Mike Wazowski: PT, Cutting, and German

[Mike Wazowski]

Gonna do a challenge, but will wait on final content until a PT appointment this Wednesday to check out wrist and maybe start attacking my painful ankles and low back.

 

Known contents: development in my day job and laying the ground work to start teaching my own dance students (website, business paperwork, basic marketing, etc). Also, sticking to my nutrition plan (cutting with weekly refeeds until early November, then a reverse into the holidays).

 

GOALS!

Daily PT: got a bunch of stretches to do, now I just need to do them at least daily. Bonus points: do all of them twice a day like the sheet actually says.

Daily Language Work: basically the same as last challenge, do some German work on Duolingo. I made big progress by just putting in the time, gotta keep the momentum going!

5 minutes breath work: cause I'm too hipster to say meditation. But that's basically the idea, probably with some sort of movement attached. Alternative: do a gentle yoga session for a day.

Hit calories / protein targets: I was pretty low key about this and didn't tell anyone, but I started using Avatar last month for calorie / macro targets. I haven't been terribly compliant, so I'll be holding myself more accountable. Not worried about fat / carb ratios, but I'll be holding myself to calories (5% tolerance) and protein (10% tolerance). I like the idea of refeeds, so I'm going to switch my setup to higher calorie days on Saturday / Sunday with this upcoming day to see how it goes. If it doesn't go well, I'll switch back after 2 - 3 weeks (to give myself some time to try it out). I'll be posting macros here.

Lay some groundwork at work:

Two parts here:

1. Find a place to run away to and work for 2 hours every work day. The good news: I'm a valuable contributor on my team and people lean on and value my knowledge. The bad news: it's really hard to get work done (or good foruming) if you're being interrupted every 20 minutes by a new visitor at your desk. And your tasks aren't being done in order of importance but instead in the order of when people interrupt you to ask for something. Also, I'm an introvert and need a place to introvert in an open plan office.
2. Lay the groundwork to start teaching dance students of my own: I *love* teaching dance and want to start getting some experience teaching and potentially make it into a second career (but for now the goal would just be to cover some of my costs). To further that end, I'll need to knock out some things (might carry over into next challenge, there's a *ton* on this list):
   • Open a business checking account
   • Pay Q3 taxes for my business (I already registered with the state, despite not having students yet - I may have done that in the wrong order)
   • Update my business registration with the State of Texas
   • Get a credit card reader (in part cause it makes the business checking account free)
   • Create a basic squarespace
   • Get listed as an instructor by the local chapter of USADance (ballroom dance org)
   • Design my new student experience
   • Design my recurring student experience
   • Get listed on TheKnot
   • Research other wedding websites and get listed there
   • Reach out to local collegiate teams (my city and my partner's) and see if any of them have interest in lessons
   • Talk to my coach for a CPA recommendation (I don't want to do my own taxes if I'm going to be self-employed - I want someone else deciding how much to deduct in expenses here)
   • Meet with a CPA?

The ladies at the PT office were a little alarmed when they saw my hamstring flexibility - they're not used to treating guys who can touch their toes and then some. I'm a little worried about how frequently they wanted me to come in for PT - not sure I can afford a twice-weekly PT session in perpetuity and I wasn't given any indication how long treatment will take.

 

Forgot to mention, thanks to my inability to resist peer pressure, I'll be getting extra accountability thanks to @Laghail and friends (tags weren't loading quickly, I'll swing back and tag y'all later).

[Laghail]

Here for my monthly dose of Wazowski consistency. 

[Mr_Willes]

[Mad Hatter]

Signing up for whatever!

[Grumble]

following for refeeds.

[RedStone]

 

[raptron]

Placeholder response.

 

[Mad Hatter]

24 minutes ago, raptron said:

Placeholder response.

 

Haha I reeeeally want this to finish loading.  

[JustCallMeAmber]

[Mr_Willes]

[Mike Wazowski]

On 10/15/2017 at 9:06 PM, Laghail said:

Here for my monthly dose of Wazowski consistency. 

Haha we'll see if I can live up to that hype!

 

On 10/16/2017 at 3:37 AM, mr_willes said:

 

On 10/16/2017 at 8:08 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Signing up for whatever!

This immediately made me think of an American beer commercial (which I'm sure you haven't seen) that it was the beer for when you were "up for whatever." I don't think it was successful.

 

On 10/16/2017 at 1:34 PM, Grumble said:

following for refeeds.

I'll do my best not to disappoint!

 

On 10/16/2017 at 8:41 PM, RedStone said:

 

 

On 10/17/2017 at 1:56 PM, raptron said:

Placeholder response.

 

On 10/17/2017 at 2:20 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Haha I reeeeally want this to finish loading.  

^^Thank goodness she said something. I would've waited far too long for that to load without getting the joke!

 

On 10/17/2017 at 2:34 PM, JustCallMeAmber said:

 

11 hours ago, mr_willes said:

[Mike Wazowski]

Alright, now that the wall of gifs is out of the way, here's the goals!

 

Daily PT: got a bunch of stretches to do, now I just need to do them at least daily. Bonus points: do all of them twice a day like the sheet actually says.

