100 Push Ups in a Day

On my bucket list I wrote that I wanted to do 100 push ups in a day.

What I meant when I wrote that was to have something like a single workout where I did 100 push ups, maybe something like 5 sets of 20.

Nonetheless, a goal is a goal, so I decided to try to get 100 push ups here in the last day of August.  After all, I am going to take 1 week off weight training after today, and then 3 weeks of just doing some strength training/maintenance, rather than working toward hypertrophy (muscle growth).

100 push ups in a day is probably not that impressive, but it was actually a challenge for me; in fact, a few weeks ago I failed in an attempt.  I made three adjustments to make this attempt work: 1.) I waited an hour between sets, instead of the 30 minutes I tried last time 2.) I made a conscious effort to stretch more 3.) many of my sessions included a warm up set.

Here's the the workouts I did to get to 100 push ups today.

workout 1:   4 push ups.  Then 12.
workout 2:  14 push ups.  Then 8.
workout 3: 12 push ups.
workout 4: 12  push ups.
workout 5: 12  push ups.
workout 6: 4 push ups.  Then 10.
workout 7: 10  push ups.
workout 8: 2 push ups.

Could I have done more on workout 8?  Almost certainly.  But I am going to spend a month resting so my body doesn't suffer from over-training.

It just feels good to get something else crossed off the bucket list.

Two Lessons at the End of a Mini-Retirement

So far in my teaching career, I have thought of every summer as a "mini-retirement."

This summer I learned it is possible for me to rest too much and feel adrift.  This all changed when I made my bucket list, and decided to instead treat it as a 9-10 year plan.

I have realized that when I am mini-retired, or even fully retired, I will be happiness if I mind these two lessons:


1.) I should at least one purposeful thing to do every week.

 I have discovered that I much prefer to look at productivity in terms of a week than any day.  From now on, I will be keeping a list first of weekly goals.  During a work week, I will then make a to-do list every day.  It's the only way I can keep track of everything that I have to do.

But next summer, I know some days will be days with a to-do list and some days will be resting and playing games. But somewhere in every week, I will be happiest if I am making real progress on something amazing.

2.) Measurable goals are my best friend.

If you can measure it, you can make progress in it.  If you make progress in it, it will become fun, even addictively fun.

It feels great to be able to say I am 15 pounds lighter than I was at my maximum.  Also, I have doubled the weight I can lift on virtually every major lift.  That's fun.

My spin off goal from getting my royal flush is to get a million play chips on PokerStars under my current account.  Well, I am now 1/10th of the way there:

(It says I have over 100,000 chips)

For the purposes of fun, it doesn't matter how mechanical the goal is.  For example, the way I have crossed the 100,000 chip mark is by playing a bunch of hands of Zoom poker, but as tightly and uncreatively as possible.  As long as you are "improving your score," the process is fun, at least compared to doing nothing all day.

And, when self-employed, I can always take a break whenever it gets dull.

If I Knew Then. . .

There is an easier way to get a Royal Flush than the path I took.   It's by playing Poker Squares, which is a solitaire game.  Chinese Poker might give you the advantage of 13 cards to make your Royal Flush, but Poker Squares gives you 25 cards.

Still, having played a decent amount recently, I don't think you can guarantee a Royal Flush in one afternoon of play.  But, if you are on a short schedule for achieving a Royal Flush, I recommend Poker Squares. 

Unlike Chinese Poker, I was able to find an online location to play Poker Squares.  There are trade-offs here, though.  The online version is  faster shuffle and scores automatically, which can save time.  Playing on own, with cards, however, allows you to play the "shuffle' or "switch-a-roo" variant, thus allowing you to shift the position of the cards, which is a huge advantage.  If you have a droid phone, there is an app with the shuffle version.

I was able to get my second Royal Flush (this one in hearts) on the online game:

With Royal flushes in clubs and hearts under my belt, I don't see why I shouldn't try to get Royal Flushes in all 4 suits.

Procrastination Chronicles #2: E-mail.

On the path to greatness, there will be 100 overcomings.

I will chronicle my attempts to overcome procrastination.  My technique is to start small, really small.

==================

I recently answered an e-mail that I let sit unanswered for over a month.  I file efficiently organize my e-mails, and so I had this e-mail front and centered and starred every time I opened my e-mail.  It seemed important enough to leave is that spot each time I finished working with my e-mail, too.

