Day 1042

Day 1042 Record Keeping
Day 1014 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 888 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 428 Rowing (100 15 lb kb swings, 4x25, Russian style)
Day 169 Mobility/Stretching (back & hip smash, couch stretch)
—–
Eating
Day 266 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 264 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 197 Water
Day 197 Sleep Recording  (1|9:10|9:20)
Day 168 Bedtime Curfew
Day 6 Wakeup Alarm 61
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. Drank a lot more than I usually would. It had this weird combined affect with reaching out to friends far away. Either I want to drink while doing that, cause I crave that hit of friendship and connection, or it’s vice versa. In any case I still ended up setting my alarm, which contributed to the huge jump in SRHI scores today. Also ended up going to bed on time. 

I’m restarting my food recording after a while not doing it. I’m beginning to really see my pantry check and my water drinking in the morning as just unnecessary habits. I’m pretty sure about nixing out my pantry check habit, but I’m going to do a little more research on the water thing.

Day 1041

Day 1041 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits
—–
Eating
Day 265 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 263 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
Day 25 Sunday Meal Prep 66 (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 196 Water
Day 196 Sleep Recording  (1|9:30|10:20)
Day 167 Bedtime Curfew
Day 5 Wakeup Alarm 45
–
Great sleep, great wakeup. Setting that wakeup alarm was automatic. Really have to face my eating program because it’s falling a part. Was going to do my meal prep today but there’s a family pot luck that’s going to take a lot of cooking time. Plan on doing my actual meal prep tomorrow and starting in on that and my food recording. Food recording has largely fallen off because it’s so difficult to accurately track food that you are eating out sometimes. I’m not talking about fast food, or standard restaurants, but more interesting places, with multiple platters or things like potluck dinners. I am at more of a loss for how to deal with my pantry check, which might be more of a vestigial habit as it it’s accounted for with my Sunday Meal Prep. It’s also incredibly difficult to do if you are staying at another person’s house. I miss my own pantry and fridge where I can usually count the number of cans and produce on my hands.

Day 1033 - Christmas Eve

Day 1033 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits
—–
Eating
Day 257 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 255 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 188 Water
Day 188 Sleep Recording  (1:50|2:20|10:20|11)
Day 159 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO)
–
ok sleep, ok wakeup. Had a great Christmas Eve. Felt compelled to do meditation. Pantry check is something I did do, but only because I was making Christmas dinner. It’s honestly starting to feel like a vestigial habit in light of meal prep sunday.

Day 842 & Pantry Check Superhabit

Day 842 Record Keeping
Day 814 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 688 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min)
Day 228 Rowing (30 min/ 5400 m)
—–
Eating
Day 66 Pantry Check (81) SUPERHABIT
Day 64 Recording
—
good sleep, good wakeup. Tired today. 5 days over 80 in a row for pantry check habit - I’m calling it a superhabit. Now I gotta figure out what I’m doing next.

Day 840 & More Syncing and Eating Problems

Day 840 Record Keeping
Day 812 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 686 Writing (4 rounds of 30 min)
Day 226 Rowing (30 min/ 5600 min - Personal Record)
—–
Eating
Day 64 Pantry Check (81)
Day 62 Recording
—
good sleep, good wakeup.

More Syncing and Eating Problems

Today I started working and Lydia really wanted to get some food. I don’t constantly want to be a slave to my routine and say no all the time. I also didn’t want to mess up our syncing with eating later in the day. So I said yes. 

I decided I’d go out with her, get something to bring back, do another round of writing but not do a full 4 rounds because today is my HIIT day, and this one is the start of a particularly difficult one (for me). By doing another round, I’m still maintaining my if-then - writing then rowing - albeit with a pause before. It’s in the joints of the day that solidity in habits exist. I’d do that, then eat after rowing, because afterwards I usually shower.

On the way Lydia was excited to watch an episode of a show, and I did that because I wanted to watch something and I wanted to eat my meal hot. Then I ended up doing two more rounds of work for the full complement of 4 because I got too full and I didn’t want to do a HIIT after that.

I was still full, so there was no way I was doing a HIIT. I ended up doing my meditation next after taking a break because all these pauses and changes to my schedule (as well as my full stomach) messed up my rhythm, and it left feeling quite grumpy.  

Talking to Lydia after I got my head screwed on straight was interesting. She pointed out how much improved I was in all of this. Sure my schedule was off. But I ate clean. I did 4 rounds of writing. I did 30 minutes of meditation. I may not have done a HIIT, but I rowed 200 meters further at this time than I’ve ever done. 

I think I can take better care of timing and eating. I should make global changes - perhaps plan eating on Sundays, definitely get up earlier and make sure that my schedule is really hard to break. But there is no question that I’ve improved significantly since starting this project. Today I did everything and more despite messing up my regimentation - and isn’t that the hallmark of really strong habits?

