Day 961

Day 961 Record Keeping
Day 933 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 807 Writing (8/30 min, HARD)
Day 347 Rowing (10 min “Quiet Hit” Link Below)
Day 88 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
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Eating
Day 185 Pantry Check
Day 183 Food Recording
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Early to Rise
Day 116 Water
Day 116 Sleep Recording (1|3|10:30|11:30)
Day 87 Bedtime Curfew 72
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Good sleep. Finished my book proposal - I think I’ve now been working on that for over 6 months. Huge accomplishment. It’s printed, and I’ll do a final check before sending it off on Monday. 

Starting tomorrow I’ll be having guests and doing some traveling. By “some” I mean 4 countries on 2 continents! It should be really fun, and I’ll post pics here. But, I also want to know what routines I want to do. 

A friend posted a “quiet bodyweight HIIT” - something I’ve seen before, but never really did. I tried it today, and as he says on the video “it’s deceptively hard” - I could only do 10 minutes and I was dripping with sweat and totally worn out.

I’m going to attempt to do this, plus general walking and RECORDING it. I also want to do my meditation and concentrate on eating well. I did a really good job on my trip to Aruba and I want to see if I can up the ante.

Lydia also suggested I do something crazy - START a habit while traveling.For some reason it’s stuck in my head, so I might just attempt starting one of my oldest attempted habits, flossing, while on this trip.

Day 897

Day 897 Record Keeping
Day 869 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 743 Writing (2/30, really good)
Day 283 Rowing (HIIT, 14 min, 15s:60s, 2500 m)
Day 24 Mobility/Stretching 69 (hip opener, lower back pressure wave)
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Eating
Day 121 Pantry Check
Day 119 Food Recording
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Early to Rise
Day 52 Bacon & Water 
Day 52 Sleep Recording (1|2|11:40|12:20)
Day 24 Bedtime Curfew 63
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Good sleep, ok wakeup. Pulled something in my lower back doing my HIIT. I’ve been focusing on good form, but I’m slowly beginning to see where my weak spots are. Today for rowing I realize that I don’t properly brace my spine when transitioning between a slower pace to an all out pace, so of course something would happen. It’s nice seeing a clear if-then for all this stuff. I finished my workout and then did a lower back pressure wave with a foam rower, which relieved the pain. These twinges are bound to continue occurring, so I’m happy to have found this mobility stuff, and I want to be able to memorize all the self care for injuries and tightness. I’ve also found some other coaches that talk about all this stuff from a friend, so I’m eager to read about their techniques.

Day 890

Day 890 Record Keeping
Day 862 Fixed Meditation (45 min)
Day 736 Writing (3/30 min)
Day 276 Rowing (HIIT, 14 min, 15s:60s, 2400 m)
Day 17 Mobility/Stretching 67 (hip opener)
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Eating
Day 114 Pantry Check
Day 112 Food Recording
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Early to Rise
Day 45 Bacon & Water
Day 45 Sleep Recording (1|1:30|12:30|12:45)
Day 17 Bedtime Curfew 58
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Bad sleep, late wakeup. Day 3, No Alcohol Challenge. Increased time in meditation, attempted an easy HIIT on rower, first since tweaking my hip flexor and the first using Kelly Starrett’s strict form advice as advocated in his book, Becoming a Supple Leopard. Worked out really well.

I really really want to do another 8 week HIIT course, but A) I might be pushing too many things and B) I have to figure out a method to continue that course through the travel I’ll be doing in the next few months.

I have two goals - to be able to push multiple habits in skill level and intensity AND to be able to push and maintain habits while traveling. I think both are delicate operations but may be do-able.

Day 863

Day 863 Record Keeping
Day 835 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 709 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min)
Day 249 Rowing (HIIT, 20 min, 30s:15s, 4100 m) INTENSE and LAST DAY!!
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Eating
Day 87 Pantry Check
Day 85 Recording
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Early to Rise
Day 18 Bacon & Water 77
Day 18 Sleep Recording 73 (2|11|12:45)
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Great sleep, ok wakeup. Really depleted, but did everything automatically. Really intense writing session. Followed by my most intense HIIT and the completion of the 8 week progressive HIIT routine from bodybuilding.com! Which is awesome! I’ve noticed significant progress and body morphing - my legs and arms have gotten noticeably skinnier and more defined.

I don’t know what I’ll be doing next - maybe trying to push it again with the same routine but 3 days a week instead of 2. Or finding another progression. Or maybe shifting to more outdoorsy stuff. I’d also like to add other habits in eating and waking up early since my newest habits are almost superhabits. Perhaps a formalization of my Sunday meal prep, which I’ve been playing around with for the last two Sundays, or an addition of a specific cut off time to go to sleep.

