[MaD MaLKaV] sets himself up for success!

[MaD MaLKaV]

So last challenge I was really successful with my meditation and diet, and no so hot at getting up at 5 am.  This challenge, I plan to keep my 5 AM wake up goal in mind, but as extra credit.  That way I can continue to make progress on that goal without it being part of my main challenge items.  I'm going to re-establish my meditation and diet goals from last time, and add a new reading goal to my main three.  Each goal will be assigned a points grade per week, and then average of the four weeks will be finally assigned (round down).  For the main goals, the bonus will lose +1 for each day of non-compliance, because I expect to be mostly successful on these.  Extra credit goals have different ways of calculating their point score.

 

1) Continue my diet.  Simple calorie restriction with target of 1600 calories or less daily.  Counting in MyFitnessPal on phone.  (+3 CON)

2) Meditate every day for 15 minutes.  If I don't do it in the morning, then do it after work.  Everyday; including weekends.  (+3 WIS)

3) Spend 30 minutes reading from the Great Books of the Western World (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World).  I've been doing a lot of reading away from work topics lately and have enjoyed it (lot's of stuff on meditation and Buddhism mostly).  I wasn't sure what I wanted to read next, but I know I want to read about non-technical topics, so I thought it would be fun to read through a lot of different stuff.  This series contains a number of full texts, and more philosophy and less poetry (but still some) compared to Harvard Classics.  I did my degree in Engineering (Masters of Engineering in Computer Science), and it didn't involve a lot of reading of the classics.  I'm currently in the middle of another translation of The Iliad, and I want to finish it first, but I'll probably be done with it by the time the challenge starts.  If not, I'll count it towards my 30 minutes of daily of the classics.  It doesn't contain the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, which I was looking forward to with Harvard Classics, so I'm just going to read that separately and count it towards my 30 minutes daily, since I've thought about reading before.  I think after I finish it, I'll read Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin with my "other than 30 mins of classics" reading time, as I've been meaning to read some of Isaacson's biographies for a while now. (+3 WIS)

4) Floss my teeth.  I had cavities in between my teeth last time I went to dentist, so they said I really should floss.  (+3 CHA)

# Extra Credit

5) Wake up every weekday morning by 5 AM.  This proved quite challenging for me last month.  Moved it to extra credit to work on while not interfering with the success of my primary goals.  (+5 CON [1 per day, up to +7 if I wanted to get up at 5 AM on weekend days too, but I think my wife would complain about the alarm on weekends])

6) Do yoga every weekday (easiest when I get up early, but in all honesty, I could squeeze it in after dinner pretty easy when baby is down for night [but that's probably when I'll be doing my 30 mins of reading too]).  YogaWithAdrienne or some other yoga is fine.  (+5 DEX [1 per day, up to +7 really if I did weekends, but I'm not planning on weekends])

# Keeping this around as a goal, but probably for next month when it's warmer

7) Modified Couch 2 5K.  I'm totally not a runner, but maybe I could become one.?.  A basic level of endurance is a helpful prerequisite to most other physical activity.  (+6 END [2 per day for up to three days a week])

[Plazmotic]

10 minutes ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

4) Floss my teeth. 

 

Yaaaaaaas I will be your flossing cheerleader!

[MaD MaLKaV]

18 hours ago, Plazmotic said:

 

Yaaaaaaas I will be your flossing cheerleader!

 

You just motivated me to promote flossing to a "main goal" rather than extra credit.  Thanks!

[MaD MaLKaV]

I'm torn between https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics for my classics reading.  Harvard Classics has better footnotes it would seem, randomly sampling in both collections.  Where Great Books of the Western World has more selections that I want to read (like the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, all of Faust, and Darwin, Kant, and Hegel to name a few) plus it's ordered chronologically.  Better selection tips it in favor of Great Books of the Western World, I suppose.  I still think I'll read the lectures book of Harvard Classics and the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.  I find it tempting to read items available in both (like The Odyssey) in the Harvard Classics for the better footnotes, but I don't want to overly complicate my reading plan.  Aside from footnotes, I should compare The Odyssey and other translations in a few places if I think about doing that.  I have an electronic copy of both sets, so I may dip back and forth a bit between them.  It's the spirit of "reading classics" that counts.