Daily Language Work: basically the same as last challenge, do some German work on Duolingo. I made big progress by just putting in the time, gotta keep the momentum going!

5 minutes breath work: cause I'm too hipster to say meditation. But that's basically the idea, probably with some sort of movement attached. Alternative: do a gentle yoga session for a day.

Hit calories / protein targets: I was pretty low key about this and didn't tell anyone, but I started using Avatar last month for calorie / macro targets. I haven't been terribly compliant, so I'll be holding myself more accountable. Not worried about fat / carb ratios, but I'll be holding myself to calories (5% tolerance) and protein (10% tolerance). I like the idea of refeeds, so I'm going to switch my setup to higher calorie days on Saturday / Sunday with this upcoming day to see how it goes. If it doesn't go well, I'll switch back after 2 - 3 weeks (to give myself some time to try it out). I'll be posting macros here.

Lay some groundwork at work:

Two parts here:

1. Find a place to run away to and work for 2 hours every work day. The good news: I'm a valuable contributor on my team and people lean on and value my knowledge. The bad news: it's really hard to get work done (or good foruming) if you're being interrupted every 20 minutes by a new visitor at your desk. And your tasks aren't being done in order of importance but instead in the order of when people interrupt you to ask for something. Also, I'm an introvert and need a place to introvert in an open plan office.
2. Lay the groundwork to start teaching dance students of my own: I *love* teaching dance and want to start getting some experience teaching and potentially make it into a second career (but for now the goal would just be to cover some of my costs). To further that end, I'll need to knock out some things (might carry over into next challenge, there's a *ton* on this list):
   • Open a business checking account
   • Pay Q3 taxes for my business (I already registered with the state, despite not having students yet - I may have done that in the wrong order)
   • Update my business registration with the State of Texas
   • Get a credit card reader (in part cause it makes the business checking account free)
   • Create a basic squarespace
   • Get listed as an instructor by the local chapter of USADance (ballroom dance org)
   • Design my new student experience
   • Design my recurring student experience
   • Get listed on TheKnot
   • Research other wedding websites and get listed there
   • Reach out to local collegiate teams (my city and my partner's) and see if any of them have interest in lessons
   • Talk to my coach for a CPA recommendation (I don't want to do my own taxes if I'm going to be self-employed - I want someone else deciding how much to deduct in expenses here)
   • Meet with a CPA?

The ladies at the PT office were a little alarmed when they saw my hamstring flexibility - they're not used to treating guys who can touch their toes and then some. I'm a little worried about how frequently they wanted me to come in for PT - not sure I can afford a twice-weekly PT session in perpetuity and I wasn't given any indication how long treatment will take.

 

Forgot to mention, thanks to my inability to resist peer pressure, I'll be getting extra accountability thanks to @Laghail and friends (tags weren't loading quickly, I'll swing back and tag y'all later).

[Mike Wazowski]

Workouts this week have been pretty solid.

 

Monday - 20,500 total pounds

Today - 18,500 total pounds (39,000 cumulative)

 

Highlights: 75 x 20 OHP and 120 x 15 pendlay row yesterday, 240 x 10 Squat today! (and 190 x 8 x 3 for sumo DL - starting to feel comfortable with sumo pulls!) All of the first three were REP PR's!!!

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

Following.

[Jord]

16 hours ago, MikeWazowski said:

 

1. Lay the groundwork to start teaching dance students of my own: I *love* teaching dance and want to start getting some experience teaching and potentially make it into a second career (but for now the goal would just be to cover some of my costs). To further that end, I'll need to knock out some things (might carry over into next challenge, there's a *ton* on this list):
   • Open a business checking account
   • Pay Q3 taxes for my business (I already registered with the state, despite not having students yet - I may have done that in the wrong order)
   • Update my business registration with the State of Texas
   • Get a credit card reader (in part cause it makes the business checking account free)
   • Create a basic squarespace
   • Get listed as an instructor by the local chapter of USADance (ballroom dance org)
   • Design my new student experience
   • Design my recurring student experience
   • Get listed on TheKnot
   • Research other wedding websites and get listed there
   • Reach out to local collegiate teams (my city and my partner's) and see if any of them have interest in lessons
   • Talk to my coach for a CPA recommendation (I don't want to do my own taxes if I'm going to be self-employed - I want someone else deciding how much to deduct in expenses here)
   • Meet with a CPA?

 

 

When it gets to that point I also suggest Groupon. That was the second place I looked when we decided to get lessons for our wedding. It's a good way to get people in the door. We totally did end up buying more lessons than were in the Groupon. 

 

I'm super excited for you!!!

[Mad Hatter]

6 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

 

When it gets to that point I also suggest Groupon. That was the second place I looked when we decided to get lessons for our wedding. It's a good way to get people in the door. We totally did end up buying more lessons than were in the Groupon. 

 

I'm super excited for you!!!

Also super excited for you!  