In my head, I kept thinking of the apology for how long it took to reply.  My excuse was that it was the summer, but that is no real excuse.

How did I answer the e-mail finally?  Simple.  I made the first sentence one item on a to-do list.  Then I made working on the whole thing for 25 minutes another item.  And, of course, it didn't take anywhere near 25 minutes.

It also helps to have other things to work on, though. There is a time for laser focus and basically strapping yourself down to finish something, but this didn't feel like it.  I would write a bit and then do some push-ups, or work on some dishes.  This let me clear my head, deal with nervousness, and have my sub-conscious mind churn out each next little bit.

And the e-mail got done, leaving me wondering why that was so difficult.

ADCR Doesn't Work for Me

I have been doing alternate day calorie restriction, and while I have been losing weight still, I just can't keep doing it, at least not the way I have been.  What I refuse to do is quietly re-gain the weight.  I must find something that works and allows me to keep losing.

I have noticed that lunch goes fine with the ADCR diet.  I can satisfy hunger pangs with a really low calorie meal.  It's dinner that gives me the problem.  After a super-light dinner I find myself with very low energy in the evening and then an inability to think about anything other than food.  With the school year in swing, I need those productive hours.

It all came to a head when my wife noticed I could barely focus on what she was saying.  She said, really insisted, I needed to eat.  So, I broke my rules and ate a sandwich.  I hate breaking rules, but I think system needs to be changed, at least for me.

One diet that has worked for me is restricting my calories  to under 1,200 a day 6-days a week and then having Sunday as a "free day."  I lost 12.5 pounds in 3 months that way.  I lost at a quicker rate with the Slow Carb diet, but it just doesn't fit my life right now.

Also I observed that the calorie restriction diet went fine for the most part, but created extreme cravings in my 4th month.  That is something I will have to watch out for later on.

So here's what I've been doing for about a week:

I am eating really light lunches, very similar to those I had when I was trying ADCR, which, with skipping breakfast, would mean I would go 24 hour periods (dinner to dinner) on something like 200-300 calories. The extra hundred calories will be consumed at 4:00 pm in the form of extra light tasting olive oil, as proscribe by the Shangri-La Diet.  This leaves me up to 900 calories to eat at dinner.  All I have to do is not go insane, and I can meet that.  I let myself eat any type of food, and I often opt for something light and supplement it with a cheese sandwich with mustard on it.

Here are my morning weigh-ins since I hit the milestone of breaking 190 pounds:

8/3    189.2  (Sunday free day!)
8/4    191.9
8/5    194.1
8/6    189.2
8/7    190.1  (gave up on ADRC)
8/8    189.2
8/9    192
8/10  190.6   (Sunday free day!)
8/11  193.3
8/12  191.8
8/13  190.1
8/14  188.2
8/15  187.4
8/16  187.2

So, this every day restricted calorie diet seems to be a solid way to go.  I made the point to my wife that the Slow Carb diet and ADRC might have trained my body to start using fat more, and I know for a fact that ADRC helped me to develop the patience to deal with mild hunger, so I am in no way writing this post to disparage those diets.  They just weren't systems I could use during the long-haul of a school year.

Procrastination Chronicles #1: Weed Eater

To attempt to be poetic:

On the path to greatness, there will be 100 overcomings.

I will chronicle my attempts to overcome procrastination.  My technique is to start small, really small.

==================

Why have I not weed-eated (weed-ate?) any portion of the lawn all summer?  Is it a moral failing that means I will never, ever *really* be an adult?  Only a few years ago, I would have looked at it that way.  And that's a darn shame.



In reality, the first problem is that I had the wrong tool.  For some reason, in one of the rare occasions I have ever talked to a sales clerk, I was convinced to buy an extremely heavy brush weed-eater.  I used it a few times last summer, and it is just pure torture.  I would hurt for days afterward.

I thought about it for a while, and bought a more light-weight weed-eater.  Which ended up sitting in its box for a week.

A few of the days it rained, but ultimately the reason I waited was a small bit of trepidation about looking though new stuff and putting it together.  At some point I realize this wait was becoming some serious procrastination, so I went my favorite tool: the to-do list.

item one: open the box
item two: work 3 minutes to see if you can understand the wires, etc. 

