I just ran six-and-a-quarter miles after a long day of tutoring and teaching and studying. And I feel great. Exhausted, but great. Today was actually my 32nd consecutive day of working out. I would have posted exactly on the 30-day mark, but I've been really busy. Insanely, mind-bendingly busy. In fact, this quarter I feel like I'm being tempered, like a sword enduring the blast of the forge. It comes out a stronger sword. I keep making more and more commitments and just kind of watching with amusement as my life becomes more and more of a whirlwind. I say: embrace the whirlwind! It makes me stronger.
This workout challenge is by far one of the greatest things I've done. For one thing, obviously I'm looking and feeling better than probably any other time in my life. That includes when I was power-lifting with a buddy last year, and could lift objectively much more than I can now (I quit lifting for quite awhile and lost a lot of strength). The regularity of the workout is far better than the amount of weight, I've discovered.
I've written before about getting motivated to lift weights. It works in reverse too, a kind of "motivation mirror": when I work out, it fills me with motivation for the rest of the day, motivation which really helps amidst the brunt of a busy school year like this one. I even become inspired while working out. All kinds of thoughts and excellent ideas enter my mind, especially during my treadmill days when I'm really moving.
The workout has evolved over the thirty days. At first, I was lifting and running every single day. That was fine, but after around twelve days, I began to get seriously worried about overtraining. Eventually I switched to a system where I lift every other day and run every other day. To make up for that, the lift and run are each double the length. By only doing lifts every other day, I'm giving my muscles more time to heal after the lifts.
Initially, I didn't have any real direction with the workout, besides general health benefits. Then I started shifting my thoughts toward getting myself a sixpack. This was largely because I realized, and came to peace with the fact that, I just don't have the build to become a really big muscle-man. Whereas when it comes to putting on weight, every pound is an uphill battle; when it comes to a sixpack, it's like my body is already custom made for it. I'm already making great progress, and the sixpack is starting to become visible, though its visibility varies depending on how recently I ate a big meal and on what position my body is in. Lying on my back, the sixpack is becoming quite visible.
I did go through a period of regular workout before, when my power-lifter buddy introduced me to weightlifting. It wasn't everyday though, but two-or-three days a week. Furthermore, I was just his gym bitch. He planned the lifts, he did the research, the decision-making, he even planned the diet. As a result, I didn't really "own" the lift and consequently I had very little motivation. I definitely learned a ton from my friend, who was an excellent and brilliant coach, however I had to strike out on my own and take charge myself before I could really take the motivational part of the lift to a new level.
THE ENDORPHIN HIGH
Another thing which I've noticed during the thirty-day workout period, is a high frequency of endorphin rushes after working out. Endorphins are chemicals produced by the body when we work out strenuously, and they make us feel really good. Sometimes after a workout, you can get such an endorphin high that you'll just walk around feeling euphoric. Well, with me, it seems I get that euphoria unusually often-- like maybe 25% to even 50% of the time. That's really good!
I'm not sure why exactly I'm so well-suited to enjoy these endorphin highs. Maybe I'm just naturally a high endorphin-producer, but I don't remember feeling the highs so often when I was lifting before with my power-lifting friend. It could also just be that I'm very mentally open to joy and happiness; I consciously seek out positivity and good feelings, and maybe that has something to do with it. Or, maybe just maybe, it's because of how I'm doing these workouts every day.
BENEFITS OF A 30-DAY CHALLENGE IN GENERAL
One of the benefits of a 30-day challenge is that it hits my self-discipline, an attribute which I'm trying to increase. Generally, I haven't had to summon a lot of willpower for this challenge, because, as I wrote about in "Getting Motivated To Go Lift Weights", once I took real ownership of the workouts, they almost seemed to motivate themselves. But still, I think any 30-day challenge will strengthen self-discipline.
If nothing else, it further cements in my mind the understanding of how dynamic and changeable habits are. A few years ago, working out was barely in my reality. Now, it's an integral part of my day. This helps me to be aware of how a lot of things in my personality are not set in stone, but can be changed if I deliberately resolve to change them.
The 30-day challenge is also an excellent way to see what it's like to lift every day, and get a better idea whether or not that's something I should do with my life. Thirty days ago, I would've said, no, that's too much, I have too much on my plate. That was before I knew about the awesome motivational power of lifting, before I knew about the endorphin rushes. More than ever, I'm seeing beautiful girls checking me out-- even more than when I was powerlifting before, when I was objectively stronger than I am now. Maybe something about the regularity of an every-day workout routine enhances the positive effects it's having on my appearance. In any case, a month ago I was mostly oblivious to, or at least drastically underestimated, these benefits. The Challenge gives me the knowledge to make a more informed decision about how I exercise in the future.
