Rooks - Tracking the Daily Grind...

[goodbye_farewell]

16 hours ago, Rooks said:

I really thought I was starting to come out of my funk I've been for the last few months, but now I sit here again, not really having much focus or not knowing what to do about it.  I keep coming back to this idea that I don't think I'm happy doing what I currently do, software testing.  I don't find any fulfillment out of knowing some piece of software will work better because I did my job.  I just don't care.  And I think about what it would be like to build stuff for a living.  And I think I'd like it.  I love using my hands.  But I don't know if I could make a living out of it, and more importantly, I can't justify giving up health insurance at the moment because of my daughter.  Maybe once the house is paid off, we could swing it, but until then I think I more or less "stuck" with the current gig.  And the funny part about this is that I keep finding myself frustrated with the fact that I'm frustrated. I have an amazing gig. Co-workers are brilliant and nice. I make a very good salary and have great benefits. And here I sit wanting to give it up to go be a blue collar guy. It seems so much more fulfilling.

 

Man, I relate to this so much. Seriously, get out of my head. I recently priced individual health insurance for my family. $31,000 a year. That is just insane. I make a good salary as well, but it is the health insurance that really keeps me working. This also explains why I always have a project going at home. My next big job... converting my carport to a garage

 

[The Most Loathed]

Job Funk

I'm in  a weird place of being ok with my gig but I 100% understand and have been there. I'm pretty sure everyone has their own thing, for me it's learning or maybe just improvement. I get restless when the workouts get too easy and the work doesn't require me to do something I have never done. I know that and when I get restless I try to find and excuse to push myself in a new direction. For you, it's probably a question of what doesn't make you restless and going that way.

 

Double Space

The thing that has always blown my mind is the disappearance of indented paragraphs. I'm pretty sure they went away because the Tab key was decided to be the key that changes which element on a webpage gets the focus but it's also the key that indents paragraphs on a word processor. As a result, starting in the 1990s forums and blogs stopped indenting paragraphs. Back the the HTML tags for paragraph didn't provide the full line after the paragraph that it does now, which I'm pretty sure is what translated in the Microsoft Word's use of  a double carriage return if you press Enter as opposed to the single of Shift+Enter.

[Rooks]

On 3/29/2017 at 6:27 PM, Sylvaa said:

I'm pretty sure I read that same article at some point. Double-spacing was ingrained into my head while in school (elementary and secondary), however now I rarely use it. Unless I need to make a paper seem longer....

 

For anyone really curious.... http://www.businessinsider.com/never-put-two-spaces-after-a-period-2014-1

 

On 3/30/2017 at 8:09 AM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I'm still not giving it up. See, I just double spaced.

 

But... but... you didn't. I'm confused. I think I might be getting trolled, and if so, well done.

 

On 3/30/2017 at 9:07 AM, wovercast said:

Man, I relate to this so much. Seriously, get out of my head. I recently priced individual health insurance for my family. $31,000 a year. That is just insane. I make a good salary as well, but it is the health insurance that really keeps me working. This also explains why I always have a project going at home. My next big job... converting my carport to a garage

 

Good lord. $31k? That's crazy. I've never even looked at prices for something like that. I thought just paying for daycare was brutal.

 

On 3/30/2017 at 9:17 AM, The Most Loathed said:

Double Space

The thing that has always blown my mind is the disappearance of indented paragraphs. I'm pretty sure they went away because the Tab key was decided to be the key that changes which element on a webpage gets the focus but it's also the key that indents paragraphs on a word processor. As a result, starting in the 1990s forums and blogs stopped indenting paragraphs. Back the the HTML tags for paragraph didn't provide the full line after the paragraph that it does now, which I'm pretty sure is what translated in the Microsoft Word's use of  a double carriage return if you press Enter as opposed to the single of Shift+Enter.

 

A very good point. I used to tab everything. I can remember specifically getting frustrated trying to figure out ways to actually make a tab in an internet browser during my college days. Now, the only that gets tabs is my coding.  

