Themeattics

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Damn, half way already? I feel like I blinked I January’s finished. Things need to slow down a little, here. Not that they will. They never do. I hopped on Facebook to get ready to share this post when I finish and was met with a memory photo of Andrew from four years ago, sporting his glasses for the first time with his school uniform on. That one hit me. Not really sure why – maybe because he’s the youngest, and in that picture he looked like it, where now he’s just another grown kiddo. Regardless, time really books it, doesn’t it? Next year, Luke will be the age I was when my family moved from New York to Texas and I met my best friend. It’s weird to think about. I still have so many vivid memories from the years he’s already been through. They’re all becoming the people they’ll grow up to be all around me, and I’m along for the ride, hoping I have done and continue to do my best to light their path by example and advice. Time will tell, I suppose. Always does.

Hoo, that was a tangent. Sorry about that, haven’t been pulled off-topic like that in a hot minute. Anyway, about 75 Hard. In case you’ve forgotten the rules (Which, if you aren’t participating, you likely have in these past 5 or 6 weeks), here they are:

• Two separate 45 minute work outs, one of which must be outside.
• Drink a gallon of water.
• Read 10 pages of non-fiction.
• Maintain a meal plan of my choosing.
• Take a progress photo.

That’s all daily, naturally, for 75 days. Today marks day 35, so not quite half way, but I’m only writing one article a week and on the weekend, so that was going to be the case one way or another. How have those days been treating me?

Let’s take this in reverse order. I’ve said for a while, and now really understand, how important it is to track things you want to improve. There are quotes floating around out there about the fact that if you can’t measure something, you can’t fully understand it and therefore can’t improve it. That’s not exactly true – can’t exactly measure writing quality, but it can definitely be understood and improved – but for quantitative and visual things there’s a ring of truth in it. For a long time I’d been relying on the scale as my measuring and growing pretty frustrated at the lack of movement. I dropped 8lbs in the first week of starting the program and have since not really moved. It was pretty disheartening. I say was because, thankfully, the guy that made the program likely thought that through with the progress picture. At a glance I can see that, while I haven’t been dropping weight, I’ve been replacing fat with muscle pretty consistently. So, while I still hop on that scale every morning, it’s not a driving force for me anymore. Improving is – I’ll touch on that in the last point.

Meal plans are hard. Maybe not for some people, but I have awful discipline when it comes to food. It’s good. I like it. I also – I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, and it’s really kind of weird – can’t feel the difference in being full and being hungry. It’s the same feeling to me. The decision to start and stop eating is just that – a decision. It sucks, but it is what it is. But, that weirdness is just what makes having a meal plan so important, particularly one that’s formed around portions. I’ve been using the Lifesum app to track my calories up to this point, and it’s been effective if not a little annoying. Anything pre-packaged is easy enough, I just scan the bar code and enter the servings, but when my super-awesome wife makes dinner, I have no idea how to track any of it and end up guessing. Not ideal. I’m thinking of changing over to Beachbody’s container system, but that poses its own challenges on how to treat combined foods. Sadly, there’s no silver bullet. In any case, gaining some discipline by sticking to a plan and tracking is an overall good, and I’m glad I’m doing it.

The non-fiction requirement is a bit of a double-edged sword. I am not a non-fiction reader. I tend to find it dull and unengaging, but on the plus side, only requiring 10 pages is a quick session so I don’t lose the plot as I sit down to read. I opted for a couple of books on writing, one covering the post-draft process through post-publication and the other on engaging readers, and have just finished the first one as of today. It was… fine. There were a lot of sections that had literally nothing to do with me, so there was time I spent gaining nothing, but it is what it is. Learning about the things that exist for people that aren’t like me can provide certain takeaways, I suppose. I’m hoping the next will be a little better – Kurt Vonnegut is tied to it, so it should at least be interesting. In the end, I wish I’d had a better idea of things outside writing that I wanted to learn about. The schism that split the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox in 1054, for instance. Oh well, I can just do that later.

I’ve fully adapted to the gallon challenge. No, not the one I did with chocolate milk in high school on a mission trip that ended up with it all right back in the toilet (Still cold on the way back up, by the way). I thought this would be a problem as I was pretty bad about my water intake, but other than having to pee like a hundred times at work it’s been easy enough. In a normal person without my hungry/full issue, I can see it also being a big help in dieting by filling you up with water and not leaving a ton of room for anything else. That sounds nice.

Ah, the two workouts. My nemesis. I’ve been working out in the morning before work, but for the longest time I’d been keeping it at 30m. Bumping up to 45 here wasn’t bad, I just picked one of Beachbody’s programs that are 45m and ran with that. It’s hard and the coach is great. Big fan. Program is called 645, if you’re wondering. Not the hardest of their set by far, but still enough of a challenge when I pick the right weights. No, that part’s all well and good. The problem is the 2nd, outdoor workout.

First thing’s first, I’m glad I started this in the winter. The idea of an outdoor summer workout in Houston is peak misery for me. I did Crossfit. Once. It was enough (Also, the notion of flailing kipping “pull ups” drove me crazy). My struggles are in two points. One, I just don’t really know what to do, and that leads me to either going on a walk/run, a bike ride, boxing in the garage with our bag, or some combination of the three. Just going between those things has become stale, and I tend to not want to give it my all because I’m bored. Not great. Two, I am a gross human. I sweat a lot and from everything. A 45m work out is not really 45m, it’s about an hour once I’ve showered and dressed. So now that’s two hours of my day locked up into this stuff, one after work when EVERYTHING ELSE is going on. It’s really a pain in the ass, but that’s by design. Still, design or not, I miss that hour.

On the plus side, however, this outdoor workout is the perfect place to get in my daily listens to the Bible in a Year and Catechism in a Year podcasts from Fr. Mike Schmitz. So, being bored with the workout itself actually gives me better opportunity to absorb those, which is nice. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy having a little time in the cool dark, just listening to the Word and hearing more ideas on my faith.

And, as I mentioned back in the progress pic portion, having both of these gives me a few places to track progress. Weight tracking sheets for the first workout, time tracking / distance tracking / how-long-I-need-a-break tracking for the second. I’m a stickler for competition, and the best way of being healthy about competition-for-growth is to compete against the you from yesterday. I take those opportunities where I can get them.

So, for all the little annoyances, I’d say it’s going well and doing what it’s meant to do. Glad I did it, and glad I did it now. Five-plus weeks to go. We got this.

— — —

The Three Skies article made me realize all these build sections should absolutely come at the end, and probably with a small separation, so that’s the format from now on. As much as I’d love 52 weeks of a build up top, it detracts from the article a bit in my humble opinion. Anyway – apparently, the last few years have been full of Marvel LEGOs. I had no idea we had so many. Guess another benefit of this whole process is figuring out what we have in the first place.

Off-topic end note: my inner editor loathes that I’ve been switching between numbers and the alphanumerics. Pain.