Tag Archives: Project Polyglot Parry

New Year’s Resolutions 2023: Mid April Update #NewYearsResolutions

Background

On the 4th of January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions for 2023. Here is my fourth short update, three months later (check out update one here, update two here and update three here).

I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).

Me (04/01/2023)

Well, a consistent regimes of (1) jogging every day, and (2) junk comida portion control, mean my current weight is now 15st 9lb (219lb). That is solid progress. Let’s keep it up!

Holiday break

I’ve always had a problem with routines. I’m all or nothing. If I take a break from a project for a few days, for whatever reason, I find it very hard to get back into the rhythm. I don’t know why. It’s a real weakness.

I went on holiday on the 1st of April and got back this week. So I was really scared that I was go off the rails. As it happens, though, I only put on 1-2 lbs and have got right back into the swing of exercise.

Half way there

I am about half way on my weight-loss journey. At least, until I meet my target goal weight. But I am only at the beginning of my life-long health journey.

© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry

New Year’s Resolutions 2023: Mid March Update #NewYearsResolutions

Background

On the 4th of January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions for 2023. Here is my third short update, two months later (check out update one here and update two here).

I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).

Me (04/01/2023)

Well, a consistent regimes of (1) jogging every day, and (2) junk food portion control, mean my current weight is now 16st 1lb (225lb). That is solid progress. Let’s keep it up!

Wake up calls

I have now reached and gone beyond a highly significant milestone for me, namely, 16st 2lb. Here’s the story of why that weight is so psychologically important for me.

When I was about 27 years old, I had let myself slip into a weight-based funk; too many beers, too many pies, and I’d stopped running. I remember it clearly: I was in Malta on holiday, and I went past a chemist’s; it was closed, but it had a coin-operated height-weight machine outside it. Being a former colony, Malta uses/used our British system of weights and measures. So I stepped on the machine. It rang up 16st 2lb. I had never weighed so much in my life. I turned to see my face in the reflection in the window; I looked truly bloated and grotesque. And memories of being a small boy and asking my then rather overweight Dad how much he weighed rang around my head. “Just over sixteen stone”, he said. I had never seen my Dad so fat, now nor me. It was a wake up call, and when I got back from holiday I got real. I got back into exercise and got back into shape.

Years of good habits followed, but eventually I would sink into a funk again, partly due to mental health problems caused or exacerbated by rather trying life circumstances. And here we are today. But I’m back on track, and I mean it.

© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry

New Year’s Resolutions 2023: Late February Update #NewYearsResolutions

On the 4th of January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions for 2023. Here is my second short update, two months later (check out update one here).

I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).

Me (04/01/2023)

Well, a consistent regimes of (1) jogging every day, and (2) junk food portion control, mean my current weight is now 16st 6lb (230lb). That is solid progress. Let’s keep it up!

It also counts as another milestone achieved. To those who don’t know the British system of weights, we measure things in stone and pounds. There are fourteen pounds to a stone. Therefore, each seven-pound interval represents a milestone, namely, half a stone. Having now dipped below 16st 7lb, I have arrived at and gone beyond that milestone. Next stop? 16st 2lb. Why is this odd weight highly significant for me? Well, let’s find out in the next post — where I will have reached that target.

© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry

New Year’s Resolutions 2023: February Update #NewYearsResolutions

On the 4th of January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions for 2023. Here is a short update, a month-and-a-half later.

I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).

Me (04/01/2023)

Well, a consistent regimes of (1) jogging every day, and (2) junk food portion control, mean my current weight is now 16st 10lb (234lb). That is a great start. Let’s keep it up!

My other four goals on the list are in progress, but the achievements so far aren’t as solid as my weight loss. Therefore, I’ll update on those later.

© 2023 Bryan A. J. Parry

New Year’s Resolutions 2023 #NewYearsResolutions

Let’s get right to the point.

  1. I need to lose 50lbs. Simple as that. During Covid, I became the fattest I’ve ever been. Not acceptable. Current weight: 17st 12lb (250lb). Goal weight by the Summer: 14st 5lb (201lb).
  2. Finish editing my first poetry collection and get it ready for self-publication.
  3. Enter some poetry competitions.
  4. Carry on with my language learning programme (Basque) and meet my goals in it (not specified here to avoid a long post).
  5. Get back on the horse with regards my Spanish. Specifically, get back to practising my speaking using Glossika every day and watching Spanish TV every day. Sit a B2 practice test around the Summer to see how I’m getting on.

