bears as a meal. Still, I stuck to my goals. Now, however, I can either go to bed on time, or I can exercise, and I have that feeling... That daredevil self sabotaging feeling... That I am not going to do either. I know that if I break it once. Just once. I will find it incredibly hard to get back on track. So even though it is what... end of week three? I already feel like I've failed my challenge. l'm probably going to choose sleep over exercising.

Well the interval trainings take only about 20-30 minutes, and, because I'm not trying to conserve my strength for a long journey, I get to go all out which is pretty fun sometimes. As for chafing... Maybe try a different type of underwear/pants? (100% of the Roberts I know where boxerbriefs. They are the perfect compromise between freedom and keeping the balls from sticking to the legs in hot weather...) Babypowder will keep the fleshy bits from sticking. Lotion or oil will make them glide past each other silkily. So... whatever problem you are having, SCIENCE can solve it! Also!!! I totally smashing ROCKED my run today. I AM THE WIND! (For periods of 30 seconds anyway...) Anyone ever played up the river down the river? Well I DID IT! Also, I might be drunk because while shopping I met a friend who invited me over to drinks and then I ran home from his house WITH GROCERIES ON MY BACK! Also I have work tomorrow at 7 so I will be going to sleep now. ALL OF THE VICTORY!!!

Oh wow! SO that is what it is called. I can only massage my eyebrows with that pose. Nice!

No. It has to be running. I have yet to run a full mile in my life, but in order to achieve my life goal of being an astronaut, I have to be able to run a mile in at least 15 mins. I do not get a post-run euphoria. I just feel like crap. Also, after exercising I can fall almost immediately to sleep which is one of two reasons I do them before bed. (The other reason being because it is fucking hot any earlier. I miss being next to an ocean, :'( ).

Here is the thing: So I say I'm not doing so hot. You ask me why. I explain. Even with the shortest possible explaination, I'm still thinking about it. It still hurts. You ask if there is anything you can do. There isn't. You feel bad for not being able to help, I feel bad because then for the rest of the day, I'm just one or two thoughts away from thinking 'He's gone. Oh god, I'll never be able to do X, Y or Z with him again.' If I had just said 'I'm doing okay!' and smiled, and you then smiled because I smiled, we both would have released dopamines by the act of smiling and our respective days actually would have been improved. (If only by a very little bit). So I guess that mask wasn't the right word. Scab would have been better. It stops the water works, it helps the healing process, and by the time it falls off, it is practically good as new skin underneath (if a bit tender).

Am I in some alternate reality because I am not reading anything about surfing in his goals... 1) Book Exercise 2) Diet 3) Cheering up Btw if you ever need tips on how to cheer the fuck up, I have... a whole folder of collected ideas. They are not all pictures of cute cats. I promise. Actually, eating right and exercise are on the top of that list. Having *meaningful* time with friends/meeting new people who can become friends is #3! I don't know how it is for you, mourning processes are different for everyone, but I know that for me the missing person was like a missing tooth. It feels weird to smile, like people should be able to tell that something is different. You can feel where they should be in your life and if you explore it, it starts to hurt and you know you should leave it alone and let it heal and harden, but it is just so weird not having them there. Even now, if I think about it too much, it starts hurting again. So I just don't think about it and if people ask me about it, I tell them I'm fine and pretend to be okay and eventually... The mask becomes the person you know?

God I hate running. I hate how my fat jiggles with each jerky step. I hate how my head throbs and my muscles ache and after just 20 minutes I feel like I am going to die. I hate it, but without a bike or a swimming pool, I think it is the only way I can get intermittent training and stick to my goals. *sigh*

Good! I got all the way through both beginners body weight exercises planned this week and plan to go running later today when it cools off. I haven't lost any weight, but w/e it is only two weeks and that wasn't any of my goals anyway. I'll keep at it and see if I can edit my diet some more. The important thing is that I FEEL better. Right? And you? How are you? Feeling better?

I got all the way through the beginners thing! Yeah! I was really tired after though so I just went to sleep. I am not even sore today, although my left butt cheek is a little tender. (I compensated my weak knee by shifting more of my weight until my left leg during squats.) Also, when I was doing the pushups (yes I do the 'girly' ones), I put a pillow under neath my knee and that was much better! Wow, I have the exact opposite problem. When I eat oatmeal, I never feel really full and feel almost immediately hungry afterward. I have noticed that, if I mix my cottage cheese (yes, that is it. Thanks) with jam or fruit, then I get hungry again in a couple hours. Also, if I eat just veggies I get hungry again almost immediately. However, if I JUST eat protein. Mix my cottage cheese with an egg or eat it plain, then it lasts three-four hours rather than just one or two. That said, is being hungry a problem? I eat breakfast at 7:00 as well, then eat lunch between 12-1:00. As long as I have something that I am working on, then being hungry doesn't bother me. Just like in middle school and high school, it doesn't matter what I eat, so long as I eat the same time every day, my body just trains itself to get hungry an hour before 'lunch time'.