 

But I'd think twice about Groupon. Yes, you can definitely attract people and some of those will want to get more lessons, but from what I've heard you also get a lot of rabble that are not necessarily very interested but only do it once as a one off fun thing and also a lot of people that don't show up. Both which will end up leeching a lot of time for minimal profit. On top of that once it's known that you do groupons people will postpone getting classes until its cheap which doesn't help either. Having said that I really don't know enough about it to have a feel for whether it's worth it or not, but I think it's worth doing your research and keeping in mind that people associate higher costs with quality. Of course too expensive is bad for obvious reasons, but cheaper isn't necessarily better. 

[Jord]

3 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Also super excited for you!  

 

But I'd think twice about Groupon. Yes, you can definitely attract people and some of those will want to get more lessons, but from what I've heard you also get a lot of rabble that are not necessarily very interested but only do it once as a one off fun thing and also a lot of people that don't show up. Both which will end up leeching a lot of time for minimal profit. On top of that once it's known that you do groupons people will postpone getting classes until its cheap which doesn't help either. Having said that I really don't know enough about it to have a feel for whether it's worth it or not, but I think it's worth doing your research and keeping in mind that people associate higher costs with quality. Of course too expensive is bad for obvious reasons, but cheaper isn't necessarily better. 

 

I was thinking of it more like a one time thing when he first starts up. But you make some very valid points!

[Mad Hatter]

6 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

I was thinking of it more like a one time thing when he first starts up. But you make some very valid points!

I didn't at all mean to shut down your idea, I really have no idea what happens once you crunch the numbers.  I'm sure it's all a matter of "it depends" anyway. I do think it's worth exploring as an alternative as maybe you do in fact get high enough retention rates. Maybe like a one time opening offer as you said or perhaps it's worth running them seasonally, like in summer/wedding season when there's fewer regular classes on offer? I've no idea, my point was mainly that it's something that should be brained over.  

[Laghail]

We did a coupon deal for our wedding dance lessons and we only used one of the lessons. Didn't help that the teacher wasn't amazing, but I'm sure it's a challenging task to take a double-left footed groom that's never done more than the cha-cha slide and get the couple ready in two 30 minute sessions.

[Jord]

9 minutes ago, Laghail said:

We did a coupon deal for our wedding dance lessons and we only used one of the lessons. Didn't help that the teacher wasn't amazing, but I'm sure it's a challenging task to take a double-left footed groom that's never done more than the cha-cha slide and get the couple ready in two 30 minute sessions.

 

I can't dance at all, three left feet! Does sound like your teacher was a flop. But yea, two 30 min sessions is no. I think we had 8 or 9 one hour sessions and that was just to teach us a first dance to a song we picked out. 

[Mike Wazowski]

Seriously, thanks y'all for the encouragement and thoughts on Groupon and wedding dance lessons - something to ponder if nothing else. I've thought about offering some sort of wedding package, though I'm not sure I really am keen on choreographing a couple's first dance (I'd rather teach basic dance fundamentals than choreography). Food for thought for sure!

 

Yesterday was a solid start to the challenge, knocked out all my goals (though I definitely trend towards the upper edge of allowable calories on Avatar). Today will be my first day on the low / high macro days plan, should be interesting to see how it goes!

 

This morning's workout was grueling, over 30,000 pounds total volume (highlight: I got 9 chinups!) though admittedly dips and chinups do spike that number up a bit. Took over an hour to get through with skipping cardio - I'm starting to think it's time to reevaluate my approach a bit - maybe paring it down to key accessories to give me time for cardio (and ideally still making it into the office a bit earlier than 9).

[Jord]

3 minutes ago, MikeWazowski said:

Seriously, thanks y'all for the encouragement and thoughts on Groupon and wedding dance lessons - something to ponder if nothing else. I've thought about offering some sort of wedding package, though I'm not sure I really am keen on choreographing a couple's first dance (I'd rather teach basic dance fundamentals than choreography). Food for thought for sure!

 

Not to side bar, but it was more so just learning basic ballroom dance moves and how to use them to move around the room. The only "bonus" was teaching us a finishing move so we didn't just stop randomly. That's how uncoordinated I am. 

[Mike Wazowski]

37 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

 

Not to side bar, but it was more so just learning basic ballroom dance moves and how to use them to move around the room. The only "bonus" was teaching us a finishing move so we didn't just stop randomly. That's how uncoordinated I am. 

 

Ah ok, that’s 100% in line with what I want to do! Not like the stress of a giant 3-minute piece of choreo that tries not to repeat itself. That’d be hell.

[Mad Hatter]

To be fair it'd probably be enough to come up with one simple choreo and then tweak it slightly for each couple if necessary.  And it'd be ok if it repeated itself a little, a ) nobody would notice and b ) it'd be less to learn for the couple!

[Mike Wazowski]

52 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

To be fair it'd probably be enough to come up with one simple choreo and then tweak it slightly for each couple if necessary.  And it'd be ok if it repeated itself a little, a ) nobody would notice and b ) it'd be less to learn for the couple!

True. I'll likely end up having a slow building repertoire of what to do with couples depending on what their first song is and it'll be a pretty short list of moves that look halfway decent on newbies and are easy to learn. Probably should make the first few couples' price lower since I'm literally going to be making it up as I go along.