[JOURNAL] Getting my life back

[solski]

Did my coding session for today. It actually took me about an hour and a half, but I have lots of free time because of the job switching. I think I'm gonna take a short break and continue to go through java materials. It's fun and I feel that I'm doing something valuable with my spare time - a feeling I missed very much lately

[Amazon Ninja]

On 4/30/2018 at 7:56 AM, solski said:

Okay, I think it's time to set things straight.

 

TL;DR:

I try to make my life better and this is my plan on how I want to achieve this goal:

1. Fitness/health

     - Bodyweight workout three times a week

     - Leveling up on nerd fitness dietary guide every month or two (sweet spot is being on level 7 consistently)

     - I'd like to create a habit of taking vitamin C + D and ashwaghanda regularly. I'll set up and alarm on my phone to remind myself about it at 9 P.M. every day.

 

2. Professional development:

     - Coding/learning for one hour every weekday (that's the goal, the progression looks like this):

         - level 1 - 30 minutes every non-workout day (ideally that's tuesday and thursday)

         - level 2 - 30 minutes every weekday

         - level 3 - building the learning time to one hour

         - level x - staying consistent with one hour, maybe trying 90 minutes, I want to experiment with how much time is perfect without losing focus and efficiency.

 

3. Productivity/concentration:

     - Blocking sites that are draining my time every day and are not helpful to me:

         - YouTube - I'm allowed to watch YouTube only on the weekends when it's time to relax and rest after a whole week

         - Sites with memes - I want to get rid of it entirely. It doesn't serve me any purpose except wasting time.

         - Facebook & LinkedIn (but it comes to all social media really) - I'm allowed to check them only on weekends, but I don't want to spend more than half an hour a day there.

         - Nerd fitness - well, unfortunately I realized that I tend to check the forums and articles at work, so I have to block nerd fitness on my work hours (but I'll keep posting my every workout on this journal anyway! :))

         - As a bonus, I blocked all electronics retailers sites (I'm a laptop nerd, I spend too much time watching reviews and checking out what's new. I'm not even planing on buying a new notebook soon...I know, that's weird :D). I don't think it's harmful, but I spend time watching reviews instead of working, so this has to go.

 

4. Time management:

     - For now I'll look for some materials on how to organize everyday tasks with Todoist app and try out new ways of doing it (my old system was very overwhelming for me to maintain).

 

5. Finances:

    - Keeping a spreadsheet with monthly calculations of all my bank account and assets (I'll do my best to keep the trend "bullish"        :)).

     - I'm considering trying out the minimalism philosophy. That's just something to consider for me - maybe I'll look through my stuff, decide what to throw away, what to sell, and ask my self "do I really need this/does this make my life better?" every time I want to buy something new.

 

6. Mental health:

     - I'll work on creating a habit of meditation. 10 minutes every morning. I give myself two moths to do it, after that I'll try to extend this to 15 minutes and see how I feel about that. Last time I was stressing out that I don't have time in the morning to do 20 minutes of meditation even if I woke up earlier than usual. I tried to progress too fast.

     - I'll wait for three month doing meditation, taking ashwaghanda and try to stress out about everything a little less, and if it won't help, I'll go see a therapist. I was stressing out about how expensive it is, so this time I won't see it as a cost. I'll see it as an investment + "self-negligence tax".

 

Monitoring progress: I'll post a monthly update on this thread starting from tomorrow (1st of May, 2018). It won't always be the first day of the month, but I'll try to make it first weekend of the month ;). If anyone reads it - please hold me accountable on that!

 

Longer story here:

As for now, despite all my personal successes, I feel like my life's a mess.

 

I'm 26, I live in Poland, I work as a web developer (although my dream goal is to become a blockchain developer, preferably in a project that would make some aspect of our lives fair). Since my mom died three years ago, I have a feeling that I cannot recover mentally. Any minor obstacle can turn my mood upside down. I tried to see a specialist, but it has put a lot of financial stress on me, which I didn't feel comfortable with at that time, so I quit.

