Day 316 and First Bridge to Standing Walkup!

Day 316 Record Keeping
Day 285 Fixed Meditation 
Day 231 Bodyweight Exercise  (bridge wall walkdowns and walkups)
Day 158 Writing (69 words, difficult)
Day 331 Eating = 71
Day 88 Work = 61
Ok sleep, great wakeup.

First Bridge to Standing Walkup!
I’ve been trying to improve my bridges because I feel like I’ve hit a wall. So I’ve been trying to focus on standing to bridge wall walkdowns. These have been going well, I think it’s more of a hesitancy and fear to go fully down without a spotter.

So today I tried doing a bridge (ground up) by holding the wall about head level (if I was doing the bridge on the ground). I had the strength to do it, which I was pleased about because attempts of changing it up by doing it on a chair just didn’t work. 

Then I thought to myself…hmm…how bout walking up? And I could do it! It was really exciting, and I consider it a big step in my bridge progression.

I can’t completely do it from a bridge. But it’s close. I tried doing it (I probably shouldn’t have done that today) from a floor bridge - but transitioning from that to grabbing the wall was just a little too difficult.

I spent a lot of time afterwards looking up walkover progressions. It’s exciting! I think I really need to focus on progressing - having books or chairs that are smaller to focus on the progress….I’ve been just mindlessly doing ground bridges for a while now - it’s good, it has developed my arms, but I need to make sure I know the next step to force progress.

Day 314 & Plateau Busting Eating

Day 314 Record Keeping
Day 283 Fixed Meditation 
Day 229 Bodyweight Exercise  (3 walk down bridges, 3 dragon twists)
Day 156 Writing (editing)
Day 329 Eating = 71
Day 86 Work = 52
Great sleep, great wakeup.

Plateau Busting Fat Loss
I’ve recently got back into the swing of my eating habit. It went from being in shambles to getting into high habit gear in record time.

But, I just had a conversation about how I feel about it - I feel like I’ve been stuck in a rut in fat loss for a long time. And I think it’s easily correctible.

But let me back up. In my first three months I had fantastic progress, losing 5 belt holes in size. That’s natural, and it slowed down. Lately my belt has been hovering between hole 6 and 7. I know I’ve been losing slowly - the pants I bought late in November are now getting loose. 

So I know that I am shrinking, just not so much around my waist. And perhaps it’s not a big deal, but I do want to really get a bit strict. I’ve been letting a few things go here and there.

In Texas, making wise decisions with the Tex Mex I crave so much of the year is difficult. Here in New Mexico they like beer and it’s easier to just have one casually with dinner. Also I find myself snacking on cheese a lot.

In my first three months in Brazil, I didn’t really eat cheese, and I really only drank red wine. I find that beer tends to make me feel bloated.  So I’m going to try to cut out cheese and beer. I’m going to switch to red wine again, and I’m going to buy some additional snacks - olives and pickles, along with some deli meats to see if it makes a difference.

It’s funny because at my parent’s house I feel very awkward bringing beer back to the house, but wine is more than fine. Here, for some reason I feel the opposite is the case. It’s probably all in my head, but I believe that part of this project is getting to that Zen place where I make choices that are right for me regardless of what I perceive is appropriate or not. 

I don’t want anyone to change their plans for my dietary needs, but at the same time I need to figure out ways without feeling guilty about it. I think it’s a really important mental state to be in for this project to work as a whole.

I just bought a new pair of jeans that are a little tight in the mid-section, so I should notice changes if this works. 

Lydia mentioned that one lady on Mark’s Daily Apple cuts out cheese, nuts, alcohol, and chocolate whenever she hits a plateau, and it works for her, so I think I might be on the right track here.

I’ve also started doing Tabatas - I know Mark Sisson advocates HIITS - especially sprinting twice a week to bust out of plateaus - so we’ll see how the Tabatas work out.

Day 310, Tabata, and Write Great Fiction Series

Day 310 Record Keeping
Day 279 Fixed Meditation 
Day 225 Bodyweight Exercise  (4 Tabata cycles - squats/mountain climbers/jump lunges)
Day 152 Writing (100 words and several writing exercises)
Day 325 Eating = 65
Day 82 Work = 54
Great sleep, great wakeup. 

Tabatas
I wanted to include more of a cardio element for the regimentation of my bodyweight exercise habit. Though the burpees I put in the mix are great, it does put a lot of emphasis on my arms. An emphasis that I already have what with my pushup progression, gripping a pole for dragon flags, and lifting up my body for bridges. 

It’s time to start introducing more lower body exercises.

I figured I’d start by Tabatas. Tabatas are a form of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) where you cycle from short bursts of activity with very short intervals of rest. The cycles vary, but for most it’s 20 seconds of activity followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times.

Today I used a free app - “Workout Stopwatch Timer” which seemed to work pretty well. 

It is pretty basic, but I like basic. I alternated between lower body exercises - stairclimbers, air squats, and jumping lunges. It completely wore me out after only 4 cycles. I’ll definitely have to work up to the full 8! 

It’s a good intro to lower body exercise. When I was in Spain my quads got noticeably bigger and toned because I was taking the stairs 2 at a time anytime I needed to get up to my third story apartment. Since leaving my strength has normalized, so I’ll need to start doing a squat progression soon.

Write Great Fiction Series
Plateauing is a big problem in self improvement. And though I am progressing solidly in my writing habit, I do want to improve not only the amount I write, but the quality.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who have writing aspirations. I always say that the key is to not just think of it as an artistic creative free spirited channeling of yourself on paper - it’s also a highly technical skill. 

This is fantastic for me - it allows you to rest on something that can be improved rather than “working” on a skill that’s completely vague. In that vein, I’ve realized that I don’t really workout my skill of writing, and I want that to change - I want it to be a part of my routine.

So I’ve started working on Writer’s Digest Write Great Fiction Series. It came highly recommended because it describes specific aspects of writing to work on with exercises - exactly what I need. I’ve begun working on the first book in the series that I got my hands on - Plot and Structure. My thoughts are to do this at least once a week.