 

http://archive.org/ looks like it has all the Great Books of the Western World if anyone else wants to follow along.  Most of the books could probably be found on Project Gutenberg or somewhere anyway.  The thought occurred to me that I'll be doing this challenge for quite some time, considering even if I strictly stuck with "Great Books of the Western World," I'm committing to 53 encyclopedic volumes (I don't have Volume 54, and don't really care about Freud)...  I figure even in my worst case, I'll get to read The Odyssey and may skip ahead to re-read Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius before I get distracted from reading the collection (I wouldn't have to skip ahead in Harvard Classics where both are in volume 2 after a short selection of Plato).  I'm especially looking forward to those, reading more Plato, and making it through in some of the Greek plays.  Speaking of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, I plan to add in the Letters of Seneca, as a classic they left out.  I'm a fan of Stoicism, but while I've read Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Musonius Rufus (he said grow a beard.  He compared it to the mane of a lion.  I still haven't listened); I never made it through all of Seneca's letters.  I recall them being quite good, but I forgot what distracted me when last I attempted them.  I don't mind adding things to the reading list as long as they're really classics, since I should more properly say I'm spending 30 minutes a day to read classics, rather than I'm reading "Great Books of the Western World," even though for the most part I'll probably follow along with the collection. I'll probably re-read Massimo's "How to be a Stoic" after I re-read Meditations, but I have to do that out of my separate personal reading time, since it isn't a classic.

[MaD MaLKaV]

Speaking of stoics and beards, Epictetus compared the beard to the mane of a lion also.  There's a good blog post with some quotes at somebody else's blog: https://mountainstoic.com/2015/09/05/the-classical-stoics-and-the-beard/

[DanaeArgos]

Good luck on this next challenge! I echo the waking up early issue, while mine is more like 6, so kudos to you for rising at 5am!  You inspired to rethink how I do this one in this next challenge. It's tough!

 

 

[MaD MaLKaV]

Good news!  I got my first "below 200" reading on the scale.  199.4!  I posted a woot in the woot room too.  I think my end goal before I add back in some calories to work on strength will be 175; right in the middle of the 165-185 range that claims to be my healthy BMI.  I know BMI has some weirdness with it, but I'm definitely not a muscular outlier or anything yet, so it seems a good enough place to get my goal from.  My wife says I look fine and could stop losing now, but I'm still losing good, and I don't want to add back in calories until I'm below where I want to stay (I'm thinking 175 gives me some room to go back up to 185 and stay put, unless I do a really good job putting on muscle).

 

In other news, I don't particularly like the crammed formatting in Great Books of the Western World, so I'm just going to steal it's reading list and merge it with Harvard Classics and How to Read a Book (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book) reading lists and do something inspired by those.  I've found separate sources for most of the stuff in Great Books and the How to Read a Book list (which overlap a lot since the author of How to Read a Book worked on the Great Books project).  I got some stuff I want to add too, like Hagakure, Analects, Tao Te Ching, and the Dhammapada.  As long as it fits roughly into my idea of a classic, I'll count it towards my 30 minutes.  I'm thinking I'll read several translations of the Meditations to compare them (I have Pierre Hadot, Gregory Hays, and George Long).  Probably with other books in between, so I'm not just reading the same thing over and over.  I was thinking I would do the Pierre Hadot translation of the Meditations before I go on to the Odyssey.  I might give myself "classics credit" for "How to Read a Book", which isn't quite a classic, but gives me some thought to chew over as I read more classics.  I'm not too worried about the order I read things, but I'll keep it close to chronological.  I might take inspiration from Harvard Classics and fit in Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and the stoic authors early though, because as I mentioned I want to read the Isaacson bio of Franklin on my own time after I read the autobio.  I don't mind the formatting so much of Harvard Classics, so I may still use it some, especially for some of the poetry selections that are missing from the Great Books.

