Barbs

Any recommendations for what I should try out?

Honestly, I think that's actually better than a real gym in some respects. Sure the gear might not be as great, but it's part of your rent anyway, and super easy to get to from home Plus if noone else is making use of it, even better Oh I drive myself nuts with that! Even if I'm in the store, I will double back through aisles just to be sure I haven't forgotten anything...usually it's just something I had on my previous list, and I end up doubling up if I 'remember' to buy it

Ooh, I'm keen to give this a go While I don't have a FitBit, my cheap alternative still keeps the numbers, so will fill in from first TGP definitely not too nerdy, it's awesome Ooh and @Teancum - how did you get the progress bar in your Signature? I might not use it for weight, but instead for my journey to Mordor

Ooh, I saw mention of your complex gym earlier (sorry, I read the first few posts properly and then kinda skimmed ) Have you ventured into it yet, or will this trip be the first?

I know we don't really know each other, but can I just say I'm super proud of you for exercising every day? That's so super awesome Also, I find it kind of amusing we're doing the opposite with our first challenges - you're focusing on the exercise and looking at nutrition later, I'm focusing on nutrition and looking at exercise later But I definitely agree about doing better focusing on one thing at a time. For me, my water intake is awful, so it's definitely something I wanted to make my first priority. Good luck with last week or so of your challenge, though I think you have the motivation to do it just fine without luck

Ugh today is frustrating me...not in a super demotivating or demoralizing way, more so just a damn it Barbs hurry up and get the job done. I'd made home cooked meal and crossed off half a dozen things off my to-do list before 10am...and yet I'm still only 2.5 (looks over at coaster and bottle...tugs another big slug of water) 2.75 bottles through my 5 bottles of water for the day. I seriously wanna kick past-me's butt for not drinking more earlier, cos it's not even like I can hoon through the drinking water the same way I could with say a to-do list item...mostly I'm writing this to keep myself going and HOPEFULLY within the next couple hours I'll still be able to turn today's circle to green to keep the green chain going... Update: It's done Only took an hour and a half, but got there. I totally used same evil trick I use with my son with bribery - "Okay, finish this bottle and you can have a nice cup of tea (finish bottle) Oh, you took so long to finish it, that now it's time to wash the dishes first, then have another bottle, then you can have the tea (grumble grumble, wash dishes, drink another bottle...and then really enjoyed my tea)" (Also, to be fair, if I'm not rushing him along, my son can take an hour to eat a meal, so normally I feel kinda justified telling him it's now time for X before he can have Y).

Sorry, I have got into bad habit of assuming most foreigners here are teachers...but now not so sure you are cos then wouldn't you both be at the same school? I found it interesting when Dean had a bit of a rough time at start of term and the staff translator suggested maybe we look at international school for him to reduce language/cultural barrier. All I could think is he's been here for pretty much half his life and his Chinese is better than his English...how would the international school help? I think realistically it would just help me more for dealing with issues rather than specifically helping him out. They really build up the homework fast here. Some of my 11-13 year old students at old school would talk about being lucky if they could finish under 4 hours, plus having to miss other lessons to finish homework. That one always confused me - a teacher can keep a student in their classroom to finish homework they didn't finish...even if this means they'll then be missing their next class and get behind there Yeah, that was Wuxi last year - cold for me but not for the locals, and only a hint of snow one day. We just had a few days of it. Little man definitely enjoyed his first snow...even if he thinks it's called 'Christmas'

Missed this post on Monday. Thanks again Since it's first challenge, I definitely want to be able to win it so I'm keen for the next one. I feel like messy tasty meals are more my specialty than pretty ones

Thanks Enforcer I like the idea of gradually building new habits, but sometimes when you feel super motivated/amped to go, you just gotta do it or lose that extra boost right? Man, feel like that would be intense. How are they going? Are they at international or local school? Also, how you going with winter? Feel like this winter was a lot colder than last year

Excellent, thanks Morag Mutli-creativity for the win! The knitting looks pretty, even if in first stages. It's another skill on my list of want to work on someday...