The result?  In 2 minutes and 30 seconds I had the battery plugged in an decent notion of where everything should go.  Now that the project is started, I can be up and weed-eating in the cool of the evening or tomorrow morning.

And perhaps never again (or at least not for years) will I let our lawn areas look so unruly.  (Whether or not someone should even have a lawn is another question, one my wife, alas, has answered in the affirmative).

Beat Procrastination by . . . Starting

To beat procrastination, 90% percent of the battle is tricking yourself into starting.

One of my favorite techniques is to "half until you laugh," which means breaking the size of your "initial commitment" to a project in half, and then half again, and so on until at some point your initial commitment seems laughably small.  For example, I find myself procrastinating on something as tiny putting up dishes.  So, the mental game begins . . . Can I put up half the dishes?  Okay, half of half the dishes?   . . .  The lowest my "laugh point" gets is four.  How on earth can I not put up four dishes?  Over 75% of the time, I then up end up putting up all the dishes right after doing the four, but even if not, at least the project is started.

From the Getting Things Done (GTD) community, there is the notion of "next actions" (here is a longer explanation on a forum thread).

If I'm really dragging my feet on a project, I'll hack my to-do list by first putting the smallest step I can think of.  I'm talking "open box" or "turn on computer," things that small.  That lets me cross one thing off my list.  Yay!  Then, I put on the list some other absurdly small slice of the task.  I get to cross that off quickly, too.  Yay!  After that point, I can nearly always have something broader on a list, like "work half an hour."

I find you only need to baby yourself at the very start.  After that, you're rolling.

Case-Study: Why I'm Using Blogger

In many ways I am not a big google fan, but here I am using google's blogger software.

Also, my vision of a website is bit different from these template blogger pages.  And the kicker is that I could code the kind of blog/website, and customize it to do everything I want. 

But what do I want?  In a word: minimalism.  That is just about the totality of my design philosophy/sensibilities.  I like minimalism because clutter quickly overwhelms me.  I also like minimalism because I am lazy (too lazy to fail, perhaps?)  Once you have a good minimalist system in place, you only have to do the minimal amount of input in the future to keep it going.  

But, what's the sense in putting in all sorts of hours coding and debugging when I don't really have an audience?  That would be unnecessary work, and mental clutter.  And, because it was ultimately pointless until there are real people at the other end, it was a project meant just built to procrastinate.   

Posting here is quick, and easy, so if I make it a task, it actually gets done.  Something that exists is infinitely better than something that doesn't.  I want to one day make "crib sheets for life."  But even if I one day have this site, there will be people wanting to "read on" either to reinforce messages, for inspiration, or boredom.  Having a huge archive here will allow for that.

So first I'll try to get an audience.  Then, after if I have one, I can worry about porting either the audience or the content some where else.  Only then should I worry about making the clearest, most minimal experience for readers. 

How I'm so Cheap: Eat the Weeds

This is a video my good friend Ish Kissinger made of me eating weeds:



Clearly, this is the least expensive produce you can get.

How I'm So Cheap: Modified Navy Shower

Here's a video on how to take a modified navy shower, a concept I first read about at Early Retirement Extreme.




The only tweak that (as far as I know) I can take credit for is squirting the water on the soap.

I like the experience of it being a quick, cold shower, and I have now learned to find those invigorating.  I try to make this my default shower nearly every day, with a "luxury shower" on Sunday where I take my time with some hot water.

I must admit sometimes I take a regular shower when I just don't feel like taking one of these modified navy showers, but it's one of those things where doing the best practice 90% of the time still makes you better off then nearly everyone else.

Light Meal for ADCR

As I work my way back to a healthy body-fat percentage, my diet is Alternate Day Calorie Restriction.  3 days a week, I shoot for under 600 calories a day, split between the meals of lunch and dinner.

This is a very simple meal: 

3 slices of turkey bacon, and 1/2 a can of collard greens. 

Each slice of turkey bacon is 35 calories, and the whole can of collard greens is a total of only 60 calories, so the whole meal is only 135 calories. 