Day 834 & Meal Prep Sundays and the Hangry Blues

Day 834 Record Keeping
Day 806 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 680 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min)
Day 220 Rowing (30 min, 5300 m)
—–
Eating
Day 58 Pantry Check (79)
Day 56 Recording
—
ok sleep, good wakeup. Despite waking up and not being able to go back to sleep and dragging, I did really well today. Really unfocused meditation.

Meal Prep Sundays and The Hangry Blues
In a previous post -  “Syncing with Significant Others” - I talked about problems Lydia and I have with syncing our eating plans. This came to a head again today. I haven’t started my “early to rise” plan and since I still wake up later, our schedules don’t always match up.

She wants to eat early when she’s at a breaking point in her day and she wants to at least sync up for dinner so we can eat together. She’s fine taking care of her own lunches without me, but worries that since I don’t get hungry until later in the day I won’t be hungry when she will be for dinner.

I am pushing and extending several of my habits. Writing/work in particular is being extended, and there’s a certain rhythm I get into after I start. It’s gotten to the point where I either am being forced into a wake up habit (which is something I want to do eventually) or I gotta break my rhythm. 

I have no problem starting multiple chains now. I know I can do this; my tea and food recording habit before bed has proven I can start new chains (perhaps with the aid of a ritual). 

I don’t however want to start a new habit of eating then working more. Mainly because it requires a more global change in my food habits. I need to plan at least my lunches. The last several days it hasn’t been a problem because I usually cook the day before and have those leftovers during lunch. It doesn’t really interrupt anything that much in that there’s no leaving the apartment or cooking anything from scratch.

Our solution, other than starting a wakeup habit, is to start planning meals. As Lydia mentioned, I’m extending more and more, of my habits so there’s going to be an inevitable point where I have to deal with those habits abutting against the need to eat whether or not I wake up early. 

We discussed a Sunday morning meal prep, a happy coincidence because I just stumbled upon a SubReddit for that - Meal Prep Sunday (and Lydia was reading about it on http://meljoulwan.com/) . The how of it all is still in the air. We’ve got a few ideas, and it will be my first foray into a once a week habit. This also has been inevitable - there are too many planning things I feel like I need to incorporate once a week. I’m thinking a ritual of perhaps gathering metrics and stats, course adjusting, meal prep, and later a social/leisure planning session might be just the thing I need for Sundays. 

After I grumped about having my work interrupted and grumped some more because I was getting hungry, we ordered in some Indian food with no naan (Naan is one of my kryptonites) - just curries, which are (mostly) clean. I don’t like planning the entirety of my life, but it is amazing how much needless stress I run into by not planning. We’ll see how it works.

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)
—–
Eating
Day 57 Pantry Check (77)
Day 55 Recording
—
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 831

Weekend Habits
Day 831 Record Keeping
—–
Eating
Day 55 Pantry Check (74)
Day 53 Recording
—
Good sleep, good wakeup. I previously defined today as my metrics day (every 2 weeks or so) for weight loss, and am seriously considering Sunday for forming a once in a week planning/metrics day. 

I think weight loss and metrics are a real pain, and I want to do a full post on it later. In meditation, progress is much more…subtle..so when I record things I have to record more than numbers. I think it might be the case for weight loss. 

For example, my numbers didn’t change today from two weeks ago. But I am feeling pretty bloated and gassy today. I’ve also noticed my legs looking differently - you know that feeling when you suddenly notice or feel a difference? I remember when I was biking a lot when I was a teen for the entire summer, I one day suddenly noticed I had quads. 

Maybe it’s the bloat, maybe it’s not. But my honest noticing of a body part becoming defined, and the fact it’s sudden, not an obsessive preening, seems to be at least a little worthy of inclusion when it comes to progress. Idunno, just a few thoughts that I hope to writeup more thoroughly later.

Day 830

Weekend Habits
Day 830 Record Keeping
—–
Eating
Day 54 Pantry Check (75)
Day 52 Recording
—
Good sleep, good wakeup. Realize I spend way too much time on the computer than I need to. My weekends also tend to be emotionally stressful on a consistent basis. I’m going to attempt a weekend ban on the computer, but not devices like my Kindle or iPhone. I don’t really have any physical books (the consequence of a minimalistic and expat/formerly nomadic life) and the iPhone isn’t generally something I use to goof around on anyway. Will record how it goes and how it affects me.

Day 828, Back after Sickness

Day 828 Record Keeping
Day 800 Fixed Meditation (32 min)
Day 674 Writing (2 rounds intense, 30 min each and a little more)
Day 214 Rowing (30 min/ 4900 m)
—–
Eating
Day 52 Pantry Check (73)
Day 50 Recording
—
Good sleep, good wakeup. Got a nasty stomach bug on Sunday, very little sleep, really weak. Finally recovered today and really knocked it out of the park. Very proud.