Tea&Scones

Another Banished player here - it is a lot of fun. Expect a couple of dead villages the first couple of times you play, but once you get the hang of it, it's really great. Would recommend getting some mods once you're used to it. Personally I feel the one for quarries and mines never running out of resources is one of the best, it really keeps everything going a lot smoother and would recommend getting it even before your first game. But yeah, Banished is awesome, but if you get it, make sure to have a LOT of time on your hands, you won't be able to stop playing it.

Aw awesome pic, you look great! I have the silly face reaction too, you're not alone. It's great that your parents are getting on board the healthy train too, you're spreading the rebel influence. Great goals and good luck on your challenge!

I'm in! I will brush twice daily this week and floss once daily. I never floss really, and sometimes forget to clean my teeth at night the past couple of months. Not this week though!

Day 1: Starting Stats: 63.3kg Height: 5'2" BMI: 26.56 Ok, so here the challenge starts! I've found a great gym to join for next week once I've moved. £25 a month, with a great selection of free weights (especially a lot of benches, so hopefully that means I'll not have to ever wait too long!). They allow deadlifts and have an assisted pull-up machine, which I've been wanting access to for aaaages now. Can't wait to move next week now, and it'll give me something to do on the days I won't have internet from Sat-Wed until it gets installed. Today: Goal 1 - Diet: 1/1 Goal 2 - Exercise: 1/1 Goal 3 - Study: 1/1 Thanks, in a few weeks I will have studied a bit more grammar to construct sentences, so once I can do that I'll probably message you some to check over, if that's okay! Hey! It's great to be with the scouts! It is an amazing feeling once you get to see your SO again after a long seperation. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to be a military wife though, I'd say that's a million times harder than my situation, you're super awesome for sticking through that! Best of luck to you and your husband both. Thanks! I find I'm motivated best if I schedule everything out in advance!

Ok, thanks for the advice, I'll look into that but make sure not to go too crazy on the speedwork to make sure I don't get injured, like you said. I'll be doing those workouts on the treadmill so it will probably be possible to program in some sprint intervals for specific distances, which should be a good option. That would be great! Aside from the fact that I've just started an my vocabulary is veeeery small, one of my biggest hurdles is being shy about using it in front of fluent speakers. It's fine in front of my fiance, but I would be too scared to use it around his family. So it would be a great help to have someone else to look over sentences, give some tips etc to help me learn better AND give a confidence boost!

Yes, 19yo female. I guess I can go ambitious and aim for the 30 minutes, it will speed up my time more just by pushing harder than I would otherwise, though I will admit it is likely I will get demotivated a bit if I don't reach it.

I have 8GB RAM so I really hope it's not my RAM that's messed up, that would really suck. They don't have autosaves onthe games I'm having trouble with, Warframe updates at the end of each mission, for example. It really sucks that it's only internet based games I'm having trouble with as those are my favourites. I feel your pain with Sims 3 though. Strangely I found that if I start off with a small household and gradually expand it the game runs pretty fine, have you tried that at all? I only have 3 or 4 expansions though so it's nowhere near as RAM intensive as the whole thing.

I work on percentages for the number of days I get right, so for each week I have 6 points for exercise. If I work out successfully according to schedule every day I get all 6 points. Then at the end I work out my percentage achieved, apply it to my points and round to the nearest tenth. I find I work best this way because somehow in my head each day I know I am earning a certain percentage of points for that activity.

Gamer rebels, help is needed! I have a great gaming laptop and this time last year I could play Dota, Warframe, all my other games on maximum settings with no issues, high FPS. Now over the year my laptop has gradually gotten slower and slower. Now I can't play some games at more than 5FPS, no exaggeration. Drivers are up-to-date, I've tried defraggmenting, cleaning up spare files, running a game booster to close extra processes, proritising the game on the CPU usage and the only thing that has improved is Dota 2, which is now playable with some graphics settings on. However games like Warframe and Planetside are impossible to play. I've noticed it really only happens with online games. However I know it is not the internet. I have used 3 different internet connections, some directly connected with a cable, some wireless, it makes no difference. Also these are the the same connections I used when the games were running fine. Some offline games are slightly slower, but I can still do massive Total War battles with little/no issues. The only solution I can think of is a complete reinstallation of Windows to take my laptop back to factory status. Has anyone else faced this problem or can offer some advice? I just want to get back to gaming again.

Hey all, I'm just trying to work out what goal pace to set myself for a 5k for my next challenge. If I'm currently running around 8:00-8:30min/km for 5k would it be reasonable to start training at a 30 minute 5k (6:00min/km), hoping to get there in 2 and a half months? Or is aiming for a 35 minute 5k more realistic? I've never really gotten to this point before so I'm not sure how fast I could realistically progress. 19F 146lb if it helps.

Just got to say I love the method of making the sign with your goals on, and it's so pretty! Hope you feel better soon and can really rock this challenge.