 

I'm a bit over halfway through The Iliad, and that's going well.  I've been keeping it to at least 30 minutes a day, even though the challenge hasn't officially started.  I can usually read one book of it in about 40-45 minutes, so I've been progressing by a book a night while I've been busy with company and haven't had a lot of extra time to read.  I've also kept my calorie counting going after a couple of rough days of having company in town.   Meditating was tough with company, because they were a little loud, and you don't want to ignore your guests.  I meditated every day though, just didn't always force out 15 whole minutes.  And I've flossed twice now!  So I'm off to a good early start.  Will start attempting the 5 am days and some yoga once the challenge officially kicks in.

[Plazmotic]

20 minutes ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

Good news!  I got my first "below 200" reading on the scale.  199.4! 

Dude congrats!!

[MaD MaLKaV]

Well, I finished the Iliad before the challenge officially began.  My weekends I tend to read a lot.  It was pretty good.  My soft hearted side has trouble snuggling up with something so focused on war, but I still got something out of it.  I think before I move on to the Odyssey, I'll go ahead and read Gregory Hays translation of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.  I found that the Inner Citadel is more of a commentary than a translation, so I'll read it directly afterwards.  Then I think I'll read Edith Hamilton's Mythology before moving on to the Odyssey.  It's not quite a classic, but it fits the theme and will reacquaint me with some of the mythological ideas before reading another Homeric epic.  Then I may go back to reading something stoic (like Epictetus), or I may skip a few (well more like 8 or 9 from Homer) centuries ahead to the Aenied while I'm thinking about epic poetry.  Somewhere in there I need to fit in time to re-watch a movie and then read a book that isn't a classic on my other-than-30-reserved-minutes-per-day-of-reading, because I got "The Dharma of the Princess Bride," which looks like it should be fun to go through.  That's enough thinking about my reading to give me a good path to get started.

 

I read the Cliff Notes of the Iliad, along with reading the actual Iliad.  Most of the summary wasn't really necessary, but I did enjoy a couple of the original essays included in it. 

 

Ready for the challenge to begin in earnest, but still keeping up with my meditation habit, dietary restriction, and even doing the flossing.  I bought some new floss today, since these little sample floss's go pretty quick and I wanted to be prepared before I run out.

[Snarkyfishguts]

I liked the Odyssey so much better than the Iliad. Mythology is super fun- I can't wait to hear what you think of the books you're going to read next! 

[campbellmc22]

You have committed to a lot. I'm cheering for you! May you be blessed with the gift of prioritization, as necessary. I'm looking forward to learning from you. 

[MaD MaLKaV]

So I was home with a sick baby yesterday, so I got a lot of reading done, since I'm spending all my reading time on classics instead of just 30 minutes daily.  I finished the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and made it over halfway through The Inner Citadel, which delves deeply into a lot of the ideas behind the passages of the Meditations.  I love the Meditations, and will probably re-read them (at a slower 30 min per day pace instead of blowing through them all at once) when I get back into philosophy. 

 

Speaking of which, I realized that after Epictetus then Seneca, I could easily backtrack and hit the pre-Socratics, Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle.  Then I'ld be in philosophy land for a while and never get to the Odyssey and the Greek tragedies!  Well, I'ld make it to them, but it would be a while.  With that in mind, I'm reading the Inner Citadel on my personal reading time and going to go ahead and start the Odyssey.   I'ld love to cozy up with philosophy for a bit, and think when I make it back around to philosophy I'll read Plato at the Googleplex in my spare non-classic reading time, if not before (I heard Rebecca Goldstein on Sam Harris's podcast the other day, and it made me look into her books).  But for now, the Iliad naturally leads to the Odyssey and ties in nicely to mythology, so I'm going to keep the momentum up on that route.  Also, in my non-classic reading time, I'll finish The Inner Citadel then read Adler's "How to Read a Book", to help me get the most out of my classics reading time.  I have too much planned for my non-classics reading time to make it to mythology otherwise, so I'm declaring Edith Hamilton's Mythology an honorary classic, so I can spend some time with mythology in general next, then hit the Odyssey afterwards.