 

I think that some part of my personality is very prone to addictions. I was addicted to cigarettes since I was 16 (I fortunately quit when I was 21), I think I was very close to become an alcoholic when I was at college, in a toxic relationship (based on fights and alcohol) and at the same time finding out that my mom has cancer. Theese were the hardest times for me.

 

Right now it's better, I've made a little detox from Facebook, because it's been killing my productivity and ability to focus and learn, but I'm very prone to binge on YouTube for example, so there's always something to distract me when I need to get the job done. That leads me to frustration, because I have plenty of goals I would like to accomplish, but some part of me is holding me back and I don't know how to figure my life out.

 

I know for certain that one part of it must be exercise (that's why I'm here), but when it comes to other aspects, I cannot think of any logical plan and estimate how long would it take to make something out of it.

 

I have a few friends, but I feel really awkward and uncomfortable around new people. That's really bothering me, because I was really open and popular kid in high school. I feel like college time has destroyed my confidence and ability to meet new people, be comfortable and enjoy being around them. Also, I noticed a tendency that my older friends tend to just float away from my life. Contacts are just disappearing and I have no idea why (I think there's something wrong with me but I really cannot tell what it is).

 

So here are the things that I would like to improve in, let's say, next year:

1. Fitness

This one is going well for now. I'm pretty consistent when it comes to exercise. My diet isn't on point, but it's not tragic either. I'm at level  5 on nerd fitness nutrition scale, but I want to step up and remove grains and legumes from my diet. I'll try to level up on that scale every month or two (depends on how I'll feel on higher levels with less carbs). I train three days a week, basically all bodyweight exercises. I'd like to progress to more advanced calisthenics, but my main goal is to build muscle mass. I'm considering weighted calisthenics in the future, when pistol squats, one arm pushups/pullups od handstand pushups won't be demanding enough (but that's a long road before it happens I think).

 

2. Professional development:

I need to start coding in my spare time regularly. Without it I won't be able to work towards my blockchain career. It's hard, because at the sime time I need to stay on track on my work-related skills, but I hope I can manage it on the go.

The plan: I'll start with 30 minutes a day every non-workout day except weekends. I'll let myself rest in the weekends (that's what I struggle with as well - I'm not able to rest on saturday and sunday, I always worry about something). When I'll get comfortable with that, I'll try to go 30 minutes every weekday. That'll give me 2,5 hours of practice outside of work per week, so that's 10 hours per month. Not so impressive, but 10 hours/month is better than 0. Ultimately I would like to have one hour of coding every monday thru friday, but I need to build some foundations first. I have to decide what I will be working on, because deciding on the fly doesn't seem to work to be honest. So...I think I'll start with finishing a Java tutorial I started and then proceed to Princeton University blockchain course which requires java knowledge to complete its programming assignments.

Side note: I really admire engineers who are able to really focus and work hard on complicated subjects without distraction. It's a skill I would love to acquire, so I think that regular coding sessions are a way that I could cultivate this type of mental workouts.

 

3. Productivity/concentration: 

There are some things that I would like to STOP doing in order to increase my ability to focus on things that are actually important to me. My main distractors are:

 - YouTube (there are a lot of awesome materials there, but I think that most of the time I'm watching meaningless videos or use the good stuff as an excuse to procrastinate, so I need to find a way to moderate that) - I will limit youtube just to weekends (I don't need anything from it on weekdays, so I'll have more time for other things that are important to me). I already feel that it will be tough, because my morning habit is to drink coffee and watch stuff on youtube. I know I'm gonna miss it This also ioncludes disabling the YouTube app on my phone

- A particular polish side with funny pictures and memes (no need to visit that crap at all...) - I'll just block it everywhere I can

- Facebook and LinkedIn (I already limited that, but I want to restrict myself from visiting those sites even more) - I think that's the same as youtube. I don't really need it, but I enjoy a occasional check. So - I'll allow myself to login to theese only on weekends, it's gonna be blocked on weekdays.

- I'm sorry to say this, but I constantly find myself scrolling through this forum's content at work So I think I'll have to block nerd fitness from 9 to 5 (I still need access to log my progress and interact with all you awesome people :D).