 

Thursday, March 30th, 2017 through Tuesday, April 4th, 2017

• Zilch

Wednesday, April 5th, 2017

• Overhead Squats - 45/10, 65/10
  • Light for my legs, but the 65 got heavy for the backs and wrists.
• GB Core Workout
  • Still not quite completely this round, but closer than the last time I did it. Sticking with it for another week or 2 before moving up another level. That said, my mid back started hurting after this so just called it. Had wanted to do some barbell back work like rows, but whatever.

Thursday, April 6th, 2017

• Nothing

Thoughts:

Overall, I've been been nowhere near healthy the last few days. It's been pretty ugly week. Works been pretty hectic with a release finally going out today. So those weeks are always a bit crazy. On top of that, it was kiddo's spring break this week, so while it worked out well that we found coverage between two grandmas and a cousin, it still creates a little tension making sure everything is ok. Funny how I trust her school teachers more than I trust my mother in law. And the cherry on the sundae was that I had some family drama take place this past weekend. It wasn't even really drama. It was just two very poor decisions. One by my father. One by me. So, for those follow me on my IG, you saw this post (and for those that don't, you get to see it now). 

 

 

This past weekend, I had gone out to my parents house which isn't too far from the farm where my dad's parents lived (both passed away last year). The farm is still in the family. It's run by two of my dad's cousins (or for those non-genealogists out there, that makes them my first cousins once removed). My dad's entire family all got out of the farm for whatever reason, but it's still the place they all grew up. Anyway, I had wanted to go out to the farm and see if I could find either old tools that weren't wanted, or old wood that wasn't wanted to try and make something cool out of it. I talked with my dad about it and I even messaged both my first cousins once removed (or FCORs) about it via FB. I hadn't gotten a response, but my dad assured me, it'd be fine. Anyway, we got out to the farm, did some looking around, found some old saws buried in a shed, but no real wood that would be useable. Anyway, it was a super fun day, as dad was telling me all about some of the memories from his childhood as we found old stuff that sparked his memories, etc. I've been struggling to really have meaningful conversations with my dad lately so it was a very memorable day in that regard. 

 

Onto the stupid decision. When we were getting ready to leave, my dad says "Throw those saws in the Jeep. They'll never miss them and you could fix them up and use them." Sounded like a good idea as I honestly would try and get them back to working order, but I replied "You sure we shouldn't ask someone about this?" He said no, and off we went. Hence the stupid decisions. First, my dad telling me to steal something and, second, despite me knowing better, agreeing to the theft. It's not dad's "home" anymore and hasn't been for many years. I got back to my place on Saturday night and recounted the day's events to my wife and the first thing out of here mouth was "You stole that stuff. You have to bring it back." She was totally right and I knew it after she called me out on it. It just took someone actually saying it to really drive the point home apparently. I had intended on writing up something to my FCORs on Sunday, but it slipped my mind. To my surprise, first thing on Monday morning, I had a message from my FCOR. "You have until midnight tomorrow to return what you stole from us." Needless to say, they were pretty upset about the whole thing and my hopes of getting ahead of the mess had been dashed by my lazy Sunday. My dad called and supposedly smoothed things over, but I still took off work a bit early and made the voyage out to Wisconsin to return the saws. I saw one of my FCORs for about 2 minutes (he said he had a meeting he had to get to so he couldn't talk long) and apologized in person, but he still seemed pretty sour about the whole thing. So needless to say, there's probably some ruffled feathers going on there. 

