Day 959

Day 959 Record Keeping
Day 931 Fixed Meditation (10 minutes, really good)
Day 805 Writing (5/30 min, HARD)
Day 345 Rowing (HIIT, 17 min, 30s:60s, 3200 m)
Day 86 Mobility/Stretching (couch stretch)
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Eating
Day 183 Pantry Check
Day 181 Food Recording
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Early to Rise
Day 114 Water
Day 114 Sleep Recording (12:40|2:20|9|12)
Day 85 Bedtime Curfew 67
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Great sleep. Still hitting writing hard. I’m really weirded out at how good the quality of my meditation is since dropping down from 30 minutes to 10. I’m very curious if this is something I can mix in as a general strategy for skill pushes.

Day 907

Day 907 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits
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Eating
Day 131 Pantry Check
Day 129 Food Recording
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Early to Rise
Day 62 Bacon & Water
Day 62 Sleep Recording (1|2/3|12:30|1:20)
Day 35 Bedtime Curfew 70 
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Good sleep, good wakeup. Yesterday was completely interrupted by VISA paperwork - as usual it was quite stressful, but my reward for dealing with it did not involve breaking my No Alcohol Challenge, which I feel is a real danger zone with any negative habit or indulgence. When stress comes knocking, one naturally defaults. Instead I got Mexican and water.

I definitely feel that treats in the form of food are also not a good thing - but one thing at a time! That night I also decided to try making my own virgin mojito…sparkling water, watermelon, and mint. It didn’t quite work out to my tastes, though it was good. May have to modify it next time, but it was a good change of pace.

Today is day 20 of my No Alcohol Challenge. Per my initial formation, it should end tomorrow. But I’m not certain if I’ll do that. I’m thinking about just extending it to a full 30.

Lydia and I discussed how we would continue it on. She brought up the notion of either doing another one month on and one month off, where our “on” weeks it’s acceptable to drink once a week. I really don’t know what’s best, but I strongly feel that folding in challenges into a larger program is key. There are too many people who take a challenge, complete it, and then go back to exactly how they were and don’t push their base behavior line. I don’t want that to happen to me.

Day 820

Day 820 Record Keeping
Day 792 Fixed Meditation (31 min)
Day 666 Writing (2 rounds intense, 30 min each)
Day 206 Rowing (30 min, 5000 m)
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Eating
Day 44 Pantry Check (73)
Day 42 Recording
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Great sleep, good wakeup. I’m trying to stretch out my writing/work. Normally I do whatever I need to do, but if it’s difficult my minimal is 30 minutes. If I’m working on my blog or doing work, it usually stretches out longer. But since I’m working on a difficult project that’s quite painful, and I want to complete it faster, I’m trying to stretch it out.

I’m pushing my rowing by introducing HIITS. Since I had holes in my schedule last week (only did one HIIT instead of two, cut a few things on Thursday, and completely skipped almost everything on Friday)  it clearly hasn’t stabilized.

My pantry check is almost buzzing along nicely, my food recording is a superhabit, so I’m hoping it won’t mess anything up to stretch out writing.

It seems so little, writing 30 minutes a day and stretching it out to an hour. Especially since I wrote so much in November for NaNoWriMo, and because I’ve written so much in the past. But I want to really zone in on my weaknesses, and I believe this is how you do it - otherwise it just collapses.

I wish there was a way to measure the strength of the rate of progress in a skill just like I measure the strength of a habit. That way I’d know exactly how long to do a skill push before pushing more.