Day 860 & Barcelona Biking

Day 860 Record Keeping
Day 832 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 706 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min)
Day 246 Rowing (30 min biking, 30 min walking)
—–
Eating
Day 84 Pantry Check
Day 82 Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 15 Bacon & Water 71
Day 15 Sleep Recording 70 (11:50|12:15|11:30|12:30)
—
Great sleep, good wakeup. Woke up at 7:30, then fell back asleep. Should have just woke up anyways, but it worked out. 

Barcelona Biking

Since it was such a gorgeous day, I decided to go to the beach and walk and bike instead of sticking to my strict habit of rowing.

The city bike share is really handy. Got my card which allows me to take a bike from one of the bike stands and cycle for 30 minutes.

It’s super handy because I don’t have to worry about having my bike stolen or finding a good place to chain my bike up.

I used to bike a lot when I was younger. It was one of the few things that was my go to for complete relaxation. The last 8 years I really haven’t gotten back into it - the last 2 years it was mostly because I was bouncing through cities and countries that often didn’t have such a bike programs and for some reason I didn’t feel like the short period of time justified purchasing a bike. I had a bike in Korea, but only at the very end of my time there, and it wasn’t the greatest city to bike through.

Since there’s also a great beach nearby with great accessibility, bike lanes, a boardwalk, etc, and it’s summer, the siren song of the outdoors is once again calling to me like it did so long ago. I want to be an outdoors person again - it’s one of the big identity changes I want to make with this project - so it makes sense to change up my long slow cardio days once in a while.

Slavish devotion to routines is very compelling to me because it works, and deviations have often resulted in extreme disruptions to my self improvement. For someone who has struggled for so long to make changes, and is finally doing it because of that devotion, the fear messing it all up is understandable. 

But this project isn’t just about ruthlessly accomplishing skills and changes robotically; it’s also about using productivity to live life more fully.

I think both sides - adaptability to take advantage of opportunities like this and extreme regularity are needed for true success. It will be interesting to see where that balance lies.

Either way I had a fantastic time completing my “rowing” habit today (I’ll have to rename that again!). 

Day 173, Bacelona Food, &Thoughts on the Superman Sleep Cycle

Day 132 Record Keeping SRHI = 84
Day 141 Fixed Meditation SRHI = 82
Day 87 Bodyweight Exercise SRHI= 80 (30 sec 1-legged planks)
Day 14 Writing = 31
Day 187 Eating SRHI = 64
Great sleep, dragging today. 

Barcelona Food

Felt more automaticity start to return to my eating habit yesterday. I find it interesting that this is starting to feel like an upswing in this habit. I had, in my mind, pegged it for around a year. If that is the case, the halfway point where I should be experiencing an upswing in ease of automaticity would be about day 183, and I started experiencing it on day 185. Very interesting.

I was initially worried that the food here in Barcelona would be quite challenging. A friend described that every meal comes out with platters of bread - not exactly Primal.

But so far I’ve found it pretty easy. And I’ve started by saying no to the bread - either by asking them not to bring it out or by just ignoring it on the table. Starting out in a new place will hopefully underscore the habit. I do have to be careful about hidden ingredients - Gazpacho, though having the general appearance of a cold veggie soup can have bread blended in to add with thickness. As can some types of chorizo.

But generally things are much easier because there is variety and because it’s Europe and because it’s touristy. People speak English and and restaurants are used to picky customers. Things have labels - chorizo will say if it contains gluten - a big plus.

Superman Sleep Cycle
It’s interesting that habit seems to have some sort of correlation to days, cycles, and sleep. I don’t think of habits forming just because of repetition. If I execute a habit like…idunno…flossing 10 times in one day, I don’t see the habit as forming the same as if I had done the habit once per day for 10 days. There might be a correlation - it might form faster, but I don’t think it would form the same….though this definitely is a point in the whole habit formation subject that desperately needs experimentation.

I have to wonder if sleep plays a key role in habits. If that’s the case, would more cycles of sleep result in faster habituation? If a person were to go on the superman sleep cycle (6 20-minute naps every 4 hours) would he form habits faster? Would it correlate to 6 days of regular habit formation?