Obviously, I'm not able to block any site that can serve as a way to procrastinate at work. I realized that more often than not it's kinda subconscious. I'll have to rely on my willpower - I don't like that because I know myself well enough to know that I will fail fast, and I will fail often. But...well..I don't really know any other strategy, so if anyone here have any suggestions I am open to try it out!

 

4. Time management:

I used to use Todoist app to manage my daily todo lists. I still use it to this day, but not so regularly as I used to. I would like to get back to planning my days and stick to the plan, but it seemed a bit overwhelming last time I tried it. I think I need to come up with a better plan this time, so for now I'll look for some materials on time management and how to organize my stuff to go forward, and not just be busy.

 

5. Financial health

When it comes to money, I fell like I have a strong need to feel secure, so I save the majority of my salary. Warning, moment of honesty ahead: Polish government isn't the friendliest country when it comes to supporting it's people. The retirement system is collapsing, so, personally, I believe that my generation has to take care of itself, because otherwise there won't be any retirement money for us. That's why I save so much money every month - I think about my future and, honestly, I'm afraid. Second thing is - I invest in cryptocurrency and blockchain projects. Theese are risky investments, but I've managed to make some good money out of it anyway. As you may or may not know, Poland isn't a crypto friendly place. We have very restrictive tax policy when it comes to cryptocurrencies (just look up "Polish crypto tax" on youtube), and our exchanges are forced to emigrate elsewhere by forbiding access to bank accounts, rejecting transactions by banks and so on. It makes me sad and dissapointed, because I'm really passionate about the subject, and my own country is holding me back. People like me are portrayed as scammers or just stupid people investing in ponzi scheme. We have a heavy anti-crypto propaganda going on in the news, and even our central bank secretly payed a few youtubers for special campaign to scare people away from cryptocurrencies. I really can't think about any logical reasons behind theese actions. Polish developers are really talented force that could speed up the economy if taxes were humane. It's really hard to predict what the government mood will be about crypto investors. This year, our Ministry of Finances woke up three weeks before tax reports due date and said something like "Well, from now on, every crypto-crypto transaction is taxed 18% PLUS you have to pay additional 1% from EVERY transaction that involves cryptocurrency in it". That's just absurd, and personally, I feel terrified to do anything with my money and crypto assets, because I have no idea how my governent is going to react. But that's a subject for a whole post and I don't want to bother you with the details any longer. It's just...I feel really helpless here. Helpless, sad and dissapointed. I have nothing against paying fair taxes, but that's not the case here. I was considering moving away from here, but I guess I'm scared, I don't know. One thing is that my girlfriend's mother is suffering from leukemia, so she's not very keen on moving out to another country. I fell a little trapped in Poland, because I don't feel like I would find myself in a new place and I don't think that I'm good enough yet to work as a developer somewhere else and make a decent amount of money.

 

The plan: Well...i don't really know how can I plan this. I'm pretty much set with my savings, I'm starting new job soon with better pay, I tracked my expenses regularly, but it became too much work and I have some strong (good) spending habits, so I don't think it's necessary for me anymore. I do a monthly check of all my assets and keep it in a spreadsheet and I think that's sufficient for now. Maybe I'll think more about emigration to some other place. I'd love to see Thailand, but it would be really hard to set things up to live there longer.

 

6. Mental health

I think this one is a mix of all the points above. In other words, a mess in those areas makes a mess in my mental health and my mood. Ofcourse I think there are other factors that come into play, like trauma after my mom's death, unresolved things from the past, my increasingly introverted and neurotic personality. One part of me wants to be open and friendly towards other people, but other just don't want to interact with anyone sometimes. Every time I go to some blockchain or dev meetup I feel like I'm somewhat inferior to other people that are there. I'm unable to start a conversation with a stranger. I feel that I'm ignored when I try to ask a question, which only deepens my loneliness. That's really crippling, because this way I will never be able to build, let's say, a prosperous business or find a group of people with the same interests as me to lift each other up in our skills, maybe collaborate on some awesome project. I fell disconnected from other people. It's really depressing and I find myself crying myself to sleep sometimes when I realize in what a mental hole I'm in. It's pathetic. The worst thing is that I really cannot point to a reason why I feel mistreated by some people. What's wrong with me that I seem to push people away. I noticed that every time I go to my favorite pub (well, I used to work there, so I know everyone that works there also) and I get a little drunk, I start to say what I REALLY think, or I just say some stupid things just to goof around, the next morning I feel guilty about it. I don't know if that's more like "That wasn't really me" or "That WAS the real me, my true personality which I hide everyday to look more professional/calm/mature etc.". I don't really know myself.