AN ENFORCED BREAK FROM LIFE'S TRIALS
Although working out is definitely strenuous and difficult, in another sense it's somehow relaxing. Running on the treadmill, at the fifty minute mark out of an hour long run, I might feel really exhausted, but at the same time, I feel at ease, at peace. My mind is forcibly removed from the cares and worries which beset me as a mathematician, as a grad student, and as an integral calculus teacher. Money, politics, drama, all these things are put on pause for a little while.
Indeed, it's really very similar to meditation. In fact if I was a little more deliberate and careful, I could probably turn it into meditation- at least the treadmill days. Besides any kind of spiritual hocus pocus, one of the big benefits of meditation is just simply taking some time out in the day to relax and unwind. And, despite the intensity and hardcoreness of my workout sessions, they too serve to relax and unwind.
DRINKING LOTS OF WATER
During my lift days, I often need to rest between lifts. In the gym, lifting on my own, there's not much to do during these rest periods, so I often use them to drink lots and lots of water. For one thing, this is necessary because of the very nature of the activity. But on the other hand, many people, whether they're working out or not, just simply don't get enough water. The lift days, with their frequent 1-minute rest breaks, give me lots of opportunity to drink drink drink.
Intellectually, I became aware of the importance of drinking enough water when I was in Air Force boot camp. Emotionally, this awareness increased a lot when drinking lots of water played a large role in a near-miraculous overnight recovery from a cold.
Anyway, just like you train weight-lifting by gradually increasing how much you lift, I've been increasing how much I can drink, slowly raising it. Of course, drinking too much water can be bad if it leads to hyponatremia (too much water in the body), but if you're paying attention to the signals your body is giving you, this shouldn't be a big concern. I can currently drink 37 gulps at a time from a water fountain; I suppose it would be more scientific to get a more consistent measuring system, but I don't like carrying a water bottle around ;)
SLEEPING BETTER
I've noticed that over the past month, I've been sleeping a lot better. I've been needing less sleep, and functioning better if I undersleep. This is definitely a god-send, considering my life right now is full of tons of awesome stuff I wouldn't want to miss out on. That, and I'm soo busy with school.
When I was power-lifting with my buddy before, we'd usually annihilate ourselves with every lifting session, staying at the gym for hours until our bodies couldn't take any more. Then I'd stumble home, scarf down some precious food, take a quick shower and then collapse on my bed, dead to the world. Not really very good for my sleep habits!
Now, my workouts are much lighter and less time-consuming. They still sometimes make me drowsy, but it's more of a pleasant drowsiness, similar to the drowsiness of a big Thanksgiving dinner. Not the overwhelming drowsiness that knocks your legs out from under you. I think it's ultimately a lot more healthy. Of course, I guess the lighter lifts won't let me compete in any heavy-duty lifting tournaments, but I'm not really all that concerned with how much I can objectively lift. I'm lifting for the numerous other side effects; as a mathematician, I seldom need to hoist heavy objects around in real life.
FURTHER GOALS AND CHALLENGES
I want to try to keep up the workout til day sixty at least. There are far too many benefits to stop now. Now, I know (sheepish grin) that I said similar things in my post about completing my 30-Day Write-An-Article-Every-Day Challenge. And I know I haven't exactly followed up on that very well. It's largely because I've been very busy. This school year is far, FAR busier than I imagined it would be. Partly because I'm such an awesome teacher that everyone and their mom wants to arrange appointments with me. I even started charging people who aren't officially my students; I thought at $50 an hour, that would free up some time because who would pay that much for math tutoring! But, I've been getting clients even at that price (most math tutors charge $20/hour). And on top of school, some (awesome) changes have occurred in my social life, which are also keeping me busy (in an awesome way). Anyway, the point is, I also said I would continue my article-writing challenge, and I kind of fell through on that.
But the workout challenge is different in a few key ways. Writing articles-- at least, high quality, creative articles which add value to the world-- is a mental activity. It takes a relaxed, well-rested mind with lots of creativity and inspiration and imagination. Well, at the end of my schoolday, it's my mind which is most exhausted. My body? I can always push that. Today, I wasn't done with my last tutoring client until 9pm(!) But I was still able to go to the gym and run for an hour. Granted, I'm also able to now sit down and write this article, but in some sense since it's a 30-day-challenge report, it's an "automatic" article-- the invaluable creative "work" in this article was done over the past 30 days (well, 32 actually), and now I'm merely relaying what happened.
So, since my job is more mentally taxing than physically taxing, I hope I can keep up the workout challenge where the article challenge became slightly neglected.