 

Marcus had 13 children, but only five outlived him.  A lot of them died in infancy.  As a new dad, I can't really comprehend how tough that would be to take with any measure of equanimity.  I saved up some great Marcus Aurelius quotes to sprinkle around from reading the Meditations, but they're all on my iPad.  

 

In general report, I've been meditating fine.  Today will be my 30th day in a row, which ties my old best streak.  I've eaten under 1600 calories everyday (on one day a lot under).  I've read way more than 30 minutes a day.  And I've flossed my teeth each morning.  So my core challenge items are all in order.  I haven't gotten up once at 5 am yet for extra credit (I woke up this morning at 5:15, but went back to sleep.  Didn't even wake up early Monday or Tuesday), and I haven't done any yoga (which naturally fits well into my morning routine if I get up, but I didn't.  I want to try reading in the morning a little bit anyway too, so probably won't try for yoga this week).  Both those are extra credit, so I can try harder towards them later.

[Snarkyfishguts]

Sounds like you have a good handle on things! I hope the baby feels better soon! 

[MaD MaLKaV]

11 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

I hope the baby feels better soon! 

 

She had roseola.  A high fever for several days, followed by a couple of days of rash.  The fever got up to 104, so we were worried enough to take her to hospital over weekend.  But they decided it was just a virus and to let it runs its course and break her fever with tylenol.  Once the fever broke and the rash appeared, her pediatrician was able to tell us what it was.

 

She's not contagious anymore since her fever broke, but her rash still needs to disappear.  Fortunately it's just an appearance and not itchy to her or anything.

[MaD MaLKaV]

On 3/20/2018 at 12:07 PM, campbellmc22 said:

May you be blessed with the gift of prioritization, as necessary.

 

Thanks for cheering me on.  I left two of the items extra credit to aid my prioritization.  I think the other four items should be do-able every day.

[MaD MaLKaV]

I got up at 5 this morning!  Yay, extra credit!  So not used to it that I almost forgot to meditate while it was still morning, just assuming I'ld get to it after work the way I've been doing.  I decided to read some mythology rather than do yoga this morning.  This quote from Marcus Aurelius helped me drag myself out of bed:

 

”At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”

 

The quote in its original context leads to a whole discussion between the part of him that wants to stay warm under the covers, and the part that wants to get up and do the work of a human.  More surrounding quotes and a bit of explanation is available at https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/01/03/marcus-aurelius-meditations-bed-work/

 

[campbellmc22]

I think it is also in our human nature to not want to do the work of a human though. It's a shared part of our human existence that makes that quote so poignant. It is a bit of a metaphor for the weight-loss/strength/health journey too. Letting the "what I want right now" outweigh the "what I really want" is a constant human struggle for me.

 

I want to reach my fitness and yoga goals, but I also want to make myself feel better with food. It takes will-power, discipline, radical self-love, and a solid plan to overcome that "right now" urge. We can do this!!

[MaD MaLKaV]

Good points @campbellmc22  It's always something of a struggle between the now and the later.  That reminds me that I'm coming up on a hard choice in two weeks.  Slack off a bit in my discipline for my birthday (i.e. call it a cheat day and have a sweet treat), or remain focused.  I don't think it will make a big difference one way or the other in the big picture, but I've grown to enjoy how my clean eating feels.  I normally buy a cheesecake for my birthday, but I totally don't want to get something that throws me off for an entire week.  I may compromise with a pint of ice cream, since I can fit that into a cheat day, but then again, do I really want it that much...  Wouldn't it be a much better gift to myself to stay solid and unwavering through my birthday?

