ManicSpider

Okay, I have a confession to make - I didn't enjoy Mass Effect! I thought maybe it was just I was playing it on a console, so I bought it for the PC and tried that and still... I just really didn't enjoy the combat and control systems and so from there I never got more than about an hour into the game. My husband loves that set of games so much. He has an N7 jacket which is pretty kick-ass A couple of my friends have said that apparently people who loved Dragon Age weren't so keen on Mass Effect and vice versa and that makes sense to me because I was so keen on Dragon Age. (WHY ALISTAIR WHY?!?) (It's cool, I'll totally get over that one day)

I'm thinking I might try Zumba or Body Balance - they both have stretchy bits and strength bits so might make a good substitute for swimming. There's a Yoga class as well but I'm a bit scared of Yoga!

Thanks VengefulPear, that makes me feel a lot better about the whole thing It's funny that I feel so guilty about even possibly "cheating" in something that is really only a challenge I am setting for myself! *lol* BTW - Your goals are really good! I appreciated that you had them set out in a theme, that was nice

*lol* Pinupgeek, I am in the same boat! I have 4 novels on my hard-drive which need an edit, but whenever I start I get bored of the whole story and go start another one In fact the story I am working on at the moment I think I am only working on because I'm trying to distract myself from editing the book I was shopping around before. Avatar, I like how you've split your editing up in 20 hour lots. Do you have a plan for the running or are you just taking it by ear? And I can empathise with your problem with tiny time thieves children! I was meant to be studying madly for my exam tonight, but I couldn't get my young'un in bed before about 8:40 :-/

Hello! We are in the NF Writers group together I really like your goals. I love to read and I think that I will have to remember your number 3 for next time I have to set a challenge. Do you mind if I ask about the grading scale for that? Is it that you get an A if you do 90 jumping jacks or push-ups, or is it if you do over 90% of the ones you "owe" yourself given how much you've read? Also, if you quit your Kindle, does this only count towards paper books then? The MyFitnessPal app is the one I use to keep track of my calories - funnily enough (given the name) it's terrible for tracking exercise! And I find that when I use it regularly I eat less calories anyway, just because I KNOW how many I have left and I can't err on the side of "Oh, I'm pretty sure I've been good today"

Week 1 Stats GOAL 1 - 2 / 3 GOAL 2 - 0 / 2 GOAL 3 - 3 / 5 GOAL 4 - (Abandoned for the week to study for my exam on Friday) Day 1 - Came in under calorie goal! Didn't go for a swim as 1) I had a bad asthma attack on Sunday and I didn't want to tempt fate by going out wet in the cold and 2) the pool I normally go to is shut the rest of the week for an event! I am thinking I might substitute a couple of gym classes instead... Also, didn't get any writing done as I realised I haven't done anywhere near enough reading for my Torts exam on Friday so my out of work hours have been spent on that instead. I will make up for what I should have done this week over the next few weeks. Day 2 - Still Studying! Finished textbook readings for Standard of Care and Breach. 89 calories over, but did a strength session - with a new Personal Best for incline push-ups Day 3 - Still Studying, and work is also very busy. Under my calorie count for the day, but mostly because I didn't have time for lunch. Trying to drink more water than caffeine. Day 4 - Exam tomorrow! Over calorie count as we had takeaway for dinner, however I'm fairly happy that I didn't respond to that by also eating a heap more bad stuff just because I could. Also did my strength training in order to wake up a bit (oh, I really SO don't care about Vicarious Liability) instead of going and downing a few liters of caffeine. New personal best in body weight lunges and plank. Day 5 - Oh man. Day 5 was yesterday and it just about killed me. I did the Exam (not well), went and did some work (not well) and then went home and slept and worked on the outline for my novel. Didn't go any exercise and ate too much. Day 6 - All I did was sleep and eat. Luckily I slept more that I ate so I was under my calorie count! Day 7 - Still very tired from exam prep, but I had my son's birthday party at the park. I went over my calorie count (turns out Birthday Doughnuts don't have noticeably less calories than the regular kind) and slept the rest of the day so didn't do any exercise.

I am really appreciating how many people are writing up their campaigns, I love that sort of thing I used to live Tweet our sessions, and part of the YA SF I am working on at the moment is based around a game I was in. Grats to everyone for a good first day! Personally, it's only a few days in and I'm running into obstacles :-/ First, I realised I have a Torts exam on Friday and I haven't read the text book (ARG!) let alone the cases (GHRYBF!). And after that I discovered that the pool I'm a member of is having some sort of event this week and the 50 meter pool will be closed. (*sobs*) So I am swapping my writing goal for studying this week, and I will adjust the amount I write over the rest of the challenge to catch up. I'm still not sure what to do about the swimming. It was suggested I could go to a different pool but that would cost additional money - I'm thinking about maybe attending a couple of group classes in the gym section instead. That wouldn't be cheating would it? Can't wait to hear how everyone else is going!

Congratulations on finishing the first Mini-Challenge! And good luck with the kanji - my husband is doing Japanese at university and I have complete awe for anyone who can learn a language in another alphabet Also, how much better was the ending to Borderlands 2 than Borderlands 1? I didn't feel completely underwhelmed by the whole experience - huzzah! Good luck with the challenge

That's great to know. I instinctively went to bend my knees last time but made myself straighten them out because I didn't want to cheat. I do have access to a gym, but at present I've only used it for the pool - I'll have to and look around the weights area and see what they have Thanks for your help!