 

The plan: Well...I said that I think that it's mostly a mix of previous points, so I'll see if fixing those will improve my situation in this aspect. Also, I will get back to daily meditation. I think it helped me when I did it consistently. I'll start from 10 minutes every weekday. I have to think about the time that I'll do it. I'm considering waking up early to do my meditation session and coding practice as the first things in the morning. I did that for almost a year and it worked kinda well, but I've put too much on my shoulders and finally my whole schedule has collapsed. This time I would like to plan everything smarter, with small steps, and build up from strong foundations. I'll give myself three months, and if nothing changes, I'll try to see a therapist again. Maybe that will help me to sort myself out.

 

I'm open to modify those goals as I progress, but I'll post any update on my monthly progress updates.

This is very inspiring! Live Long and continue to Prosper!  

[solski]

I didn't do my workout yesterday, but I've done a lot of java coding and started an online blockchain coding course from Princeton University. I needed a little rest, so I decided that I'm going to workout today. I already did some java coding earlier in the morning, and here's my workout for today (pull up bar finally arrived, yay :D)

 

1. Assisted one arm push up

1. 12

2. 2 <- these were regular one arm push ups 

3. 12

+11 regular pushups

Total: 24 (I'm not counting the regular one arm push ups)

 

2. Pull ups

1. 5

2. 4

3. 3

Total: 12

Comment: This bar has more narrow sponges (hands are slightly closer), so that can have some impact. Also, technique wasn't perfect.

 

3. One arm chair dips

1. 8

My right arm hurts really bad when I do this, so I'm gonna stop here.
@godjira1 would you be able to send me some examples of hip hinge exercises? I would greatly appreciate it!

 

4. Assisted pistol squats

1. 6

2. 10

3. 10
Total: 26

 

5. Plank

1. 65 sec

2. 65 sec

3. 65 sec

Total: 195 sec (3 min 15 sec)

 

I need to admit, I'm quite lazy when it comes to workouts now. I had about two weeks of, because I'm stiwching jobs and I wanted to slow down a little and rest before starting out at new place. I can feel it will be stressful so I wanted to unwind a little and at the same time I didn't want to let go of my workouts and routines, so that's kind of compromise between my laziness and my life plan  I was able to do more squats that I did, but I will give my best starting from monday

[godjira1]

hip hinge exercises

BWT only: 

Hip bridge - lie down with your feet on floor and knees bent. Bridge up to create a plank. To increase difficulty, elevate your feet, or head, or both.

Vertical Jump - with minimal knee bend, fold at the hips then jump as high upwards vertically as you can. 

Single Leg Deadlift (can be done with Kettlebells/dumbbells, etc) - stand on 1 leg, keep that leg only slightly bent at the knees, reach down and touch your toes. Without changing the knee angle, come back up to a standing position. 

[ladyofthebog]

i very much enjoy the single leg deadlift

[solski]

Yeah, single leg deadlift sounds awesome. Definitely gonna try that one out!  Thanks a lot

1. Assisted one arm pushups

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

Total: 36

Comment: I need to find something harder, but one arm push ups are still too hard

 

2. Pull ups

1. 5

2. 5

3. 4

Total: 15

Comment: I used a little wider grip this time

 

3. One leg kettlebell squat (thanks for suggesting this one @godjira1 :D)

1. 8

2. 8

3. 8

Total: 24

Comment: I started out lightly, but I can definitely go up in reps

 

4. Squats

1. 15

2. 15

3. 15

Total: 45

 

5. Planks

1. 70 sec

2. 70 sec

3. 70 sec

Total: 210 sec (3 min 30 sec)

 

I usually do a short session of stretching, but I'll skip this time. It was my first day at new job. I need to read about a few things to be better prepared for tomorrow and it's already pretty late.