Challenge Intro After a mostly successful first challenge, it's time for me to get on with challenge number 2! I'm starting university again in two weeks and moving into my house in 1 week, so better food choices are going to get much easier from now on. And also I should get access to a gym in a week or so, so I can start lifting again, whoot! Last challenge I pretty much maintained my weight while eating whatever I wanted, within reason. Now my exercise routine is sorted, this challenge I want to crack down on my diet to start losing properly. Goal 1 - Diet: For the first week while I'm still at home, my goal will be no snacking at all. The only thing I can have as a treat is if the ice cream van comes around and my family all have a cone, but apart from that, no eating between meals! For weeks 2-6, I will be keeping to my diet as follows: Breakfast: Homemade strawberry and banana smoothie Lunch: Tuna pasta with peas Dinner: Chicken and rice with mixed vegetables Drinks: A combination of water as well as the orange juice and milk left over from making my smoothies. Snacks: None Stat Points: +2 CON +1 WIS +1 CHA Goal 2 - Exercise: I've found a gym I want to join when I move out. For the first week I will alternate running days with the BBWW. Once I have the gym in the second week, I will be stepping up to the following routine: Monday: Weights Tuesday: Finishing C25K onto B210K. Wednesday: Weights Thursday: Finishing C25K onto B210K. Friday: Weights Saturday: Off day. Just a 40 minute walk each way to help at our local ParkRun. Sunday: Speed day. Restarting C25K using the walk intervals as running at my regular pace while using the run intervals to run at my target 5K pace. If I do a ParkRun on Saturday I will take Friday as my off day. Question Alert! - What target pace should I be aiming for for a 5k? If I'm currently running around 8:00-8:30min/km for 5k would it be reasonable to start training at a 30 minute 5k (6:00min/km), hoping to get there in 2 and a half months? Or is aiming for a 35 minute 5k more realistic? Stat Points: +2 STR +2 DEX +2 STA Goal 3 - Studying: University starts again in two weeks, but that doesn't mean I haven't got studying goals before then! For the first two weeks I will set aside 1 hour a day to learn Afrikaans. I want to learn the language because my fiance is an Afrikaaner and while his family speak perfect English, I would still love for them to be able to use "their" language around me, rather than having to adapt to me the whole time. For weeks 3-6, I will be at university from 9am-6pm Monday to Friday. From 9-5 I will be studying university related work. From 5-6 I will be learning Afrikaans. If my last lecture ends at 6 then I will use the final hour before that lecture to study Afrikaans. Stat Points: +3 WIS +2 CHA

Yay evalutaion time! So here are my challenge results: Goal 1 - C25k - 15/15: Love the running so much! That's a 100% so 100% of my points, +2STA +2CON +2DEX Goal 2 - Fruit and veggies: 28/35: Not too bad, a C on this one, approximately 70% so +1.4CON and +1.4WIS Goal 3 - Awake by 9:30 - 19/35: Had some issues with messing up my sleeping pattern 2 weeks ago and it's only just gotten back to normal. About 50% achieved so I will get +1.5CHA and +1WIS Total: +2 STA +3.4 CON +2 DEX +2.4 WIS +1.5 CHA So I guess that makes me a level 2 now? I'm ready for the next challenge for certain now. As I am going back to uni a week after it starts my focus I think will be to focus on study habits, not snacking and continuing exercise. I've already worked out a uni eating plan to stick to as well. Over these 5 weeks I've pretty much maintained my weight so once I'm at uni eating the good stuff I'm sure it will start coming off, especially as I've eaten pretty much all I wanted while at home. Thanks for all the support this challenge! Next time I'll be over at the scouts, then probably joining the rangers after that. See you on the next challenge!

Hi! I'm Meg, welcome to NF! Sounds like you've made great progress already, staying on track for a year, especially your first, is no easy feat! Are you planning on doing the next 6 week challenge? It's a great motivator to start kicking things up a gear, or just keep yourself on track with your goals. If not you could open a battle log so you can look back in a year and see how much more awesome you've become. Did you make those Dalek soaps from your profile pic? They look awesome, I'd love to see more of your work!

Ah, long time no post, forgot for a few days and when I forget something for a couple of days...it ends up being a lot of days! Sorry everyone. >.< Thanks for the suggestions on the sticky socks, it felt like they helped a little bit, although my upper body strength is too pitiful right now to really be able to tell. Definitely great for starters though! I had a lovely weekend thanks, celebrated my friend's 20th on Friday night with a big get together of friends I haven't seen in ages, so it was great to catch up with them. A bit late to ask you how your weekend was, so I shall say I hope you had a great week! Well I'm moving into a house in a few weeks so that's definitely something to consider once I'm ready for handstands. I think we have a little backyward so it should spare the embarassment of passers-by seeing the attempts! After C25K I'm going to go to my local parkrun I think, not too competitive or scary. The one where I'm going to be looks to be around some woods and a park, so it should have a really lovely view. Plus it might give me some confidence of doing something big on my own. Ah smoothies are great, I'm planning to use them as my breakfast at uni, making enough for half the week at once and putting it in the fridge to have quickly in the morning. Strawberries are amazing in anything, though I wouldn't have thought of putting them with kale! My plan is for a plain old strawberry/banana smoothie. Goals for the Week: Goal 1 (Run): 10/10 - Loving C25k, onto W4D2 tomorrow! Goal 2 (Wake up) : 19/25 - I've had some trouble sleeping this past week and thus, getting up. Goal 3 (Fruit + Veg): 19/25 - There wasn't any fruit or veg in the house the past week, so I missed 2 days of completion, but back on track now. On with the week!