Well, I was supposed to run yesterday, but I invited a friend along and it... well we took the 138 instead of the 136 and ended up in some small town named scheidt and walked around lost until finally some signs pointed us to the university. However, no running actually happened. Also, my belly size has actually doubled since the begin of the 6 week challenge. I haven't been eating sugar, I swear, but my fat intake has increased. (The veggie only lasange I had on Saturday was just dripping with it). I am rather desperately hoping it is just water. I mean, it HAS been pretty hot here and it might just be my bodies response to the heat exhaustion... and and... I swear all I've had is 'frischkäse' (forgot what that is called in english) for breakfast, ~200g of salad for lunch and then all I can eat of fruits, veggies and meat for dinner. Ah well. I'll start counting calories I guess. Not fun. On the subject of vampire robots: Unless you are also protein based, blood is pretty much useless to you. Of the things that do drink blood, most only do so in order to have enough protein to lay eggs. Mosquitos actually live on nector. Plus, they are generally small and not very scary (creepy yes, scary... not generally). Really, why drink only blood when you can also consume that energy rich fat and muscle? Also, at the point where the robots are protein based and eating human flesh... Wouldn't the humans also be eating human flesh? probably? Maybe I am naive, but I'd like to think that the humans would be smart enough to not create something that competes with their own food source. I assure you, if we were to make robots that ran on biological material, we would make them deathly allergic to human biological material. Maybe they would drink it as a source of water? Although, that is also unlikely. I mean... that is fairly polluted water. All those minerals and cells and such. I do not like going all technobabble because it makes me feel like a know it all or a spoil sport, but I DO have a wealth of information in my head, somehow, left over from getting my degree.

Yes, but finding someway that they can intertwine is the kicker. I'll think about it. Thanks! I stay away from writing pure sci-fi because I worry I'll have too MUCH hard detail. If you need some ideas about technology stuff... I'm kinda majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Material Science. I can technobabble your ear off about current, future, and impossible technologies. Like FTL ships are totally okay if you have them going throw worm holes (proved with Einstein's equations) or hyperspace (talked about in string theory). Also, the Startrek warp drive? Currently being tested. One of my favorite songs is about a man having an allergic reaction after having sex with a purply furry tenticle girl (Seripus Saypriss Guile). 'I can't say I found her lovin' absolutly new. She did some things that I don't think, a human girl could do. And then afterward we there until I began to cough, as I went into an aphalctic shock' Oh and fitness related, I did do a run today. Didn't get very far, but I was also running the uphills and recovering from being sick. (My stomach muscles are still sore) I'll run the downhills on Monday and try to get farther.

Well on the topic of fitness, I am feeling much better, mucles wise, after a little exercise, but unfortunaly I got heat exhaustion and spent the rest of the day throwing up. :/ I will try running again today since I didn't get a very good run in yesterday. I will also bring gatorade with me to prevent a second occurance of heat exhaustion. I am also glad that I didn't exclude noodles from my paleo diet since they are one of the few things... well not _pleasant_ to throw up per se, but if you have to throw up food, there are worse things and not many better ones... As for my book... It is a fantasy/sci-fi. Sci-fi only in the fact that you have to have a slight chemistry background to understand some of the subtext. For example, the world is called CHON. The nation is divided up into your typical fire, water, air, earth nations, but they are called kohlenstoff, wasserstoff, sauerstoff, and stickstoff where stoff is the word for 'things' or 'people'. I'm conflicted about sharing more. Mostly because I am not sure how to explain it in less than 50,000 words and a little bit because it is such a stupid idea that has really gotten out of control and i'm afraid someone is going to call me on it. I kinda have two main plots going on in my head. One is of a girl who is a cross breed that ends up in a rebellion. The other is of the person who started the rebellion (by accident). The two should be at different time periods, but still good relfections of each other. These plots literally just this morning occured to me. Up until now, I've just been working on the world. Another story for maybe the world of CHON maybe another world, is what it would be like to have your gods banished, and then later, what it would be like for them to come back. (Incredibly weaker than before).