 

The scale said 197 yesterday.  I guess I really am over the "under 200" hump and in completely new territory for my weight loss.  I don't think I've been this light in at least 20-some years.  My neighbor and my wife's parents both complimented me on my weight loss recently, in case I wondered any if losing almost 50 pounds was noticeable.

 

I blew off yoga again, but I did get up at 5 again, so it's a win on one count.  It was part of my plan to do some getting up without doing yoga anyway.  I'll fit back in the yoga extra credit sometime.  Kinda nice getting up so early and getting both my meditation and my "classics reading" knocked out early.  Since I floss in the morning too, it means I've checked off all my goals for the day before 6:30 AM, except for counting calories (which I've already estimated for the day in My Fitness Pal, so that's kinda done, as long as I stick to the plan).  I skipped the parts of my Mythology book on the Odyssey and Aeneid, since I'm about to read them so don't want to spoil it with summaries (I read the summary of the Iliad, just to see how on track the summary was, and it covered all the highlights; a little less detailed than the Cliff Notes on the Iliad), and the House of Thebes, since I'll surely read Oedipus, so I'll probably finish the book tonight or tomorrow at the latest if I pick it back up rather than reading other stuff (I still need to finish the Inner Citadel too, but I may put that off until the weekend where I can focus on it).  I've got the Lattimore translation of the Odyssey lined up afterwards, which is a translations that found praise on Reddit.

[campbellmc22]

I had this same struggle around my birthday. When I'm eating my best, I don't really want cheesecake or ice cream because it tastes too sweet and heavy. But then again, if I don't indulge every once in a while, I end up depriving myself and go nuts on a binge. It's like I can't trust myself to make these kinds of decisions. 

 

However, I take joy in knowing that as I make these mistakes and self-correct, I am actually teaching myself how to make these decisions. Is this a time to treat myself or is this a time to have a pile of fruit with a little whip cream on top? I will get there. I know I will. Thank you for the inspiration. Keep at it this weekend!

[MaD MaLKaV]

Well, everything was going so well, until I fell slightly off-course the last couple of days with my dieting.  The wife made last minute changes of plan to dinner after I had already loaded up on calories expecting a small supper.  Went 300 calories over Friday, and 500 calories over yesterday.  Made up for it by going 900 calories under my goal today though, so no permanent harm done. 

 

Still meditated 15 mins per day, even though it was weekend, and I still flossed.  Almost forgot yesterday.  Reading has been going well.  Finished Mythology and read all that I care to read of How to Read a Book (which was on my non-classics time).  Also finished the Inner Citadel on non-classics time.  Made it through the first part of the Odyssey where the focus is all on Telemachus, and I'm looking forward to reading into the parts that include Odysseus.  

[Plazmotic]

13 hours ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

Went 300 calories over Friday, and 500 calories over yesterday.  Made up for it by going 900 calories under my goal today though, so no permanent harm done. 

Way to recalibrate! This is the best way to deal with goals not being met, to compensate right after that and get right back on the horse.

[MaD MaLKaV]

So, I guess I'll be kind to myself over messing up two days of dieting last week, since I did make it even by undereating Sunday.  I don't want to get in the habit of going over my 1600 and just saying I'll make it up later though, so this is a final warning to myself that if I want to go over 1600 on more than a single cheat day of the week, then I'm going to lose points. 

 

So summary for the week:

 

Diet: +3 CON

Meditation: +3 WIS

Reading Classics: +3 WIS

Flossing: +3 CHA

# EC

Waking Up: +2 CON

Yoga: +0 DEX

 

A solid start with one warning issued and full points gained for the week.  I'll average them out across the four weeks at the end.  Let's see if I can keep up the good work!

 

In other good news, I got up at 5 this morning too.  Already read a book of the Odyssey and flossed, and assuming no changes, have my calories all planned out for today.

[MaD MaLKaV]

24 minutes ago, Plazmotic said:

Way to recalibrate! This is the best way to deal with goals not being met, to compensate right after that and get right back on the horse.

