Open Source Human Project

Another Day 2 and another chance to finish this challenge. Twenty-eight days. Four weeks. Here to there. Last night was good. I fit in a short but sweaty run, cold shower, then some Mandarin study. Shaking off the rust. Had a decent sleep. Woke up today feeling good about life. Time management is going to be the next thing to focus on. Having made the decision to push aside other activities, I will do well to maximize the available time. I really should return to calendar use. Lists are not nearly as effective as a calendar. Calendars are honest. They tell you just how much one can fit in a day.

I'm starting to become quite familiar with Day 1... How did this happen? How did I fall short yet again? I'm not really sure, but I think it is connected with a draw towards comfort when I feel emotionally depleted. I also have made a mistake in counting on motivation and inspiration as fuel. Jocko Willink said it best, "Don't count on motivation, count on discipline." I have been counting on being motivated to reach my goals. I need to amp up the discipline. So that said, I am going to do something counter-intuitive. I'm going to turn up the difficulty... not just a bit... I'm going to turn it up to 10.  No sugar. No alcohol. No wasted time. No compromises. No procrastination. Yes exercise. Yes healthy eating. Yes study. Yes work. Yes discipline. Simple.  Let's go.

Not really though. I'm actually quite excited to finally gain traction on my efforts. Today is the the fourth consecutive day which I have avoid sugar... and I wish I could say that I feel as great as I had hoped, but something has been holding me back. I have a deep love for the taste of beer, especially IPAs. Admittedly, I have leaned on beer a bit heavily in the last few nights. I can almost feel my body craving something to compensate for the absence of sweet rewards. That said, I will be cutting out alcohol for a while, at least the duration of this challenge. Interesting how cutting one thing out is now leading to another... we will see how this goes. Keeping it light. Keeping it easy. Still running. Still taking cold showers. Still loving life. Staying strong.

I fell off the wagon again. Would you believe it was the same temptation as last time? Freezies... One thing is different this time around. I'm not being as hard on myself. I recognize that I am experiencing difficulties with this challenge, but that is no reason to quit. In fact, I feel quick invigored each reset, as I feel this is a process.  On another note, I am pleased to have found a group of people in the neighborhood who play soccer routinely. Last night we kicked the ball around in the field for just over an hour. It was wonderful. I also ended up meeting some neighbors this way. Looking forward to making a regular event out of this. No lofty proclamations this morning. Simply an update and reaffirmation that I am moving forward.

Today is a chance to continue moving forward, despite my shortcomings. Last night I found myself a bit compromised after having a few IPAs. Not the worst sleep, though not the best. Today I will begin slowing the beer consumption. I am telling myself now to abstain from consumption of beer until Friday, and then, ensure that I only consume a single beer. I have a confession... I think I may be addicted to craft IPAs. Something about the bitter notes in the hops just keeps me thirsty for more. It doesn't help that IPAs are usually heavier on the calories. Calories that I don't need. Calories that are keeping me from my goals. Even saying that to myself, through these words as I type, I feel motivated to abstain. This morning I switched the podcast listening back to Lex Fridman . In this episode he is interviewing David Sinclair, another inspirational figure. David Sinclair is brilliant man who is focused on extending length and quality of human life through his research. I'...

Day 2 is going well. I woke this morning with enough motivation to commit to some jump-rope (which I am terrible at) and a light calisthenic workout. I've been wanting to improve my exercise tool-kit by learning new exercises so later today I'll be spending some time studying and putting together a program to follow in the days to come.  Working out in the morning really was a great idea. I did not push it hard, just enough to get some sweat going, then hopped in for a cold shower. I've been learning new things about cold-shock methods through the podcast of  Andrew Huberman  and how it affects hormones. I could try to reiterate what he explained, but I seriously recommend listening to his episode on the topic as his method of delivery vastly out-performs my own.  I cannot stress how useful and abundant with information this podcast has been. Huberman has a brilliant way of explaining complex information into easily digested portions. I first encountered him during ...

Well shucks, this is hard. Despite my best efforts I cannot seem to pull myself away from the lure of the sweet devil that is refined sugar. Can I blame the kids? Everything was fine until the ice-cream sandwiches arrived. What matters most is not letting a few slip ups prevent me from blasting forward. I'm incredibly motivated to have this challenge completed and behind me because I know that on the other side I will be better for it. So here we go, a fresh start. Day 1. Aside from my efforts to abstain from sugar, I've been taking advantage of higher energy levels and beautiful weather by committing to a daily routine of soccer training drills. There is an opportunity to play more (once this damn pandemic lockdown is lifted) since a lot of people at my new place of work play often. I would really like to get back into playing soccer on a regular basis for many reasons. It is a great cardio workout, and keeps the mind sharp as things on the field happen fast. I've also not...

Another day, another opportunity to meet the challenges put forward. There were a few moments last night where I was very tempted to indulge. I even considered cancelling everything until I reminded myself that quitting is the easiest thing to do, though quitting won't get me to where I want to be. Everyday, for the last 3 months, I have been taking cold showers in the morning. This is a practice that came to me after a deep-dive into Stoicism. Plenty of discussions on this philosophy have been had in the realm of self-improvement and motivation. At the time I was doing shift-work stacked with a long commute. My daily work schedule involved waking up at 2AM. Cold showers were not only effective at waking me up, but also contributed to my ability to commit to such a challenging schedule. I committed to 6 months of cold showers before stopping. Looking back at the time between starting them again I can definitely say that cold showers help me stay focused on macroscopic goals. Any wo...

Well that was a poor first attempt. I was doing great on the no-sugar challenge... until last night when I auto-piloted to the deepfreeze and devoured two freezies...  A cheat is a cheat... and now I must roll-back to the start, as I really do want this to be a pure experience.  In other news, leading up to this challenge I had begun experimenting with the 18:6 intermittent fasting ratio. Having commited to that for several weeks I must say that I rather do enjoy what it does for me.  I was also surprised at how well I was able to commit to a 20:4 ratio one day and able to fit in a 5 km run at a moderate 5:34/km pace. Today I was able to extend my run distance to 6.5 km at a 5:32/km pace. Ran at noon and ate 1 hour past my run. Today lunch is roasted salted almonds, a mandarin orange, and a banana. Making sure I am drinking my daily quota of water. Thinking that I would like to create a template of sorts for my daily posts... something that highlights what I eat, what I d...