Day 1018 Record Keeping
Day 990 Fixed Meditation (20 min - incredibly good)
Day 864 Writing (3/20 min - incredibly good rewrite and research)
Day 404 Rowing (8x10 kbell swings, finally nailed my form)
Day 145 Mobility/Stretching (back stretches)
—–
Eating
Day 242 Pantry Check
Day 240 Food Recording
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Early to Rise
Day 173 Water (Totally forgot!)
Day 173 Sleep Recording (1|2:50|10:45|11:30)
Day 144 Bedtime Curfew 81 SUPERHABIT
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Ok sleep, good wakeup.

Great Progress Over Multiple Skills
My meditation was incredible today. It was smooth, deep, and I’m getting what pragmatic meditation practitioners are talking about with respect to noting the self.

I finally nailed my kettlebell form - or at least the back issue that I’ve been dealing with. I tend to use my back to pull more than my hips. When I properly hip load it’s a totally different workout. While standing I naturally over extend my lower back, and this problem is exacerbated by swings. As I hip loaded I also concentrated on tilting my hips to neutral by engaging my abs, which prevented over extension. This is really the first time that I’ve ever felt kbell swings as an ab exercise, which I’ve always been puzzled by. Now I know why - Thanks Dr. Kelly Starett! I don’t think I’d even know where to begin to try to fix it if it wasn’t for this guy’s material. I’d be endlessly cycling with swings and back pain.

And writing also went really well, in large part because of James Patterson’s special Master Class. I was able to see the rewrite process as a series of edits, rather mandating perfection from one rewrite. It’s seriously unclenched my writing constipation. I’m recording all of this, not only to send as an example to a fellow writer and friend that I’ve been discussing this technique with, but in order to hone the process.

My bedtime curfew isn’t perfect at all, but I’m ready to call the TinyHabit a superhabit now. It’s a weird one, so I’ll have to see how best to advance it now that I’m used to forcing myself to a bed time.

Over the weekend I’ll have to really ponder what to do next - start a new habit (flossing? making the bed? finance tracking? A general reading habit? Social media marketing?) or advancing skills (waking up and going to bed earlier? Adding another dinner meal to my Sunday Meal Prep? A 14 day mobilization overhaul?).

In any case I’m pretty satisfied with today’s progress.

Day 1016 Record Keeping
Day 988 Fixed Meditation (20 min)
Day 862 Writing (2/30 min)
Day 402 Rowing (4x10 kbell swings, for form)
Day 143 Mobility/Stretching (back smash)
—–
Eating
Day 240 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 238 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 171 Water
Day 171 Sleep Recording (12:40|1:30|11)
Day 142 Bedtime Curfew 80
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Good sleep, good wakeup. Back has been sore because of my last kbell hiit. I did an internet search on kettlebell form and ran into this link - Learning the Kettlebell Swing From the Ground Up.

They focused on one guy who was having back issues - according to the author of the post, if you’ve got this happening to you you are doing it wrong.

After watching the video I’ve determined that I’m bending outwards instead of forwards, and I’m definitely loading onto my lower back instead of using my waist. This soreness (and the cold weather) has messed up my workouts, cause I usually do swings when I’m back home in Texas. This is disappointing because I really have, looking at my body, made quite a great deal of progress that I don’t want to lose while I’m in the states.

I would like to try Crossfit, but having this back issue really frightens me even more - so I’m going to try to work out my form issues while working on the kinks in my back that bad form has caused before thinking about trying something new.