Thanks Avatar! I didn't notice that - it's actually a typo. At the moment given my weight and BMR, I am doing fairly well on 1800 calories per day. As I lose weight and I plateau from time to time I will consider dropping it. I tried the Michelle Bridges Challenge a couple of times - she's the trainer from the Australian Biggest Loser - and she wanted girls on a 1200 calories per day diet. I tried it for a couple of days but was constantly starving and cranky and had headaches. 1800 feels high to me, but I always get enough to eat and I'm getting results. The Basic Training workouts are from one of the NF Guides - I'll probably move from there into the Strength training, but I'm not sure at the moment. I'm really glad you started the writing group!

Thanks! I'll keep at it the way I'm going and just keep trying to do it the right way. I am carrying a fair bit of extra weight, but I'll just keep the weight going down and the strength going up until the two lines intersect

I'm keen to be in on this. A few years ago I did a 10 day Vipassana meditation course. Basically for 10 days you get up at 4am, meditate, go have something to drink (in silence - there's no talking) and then go meditate some more till you go to bed at 9:30. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and I always said that when I got back home I would continue to meditate every day but I didn't keep it up. (If you wanted to know more about what kind of meditation it is - here is the Course Introduction)

*lol* Okay, Australia is pretty, but not in the same way as Canada. Mostly I swim because it's so peaceful. Your brain stops thinking a million things at once and just focuses on form. I was going pretty regularly at the beginning of the year - I got up to 600 metres in my half an hour, but now because I haven't been for ages I've dropped down to 500 again! Definitely consistency is the key. I've done a couple of aqua aerobics classes and they were lots of fun.

The Pern novels were the first fantasy books I chose to read myself When I was kid my Mum read me the Hobbit and then gave me Lord of the Rings but when I was a teen most of what I read was Sweet Valley High or Agatha Christie or The Scarlet Pimpernel. I've never read Ender's Game, though I keep meaning too. Everyone keeps saying how good it is! At the moment I'm loving Lois McMaster Bujold - she writes brilliant Space Opera - and I'm also reading through the Hornblower series. I'm keen on Napoleonic nauticals That reminds me that Temerraire was a great book - the Napoleonic Wars but with dragons providing an airforce. It was a fun read. I dabble in photography, and I dissolved into a puddle of "Oh, I want to go there!" when you mentioned glaciers and glacial lakes.Every now and then when I'm bored I go on the Canada real estate sites and daydream Bioshock has me hooked - the ending of Infinite was so good! Now I'm back in Skyrim though I've been tossing up whether to re-play Borderlands 2. Do you have a favourite game?

I'd love to hear more about your fantasy novel! How far along are you? Is it your first? Can I just say, I saw your language mission and I am incredibly impressed! I speak very basic French, and I've always wanted to learn Latin though my parents (who were taught at school) say it's a bit boring and there's not much point. When I was at high school I was learning French mostly to understand the phrases used in Agatha Christie novels, but now I'd like to learn Latin to understand more in Dorothy Sayers.

I had the opposite problem when I was 8 months' pregnant. Because I was quite large to start with, a new girl at work had no idea I was having a baby in a month! *lol* I was like "GAH! I swear my tummy doesn't normally look like this!" I've always wanted to go to Canada. Is the area you're in nice? Also, I'd be really keen to hear what you read. Best of luck with the challenge!

Hey all! I'm doing the NF Basic Training, and Workout B includes Body Rows and I've got a problem. I'm just not doing them right. I get under the table, I pull myself up, but I can't get anything below waist level off the ground. No matter how stiff I try and stay, I end up bending at the waist. I'm thinking that it's just I'm not strong enough and I'm wondering if there is something I should substitute in to Workout B or if I should just keep hammering away at it until I get strong enough? I'd be grateful for any suggestions or assistance! Thanks *EDIT - I just wanted to add that even doing it the way I'm doing gives me a workout. I can do 7 at the moment just pulling my chest up to the table.

Hey, bragging rights are awesome

I love historicals. And congratulations on being asked to be in the anthology, that would be wonderful! Bellydancing always looks like so much fun. Good luck with putting your routine together

Hi! One of my goals is writing as well. I have a young adult science fiction that I need to have ready by October and I keep doing research and making notes and not actually writing anything I'd love to join a writer's group for the challenge.

I'm going to try and eat less processed foods, but I don't want to go all out at this point. When I've tried to change my diet too quickly in the past it's all come crashing down! I think Australia is pretty nice - the weather's good, the people are friendly. The only thing is we don't get as good internet as the Europeans or as many services as the Americans. I would so love Netflix. Can I ask, what's a Fire Flower Power Up??

Those sounds like excellent goals. I like the idea of letting Runkeeper do the tracking - I'll have to try and work that in next time around. (I like that - I haven't even finished one challenge yet and already I'm making plans for my next one ) And good luck with the blood sugar levels!

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do great

Nice goals! Do you know what tattoo you're thinking of?

Good luck! I know how you feel about the clutter - I was very tempted to make that my 5th goal