Active Recall!

Podcasts, videos, and iPad art

Road to 159: week 3 of 8

[todo – insert previous week links here]

Progress

  • Starting weight: 170 pounds
  • Current weight: 170 pounds (no change)
  • Goal: 159 pounds

On one hand, maintaining through a camping trip and baseball game is sort of an accomplishment. In the other hand: an enormous hot dog while palming the corner of a family size bag of sea salt potato chips.

What went well: Got the workouts in

It seems like RPT 3X a week is sustainable. Though that is much better judged in hindsight. (“This P90X thing 6 days a week is sustainable for life.” – me after reading a P90X sales page.)

But yeah the workouts are short enough that there’s not really much of an excuse time-wise. It also reminds me how good it can feel to see the numbers of weights going up.

Also: I did see 166 lbs on the scale before heading off to the camping trip. Yes, just removing water weight. But yes, it’s still encouraging. (Which seems fair since water weight gain can be discouraging.)

What can be improved: social eating, restaurant choices

Maybe I can actually order a salad? It might be allowed but I’ll have to see in the next restaurant trip.

Oh, if I could take one binge back: we busted out a bag of potato chips in the middle of a walk around the lake near the campsite.

I just couldn’t stop.

Or the pig inside me couldn’t or whatever I need to visualize. I didn’t win that fight-thru.

I’ll actually have a quick turnaround rematch though: we’re going camping again this coming weekend. Maybe I can kick off July—final month before I wed my friends—with a step in the right direction.

Experiment: Protein shake + Greens powder lunches

This is one of the short term protocols that Pat Flynn recommends for fat loss. Use protein shakes to replace some meals through the week. Again, it’s not a plan to follow for life.

(I’ll apologize to P90X right here because I know they probably emphasize some form of rest weeks between running the program again. I never got that far.)

I think I can do it because my hunger in the middle of the day is rarely the issue—it’s binging at social meals.

Info Diet – fitness content: Ryen Russilo

Ryen Russilo: Life Fitness Advice with Jeremy Scott — I’ve reached the “fitness for older men” age and am glad this is a heavily targeted demographic. Really enjoyed this episode since I trust Russilo’s BS filter and it had some good tips for the long game. (“The INFINITE GAME!!!!”)

  • You can hoop 5 days a week but you can’t do it and expect to lift heavy and slap muscle on — This mostly made me miss playing pickup basketball. At most, I was more a 2X a week casual. In any case, it was a reminder that fitness means tradeoffs. Yes, you should find something you enjoy. But don’t get too frustrated if it doesn’t align perfectly with some other results. I’ll try to put a day shooting around into my active recovery.

Don’t spend more on supplements than you do on health food

    — this episode did get me to start using the greens powder again. But I also know that I need to cook more meals and should probably continue searching for recipes I enjoy if this is going to be a long term thing.

Alright that’s solid for now. I’ll be back next week, after camping trip #2, where I’ve hopefully managed to avoid a crazy s’more binge.

The road continues!!!

Some Friday ramblings before heading off to a camping trip

I’m testing out the chaise-lounge-lapability of this Smart Keyboard Folio for the 12.9″ iPad Pro 2021. Gotta throw all the words in there. At some point I’ll make a video about why I went with this instead of the Magic Keyboard. (And am still tapping the screen like it’s 2017 instead of using a sweet sweet trackpad.)

Actually I can start with that for the ramblings.

… got distracted by Twitter just now and drew this thing which is supposed to be about how “visualization” can mean something in your head and something on paper and (WITH THE POWER OF DRAWING) you can turn one into the other.

Even better than that, it feeds back—you’ll always get more ideas while sketching.

Another nice thing: the chaise-lounge-lapability is pretty good so far, even with sketching! Didn’t have to adjust the iPad while drawing, though I did just need to lightly hold it in place with my left hand.

(Which I can’t show without taking a photo with my mouth.)

In any case. I’ll be heading off to some campsite for the weekend.

  • Title: “Best iPad… FOR CAMPING???”
  • Thumbnail: My shocked face and holding the iPad over a fire or something.

On second thought, I’ll leave it at home.

It’s exciting to be packing the backpack regularly again. Wait, I mean. It’s exciting to pack the GORUCK GR1 again.

There’s that Louie CK bit about how we use words like amazing and genius for the most regular things. On one hand, there’s some of that with how I just used exciting. On the other hand, a year ago we were still using both hands to wipe down our grocery deliveries with sanitizer.

So it is (actually) exciting.

Workout 6/23: Press & Squat

Check out the full notes for “Tiny Habits” by BJ Fogg

This isn’t heavy, I know I know. (But it’s heavy for me!) This is the risk of posting workouts online. But it’s a type of note and I’ll figure out how to sort this thing later. Not sure I’ll keep posting these but it does add to some of the Atomic Habits satisfying element.

Here I’ll grab a quote to make it make sense to share here.

I know I mentioned Atomic Habits, but Tiny Habits is a good one too. Here’s a quote about embracing the new identity you want to embody:

Identity shifts are change boosters because they help us cultivate constellations of behavior—not just one or two habits here and there. This is important because most aspirations require more than one type of habit change. It’s a set of new habits that will get you where you want to be—especially in the areas of fitness, sleep, and stress.

But it does relate to how James Clear would put it: cast votes for your future self.

If becoming someone who posts their workouts online consistently is what it takes to work out consistently, I’ll take it.

Todo: Category page updates

Just sketching this out real quick to capture an idea for the category pages, in particular for the iPad stuff on this site. There’s an ‘iPad’ category page but it just posts every single post with full content.

It’s just a
very
very
very
very
tall page right now.

Not super useful. If I want to continue adding smaller posts about things I’m using the iPad for then I need a little bit of a nav. This will likely stretch my template hacking to the limit.

But it starts with a sketch. Links on the left that will go to the full post.

Procreate animation: Bouncing ball | iPad Pro 2021

I’ve been doing a few more shorts (1-minute videos) lately and it’s been a fun format. I believe in a couple things but don’t apply them enough:

  • Making short daily content: I’m a big fan of the whole idea of consistency over intensity. I learned that initially from kettlebell training. But it’s been helpful to have as a mindset for side projects. Daily content is nice because it doesn’t linger outside of that time block where you’re making it. And it’s the type of content to practice building systems with. Still, I haven’t done enough of this and will try to switch that up in the future.
  • Sharing sawdust: This is sharing parts of your process or just other artifacts that are created when creating some final output. The example that always comes to mind for me is all the extra that came on the Extended DVDs for The Lord of the Rings. The extended films were sort of sawdust sprinkled back on. In any case, I understand that this stuff is worth sharing but I tend to overthink it. I start thinking I need to narrate over a sketching timelapse. Then I need to tell some story where the VIEWER is the hero blah blah blah.

It’s okay if the sawdust is just a short pouch for the viewer to pick up for a few moments of entertainment or, at best, inspiration.