Day 1536

Day 1536 Record Keeping
Day 1507 Fixed Meditation (10 min, samatha)
Day 1382 Writing (6, 20 min Pomodoros)
Day 921 Rowing (walking, 35 min)
Day 662 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, foot work)
–
Great sleep. In New Mexico. Things have been pretty crazy here, lot's of people gathered, so my habits have been scattered. Nevertheless, I'm doing some really good work with writing in particular. I've been meditating every day. Naturally eating has been messed up, but I'm not too concerned, since it's still quite easy in Houston. I will have to make a decision on what to do for exercise. Rowing clearly didn't work as well as it should have, so I'm definitely going to have to use a cross training approach. Unfortunately mobility is directly tied to exercise, so when there's in uncertainty in exercising, mobility goes down the tube.

Day 1516 - Moved Back to the States

Day 1516 Record Keeping
Day 1487 Fixed Meditation (10 min, vipassana)
Day 1362 Writing (7 13 min Pomodoros)
Day 901 Rowing (35 min walk)
Day 642 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
Day 292 Social Media (STOPPED)XX
–
Ok sleep. 

Moved back to the States.

It's been less than 2 weeks. I've surprised myself being pretty consistent with meditating and writing a lot, despite not recording it. Since I had to sell my rower in Spain (along with everything else), rowing has to officially change. Right now I'm just trying to get up to walking, biking, and maybe some kayaking. It's been hard - we missed one of our flights back and were "only 15 hours late arriving" (as my mother said). This resulted in some pretty massive jet lag. I also got sick for what seemed like the 10th time this year. 

This is a huge transition for me, the end of a full decade of living abroad as an expat.  What with all the change, I haven't had time to really think what I want my workout regiment to be. I'm seriously considering GMB Fitness, an excellent bodyweight program Lydia does with progressions. The more I hear about it the more impressed I am. 

I'm still contemplating reinstating my social media habit. I've put it on hold after reading Cal Newport's book on Deep Work. I definitely want to hold off on it until I get my proposal in. My procrastination protocol is still working like a charm even in this, the hardest writing assignment I've ever had.

One of the biggest reasons we came back was hitting a wall with mastering eating. Eating is a real lynchpin habit to me - it governs energy, aesthetics, health, and is a stepping off point for a lot of other skills I'd like to master.  But in Spain, it hit a wall - there wasn't enough space to store premade meals. Our meal prep was contingent on going to 3 or 4 stores to get ingredients. And that didn't even count for all lunches or any dinners. One of our main schemes with coming back to the States was the knowledge that it would be easier here.

And it has. The last week we went to the store, and bought all ingredients for a week. Easily. Hand chopping salads? Why bother, when they come in bags! You don't even need to zoodle your own veggie, they come pre zoodled! Making lunches has been utterly effortless, exactly what I want self change to be. And Lydia is going further with it. She wants to cook through paleo cookbooks and have a randomized list for dinners, so even the act of making a menu doesn't even come up at all!

I'm beginning to think that moving back was a really good decision strategically. Sure it's definitely easy to lose it with all the easy access to delicious food. But it's also really easy to make changes. I'll miss Spain but right now I think it's already paying off. 

Day 1252 & Southern France Road Trip

Day 1252 Record Keeping
Day 1224 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 1099 Writing (4 Pomodoros)
Day 638 Rowing (walking, beach, traveling)
Day 379 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip & calf stretch, achilles smash)
Day 29 Social Media (10 min, SRHI = 68)
—
Early to Rise
Day 407 Sleep Recording  (11:30|12:30|9:30|10:20)
Day 378 Bedtime Curfew
Day 216 Wakeup Alarm
–
Ok sleep. Missed several days last week. I intended to max out my habits for the entire week before traveling, but I couldn't finish out the week, which seemed to be due to delayed onset endurance depletion.  Now in Southern France and working. Stopped in Toulouse on Friday to meet a friend, then drove to Narbonne today. I'm interested to see how well my work will last through the trip - I'm sure it'll be easier since I'm traveling with two remote workers.