[solski]

Here's a little thought that came into my mind.

 

All of my earlier attempts to build a habit of working out regularly, obviously didn't succeed. I started to think about it, and I realized that I had all the wrong reasons as to why I want to work out. All of my life I've been working out to impress. To impress girls. To make my ex-girlfriend jealous. To impress my friends. To look more dangerous. To send a "don't f* with me" message. To feel like I'm better than people around me. To be able to look down on them. I haven't achieve any of these goals (I'm actually glad that I didn't). I've spent days measuring my progress and feeling frustrated that I didn't gain/lose any weight, that my chest isn't bigger at all, that my arms are the same size they were the last time I checked. Hell, even if my measurement tape showed 0.5cm of gain on my arm, I explained to myself that I must've checked it wrong.

 

This time I can't have those in my big why. There are more important areas of my life that I have to work on than the size of my bicep. This time I work out regularly to learn to be consistent. To overcome my learned laziness. To fight through excuses. To get my act together. To realize that hard work brings results after a much longer time than leveling up in a video game. To prioritize the right things in my life. To respect every minute that I have in any given day. The fitness results are still a factor. I already feel better with myself. But that's not a priority. Results will come, that's a matter of time and progressing. That's easy. The hard part for me are all the things I mentioned above. And these are the things that are worth spending my time and putting in the effort. These , I think, are the universal traits that will help me set up my life straight.

[solski]

I've skipped yesterday's workout, but I did come coding + read a lot of software-development-related materials. I did a workout today instead, but I think I'll find a moment to do some coding today also.

 

1. Declined archer pushups (1 full rep = 1 rep on right arm and 1 rep on left)

1. 6

2. 8

3. 8

+6 regular pushups

Total: 22

Comment: My goal is to do 12 in each set

 

Pull ups

1. 6

2. 5

3. 4

Total: 15

 

One leg kettlebell deadlift

1. 10

2. 10

3. 10

Total: 30

 

Assisted pistol squats

1. 6

2. 6

3. 6

Total: 18

Comment: I've done these a little bit different than before. I was holding against a doorframe, and that turned out to be more demanding than using a low hanged pullup bar as support.

 

Plank

1. 75

2. 75

3. 75

Total: 225 sec (3 mins 55 sec)

[Amazon Ninja]

Your coding fascinates me! How did you get into it?

 

also, your planks are seriously cool!

 

[solski]

On 5/17/2018 at 7:47 PM, Amazon Ninja said:

Your coding fascinates me! How did you get into it?

 

also, your planks are seriously cool!

 

Hey, thank you I actually work as a web developer, but my dream is to get into blockchain development. I started to learn because I started to get sick of my night shifts as a bartender, and it turned out that coding is actually fun. Right now I can't think of anything else that I could do for a living

[solski]

This week has been pretty shitty so far. I started out in a new job, I'm overwhelmed by the new rules, new environment and lots of new people. I'm tired and I don't want to do this workout (I'm not going to manage to do all three workout planned for this week, so that's even more discouraging). Anyway...gotta do what you gota do

1. Decline archer pushups

1. 10

2. 9

3. 7

+11 regular pushups

Total: 26

 

2. Pull ups

1. 5

2. 5

3. 3

Total: 13

Comment: I can't seem to progress in those. I think I'm gonna switch to chin ups for a while.

 

3. One leg kettlebell deadlift

1. 10

2. 10

3. 10

Total: 30

 

I gave up on the rest, I think it's too much for me at the moment. I need to rest for now. I'm gonna do some coding before going to sleep. This week is completely screwed up in terms of schedule. I need to prepare for the next week, which isn't going to be easy, because I'm going to my hometown for the weekend and I'm not gonna be able to prepare aeverything on sunday. Gotta think about how I'm going to solve this.

[solski]

Here's my first plan's progress report:

1. Fitness/health

     - Bodyweight workout three times a week - I did good for the first two weeks of May, but last two weeks were totally off. I usually did a couple of pushups and pullups before going to work, but I didn't manage to do a full workout. Life got in the way. I know that souldn't be an excuse, but that's what happened. I feel really demotivated by that fact, but I need to break through it and get back to my workout routine.