A big, heaping half plate of vegetables makes this almost (operate word *almost*) feel like enough to eat.  If this was the diet every . . . single . . .  day, I don't think I could do it.  As it is, this is just a game of divide and conquer.  This is enough to get me to dinner, barely.  Dinner is enough to get me to the next lunch, even more barely, but then I'm eating normally.  Heck, on Sunday (at least until September), I'm working out and then eating like a pig

This is a do-able.  And, as a bonus, pretty darn inexpensive.

Financial Sorcery: a Philosophical Defense

To be a true goal nerd, you have to win the money game.

This is because both a) money is the abstraction that gives you claim checks to the cooperation of people you will never meet b) the quest to obtain money takes away time from other activities.

Forging local-level acts of cooperation can be free, and probably is best free.  That's a key concept I want to explore with my garden more and more.  But building a robot?  Starting a corporation?  These and other truly huge goals are greatly facilitated by financial sorcery.  Once you have financial sorcery, you make all sorts of other cool things happen.

I see two strategies:
1.) have a successful business -- this can radically expand your means
2.) follow the path of extreme frugality or even slightly less extreme frugality.  A half-decade to a decade of this and your means are also radically expanded.  You can have the tools of time, freedom, frugality skills, and free cash flow to routinely get things for 1/4th to 1/5th price.  From time to time, you can do even better than that.

With financial sorcery, you can pursue certain goals (the kinds that require the cooperation of strangers) 4 times harder than you otherwise would.

So unless the goal is specifically about your own mind, body, or spirit (which are, I concede, all good places for growth), and only about your own mind, body and spirit, you need financial sorcery.

It is a key tool for social life.

Alternate-Day Calorie Restriction Works for Me.

So much about a diet depends on if it is sustainable.

Having a "cheat day" is one of the best features of the Slow Carb Diet.  I remember one occasion dieting and thinking with intense sadness "I'll never be able to that kind of food again."  That diet wasn't long in holding up.

I have to have a diet where I can say to myself "this is temporary, you can eat that snicker's ice cream bar on Sunday."  With an alternate-day calorie restriction diet, in theory I could eat it the next day.

Instead, I just focus on a Sunday free-day.  This is the only day I want to eat "junk."  Other than that, I try to for that mythical and ever-elusive "eating reasonably" on non-restricted days that aren't Sunday cheat-day.

Below is my feeding schedule here in August.  I'm trying to build muscle while either maintaining or losing weight.  So this month is an experiment to see if there is a way I can truly have it all.  In September I'll move my focus totally on fat loss.  It will be time for a break in lifting anyway.

Sunday -- "Break the fast" around 11:00 Weight training at 11:30.  Then eat whatever I want, shooting for at least 3,000 calories and 175 grams of protein

Monday -- Another 3,000 calories with 175 grams of protein

Tuesday -- 600 calorie day.  About 200-300 calories at lunch, 200-300 calories at dinner

Wednesday -- eat "reasonably"

Thursday -- 600 calorie day.  About 200-300 calories at lunch, 200-300 calories at dinner

Friday -- eat "reasonably"

Saturday -- 600 calorie day.  About 200-300 calories at lunch, 200-300 calories at dinner.

Rough Time-Line for Goals

With 9 years to  to accomplish my bucket list, this a sketch out how I could do it . . .

Next 3-years  Live by the motto "do not spend money."  Not spending money will get the house paid off in 3 years. Instead of spending money, I will focus on improving my health, and information work, like programming, and making content about gardening and time management.

4 years out use money for the learning projects that require materials.  This includes wood-working, tool sharpening, etc.  This is where I can figure out how to do my own work on houses (for my investment projects) and figure out how to work 8 hours to get an income that would support an Early Retirement Extreme Level budget.  If freedom seems nice at that point, great.  Otherwise, I'll use the money from working to achieve my goals of passive income, making it two times my needs.

Keep working on other goals.

6 years out  pick up another investment property, or equivalent passive investment.

8 years out pick up another investment property, or equivalent passive investment.

A Short Bio

Keith Huddleston was born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma. Voted  "Most Likely to be President" out of Norman North's Class of 2003, he decided he'd make a bigger difference by teaching.  He graduated cum laude from the University of Central Oklahoma, is a published author, has coached a state champion debate team, and currently teaches high school English.

I have now grown itchy writing in the third person, so I am switching back the first person . . .