 

Day 1245 & Travel Sandbagging Experiment #2

Day 1245 Record Keeping
Day 1217 Fixed Meditation (20 min)
Day 1092 Writing (4 Pomodoros, hard)
Day 631 Rowing (40 min, 5700 m)
Day 372 Mobility/Stretching (15 min, hip stretch & back smash)
Day 22 Social Media (30 min, SRHI = 71)
—
Day 54 Monday Meal Prep (DID NOT FULLY DO - 3 meals planned, groceries done)
--
Early to Rise
Day 400 Sleep Recording  (3|3:15|11:50|1)
Day 371 Bedtime Curfew
Day 209 Wakeup Alarm
–
Ok sleep. Ran out of time to finish up my full meal prep, but will do so tomorrow. Also, Social Media looks like it may have it full habituation. We'll see in the next week!

Travel Sandbagging Experiment # 2
Last September I attempted an experiment using a technique I've called Sandbagging - artificially loading myself in order to lighten the load abruptly to simulate greater control. An example of this would be doing 3 habits, and when the going gets tough, just quitting two of them. The theory is that the first one will sail freely upwards (like sandbags on a hot air balloon) easily into full habituation.

This experiment involved Travel. In "Experiment on Sandbagging and Travel: Part I and Part II" I upped all my daily minimums for habits during the week before. According to one of my theories, Delayed Endurance Drain (written about in "Delayed Onset Willpower/Endurance Drain") the load of stress on the system manifests itself about a week later with ego-depletion and negative emotions. Do more this week and it's going to feel really rough next week. The theory was that if I stressed myself out through working hard a week before travel, I'd be expecting a hard load during travel, where I'd drop everything to really low minimums. Ideally, this would functionally raise self control levels, allowing me to nail my habits on the go, rather than just opting out of them and picking them up when I get back home.

It worked - though, whether it was because of the technique or because I'm just better at self discipline is anyone's guess. Still, I'm gong to try it again as I have about a week of travel through Southern France starting this Friday. It's not for work, and it's going to be really relaxed since Lydia and I are traveling with another remote worker who needs to put in 8 hours a day. 

For me right now, the Holy Grail of behavioral change lies in adherence to routines despite massive disruptions, like travel. Happily, I do enough travel to test techniques like this out, so we'll see if it works again!

DAY 1147 & Back from the States

Day 1147 Record Keeping
Day 1119 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 993 Writing (1 round/30 min)
Day 533 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 274 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 302 Sleep Recording  (1|2:30|9|1)
Day 273 Bedtime Curfew
Day 111 Wakeup Alarm
Day 28 Wakeup Walk 22
–
Great sleep. Nixing my Wakeup Walk habit for now. This has got to be a record for the shortest habit!

Back from the States
I had a fantastic time going back to the States for my 20 year high school reunion. I left on March 25th after sort’ve unsteady routines due to having a guest. I got back last week on April 12th after a mammoth flight back - What ended up being 5 flights, 6 if you count being rerouted to San Antonio due to a storm and only getting to Austin after sitting on the tarmac for 3 hours. Then a separation due to an overbooking on our last flight, which delayed getting back to the homestead for about 2 hours. And they lost Lydia’s bags! 

After all that, I was pretty down - I felt like I hadn’t done anything. But the more I look over things the more impressed at how much I’ve improved. The stoics about hedonistic adaptation - the more you get used to pleasurable things the more you expect them in your life. Well this is self improvement adaptation. The more you improve the less you notice your own improvement. You have to force yourself to recognize your successes.

I meditated a lot. I usually went to bed early, and even kept recording my stats for the week and a half I was in Houston even though I wasn’t recording anything formally. I did partial cookups every Sunday, going to the store and getting bags of salad and veggies to throw together for lunches during the week. I went on walks, did an instance of kettlebell swings, and went kayaking. I worked a bit and didn’t do any mobilizing. I did not record.

