Challenges Day 10

Challenge 1: Cold Shower Therapy

Had a numb face this morning! It was awesome. Only four more days to go with challenge – a pretty satisfying feeling. Too bad all of my other challenges are such a long way from finishing. I think I would like to try and offset them so that about every 3-4 days I am finishing a challenge.

http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy-guide

Days Remaining: 4

Challenge 2: Spanish Vocabulary

 

http://www.spanishdict.com/

Days Remaining: 24

Challenge 3: Teeline Shorthand

Started the Second Unit at work today. Didn’t do heaps – going to have to work on my prioritization. I want to get all of my challenges done, but I don’t know if I can keep up 30 days of all of them at the same time without losing the plot.

http://www.ma-radio.gold.ac.uk/shorthand/drills.htm

Days Remaining: 29

Challenge 4: Lumosity Training

Worked through another day of Lumosity training. I think I will play some more games tonight while I add extra work to my Systems Engineering Assignment – I am definitely going to do better with my second assignment.

http://www.lumosity.com/

Days Remaining: 20

Challenge 5: Journal

Wrote up most of this journal this morning before breakfast. Looking to get myself ahead.

 

Days Remaining: 23

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Challenges Day 9

Challenge 1: Cold Shower Therapy

Brrr. Cold this morning – but got through it just like always. Not long to hit the 30 day challenge. I can’t wait until I have achieved it. First time in a long time I have stuck to something that long.

http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy-guide

Days Remaining: 5

Challenge 2: Spanish Vocabulary

Bit of a struggle today with the Spanish. Couldn’t get motivated. But I struggled through it. I will look forward to relearning about chores though. I didn’t take much in.

http://www.spanishdict.com/

Days Remaining: 24

Challenge 3: Teeline Shorthand

Smashed out the Unit One Workbook Section. Giving the Unit Two of the Coursework a start. Got through a bit, more to do on Unit Two but I need sleep.

http://www.ma-radio.gold.ac.uk/shorthand/drills.htm

Days Remaining: 29

Challenge 4: Lumosity Training

My memory is definitely starting to improve, I am noticing my performance in the games actually feels faster and smoother. Hopefully it will translate into real world activities.

http://www.lumosity.com/

Days Remaining: 21

Challenge 5: Journal

More struggle town on the journal. Pushing through though! I will achieve all of my goals today!!

Days Remaining: 24

Challenges Day 8

Challenge 1: Cold Shower Therapy

Still working hard at this one. I seem to be finding it not too difficult to maintain the rage. Once I get in the shower I am totally fired up for the day as well. Though as I near the end of the 30 days I am starting to wonder if I might not just keep it up for another 30 days.

http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy-guide

Days Remaining: 6

Challenge 2: Spanish Vocabulary

Loving the learning of the Spanish. It is really starting to take hold in my brain. Though it will be a long while yet before I am having decent conversations. Looking forward to reviewing the material from the first course before then beginning on my Lean Spanish: The Fast and Fun Way textbook.

http://www.spanishdict.com/

Days Remaining: 24

Challenge 3: Teeline Shorthand

Books arrived yesterday. Pretty happy! It is going to take me a fairly long time to get the hang of it I think, but I will just continue to persist. It will be such a useful skill going forward. It will essentially give me the ability to have a memory of every meeting, or presentation that I see. My aim is to get to about 100 wpm as I think at this speed I could comfortably record and participate in a conversation. I am also going to practice my typing, by typing straight from the Teeline outlines, as this will help with reading the Teeline and building my typing speed back up again.

http://www.ma-radio.gold.ac.uk/shorthand/drills.htm

Days Remaining: 29

Challenge 4: Lumosity Training

Brain is definitely starting to feel the benefits of the Lumosity training. I am definitely feeling a little sharper and my scores are definitely improving. Looking forward to the end of the month when I will display my graph on here.

http://www.lumosity.com/

Days Remaining: 22

Challenge 5: Journal

Got a little lost on the journal. Missed my weekly review and reflection that I wanted to add. I broke my rule of not missing 2 in a row for any of my challenges, but I just need to pick myself back up, jump on the bike and get back to speed. No wasting time feeling sorry for myself or lamenting my inability to do what I set out. I just need to keep moving forward and trying to get it right. It gets easier and more likely that I will achieve what I set out for each time I set out.