 

I chatted with my mom about it, and she brought up the point that there very well could be sour feelings at my dad's family for "abandoning" the farm so to speak since my grandpa and his brother started the farm, and yet now, it's all on my great uncle's side. Who knows. Needless to say, I was super upset with myself for not following my gut, and I'm upset with my dad for just being dumb. I'm going to leave things lay for a few weeks and then call my FCOR up and see what I can do for penance. Maybe some free grunt labor in cleaning out a barn or some computer work or something. I want to make it right, cause I really do know better. I fully expect them to be "midwestern" about it, say there's no hurt feelings, and then just hold a grudge for a few years, but I'm really hoping to avoid that and get them to just talk about it. We shall see. So yeah... I think it's time for a beer. Maybe I'll actually get a workout in tomorrow. It might be time for a challenge thread the next go around. Something needs to get me outta this funk.

 

tl;dr:  At some point, you really do know more than your parents. Don't be afraid to speak your mind to them because sometimes you are right.

[The Most Loathed]

10 hours ago, Rooks said:

A very good point. I used to tab everything. I can remember specifically getting frustrated trying to figure out ways to actually make a tab in an internet browser during my college days. Now, the only that gets tabs is my coding.  

You savage, it's spaces not a tab.

[Rooks]

1 hour ago, The Most Loathed said:

You savage, it's spaces not a tab.

 

True. I do change my text editors / IDE to convert tabs to 4 spaces to prevent formatting mess-ups. It still feels like a tab though.  

[The Most Loathed]

2 hours ago, Rooks said:

 

True. I do change my text editors / IDE to convert tabs to 4 spaces to prevent formatting mess-ups. It still feels like a tab though.  

I've done this as well but I have a weird perversion in which I like to code in notepad so a tab is a tab and a space is a space. If I was normal I'd use IDEs too.

[goodbye_farewell]

On 4/7/2017 at 10:52 AM, The Most Loathed said:

I have a weird perversion in which I like to code in notepad

You are savage.

 

 

[Rooks]

On 4/7/2017 at 10:52 AM, The Most Loathed said:

I like to code in notepad

 

Dear lord. Why? At least switch over to Sublime Text or something. Anything but notepad!

 

Friday, April 7th, 2017 through Sunday, April 9th, 2017

• Zilch

Monday, April 10th, 2017

• GB Middle Split Stretch Routine

Thoughts:

Weight wise, I was surprised to find out this morning that I was 211.8. The last few weeks I've only stuck to my IF window maybe 50% of the days and on top of that, even in the window, I've eaten poorly at best. So the fact I've maintained weight I'm happy with. I plan to get back to IF windows 5-6 times per week and hopefully eat better food in those windows as I know my wife has been getting the itch for more veggies with spring in the air.

 

Overall, body health-wise, I still feel a lot of tightness in my lower back. But my left arm has been feeling better, and I've seen improvements in some movements, even with the limited work I've been putting in. Not massive improvements, but improvements. That said, I need to get on my game and start to get serious about fixing my crap, especially, if I actually want to hit a pistol this year. Otherwise, I've noticed that my left ankle has a bit of wonky-ness and my whole right leg is super tight compared to my left. Not sure what I intend to do with this information, but maybe I'll start trying to do something.

 

I did finish my first set of bookends. They work, but aren't as anti-tip as I'd like. A good push from a book will send them flying. Iteration two might require a re-work, or I might just keep the design and sell them. Spoilered the IG post for those that don't care.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

This weekend was quite productive in regards to home projects. I got my final LED light installed out in the garage. I bought 4 of the cheapest 4' fluorescent fixtures Home Depot had ($13 a piece) and then 12 LED replacement tubes (link). Ripped out the ballast, mounted them up on the ceiling, wired them in series, and presto. LED lights for at least slightly cheaper than LED fixtures. Should be cold weather resistant so no issues in the winter. It's so nice having a lot of light in the garage after living with basically 4 100W bulbs forever.

 

On top of finishing that project, I finally bit the bullet and started on changing my truck transmission fluid. It's one of those projects where I knew I could do it, but it just scared me a bit. Got the fluid drained out on Saturday night, and got the new filter installed on Sunday. Went to the Auto Parts store to pick up a gasket, but alas, none in stock. So project on hold until Tuesday. Hopefully, this will make shifts much smoother again as it was getting pretty grumpy when shifting into reverse. Would be nice to get the truck road-worthy again. It's been sitting for too long.