The plan: Keep working out three times a week. Mondays, wednesdays and fridays would be ideal. Additionally - I tried to set and appointment with a dietician to measure my body fat percentage, muscle mass, hydrations levels etc., but she's always had something else in the way and kept delaying the meeting. I kept agreeing because her office is the nearest (I'm a lazy bastard :P), but that's too much - I want to keep track of my progress, so one of my goals for June is to visit a dietician.

 

     - Leveling up on nerd fitness dietary guide every month or two (sweet spot is being on level 7 consistently) - The biggest surprise for me is how hard it is for me to give up bread My diet wasn't perfect also, I had pizza, KFC, and other types of junk food. It's definetely too much.

The plan:  I will allow myself to eat junk food once a month. I'll also try to give up bread this month for good. In order to do that, I have to find an alternative to my favorite breakfast - srambled eggs with bread.

 

     - I'd like to create a habit of taking vitamin C + D and ashwaghanda regularly. I'll set up and alarm on my phone to remind myself about it at 9 P.M. every day. - that's going really good actually. I think I'm starting to form a habbit - I feel uncomfortable without taking those vitamins before going to sleep.

 

2. Professional development:

     - Coding/learning for one hour every weekday - that went good for the first two weeks, but after I switches jobs I realized that there's so much new stuff to learn, that I will have to give up Java and blockchain tutorial in favor of my professional skillset. I don't really know what to think about that.

The plan: I think that the solution for now is to learn the things that I need in my day-to-day work for at least 30 minutes every workday and learn about blockchain technologies on the weekends. But then again - I planned for not having any responsibilities for the weekends - that's why I failed the last time - I didn't have the time to relax and always had the feeling that I need to do something. I think I'll put the blockchain aside for now, concentrate on my work project to become fluent in it, and then try to incorporate blockchain into my daily routine.

 

3. Productivity/concentration:

     - Blocking sites that are draining my time every day and are not helpful to me:

         - YouTube - I slipped on this, but the good part is that I don't use youtube during my work hours at all.

         - Sites with memes - I'm not visiting theese at all

         - Facebook & LinkedIn (but it comes to all social media really) - That's the same as YouTube (although I don't use facebook that often, I don't feel the need to. But I have to admit that I didn't really follow the set schedule and been disabling the blocking app. I need to be more strict about it.

         - Nerd fitness - I don't browse the forums on my work hours.

 The plan: Being more strict about my allowed times to browse those sites.

 

4. Time management:

     I'm using Todois to organize my everyday tasks. It feels good to have it under control again, but sometimes all of the different things tend to add up and overwhelm me. 

The plan: My idea is to set an upper limit of tasks that I'll be able to do every day. Let's start from 3 for this month and build up from there. That way I'll learn to prioritize, which is non existent at the moment (I tend to cram all the things that I can think of to today's todo list and then put most of them to someday in the future. That's a bad habit, and I think that limiting my daily amount of tasks is actually a good way to get rid of it.

 

5. Finances:

    - Keeping a spreadsheet with monthly calculations of all my bank account and assets (I'll do my best to keep the trend "bullish" :)). - well...the thing is, that I have the dual-boot  PC (I have Linux as well as Windows 10 operating systems on the same machine), and latest Windows update made my linux partition disappear, which means that my spreadsheets are gone. There's still some hope, because I found a thread on the forum, where one guy had the same problem and managed to recover the data. I'll try his solution, but if it won't work, I'll have to format the whole machine and install only linux. Either way, there's a valuable lesson learned - always backup important data I'm considering going back to YNAB (You Need A Budget) - it's a personal budgeting app. It's pretty convenient and has all the features I need, but I don't feel comfortable storing my financial data in the cloud. 

    - I have a plan to sell the things I'm not using - for example an airsoft gun and all the clothes for it that I bought and literally used once.