Days Remaining: 25

Challenges Day 5

Challenge 1: Cold Shower Therapy

Got through my cold shower this morning. Used it as a pretty good wake up. Still struggled a little with the wake up. Though not as much as I will tomorrow when I set my alarm for 0530. New bed wake and sleep times are to be 0530h wake and CST which requires a lights out and sleep time of 2300h no later. Hopefully with my new use of the Habit Judo spreadsheet this will become a reality.

http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy-guide

Days Remaining: 8

Challenge 2: Spanish Vocabulary

Currently smashing out the Spanish lesson as I write this, just taking a break between the video and flash cards. I am learning about the rooms of the house today, and the lesson is the first in the series that has been almost more Spanish than English so I am pretty excited about that as a lot of it made sense. I think that with a continued effort I will be able to move to the point that I can start to watch Spanish TV shows without subtitles and understand the gist of conversation. At that point you are really learning a language the way it is meant to be learned.

http://www.spanishdict.com/

Days Remaining: 25

Challenge 3: Teeline Shorthand

Waiting….

http://www.ma-radio.gold.ac.uk/shorthand/drills.htm

Days Remaining: 30

Challenge 4: Lumosity Training

Again I did more Lumosity training than required, fitting in extra games during breaks in writing my assignment. I am still behind in how much of my assignment I have done however I am hoping to catch that up tomorrow before I go on a date.

http://www.lumosity.com/

Days Remaining: 25

Challenge 5: Journal

Well I have smashed out writing these blog posts about the challenges. I am going to start writing a proper journal again in my little black book of inspiration that I started several months ago. I may enter some of those into blog posts online however they will tend to be private I think. I also plan to when I hit the end of these 5 challenges start a new challenge for the blog posts that is to post 30 actual blog articles of 500 words or more that are structured and contain useful information. However this is a later goal once my head is in the space for writing – and I will actually edit those posts so that they are less stream of consciousness writing.

Days Remaining: 25

Challenges Day 4

Challenge 1: Cold Shower Therapy

Was a little cold in the shower today, haha. I think I am going to enjoy this challenge all the way to the end. However I think when I reach the point that this challenge needs to reset I will continue to do the challenge but add an extra exercise in the morning. Romanian Dead lifts perhaps? And also require myself to adhere to a strict diet so that I can burn off the fat and have a visible six pack. I think if I can achieve visible once then I will happily let myself slide back a little to a more easily maintained level.

http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy-guide

Days Remaining: 9

Challenge 2: Spanish Vocabulary

Revised the numbers and telling the time today. I will definitely love the opportunity to repeat every lesson within this 30 day challenge, I feel like my original goal of conversational Spanish by December may still be achievable.

http://www.spanishdict.com/

Days Remaining: 26

Challenge 3: Teeline Shorthand

Waiting….

http://www.ma-radio.gold.ac.uk/shorthand/drills.htm

Days Remaining: 30

Challenge 4: Lumosity Training

I spent a bit longer on Lumosity tonight, I am starting to feel the benefits definitely. Though I am wondering how it will affect my ability to do whiteboard presentations without notes – which I will be doing on Monday. Should be for the better.

http://www.lumosity.com/

Days Remaining: 26

Challenge 5: Journal

Going a bit crazy, but loving writing in the journal, hating on the assignment I am trying to do. I just made myself a little bit accountable, I am going on a date on Saturday with a girl and have agreed that I will have three quarters of the assignment done before I go and see her – big incentive!

Days Remaining: 26

Challenges Day 3

Challenge 1: Cold Shower Therapy

Got up straight as my alarm went, smashed through the push-ups and sit-ups. Slowed for the squats, but then nearly cried with the lack of water pressure in my shower. I can handle the cold, but no pressure? Come on! My collection of dashes representing my cold showers is starting to look decent, I am excited when the other challenges catch up.

http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy-guide

Days Remaining: 10

Challenge 2: Spanish Vocabulary

Numbers and telling the time today. I am starting to definitely feel more comfortable with the Spanish language. I definitely feel that 15 minutes every day is much more valuable than big chunks of time every few weeks.

http://www.spanishdict.com/

Days Remaining: 28

Challenge 3: Teeline Shorthand

Waiting….

http://www.ma-radio.gold.ac.uk/shorthand/drills.htm

Days Remaining: 30

Challenge 4: Lumosity Training

I am starting to see the numbers improve. Hopefully I will see the impact at work as well. Going to be quizzed with the whiteboard on Monday morning so it will be interesting, especially since I haven’t done any real engineering in 18 months.

http://www.lumosity.com/

Days Remaining: 28

Challenge 5: Journal

Hardest bit of the challenges was writing the journal/blog post entry today. I was so close to bed and the last thing I wanted to do was write about how I felt today. Urgh. Oh well done for the day, see you tomorrow.