I wrote the following in the Summer of 2014:

I believe in voluntary simplicity, and plan on soon having my mortgage paid so that I will never live in any kind of financial debt again (that's the hope, at least).  In the meantime, I have taken to the pursuit of games as a way to frugally spend my time without consuming manipulative plots that also have messages about how I need to be a consumer. 

I also have lost more than 20 pounds, and have begin to work exercise into my daily life.  I believe I was on the brink of diabetes. Now I feel younger and more alive than I have felt in years, probably eight or so. 

Life is more fun now.

I'm still frugal and I still believe in simplicity.  I have more or less dropped my obsession with games and now feel pulled to be walking outside on any remotely nice day.

I have also figured out a ways to overcome the blocks of procrastination and pursue some big, impressive (at least to me) goals, while still having a great time.

The Game after the Misson's Completion

It's a relief to have achieved my goal of getting a Royal Flush.

With the school year staring, my focus needed to move to other places, and now I don't have to worry about a hand quota or anything else that would make playing cards feel like a grind.

Instead, I'll work on other goals, and leave cards for a pass-time for either a.) when I need blow off steam b.) feel bored with everything else (it happens).

One day (read, the winter and summer) I will return to the game of poker with a goal orientation in mind.  I have other goals for the future of cards.  They are: 

• to be "profitable" at the highest level of limit 5-card draw, limit hold em, the mixed table with 8-games, and perhaps 7-card stud (and/or stud hi/low). 
• to become (for the second time) a play chip millionaire

To achieve those goals, I may have to set up schedules, study the math of the games and analyze my play.  But that is for another break.  It's time to bring on the school year, and close out this mini-retirement.

Update

Forget Poker.  And as of now -- December 2015 -- forget all games.  

Do You Believe in Mathematical Certainty?

YESSS!!!!

The poker story: 

I was playing short-handed Texas Hold 'em (50/100 in play chips) I raised with KQ, suited in clubs.  The board game Ac Kh 10C, leaving me top pair, and a flush draw. . . that would have been enough to raise and reraise with it . . . but then I noticed it was also a straight flush draw, no a Royal Flush DRAW.

And then, the Jack of clubs came on the turn.  As you can see from the picture, my opponents still bet into me.

The total pot was 2,825 chips.

Vindication of Heads Up Hold em as Strategy

I woke up and wasn't "feeling" the intensity of heads up hold em.  Instead, I opened limit Omaha, 2 tables of pot limit Omaha, and then one table of 9-handed hold em.

In 30 minutes, I only got to 60 hands of Omaha, and 24 of hold 'em.

The rate for heads up hold em is closer to 75 hands per half hour, and with the right opponent, who sticks around and plays quickly, it can get up closer to 100 hands.  In this case, I see the vast majority of flops, and there is few mathematical ways to push me out of a straight flush draw in limit 2-person game.

One things I have discovered  is I can play heads up while having an Omaha table open below.  That's about the max I can stack up.

Here's a picture of my screen  waiting for a heads up opponent:

I have the heads up waiting for an opponent, limit Omaha on the bottom, and over to the side I am playing a video of a Yale history lecture.

Then with the heads up going, I have the lecture turned off and have the remaining time to my session on the side.  This timer serves another purpose, however.  There are some plays that I want to randomize, like bluffs (against opponents who can make lay-downs) and calls (against opponents who are in the sweet spot of neither bluffing too much nor too little .  . . those are rare).

So, let's say I have decided I am going to bluff about 30% of the time. . . I look at the time and if the second hand is 1,2,or 3, well then I bet . . . even with air.

It all keeps me occupied and moving towards my goal.

A Lament on (closed face) Chinese Poker

Alas, if only there was a place to play Chinese Poker online. I would try to crank out 500-1,000 hands before the school year got into full swing and try to get my Royal Flush put behind me before working on other goals.

The only place to play, apparently, used to be the "Action Poker" network.  I, in theory, could download it using their "legacy software" but 1.) who would I play with?  and 2.) that sounds dangerous.

Therefore, Chinese poker with friends and family.

I am back to the head-up hold em as the optimal strategy.  I think I can fit 500 hands a week in.  So that puts me expecting about one Royal Flush a year.

When I get one, especially if it is the grind-it-out heads up fashion, I should say, "Do you believe in Miracles, YES!"  Do you believe in mathematical certainty?  YES!