 

6. Mental health:

     - I'll work on creating a habit of meditation. 10 minutes every morning. I give myself two moths to do it, after that I'll try to extend this to 15 minutes and see how I feel about that. Last time I was stressing out that I don't have time in the morning to do 20 minutes of meditation even if I woke up earlier than usual. I tried to progress too fast. - I haven't been meditating even once in May. I feel a strong resistance to do it, I don't know why. I feel anxious even thinking about meditating. That may be the sign that I'll have to put it off for now, or that that's the best thing that I can do for myself. I think I have to modify my morning routine in order to be able to sit for couple of minutes and do nothing. I still spend a lot of time on YouTube in the morning and drinking coffee. That's my thing - I know it's unproductive and I'm wasting time doing that, but I feel really bad and irritated (damn, is that and addiction?). The first thing that I can do and that won't be too hard on me is to stop watching YouTube in the morning. I'll just sit and drink the coffee. I'll do that for the whole month and then proceed to give up my morning coffee (I can always have one in the office).

 

     - I'll wait for three month doing meditation, taking ashwaghanda and try to stress out about everything a little less, and if it won't help, I'll go see a therapist. I was stressing out about how expensive it is, so this time I won't see it as a cost. I'll see it as an investment + "self-negligence tax". - For now I'm still considering visiting therapist, because there can be much more to my mood than just the things I mentioned above.

 

Monitoring progress: I think I'll create another thread on this forum for those monthly updates. It'll be more convenient to see the big picture undisrupted by the training logs. 

 

[solski]

Well...i don't know what happened to my monday's training log, but i went like this (in a nutshell):

1. Decline archer pushups: 27 total

2. Wide pull-ups: 15 total

3. One leg squat with kettlebell: 30 total

4. Kettlebell goblet squat: 37 total

5. Plank: 225 seconds total

 

Here's my today's log:

1. Decline archer pushups

1. 12

2. 11

3. 6

+ 6 normal pushups at the end

Total: 29

 

2. Wide pull ups

1. 6

2. 6

3. 5

Total: 17

Comment: PROGRESS ! ! ! ! ! !

 

3. One leg kettlebell deadlift

1. 15

2. 15

3. 15

Total: 45

Comment: I'm thinking about buying a new kettlebell (I don't know if 32kg will be too heavy)

 

4. Goblet squats (16kg kettlebell)

1. 15

2. 15

3. 10

Total: 40

 

5. Planks

1. 80

2. 40

3. 30

Total: 150

Comment: Pretty lame this time.

[solski]

1. One arm pushup negatives

1. 5

2. 6

3. 6

+13 normal pushups

Total: 17

 

2. Wide pull ups

1. 6

2. 6

3. 6

+ 2 normal chin ups after a short break

 

3. One leg dead lift

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

 

4. Assisted pistol squats

1. 6

2. 6

3. 6

 

5. Planks

1. 1,5 min

2. 1,5 min

3. 1min

Total: 4 mins

[solski]

1. One arm pushup negatives

1. 5

2. 6

3. 6

+13 normal pushups

Total: 17

 

2. Wide pull ups

1. 6

2. 6

3. 6

+ 2 normal chin ups after a short break

 

3. One leg dead lift

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

 

4. Assisted pistol squats

[solski]

I don't know why the last log is duplicated but anyways - here's my today's workout:

 

1. One arm pushup negatives (reps per hand, interchangeably)

1. 10

2. 10

3. 8

+15 normal pushups

Total: 28

Comment: I'll try to do normal one hand push ups next time. 2 per set will be a huge success already!

 

2. Wide pull ups

1. 8

2. 5

3. 5

 

3. One leg dead lift:

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

 

4. Assisted pistol squats

1. 7

2. 7

3. 7

 

5. Plank

1. 1 min

2. 1 min

3. 0.5 min

Total: 2.5 min

Comment: As seen here (7:25 mark): 

 

[solski]

I couldn't do my workout yesterday, and today I'm quite busy, so I managed to do a quick set of circuits:

1. Archer pushups: 8 (each hand)

2. Wide pullups: 6

3. Goblet squats w/ kettlebell: 15

 

1. 10

2. 6

3. 15

 

1. 8 + 8 normal pushups

2. 6

3. 10

[solski]

 - new monthly update for may is ready

[solski]

1. One arm pushups (per hand):

1. 4

2. 3 (last rep on left hand was a bit assisted)

3. 2

Total: 9

Comment: I feel a lot more tension in my core while doing one arm pushups. I'm satisfied with my current level in this exercise despite my week long break from any solid workout (I did pushups and wide pullups every morning anyway as a morning routine), I think I'm gonna continue that path and try to increase reps.