But man - that’s a lot for a jam packed couple of weeks split between two states. And what’s even better? I’m already starting up again and it’s been less than a week. It usually takes me a full week or 2 to get back to even thinking about starting up everything again.

My plan now is to just to stabilize my habits. I’m down to my daily minimums, and I’m not going to do my morning walking (big mistake starting that the week I was leaving, hehe). I have a long time of stability with no trips planned, so I can really hunker down and experiment, test, and add new habits. Jet lag has been horrible, and I had an immensely trying day emotionally today - but that’s to be expected these first few weeks back. Right on cue.

Day 1078 & Resetting Sleep After Jet Lag

Day 1078 Record Keeping
Day 1050 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 924 Writing (2/13 min, draft)
Day 464 Rowing (HIIT, 15s:60s, 14 min, 2500 m)
Day 205 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch, back smash)
—–
Eating
Day 302 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 300 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
Day 30 Sunday Meal Prep 71 (retroactive from Sunday)
—
Early to Rise
Day 233 Water
Day 233 Sleep Recording  (12:30|12:50|2|3)
Day 204 Bedtime Curfew
Day 42 Wakeup Alarm 80
–
Ok sleep, great wakeup. Woke up again at 3 am. I really need to learn how I can

Reset Sleep After Jet Lag
I think the biggest problem with resetting sleep has to do with my relationship with writing. Writing is my biggest challenge. When I started out seriously writing, I got more sleep because if I was tired at all there was no way I could choose the words I needed carefully and really think. It wasn’t like a regular job where people regularly show up with half a mind. As a writer I have to be totally alert and rested, and I can barely make it through when I’m at 100%.

I’m beginning to see that as the old way of doing writing. Rather than thinking of writing as a super cerebral perfect choosing of poetic words emphasizing specific turns of speech from the get-go, my new model of writing has to do with several passes done at a rather low thinking level in order to avoid perfectionism and resulting writer’s block.

Thinking less is actually pretty helpful for busting out a rough draft. Thinking less is really helpful for removing The Editor mentality when scamping for sentence level rewriters. James Patterson’s idea of progressing quickly through many rewrites to prevent getting stuck at any one point backs this point up. It switches the whole endeavor to a more mechanistic, workflow driven emphasis that has less to do with one specific success or mistake. I like it.

It also means that I should at least be able to force myself to get up earlier, for at least a reset. Unfortunately I’ve been doing my sleeping one way for quite a long time, so in the moment I naturally default to habitual behavior. Time to change!

Day 1069 & Back in Barcelona

Day 1069 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits
—–
Eating
Day 293 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 291 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
Day 29 Meal Prep Sunday 63 (1 hour for modified meal prep)
—
Early to Rise
Day 224 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 224 Sleep Recording  (DID NOT DO)
Day 195 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO)
Day 33 Wakeup Alarm (DID NOT DO)
–
Great sleep, good wakeup.

image

Back in Barcelona
Have had horrendous jet lag, hence why I’ve been missing. I’ve also had a guest and several back-to-back intense writing assignments. With pretty intense rewrites. I think I may have had a breakthrough in writing when it comes to editing and regimentation, which I’ll have to get into detail in another post.

I’ve had a lot of money stolen from credit card fraud that I’ve had to deal with. I’ve had residency paperwork issues. And I’ve just got word that my formal proposal got rejected. This has been disheartening to say the least, but tomorrow I intend to get back on the horse and figure out how to proceed. 

Lydia has been doing the Whole Life Challenge, which I’ve been swept up in doing as well. Normally I am quite hesitant about such challenges, but my eating needs a swift kick in the rear to get better, especially after being in the States for so long. But it has been rather intense, especially since I haven’t had a moment to really formalize it - also, another post.

It’s cold and rainy here - I had forgotten it was Winter what with the high temps in Texas and South Carolina. This has all conspired to make this an incredibly difficult time for me, but despite it all, it’s good to be back home.