[Rooks]

Tuesday, April 11th, 2017

• None

Wednesday, April 12th, 2017

• None

Thursday, April 13th, 2017

• Zombies! Run S2M25

 

 

Thoughts:

Wanted to get in a workout Wednesday desperately, but life legitimately got in the way. Danika woke up feeling quite sick at around 4am and was in brutal shape. So, my hopes of leaving early to get a morning workout were dashed as I had to take the kiddo to school. That put me behind, which ended up scrapping the end of the day workout hopes. Such is life. 

 

Woke up at 6am this morning, but knew I needed to wait until Danika woke up to leave, so decided to just go run around the neighborhood. Was quite pleased with the result given how little cardio I've done over the past 2 years. Was about to maintain a 10KM/h pace pretty well. I'd like to be able to maintain a 13KM/h pace if I can since that'll get me to my 24 minute 5k. It might be time to get this goal done. Overall, as I type this, I feel pretty good. My achilles feel a little tender and my legs felt a bit tired this morning, but I think we a little voodoo flossing and some mobility work tonight, I should be fine. Plus I'd like to get in my GB Core workout before I leave work (should only take 20 minutes and I'll just do it in work clothes).

 

Otherwise, what else is going on. I've been daydreaming about learning blacksmithing a lot. I came upon Alec Steele's videos lately (apparently a lot of people have as he's gone from 50k subs to nearly 200k subs in 2 months), and they are mind-bogglingly awesome. He's this 19 year old blacksmith out of England, building incredible stuff like a War Hammer. Yeah...

 

 

Or this one. I don't even know what this type of knife actually is, but the videography is beyond stellar. Did I mentioned this kid is 19 years old and has a shop that I would dream of owning, and is killing it as a blacksmith for a career? Awesome...

 

 

And along those lines, I've decided I'm going to enter the Hammer Race with @Sloth the Enduring and @The Most Loathed and maybe some other nerds. And don't think I'm not thinking about trying to make my own hammer before then. I might be more like Rogue's SISU Hammer (since I can weld), but man... if I could forge my own hammer before October?!? That'd be so BA.

[The Most Loathed]

There was at least one SISU hammer there and one cartoony hammer but nothing looked self forged this spring. So you might be a unique badass. 

Nice work on the run. I have been running more that you and my 10k this morning was the same pace. 

[goodbye_farewell]

Blacksmithing appeals to me as well.

[Rooks]

On 4/13/2017 at 0:05 PM, The Most Loathed said:

There was at least one SISU hammer there and one cartoony hammer but nothing looked self forged this spring. So you might be a unique badass. 

Nice work on the run. I have been running more that you and my 10k this morning was the same pace. 

 

Yeah. But a 10k is a lot farther than what I ran! Either way though, I'm happy with my starting point. I'm officially signed up for Wave 2. 

 

13 hours ago, wovercast said:

Blacksmithing appeals to me as well.

 

It's so awesome. The idea of taking a hunk of steel and mashing it into a form you want. Alec Steele has an online Starter course for $29 that claims to be able to get you forging something for around $90. I'll probably take the plunge soon on that.

 

Friday, April 14th, 2017

• GB Core Workout
• Snatch Grip Deadlift - 95/5, 115/5, 135/5 x 5 (last two sets were with straps)
  • Significant as this is the first time I've deadlifted in a long, long while. I really had to restrain myself from moving up to 185 as the weight felt light, but I'm so sick of being hurt.
• Front Squats - 95/3, 135/3 x 3
• Paused Back Squats - 135/1, 185/1

Thoughts:

Almost didn't get this workout in. Got home after working out of our companies Rochester office today and with 3+ hours in the car, I wanted to take a break. But kiddo had already been taken by grandma (we'll get her on Easter when we visit) and Danika said I should workout. So I did. I'm happy she got me down there. 