Gah, I'm in on this...but mostly in lurker mode until next week (currently can't get VPN on my computer to work so I can't see half the images...and I wanna make sure my first share is at least vaguely pretty/creative I just started BuJoing (is that even a word?) couple months ago (though had done journaling (another made up word?) before that was practically a BuJo without knowing it)

Hey Shy, So glad you commented over on mine cos when I looked at the username it rang a bell...then noticed I still had this tab open to come back to comment on (I tried to make today a very NF day, so getting all the weird NF things done as well as commenting as much as could) Oh my gosh that sounds insanely painful I can't imagine having to deal with that every day, though stoked you're finding your own ways to fight through I was an RPM/Spin class addict a few years back, so I'm always quick to suggest it if running isn't an option (I pulled a muscle in calf when trying out running for a few months, so that led me to RPM). I don't know how it would affect your ankle, but possibly just bike rides? This is still on my to-do list...I know it won't get any easier by not doing it, but in my head I'm so good at it (having not looked at it at all), so it's clearly better to quit while ahead right? No? Okay fine, I'll have a look at it tomorrow (grumble grumble) I haven't been able to RPG since...well basically since I got preg. Every now and then I wonder if it'd actually be possible to run an online game somehow? If it were, I'm sure we could round up enough NFers to join the group? I whole heartedly agree with KayLou's comment, so quoting to remind you of it

Glad to hear it I considered Japan too, but it's a little harder to get into from what I saw, and the packages weren't quite as good as Chinese...but foreign English speakers are a lot more in demand here so that makes sense. I hope you do get to travel. I think I've been insanely lucky to travel as much as I have. After telling a class at my old school about it once, one of my students asked 'Is your dad Bill Gates?' He just couldn't wrap his head around traveling being possible without millions of dollars...though even to me it sounds insane. But yeah, even holidays overseas are worth it. If you do get to go to Japan (I haven't been there yet), I'd recommend end of March/early April so you can catch the full Cherry Blossom season.

Thanks for the welcomes Umm I think you didn't finish the thought...so I'm not sure what you think? Fair questions I have a major travel bug. I was born in South Africa, but we moved to New Zealand when I was about 11, then my parents moved to Australia when I was about 20, so I went there for a bit as well. Also did a massive OE in 2006 which was my first experience of China and I always wanted to come back (it's the first country I've been where English wasn't the dominant language, so it just felt so unique in that, as well as the culture etc). I hadn't really traveled much since 2008, and thought it was pretty much closed off once I had my son (I'm a solo mum), but when my job just pushed me the wrong way, I knew I needed a change. A few things pointed to China again, my original trip here, my wanting to learn Chinese and to expose my son to languages from an early age, heck even a job opening at Google that was almost identical to my previous position...but you had to know Chinese to apply. Honestly I wasn't sure it would work even as we got here, though there had been no red flags. It's worked out well so far. I'm an English teacher at a kindergarten where my son also attends. I do really love living here, even though there are things that drive me crazy every time. I find Chinese people to be so generous and patient, but also some of the cultural differences mean I feel like people are constantly in my face. I mean that both literally due to smaller personal space and figuratively in that it's acceptable to take photos of anything here. My son's blonde and blue eyed, so there isn't a day that we're in the public when someone doesn't either approach him or try take his photo. Since his Chinese is now amazing, they tend to back off when he tells them he doesn't want a photo or whatever in Chinese. It's also been super rewarding. Even though I get a little down sometimes that I have to work at conversations with him sometimes, I'm so proud of my son for learning both languages, even if his English isn't as good as his Chinese right now. I'm also so proud of him for adapting and taking the best of both - he's always been an active and adventure driven kid (I've probably encouraged this more than I should at times), and he hasn't lost this despite kids here being a lot more cautious and calmer than he is. He's also gotten used to the way things work here as best he can (he's always treated a little differently, so is never 100% sure on the rules) For me personally, I would probably stay here longer if I didn't have my son. I love working with the kids, they're just so enthusiastic and outgoing in my classes. I also feel like there's so much more I could learn and see (this is why Kung Fu and Chinese have become priorities this year). But I don't like the level of pressure that goes on the kids. My son's almost 4, so we could in theory stay one more year. The year after that though, kids are expected to go to all number of after school and weekend classes to ensure they can do well enough on their end of kindergarten exam to determine what primary they will go to, and the pattern continues for primary and middle school. In no other country have I seen kids groan at the thought of summer vacation - it just means more school homework than most can do in the 3 months as well extracurricular classes to attend. I don't know how to explain it, if you have the chance I'd definitely recommend it. It's an amazing country and they have some things down to such an art form for dealing with such a massive population it's incredible, but then just some weird things along the way that can't be described other than TIC (This is China). Though, I'd highly recommend traveling in general. It doesn't matter how big or small your country is, you will always learn things you can't in your own country by traveling. ...sorry, that's probably a lot longer reply than you were expecting...or I was intending to write. I'm gonna blame the coffee I had half an hour ago, which in itself was an awful idea given it's already late here. ~ Barbs

So right now I can do about 3 max. So when I work out I do 1-rest-2-rest-3-rest-2-rest-1 aaaaand its a struggle I too was wondering... I hope one day once I can actually do pull-ups that I can do the ladder method. It sounds both brutal and awesome at the same time. Also awesome tat ~ Barbs