Days Remaining: 28

Challenges Day 2

Challenge 1: Cold Shower Therapy

Wasn’t even close to a struggle here today. I really am flogging this, but I am going to add in that I need to jump out of bed immediately my alarm goes off to get the benefit out of this. Aiming for a all of my workout, shower and to be dressed by 0630 every morning for the rest of this challenge – just to toughen it up a little.

http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy-guide

Days Remaining: 11

Challenge 2: Spanish Vocabulary

Moving through Spanish at a fairly high speed. Learning how to tell people where you would go to do particular activities today. When I do my next run through of all of the lessons I will attempt to write this paragraph in Spanish to make it more difficult.

http://www.spanishdict.com/

Days Remaining: 28

Challenge 3: Teeline Shorthand

Still waiting. Used some of this time to work on my Masters study.

http://www.ma-radio.gold.ac.uk/shorthand/drills.htm

Days Remaining: 30

Challenge 4: Lumosity Training

Another session of Lumosity training complete. The statistics are starting to show that I am improving already (I did a few days before starting this challenge). I would really like to bring myself into the top 10% of every category. I am not sure if this is possible but I will definitely be trying.

http://www.lumosity.com/

Days Remaining: 28

Challenge 5: Journal

I really enjoyed today, especially recording how each of the challenges is going. It doesn’t take much to spend a tiny amount of time both doing the challenges and coming up with a quick spiel about how they are going and how they feel. I don’t know if anyone else would ever want to read it, however it is out there and they are welcome to. If anyone does read it I would love to hear some comments. Perhaps by the end of my challenge I will actually be writing articles that I feel actually have some semblance of logic and may merit and actual readership.

Days Remaining: 28

Challenges Day 1

Challenge 1: Cold Shower Therapy

Got up, smashed out my push-ups, sit-ups and squats no problem. Jumped into the shower for the full 5 minutes of freezing and loved it. This is barely even a challenge anymore, I might have to do a couple of days of 10 minute cold showers to build up the challenge. Accordingly I will be focusing on achieving the other challenges a little more, just maintaining this one.

http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy-guide

Days Remaining: 12

Challenge 2: Spanish Vocabulary

One more lesson on Spanish Dict complete. I think that I will repeat all of the lessons in 1. I should be able to do each lesson twice within the 30 day challenge which should cement the vocabulary in my head. I will also be trying to ‘think’ in Spanish a little during each day.

http://www.spanishdict.com/

Days Remaining: 29

Challenge 3: Teeline Shorthand

Still waiting for the Teeline books to arrive in Peterborough so that Mum can bring them down. I will study them at that point. I think it is good that my challenges will become staggered as this will allow me to introduce new ones. I am aiming to have five challenges per week going, but one finishing each week and a new one beginning.

http://www.ma-radio.gold.ac.uk/shorthand/drills.htm

Days Remaining: 30

Challenge 4: Lumosity Training

Another session of Lumosity training complete. There isn’t much to write about these sessions except that I anticipate being able to feel a difference in mental aptitude at the end of 30 days.

http://www.lumosity.com/

Days Remaining: 29

Challenge 5: Journal

Well the evidence of this challenge is the above blog post. Work was killer today, all inductions and went forever. Hopefully it will be a little bit less hectic as the week progresses. I am also looking forward to getting the study all over and done, with the first assignment due next Monday and the last due in October.

Days Remaining: 29

My First Post.

Hello World. Finally time for me to put myself out for public accountability, for far too long I have allowed myself to eat and drink with reckless abandon, which has left me overweight. I have also found myself neglecting my fitness as well.

As a consequence I have decided to start this blog, and my major intention is to use it too showcase my journey to better health and fitness.

I plan to utilise a lot of material from the Nerd Fitness blog and the many fitness and health diversity that have inspired me. Over the next few days I will begin to outline my long term and short term goals in far greater detail.