 

This weekend, I'm hopeful I can write-up my 4 week challenge for the upcoming challenge. I want to start off my training for the Hammer Race right, but I really need to be cognizant of the fact that that I always try to overreach and try to do ALL THE THINGS! So yeah, hopeful I can start using some common sense and do things a bit smarter. Maybe I'll actually get my wife involved since she really is my better half.

[Rooks]

Challenge thread: https://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/97263-rooks-faces-the-facts/

 

[Rooks]

Monday, April 24th, 2017

• GB Core Workout
• Overhead Squats - 45/5 x 3
• Front Squats - 135/5 x 3
• Snatch Grip Deadlift - 135/5 x 3
• KB Strict Press (Single Arm) - 25/5, 35/5 x 2

Probably a bit harder than I should have gone, but things were feeling good and I came out feeling like I worked. 

 

 

[Rooks]

Deciding to spoiler this whole post. Honestly, it's this ranty angry mess of jumbled thoughts that are going through my head. I decided to just let it flow today and see where I ended up. 

Spoiler

 

Oye... I'm forcing myself to sit down and type this out, and I'm literally getting mad at myself. I look over what I write and it feels so trite. Who the fuck cares that you did work around the house? That's great that you didn't do shit all week and you are just spewing forth some shit to make a post on a forum. Not only that, but you suck at writing. *deep breath* Ok... let's try a different approach. I'm going to type what comes into my head. I have no idea where this will go, but let's see if just typing out thoughts provides more insight into why I'm here typing this.

 

Last Tuesday was a great day. My daughter had her quarterly MRI and for the first time since we started treatment nearly 2 years ago, the tumor in her head shrunk. The treatment finally seems to be working. It was amazing news. My wife was happy. I was happy. Sloan was happy (although she's happy most of the time). Our doctors were happy. It was amazing. We went home. We celebrated with juice and beer because diet be damned on days like that. And then it was over. It seemed to be right back to the blah the next day. I was at work and just angry for no reason. Every little thing set me off. I got even more angry with myself because why the hell couldn't I be happy for more than 24 hours after getting news that I've been waiting 2 years to get? Am I suffering from depression? I don't know. I had honestly never thought about it until last Wednesday. But I can't explain my attitude any other way. Why when nothing is seemingly wrong am I just angry? 

 

Needless to say, Thursday and Friday weren't better. I wasn't in the headspace to give two craps about this current challenge. Saturday and Sunday were beautiful.  Leaving that there for now. I don't know how I feel about this weekend. It was productive. My wife and daughter planted our gardens. I trimmed a bush and a tree, as well as mowed the lawn, and finished up a brick surround I've been working (and damn was I proud of that final cut). And our pastor came over with his 3 kids to party with my daughter and play them music (they are very musically talented and have wanted to do something for my daughter for awhile). So we bought some pizzas, made a salad, and had them over to hang out. Kiddo loved it. I not so much. I wanted to chat with this man. He's someone who I envy as he seems so confident and sure of things. And yet, it was interruption after interruption for the kids. I hate constantly being pushed to the side by children. As a parent, I get that it's part of the deal, but it's really frustrating me lately. I feel like anytime I'm trying to have a meaningful conversation with someone, a kid interrupts. And not only that, but I find it so hard to even find common ground anymore. Why should I care about your trivial ass problems of your faucet breaking or that your dog ate a piece of chocolate cake you left on the counter and you had to spend $400 at the vet. My daughter has a brain tumor. Fuck you and your trivial problems. 

 

Subject change. I find myself getting frustrated with laziness more and more. And the best part? Every day I get lazier at my job. I can't tell you the last time I put in a full 8 hours here and yet, I find myself getting upset with people running Nerd Fitness because no one seems to give a shit about the forums anymore. They just cruise along on auto-pilot while the powers that be now focus on money making ventures. I can't say I blame them, it's just irritating to me that they don't seem to care about the folks that started this movement for them. The ones that generated the traffic to make the website a hit. And maybe I'm just romanticizing it to much since most of the original people are probably long gone. Hell... I might not even be some of the "original" people. Feb 2012.  Long time ago... that's for sure.  