On a solid good note I automatically got back onto Sunday Meal Prep after such a long absence. At last, a bit of a silver lining!

But looking at all of this stress summed up in one spot, I have to say that I’m taking all of this quite calmly - that alone is a function of just how far I’ve come.

Day 1060

Day 1060 Record Keeping
Day 1032 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 906 Writing (6/20 min)
Day 446 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 187 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
—–
Eating
Day 284 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 282 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 215 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 215 Sleep Recording  (11:50|12:30|8:30|9)
Day 186 Bedtime Curfew
Day 24 Wakeup Alarm 74
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. Still in travel mode. Excellent work, I think I’ve made a lot of progress in writing. Some things here while in another location aren’t quite do-able because I’m on someone else’s time table, but what I can do I’m getting done. Time zone switch has not adversely affected my waking up. I leave for Spain tomorrow, which is a really difficult time zone switch.

Day 1057

Day 1057 Record Keeping
Day 1029 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 903 Writing (2/30)
Day 443 Rowing (25 kb swings, 1x25, russian style, 25 lb)
Day 184 Mobility/Stretching (back smash & hip stretch)
—–
Eating
Day 281 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 279 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 212 Water
Day 212 Sleep Recording  (10:50|12:30|7:40|9:30)
Day 183 Bedtime Curfew
Day 21 Wakeup Alarm 73
–
HORRENDOUS sleep, slow wakeup. Lowered volume in kettlebell workout, low energy overall. Flight and drive tomorrow to Greenville, SC. I do like these later flights combined with waking up at a decent hour, as it helps me get my routine over with.

Day 1050

Day 1050 Record Keeping
Day 1022 Fixed Meditation (5 min)
Day 896 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 436 Rowing (bike ride)
Day 177 Mobility/Stretching (couch stretch)
—–
Eating
Day 274 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 272 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 205 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 205 Sleep Recording  (11:40|12:45|7:40|8:20)
Day 176 Bedtime Curfew
Day 14 Wakeup Alarm 68
–
Bad sleep, good wakeup. Traveled to Houston today. Did my meditation, albeit shortened, on the plane. Went on a lovely bike ride, stretched.  I’m very curious to see just how ingrained this wakeup alarm thing is when switching time zones and locations. As usual I felt so invigorated and relaxed after my bike ride. It really got me thinking about the value of self care, doing activities that fill me with energy, and of the importance of expanding base resources - All variables I have not taken seriously in this project.

Day 1036

Day 1036 Record Keeping
Day 1008 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 882 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 422 Rowing (100 kb swings, 4x25, Russian style, dropped to 15 lbs)
Day 163 Mobility/Stretching (back smash, hip smash)
—–
Eating
Day 260 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 258 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 191 Water
Day 191 Sleep Recording  (1|8:20|10)
Day 162 Bedtime Curfew
–
Good sleep, great wakeup. Got to Albuquerque late last night. Was busy today. Getting into colder weather and higher altitude always gets me tired. 

DAY 1000 !!!!!

Day 1000 Record Keeping
Day 972 Fixed Meditation (DID NOT DO)
Day 846 Writing (1 round/30)
Day 386 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 127 Mobility/Stretching (neck stretch with mom)
—–
Eating
Day 224 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 222 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 155 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 155 Sleep Recording  (DID NOT DO)
Day 126 Bedtime Curfew 66
–
Great sleep. Traveled back home to Texas, arrived over the weekend. It’s been a 1,000 days of recording! I’m very proud, and very bitter.

I’ve been trying to get my mom to start recording as a base for a solid meditation habit - yesterday I emphasized creating a solid recording habit, because, oddly enough, just recording your recording makes a huge difference in sticking to any routine. So more than anything, I have to take pride in that - that even if today’s behaviors weren’t all accomplished, despite a lot of travel and a lot of interruptions, I recorded.