 

2. Narrow grip pull ups:

1. 8

2. 6

3.5

Total: 19

Comment: I thought it would be a good idea to change back exercise a bit. I'm gonna do those for a while and then either go back to wide pull ups or some progression towards archer pullups(?)

 

3. One leg kettlebell deadlift:

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

Total: 36

Comment: This has become too easy - I'm gonna budget some money to buy a heavier kettlebell (It'll become useful with squats as well)

 

4. Assisted pistol squats:

1. 8

2. 8

3. 

Total: 24

Comment: I'm gonna buy heavier kettlebell and do some gobblet squats instead of this.

 

5. Rotating planks (description a couple of post higher :D):

1. 60 sec

2. 40 sec

3. 30 sec

Total: 130 sec

 

[solski]

1. One arm pushups:

1. 3 

2. 3

3. 2

Total: 8

Comment: Poor diet and sleep on the weekend took its toll

 

2. Narrow pullups

1. 8

2. 4

3. 4

Total: 16

 

3. One leg kettlebell squat

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

 

4. Assisted pistol squats

1. 9

2. 9

3. 9

 

5. Rotating planks

1. 30 sec

 

I haven't finished my workout, because clock was ticking, and I had places to go I'll do my best to be more disciplined next week.

[solski]

1. One arm pushups

1. 4

2. 4

3. 3

Total: 11

 

2. Narrow pullups

1. 7

2. 7

3. 4

Total: 18

 

3. One leg kettlebell squat

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

Total: 36

 

4. Assisted pistol squats

1. 10

2. 10

3. 10

Total: 30

 

5. Knees to chest on a pullup bar

1. 10

2. 10

3. 10

Total; 30

[solski]

This one is from 11th July, I don't know why it didn't submit, but...yeah...

 

1. One arm pushups

1. 4

2. 4

3. 4

Total: 12

 

2. Wide pull ups

1. 10

2. 6

3. 6

 

3. One leg kettlebell squat

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

 

4. Goblet squats with kettlebell

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

 

5. Knees to chest

1. 10

2. 10

3. 10

[solski]

1. One arm pushups

1. 4

2. 3

3. 3

Total: 10

Comment: I just ate and learned a valuable lesson - that wasn't a good idea to start a workout right after a meal...I feel pretty full and those pushups were pretty lousy.

 

2. Wide pullups:

1. 10

2. 6

2. 6

Total: 22

 

3. One leg kettlebell deadlift

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

Total: 36

 

4. Goblet squat

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

Total: 36

 

5. Knees to chest

1. 12

2. 12

3. 10

Total: 34

 

[solski]

1. One arm pushups

1. 5

2. 4

3. 4

Total: 13

Comment: Well..that went better than expected, considering a total of 70 pushups in 3 sets in the morning 

 

2. Wide pull ups

1. 8

2. 8

3. 4

Total: 20

Comment: Also did about 20 of those in the morning

 

3. One leg kettlebell deadlift

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

 

4. Goblet squats

1. 12

2. 12

3. 12

 

5. Knees to chest

1. 12

2. 10

3. 10

[solski]

Having a harder time today. I just watched some calisthenics youtubers and realized that they're somewhat my age and are crazy ripped. They're experts at what they do. I started to regret the time I've wasted NOT thinking about taking care of myself and that getting to their level will take me a lot of time (most propably like 4-5 years of consistent hard work). That kinda sucks, because I'll never be a good looking, ripped 25 year old (I'm already 26, so yeah good luck with that :P). I just regret that I didn't take enough care of myself when I was 18-19 years old and I went the path of alcohol and addictions instead. That's unmotivating, but I'm not gonna make the same mistake of giving up again.