 

Anyway, back to the point. I'm a fucking hypocrite. An angry hypocrite. An angry broken hypocrite and I have no idea how to fix myself and I don't seem to give enough shit to try. I used to have no problem stopping work to hit the gym and workout. Now I find myself saying "I can't to the gym. What if I'm needed at work?" and yet, back to my previous point, I don't do shit. I watch Youtube videos, respond to emails that make me look somewhat important, and in general, succeed in skirting by, doing as little as possible. Just typing this makes me angry, mostly at myself. Why don't I fucking care!?!?!

 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

I'm sorry Rooks. You've been through a Hell of a lot. I'm just an uneducated arm-chair psychologist, but depression wouldn't be surprising. Who wouldn't be if they had had to deal with everything you do? I think it's fairly typical for men to break when things are looking up. That's when we can stop protecting everyone else and can finally let our guard down.

 

I'm glad things are looking up for Sloan.

 

I've been thinking the same thing about the forum. It feels like it's dying from neglect. It's a shame, there's a great community of people here.

[Elastigirl]

Read your thread, but hadn't checked your challenge.That is great news about your daughter. I think  Dr. Sloth has a very good point.  Guys are protectors, and you may not have felt like you could stop and feel anger about any of it till now. Just might be something you have to work through.

 

On the not finishing conversations, hang in there it does get easier. And maybe work (I know it's hard to find time) on scheduling some no -kid time with some of those people.  We recently went away for a long weekend with my  brother's siblings and wives. All the kids are grown now, so it was just us. I realized over the weekend, that this was the most conversations I'd had uninterrupted with them in probably my whole life.

[Rooks]

On 5/8/2017 at 4:30 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I'm sorry Rooks. You've been through a Hell of a lot. I'm just an uneducated arm-chair psychologist, but depression wouldn't be surprising. Who wouldn't be if they had had to deal with everything you do? I think it's fairly typical for men to break when things are looking up. That's when we can stop protecting everyone else and can finally let our guard down.

 

I'm glad things are looking up for Sloan.

 

On 5/8/2017 at 4:40 PM, Elastigirl said:

Read your thread, but hadn't checked your challenge.That is great news about your daughter. I think  Dr. Sloth has a very good point.  Guys are protectors, and you may not have felt like you could stop and feel anger about any of it till now. Just might be something you have to work through.

 

Thank you for the comments you guys. I've spent a lot of time this week giving myself permission to just say screw it to everything and have fun and it's helped. I didn't care about diet. I didn't care about working out (or I should say not working out). I didn't care about anything except hanging with my wife and kid. It helped. Now I think it's time to slowly work back into the groove. 

 

On 5/8/2017 at 4:30 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I've been thinking the same thing about the forum. It feels like it's dying from neglect. It's a shame, there's a great community of people here.

 

I started a thread over the "Nerd Fitness Suggestions" area and it's seen a bit of activity from some Admins. So far, no real comments that make me think things are going to change, but it's at least a start to a conversation. 

 

On 5/8/2017 at 4:40 PM, Elastigirl said:

On the not finishing conversations, hang in there it does get easier. And maybe work (I know it's hard to find time) on scheduling some no -kid time with some of those people.  We recently went away for a long weekend with my  brother's siblings and wives. All the kids are grown now, so it was just us. I realized over the weekend, that this was the most conversations I'd had uninterrupted with them in probably my whole life.

 

Yeah. I need to do better at asking my wife to take a night off now and then. I always feel so guilty "abandoning" here with the kiddo despite the fact that when I'm home alone with kiddo, those always end up being the most fun nights. Probably should schedule a night to have drinks with a friend once or twice a month or something alone those lines. 