That’s it.

These things are important to me. I want to achieve them. These are SMART goals (some details left out to keep the post short) but with in-built flexibility.

Let’s see how I get on.

Project Polyglot Parry IX: Das reBoot 1

LANGUAGE LEARNING

This is my first Project Polyglot Parry post in exactly four years and four months and four days(!) Okay, I’ve been busy. Truth be told, I’ve done almost no language learning whatsoever in this period of time (hence nothing to post). Why? That’s a matter for another post or twelve.

Anyway.

Recently, I decided to get serious about it and jump back into language learning. I think I needed a full reboot (job/life/haircut), and that included my methodology for learning language. Weirdly, I’m starting to learn more-or-less in the way that I tell my own students to learn. Whodathunk that practising what you preach might be a good idea(!)

Anyway, I hope to update you and reveal specific details on a semi-regular basis over the next several months.

But that’s enough for now!

¡Hasta la Vista! (not baby)

© 2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

Project Polyglot Parry VI: Swedish Duolingo Accomplished! @duolingo #duolingo

ProjectPolyglotParry_face

I’m a real language-lover. Therefore, I’ve always wanted to be fluent in several languages. Unfortunately, aged thirty and after many, many false starts, I’m still only fluent in English! But hitting thirty made me determined that I will achieve my life goals — including fluency in several languages.

To keep my language learning on track, I’ve been doing regular updates. Read all my Project Polyglot Parry posts here.

I’m very proud to say that I completed the English>Swedish tree in Duolingo on 29/10/16! 😀 They even gave me this handsome (virtual) trophy!

dlswe

My next goal is to complete the Duolingo English for Spanish speakers course. At my current rate of two-three sessions a day, I reckon I can finish the new tree by the end of March. And after that, I want to get to the maximum level possible on Duolingo in Spanish and Swedish: level 25 (that’ll take a while, though).

© 2017 Bryan A. J. Parry

Project Polyglot Parry V: September 2016 Update @irishpolyglot #newyearsresolution @resolutions @duolingo #duoling

 

I’m learning two main languages, Spanish and Swedish. I’ve been using Duolingo to learn them of late (in fact, I’m more-or-less relying on Duolingo at the moment, which isn’t good; you should use more than one resource to give you good variation). I’ve been doing around 30 minutes a day for each language, which is the bare minimum you should do.

If you know how Duolingo works, I’ve just managed to fully regild my completed Spanish tree. Which is great news. Next steps:

  1. Keep the tree gold.
  2. Work on and complete the “reverse tree”; that is, the English for Spanish speakers course (which is a learnsome challenge). Then keep that gold.
  3. Start the online virtual Spanish classroom from the Cervantes Institute, probably at B1 level.
  4. Go and sit a B1 level DELE.

This will make me firmly intermediate in level. I should have started step 3 by Summer 2017, and maybe completed step 4 by the following summer. When Finish step 4, I’ll work out the best way to keep that level and build on it. The ultimate goal is to be C2, of course.

I was stuck on Swedish for a long time. I kept mucking up infinitives and this sapped my energy. But I’ve been powering on lately. Moving onto new topics has got me pretty excited. In particular, I have loved getting to grips with the kommer att future form and the håller på present continuous. There’s a lesson for you: don’t get bogged down on troublesome topics, as it will kill it for you. Just keep moving.

I hope to have finished the tree by 30th November. So my middle-term plan is thus:

  1. Finish and keep the Swedish for English speakers tree golden.
  2. There is no English for Swedish speakers course, so I need to start a distance / online / self-learning course at B1 level (I am, more-or-less A2 right now).

2016 actually marks ten years of learning Swedish(!) I’m pretty sure I should be fluent right now. Cambridge recommends 1000-1200 hours to be fluent (C2); so, studying an hour a day, I should have been at C2 level by 2010. But more on that next time!

© 2016 Bryan A. J. Parry

The Greatest Frustration Duolingo Can Give… @duolingo #duolingo

… is when you get a sentence wrong because you idiotically made a mistake on the ENGLISH!! 😀

DuolingoFail

© 2016 Bryan A. J. Parry

The Greatest Pleasure Duolingo Can Give… @duolingo #duolingo

…is when you finish one lesson but it refreshes more than one!

😀

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© 2016 Bryan A. J. Parry