But I wanted my 1000th day to be smooth - a perfect day of a perfect set of flowing routines. Today was not that. I had difficulty starting my writing, I didn’t have time to exercise. Pantry check, food recording, water, sleep recording - all of that was thrown out of joint today. And the jet lag has made everything just a hair more difficult to focus on and do.

The day started well enough - traveling this direction naturally has me up early. But I wanted to talk to my mom, so I was less focused. I offered to drive her downtown, which took hours (since it’s Houston), and I hung out at the kitchen table afterwards, inviting a great conversation with my dad - to the detriment of my writing.

I don’t regret those things. And perhaps that’s what I learned the most, through the anger at the inability to force circumstances towards habit completion: That these routines are my tool - to be used, or, like today, to be dropped for greater goals -  like reconnecting with people after a year and a half abroad.

My mom said that being driven was really appreciated; it relaxed her on a day when she needed it. That’s got to count for something.

Day 946

Day 946 Record Keeping
Day 918 Fixed Meditation (10 minutes, really good)
Day 792 Writing (2/30 min, hard)
Day 332 Rowing (walking, 1 hour)
Day 73 Mobility/Stretching (couch stretch)
—–
Eating
Day 170 Pantry Check
Day 168 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 101 Water
Day 101 Sleep Recording (1|4|12:20|1:40)
Day 74 Bedtime Curfew 74
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. Thinking about either adding a new “Early to Rise” mini habit or pushing a skill. Eating is surprisingly going fairly well. Will be going on a 3 week trip around Spain and Morocco, so will probably try to do that travel sandbagging protocol that I did for Aruba soon.

Day 923

Day 923 Record Keeping
Day 895 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 769 Writing (1234 words/29 min, 2 warmups)
Day 309 Rowing (HIIT, 18.5 min, 30s:30s, 3500 m)
Day 50 Mobility/Stretching 80 (Couch stretch)
—–
Eating
Day 147 Pantry Check
Day 145 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 78 Bacon & Water
Day 78 Sleep Recording (1|4:30|11:30|11:50)
Day 51 Bedtime Curfew 76
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. Was planning on taking Labor Day off, just ended up doing anything anyway. I’m fiddling around with the way I do my writing, larger post on that later. Will be upping all daily minimums later in the week to test out a theory on sandbagging, as I will be traveling for a conference next week.

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)
—–
Eating
Day 114 Pantry Check
Day 112 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 45 Bacon & Water
Day 45 Sleep Recording (1|1:30|12:30|12:45)
Day 17 Bedtime Curfew 58
–
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.

Delayed Onset Willpower/Endurance Drain

In the post entitled “Why Do Depletion Days Happen?” I asked the question - why do I have some low willpower/endurance days?

There must be a reason. And in the post entitled “Right on Schedule: Emotional Breakdowns a Week into New Habits” I talk about noticing a trend in emotional fluctuations (normally combined with low willpower/endurance) when exerting discipline to start a new habit.

Lydia has noticed that this also occurs the second week of really pushing a habit. In fact, a lot of my recent questions has to the efficacy of the entirety of the project could be laid at this door. After all, I had been roughly a week into the DiSSS protocol for writing when I essentially had a melt down.

But with my recent travel I’ve also noticed that in the past I’d often have the wherewithal to perform habits while traveling but would be exhausted the day or two after even when I had plenty of time to do them.

I’ll call this Delayed Endurance Drain. What is this? The theory is that if we use the engine metaphor, where forward momentum equals habits, and mastery, drag is caused by higher degrees of Endurance that overwork the system’s threshold. Too much, and drag forces (ego depletion, endurance depletion, negative emotions) come into play.

In this case the endurance load takes a while to settle. For a new habit, it may be week two, as it seems to be the case for pushing a new skill towards mastery. For travel, it’s the day after that the load settles, causing setbacks.

What’s this mean? Protocols should be enabled during these breaking points - lowered thresholds, or even a strategic planned “weekend” for those days to conserve strength.