 

=====

 

On a more global note, I think I'm going to abandon this thread again. For one, again, I'm finding it frustrating to update this. I get mad at myself that I don't have these great insights that so many other people seem to have. 

 

For two, and related to the comment with Sloth, I'm getting a little fed up with Nerd Fitness in general. It's fine if the admins don't care about the forums anymore, but it makes it seem like a less appealing place to be if the people running aren't trying to keep it active or drive new traffic to the forums.

 

For three, I think I'd rather take the time to make comments in other peoples threads if I'm going to "allocate" time to things on Nerd Fitness.

[The Most Loathed]

You do you. If you post something it'll hit my feed. If you don't, don't be a stranger. Be strange, not a stranger.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Do what you need to do Rooks; I'll be around.

[Rooks]

For anyone still following along here, I'm attempting a challenge again for this upcoming challenge.

 

 

[Rooks]

So here we are. 76 days remain in this calendar year. What do I want to get done? I currently have 4 ideas running through my head. 

1. Finally commit to Gymnastics Bodies in full for the remainder of the year to truly see the benefits it has. 
   • Pros: I paid a load of money for this program, and I should give it an honest shot and this would fulfill that. As well, I'd probably improve mobility and flexibility with that much focus on it which were both yearly goals. 
   • Cons: I'm not sure it's motivating enough to actually keep me doing it.
2. Get back into some sort of strength training program and start working on my Super Total. I've seen both Mash Elite and Juggernaut have fairly cheap Super Total programs that I've been intrigued by.
   • Pros: I love moving the weights and I'll be working on one of my lifetime goals.
   • Cons: If I push it hard, there's a strong possibility I get hurt again. Hell, even if I don't push it hard, there's a good chance I get hurt again given how I feel currently.
3. Keep working on the cardio and switch to more of GPP training. Combinations of strength and intensity as well as some running training.
   • Pros: Probably would be the best type of training for aiding my weight loss goals.
   • Cons: Part of me feels this is just a cop out option to let me get some strength training and some flexibility training but not really make much progress in anything.
4. Throw caution to the wind and join a BJJ gym.
   • Pros: It's badass, and my cardio I can only assume would go up. I would probably get a lot more social interaction with folks who are interested in fitness since I'd be part of a gym.
   • Cons: It's cost money and it's a big time commitment. Most of the gyms I've looked at around her seem to have 6pm classes for beginners. Given I'm normally picking my daughter up from school around 5pm, this would require a lot of effort from my wife to basically take full ownership of my daughter 1 or 2 nights a week. 

Right now, I'm thinking I'm leaning towards option 1 with an additional "Whatever" day at the end of the week IF I have completed all 6 workouts. Maybe that'll give me the motivation to get to the end of the week. Then Going to think about it for another day or two before I commit and go for it. Then I can re

 

Outside of fitness goals, I'm sort of second guessing some of my goals and whether I want to get them done or not. Probably going to dink around with stuff related to my truck and woodworking soon anyway, but otherwise, I'm still sort of in my funk of just not having anything in that just jumps out at me as stuff I love and have passion for. Again, more stuff I need to think about to really figure out where I want to go with my free time.

 

In bigger terms (and to a larger extent, my ability to accomplish ANYTHING), I'm realizing how terrible I am at staying focused on things. Just for an example, just writing this post, I've written about 2 sentences followed by jumping off to something else for 10-15 minutes before remembering what I was trying to get done. Rinse, repeat for about 3 hours now. If I had just sat down, wrote out what I wanted and moved on, I would have been done in probably 15 minutes. This is something that really bleeds into everything I do. Between my phone notifications, and my computer notifications, and my ever growing to-do list in my head, it just seems I'm always jumping around, never focusing, very seldom seeing something through. I'm trying to think of ways to improve this. 