 

Yep.  Can't go back and fix it, but might as well do what I can to make it even.  Technically, I was still down on my average for the week from a couple of days during the week I ate under.

 

I still debated deducting points, but I figured I'ld give myself a break and let it pass with a warning.  The literal challenge says 1600 calories per day, not "average" 1600 calories per day.  Who do I get to rule-lawyer with, if not myself.  But yeah, I could see "go over now and make it back up later" becoming a problem pretty quick, if I just said that's the way I roll now.  Except those super-low-calorie days I have to make up with are no  joke.  They kinda reinforce the message well enough on their own.  But either way, I'm not going to make a habit of it, but I will course correct by under-eating again if I get stuck in a situation where it makes sense, even if I do decide to deduct a point from the challenge next time too.

[MaD MaLKaV]

I just wasn't feeling it this morning, so I ended my streak at three days of getting up at 5 AM on the weekdays.  I'll try to start a new one tomorrow and see how long I can keep it up.  I still have to meditate this afternoon and read this evening, since I didn't get up early today.  Last couple of days, I felt spoiled having all my to do's done early and not hanging over my head all day.

 

I read the Odyssey way more than thirty minutes yesterday.  Probably about 3 hours.  There's only a day or two more, and I'll be on to something else.  I think I'll skip ahead a few centuries to the Aeneid next.  While I'm on epic poems, I might go ahead and read the Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost; and maybe add in the Mahabharata (which isn't on my Great Books list) too before I skip back in time to read the Greek tragedies.  I'm not  sure where I'll go after that.  Maybe dig into some philosophy.

 

I'm still keeping up flossing.  It's not a habit that gives me much to say about it other than "Did it."  I've used two of my four sample flosses, but I've already prepared myself by buying a real floss for when I need it.

 

I had a really rough time keeping to 1600 calories yesterday, but I managed.  I ate 200 calories of sweets early on in the day, and it made my sweet tooth cry out for more.  Glad I kept it reined in. 

 

Had a great meditation session yesterday.  I decided since I got up early and meditated "Just Sitting" style, I decided to do a guided meditation for a change during my afternoon session.  I think my ability to visualize has gotten a lot stronger thanks to all this "Just Sitting" I've been doing, as my metta meditation felt great.  I think doing a guided meditation in the afternoon on days I get up early might become a habit, if I can work on getting up early more often.  I like that idea better than doing the same "Just Sitting" thing a second time for the day.

 

I'll be cutting it pretty tight on time in the morning if I try to meditate, read 30 minutes, and do a quick (30ish min) morning yoga session, so I'm not sure I'm going to try making my morning so rushed; at least not until I am accustomed to getting up in the morning with my more relaxed schedule.  I do kinda miss my yoga sometimes though, and I'm not that good at fitting it in later in the day.  I could technically do it after dinner between 7 and 8, which is normally when I just read  an hour more, but I never have actually done it at that time.  Yoga worked out pretty good when I got up early, except the days I didn't get up.  However, I like knocking out all my to-do tasks nice and early in the morning too, so it's cool not having reading hanging over my head the rest of day.  Reading in the morning just works so well with a cup of coffee too.  So maybe I'll just congest my morning after I get used to getting up.  For now, I'm just not going to worry about yoga.  If I work up to longer yoga sessions (like an hour or hour fifteen), which was my ultimate goal when I first had the idea to add in morning yoga, then reading would have to wait until later in the day.  I'm digging the flow with reading and coffee and no yoga in the morning right now though, especially with my chill mornings giving me extra incentive to get out of bed early.  So I'm sticking to that at least until getting up is less of a rare occurrence.

[Plazmotic]

17 hours ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

I'm still keeping up flossing.  It's not a habit that gives me much to say about it other than "Did it."  I've used two of my four sample flosses, but I've already prepared myself by buying a real floss for when I need it.

You're doing much better than I am, I keep brushing my teeth but not flossing! Maybe I should keep the floss out on the counter instead of inside the cupboard to remind me.