What Are You Going To Stop Doing in 2014?
feld.com
feld.com
If you're doing something you consider bad, or aren't doing something you want to do, then start (or stop) NOW. Don't wait for 2014. January 1 is not some magic date. Ever have a friend who's going to start that diet next month? Guess what a New Year's resolution is? It's not a commitment. It's an excuse not to do something now.
I'm just as guilty as anyone of doing this, but let's not pretend "what I'm going to do in 2014" isn't utterly meaningless unless it's something you are and have been working towards that can't happen until 2014 because it's just that damn hard.
I finally achieved some new year resolutions for the first time this year.
I had 3 goals.
1. Success: Write a book on Ruby. I finished writing and I am just editing right now.
2. Failed: Create an app and get 100 active users. Launched dmtri.com, but failed to get 100 active users.
3. Success: Hit the gym. I've been going to gym regularly.
I quit smoking easily last year on January 1st. I decided to quit a month prior to Christmas, but I was afraid of the jolliness of the season making me slip. I assume it is the same for exercise, portion control, and alcohol consumption moderation.
Sometimes it is nice to have a clean break in a month where nobody bothers you and where you haven't had a routine for a couple of weeks.
Although I really wish the gym wouldn't pack up so much.
Yep that should do it.
He was totally, 100% right. At least for me. It was a mindset change from something being impossibly hard to something being temporary and really pretty easy. During the first two days I had an inhaler that I used a total of 3 times splitting 1.5 cigarettes worth of nicotine then I just put it down and didn't come back.
- Make about half the reps you could do with a given weight, but make sure you still do a great total volume.
- Train every important exercise like bench and squat at least two times every week.
- Form is everything. Train with great form.
If you are like me with a family, a full time job, and so forth, this may do wonders: never tired, faster improvements in strength.
In juggling especially, if you practice until you fail each time you waste a lot of time picking things back up.
Whereas if you practice an amount you are more than capable of you spend more time practicing properly and also spend time learning how to finish properly.
Don't give us a loose tl;dr of the books you read, give us the books!
The main idea is to observe the world top powerlifters schedule and apply it to amateurs.
If you're at the low end of your BMI range, training to failure helps you get gains to look less like a labor camp inmate.
Training not-to-failure increases myofibrillar hypertrophy which is more strength related (increases muscle fibers, which actually contract and control strength).
Now, training to-failure isn't 100% sarcoplasmic. You will get stronger training to failure, just not as fast as training not-to-failure. But, training not-to-failure won't fill out the arm holes of your t-shirts.
A good starter plan to look solid: two months of to-failure, then back off and do two months of almost-to-failure (within 2-3 reps of failure, but never failing), then finish up with two months of never more than half way to failure.
Training to-failure gives your muscles a more "puffy" look (because they are filled with the liquid sarcoplasm—the key ingredient in sarcasm). Training not-to-failure makes muscles more dense giving you the appearance of being more cut.
More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_hypertrophy
Or you can say to hell with weight training and just become a gymnast.
I spent way too much time in working at my computer last winter. I would work 12-16 hour days eating 1-2 meals. At 22 yrs old, I dropped down to the same weight I was when I was 15 (150). That's when I got my ass into gear and tried the Geek to Freak program laid out in The Four Hour Body.
Tim F says he was able to gain 34 lbs of lean muscle in 4 weeks working out ~4 hrs total. I did due diligence on the method and was actually able to go from 150 to 170+ within 4 weeks.
A couple things I learned:
• Most people put way too much emphasis on gym time and too little on nutrition. I would say nutrition is 80% of the work. Recovery time is extremely important for rapid growth too. • When trying to cram as many calories in a day as possible, a meal plan is a must. The more strict the better. • You can get better results curling a 10 lb dumbbell with proper technique than curling a 100 lb dumbbell with poor form. • For muscle growth, I prefer only 1 set of high weight with low reps (6 reps min, 12 reps max) • LOMAD (one liter of milk a day) is a lot easier than it sounds.
- eating meat and dairy (mostly... I just don't want to contribute to the animal cruelty/factory farming epidemic. I'll still eat fresh caught fish and free-range meat)
- using Facebook, Google, and other stuff that contributes to the surveillance state.
- using non-open source stuff. Starts with transitioning to Linux.
- purchasing stuff that supports IP law or DRM.
- using "herbal supplements" that support violent drug cartels. Still fine with anything produced by other means.
The hardest part is building a habit of not doing stuff that you've been trained to do since birth, such as changing your diet to vegetarian. Decided to use a spreadsheet to keep track. I may still forget and screw it up, but at least every day I have to remind myself whether I did it right or not, which slowly reinforces the correct habits. Has been working pretty well so far.
Instead of a spreadsheet I use https://chains.cc/ from Seinfield's "Don't break the chain".
48 weeks no red meat, 46 weeks no smoking, 3 weeks no coffee. Seems to help!
How? Just stop. You can't peek. You can't view it for "just a minute." You can't "just browse." The only solution is to not visit at all.
Give it a few days and it'll fall out of your daily routine altogether.
Also: edit your history to remove all reddit history so your browser navbar doesn't auto-complete when you reflexively open a new tab and start typing "re...".
Second: relay more on data when meetings. This year I had a successful couple of meetings with destroying data so business men couldn't deny the facts and stopped the opinionated stuff. I will try to do it next year as a standard.
Started socializing (as in "going in bars with friends") this year, but I really dislike my behaviour. So next year, I will try to REDUCE it.
Moderation is everything.
I'm going to be working full-time on my bootup business after that.
So basically, the resolution is to not let the doldrums of life get in the way of the things I enjoy.
#edit it's the only form of protest I can think of that might actually affect things, or at least my involvement.
Wait, that's apathy. Don't you think being selective about where you contribute is the right way to go? (I understand the idea of avoiding the "intelligence in the service of madness" trap but there's still a lot of good in the world.)
Exactly.