I’m utterly exhausted, but the sky’s the limit today! :)

Day 854

Day 854 Record Keeping
Day 826 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 700 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min)
Day 240 Rowing (HIIT, 20 min, 30s:15s, 4100 m )
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Eating
Day 78 Pantry Check
Day 76 Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 9 Bacon & Water 61
Day 9 Sleep Recording 60 (1:15|1:50|11:15|11:50)
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Good sleep, good wakeup. Still under the weather, but managed to do my entire routine without flinching, including the most brutal HIIT, 30 seconds on and only 15 minutes off for 20 minutes. AND…it’s DAY 700 of my writing habit!

Day 833

Day 833 Record Keeping
Day 805 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 679 Writing (4 rounds of 30 min)
Day 219 Rowing (HIIT, 17 min, 30s:1 min, 3300 m)
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Eating
Day 57 Pantry Check (77)
Day 55 Recording
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Good sleep, good wakeup. Really awesome work on writing, bumping it up to 4 rounds. Started up my 8 week HIIT program, but I’m repeating the last week because of my stomach bug.

Day 812

Day 812 Record Keeping
Day 784 Fixed Meditation (21 min)
Day 658 Writing
Day 198 Rowing (HIIT, 17 min, 30s:1min, 3500 m )
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Eating
Day 36 Pantry Check (71)
Day 34 Recording (78)
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Great sleep, good but slow wakeup. Changed up my HIIT, was really challenging! Really good meditation. Good bout of challenging writing. For a slow wakeup where I didn’t really feel that hit of energy, I did really good today. Had a high carb day yesterday, maybe that contributed? I should explore this later on, perhaps I can time this for more demanding days - I know athletes do this, would this work for general habits? Cycling carbs and syncing that with heavier output or pushing a skill more…

DAY 800!!!! :) & HIIT Progression

Day 800 Record Keeping
Day 772 Fixed Meditation (21 min)
Day 646 Writing
Day 186 Rowing (HIIT, 15s:1min, 2600 m)
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Eating
Day 24 Pantry Check (65)
Day 22 Recording (75)
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Great sleep, great wakeup. If you would have told me that I had the capability to do any task for this long deliberately (without falling into it or being pushed to do it somehow) I would have laughed. I tried so hard for so long when I was younger - hell, even a few years ago - and to have gotten this far is really really amazing. 

HIIT Progression
Today I switched up my HIIT - I found THIS LINK on bodybuilding.com about a HIIT progression that changes up every two weeks for 8 weeks. I thought I would try it because I felt my HIITS were getting a bit boring, and I want to incorporate small cycles of progressions into all of my habits. Though it is absolutely hilarious that I can consider 8 weeks as a “small cycle”.

The change felt absolutely great. It was longer, with shorter spurts of all out effort. At the end I felt exhausted but in a different way, which is exactly the point. We’ll see how it goes!

Day 778

Day 778 Record Keeping
Day 750 Fixed Meditation (Did not do)
Day 624 Writing
Day 164 Rowing (did not do)
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Eating
Day 2 Pantry Check (42)
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Horrible sleep, good wakeup. Felt really depleted today. Today was supposed to be a HIIT, couldn’t face that or just a regular row. Emotional ups and downs yesterday and today. Since workout didn’t happen it didn’t trigger fixed meditation. Did do the first instance of my food recording, but because it occurs at the end of the day it will be recorded on the next morning.

Day 772

Day 772 Record Keeping
Day 744 Fixed Meditation (19 min)
Day 618 Writing
Day 158 Rowing (30 min/ 5000 m)
Good sleep, good wakeup. I have a friend who used to check out his muscles every time he did a few reps, as though he felt muscles grow that fast with so little effort. I’m cracking up because I have that same feeling today and yesterday after my HIIT, hahaha. Maybe there’s something to what the hard lifters and crossfitters advocate! 

40 Min. Quiet Cardio Strength | Low Impact "Quiet" HIIT Workout | You Choose: Day 24 →

I think one of the most interesting dynamics in self improvement are these tiny little walls. I started doing HIITs irregularly over the years because they’re great to do in a small amount of space anywhere. And since I travel a lot, this is a good thing.

But it’s not so good when you’re in a room with thin walls/floors and you’re above someone else. The courteous urge comes up - after all I hate it when someone’s jumping up and down above me, why would I do that to someone else?

This guy has managed to come up with a HIIT series that gets around that - it’s still intense, but it’s a quiet. Brilliant!