 

For now, I've removed a few apps from my phone as well as turned off notifications for a few others, and just outright deleted my Twitter account. Additionally, I think I'm going to spend 20 minutes trying to organize my desk a bit tomorrow. I'd like to get it down to only using the one monitor instead of both my monitor and laptop screen. Less screens means less stuff grabbing my attention. 

 

...30 minutes later...

 

 

Yeah. So I just did it. Spent 30 minutes ripping apart my desk and getting it all straightened out. I was waiting on some development work anyway, so figured it was better to do it now and just feel ready to rock and roll tomorrow. I'll give this at least a week or two and report on how I feel about it and if it's helped focused. Any other ideas people have for staying focused at work, I'm all ears whether it be for desk tips or just tips in general.

 

Other random thoughts running through my head. I listened through a podcast recently that I'd highly recommend. It's called the Body of Knowledge with Dr. Andy Galpin and Kenny Kane. I got tipped of to it listening to Dr. Galpin's podcast with Joe Rogan (also top notch, found here). Anyway, for the BOK podcasts, I thoroughly enjoyed their conversations, they had great guests, and I would recommend to anyone who's a coach or just likes the idea of learning more about human behavior (both for coaching and self evaluation) to give it a listen. It's only 1 "Volume" (i.e. season) right now. Not sure when Volume 2 is due out, but I believe their already taping some of it. 

 

http://thebodyofknowledge.com/

 

Coming from that podcast, they talked about the idea of having coaches a lot. How even as high level coaches they themselves have coaches for MANY things in their lives because they want to improve and in their opinion, you improve much quicker by getting coaching from someone experienced. It's had me thinking a lot about this idea lately, and got me thinking about maybe actually reaching out to some people who I respect to get ideas on whether they'd be willing to coach me virtually or know people here in the Twin Cities who would be good coaches. Anyone reading this have experience with coaches, both positive or negative? 

[Sylvaa]

3 hours ago, Rooks said:

It's had me thinking a lot about this idea lately, and got me thinking about maybe actually reaching out to some people who I respect to get ideas on whether they'd be willing to coach me virtually or know people here in the Twin Cities who would be good coaches. Anyone reading this have experience with coaches, both positive or negative?

 

I had a local coach ("trainer", but his specialty was sports - to the extent that he worked with Bama's football team for a few years). He was a great guy, but my biggest issue was that my goals were kind of all over the place. So he wasn't really helpful long-term. Like, I had too many goals to really see progress in any one - unless I was willing to commit months. Also, my travel schedule made it really hard to have consistency.

 

I'm doing online training with Yancy Culp right now and I really like it. It's not personal - he's got a large number of people who are following the same schedule. BUT it's tailored to people who want to improve in OCR's, so it has variety (which I really like) while still focusing on my overall goals. Also, he's super responsive - if you ask a question, his turn around time is less than 24 hours. We talked a few (two?) challenges ago about trainers in my thread. I can see if I can dig it out. I tagged both @RedStone and @Machete in it because I truly value their opinions in these matters. 

 

IMO, you need to do whatever is going to keep you going. Based on your above options, I would say trend towards #3 - it seems to be the one that would keep you motivated without potentially leading to injuries. What about some other martial art? 

[Sloth the Enduring]

If you're looking for advice... If your back is keeping you from doing what you want to do, it needs to be your focus. Since its your thing, I'd find a way to fit in some weightlifting as it'll keep you motivated.

[RedStone]

Of course I'm a big fan of receiving coaching!  A good coach uses their expertise to understand and format your goals into a game plan that you'll enjoy and stick to. A qualified coach has a full understanding of kinesiology, anatomy and physics, and the PROGRAMMING to work through and around your needs to get you where you want to be. It can be a big commitment, long or short term, but it's an investment in yourself and your long term. Choose your coach well.

 

Meanwhile.... Twin cities? Have you considered the infamous Miss Broki? I'm sure @Sam Ashen 's horror stories are only decorated for the narrative...