I won't stop there, though. I now have two 30-day challenges under my belt. Well, three if you count studying Japanese every day. Looking at my calendar, I've studied Japanese now for 53 days straight-- practically ever since I got back from my Japan trip! But I hardly count that as a 30-day challenge, because it takes less than an hour and is fairly easy even if I'm exhausted. (Well, it used to take a lot longer, but see my article about making the studying process more balanced) So, depending how you count, I've accomplished two or three 30-day challenges. It's time to decide on a new one.
Hopefully by posting my next 30-day challenge here, it will give me more motivation to get it done. So, here goes. My next 30-day challenge will be to write positive affirmations, at least a page, every day for 30 days. If you don't know what positive affirmations are, it's something used by athletes. After identifying a goal, you write about it as if it's already been achieved: "I am an excellent quarterback" or "I am an excellent high jumper". Well, the concept isn't just limited to athletics, it can be used on any goal. Ever since I was in junior high, I've irregularly gone through periods where I write affirmations daily. But never for more than a couple weeks in succession.
When you write affirmations every day for awhile, it changes how you think. Your thoughts take a shift toward positivity which is hard to even explain, it's so powerful. It's really one of the best things you can do, and in some sense it's sooo easy (just write one page of stuff!) And yet, I've never done it for a whole month in a row. The general pattern is that I start daily affirmations, the affirmations take hold and inject a whole new level of awesomeness into my life, which in turn takes up a lot of my time, which makes me stop writing them, after which my thoughts slowly shift back down from the ultra-positive state. Then some indeterminate time later, the cycle starts anew.
The last time I wrote daily affirmations was 11 days ago, and that was an isolated day. This challenge isn't hard, in the sense that it isn't time consuming-- in fact, it's almost perfect for a busy schedule like mine. And yet, it is hard, because I've never managed to go thirty days with it before. But I was never deliberately trying specifically for thirty days, either. One of the benefits of a 30-day challenge is that it puts a concrete, achievable goal in front of you.
So, to make it official: my next 30-day challenge-- ideally to run concurrently with days 33-62 of working out-- will be to write at least a page of positive affirmations every day.
I stronger recommend 30-day trials to my readers. Just pick any change you'd like to try out. And do it for 30 days. You might or might not decide to keep the change. But whether or not you do, by day 30 you'll be "in the zone". For example, my lifting and running are really progressing nicely right now, and I'm really looking sexy and feeling great. When I did my 30-day article-writing challenge, by the end I was writing some great articles with little ease. I've been studying Japanese every day for a long time, and when I speak to Japanese people, they're amazed at how good my Japanese is. It's like the longer you do something, the more it goes into your "muscle memory", and the more you enter a "trance" for whatever it is-- a workout trance, an article-writing trance, or whatever.
Just think how different your life would be if you took that one thing you've alllllwaaaays wanted to change about yourself, and made the change for just thirty days.
Here are some other articles I wrote, some of them during my 30-day article-writing challenge:
30-Day Article-A-Day Challenge Completed!
Metabolism As An Example Of Accepting What Is
Training Self-Discipline
Fighting Music Addiction: Week 1
Why The Gym Is Good Even If You Do Manual Labor
This workout challenge is by far one of the greatest things I've done. For one thing, obviously I'm looking and feeling better than probably any other time in my life. That includes when I was power-lifting with a buddy last year, and could lift objectively much more than I can now (I quit lifting for quite awhile and lost a lot of strength). The regularity of the workout is far better than the amount of weight, I've discovered.
I've written before about getting motivated to lift weights. It works in reverse too, a kind of "motivation mirror": when I work out, it fills me with motivation for the rest of the day, motivation which really helps amidst the brunt of a busy school year like this one. I even become inspired while working out. All kinds of thoughts and excellent ideas enter my mind, especially during my treadmill days when I'm really moving.
The workout has evolved over the thirty days. At first, I was lifting and running every single day. That was fine, but after around twelve days, I began to get seriously worried about overtraining. Eventually I switched to a system where I lift every other day and run every other day. To make up for that, the lift and run are each double the length. By only doing lifts every other day, I'm giving my muscles more time to heal after the lifts.
Initially, I didn't have any real direction with the workout, besides general health benefits. Then I started shifting my thoughts toward getting myself a sixpack. This was largely because I realized, and came to peace with the fact that, I just don't have the build to become a really big muscle-man. Whereas when it comes to putting on weight, every pound is an uphill battle; when it comes to a sixpack, it's like my body is already custom made for it. I'm already making great progress, and the sixpack is starting to become visible, though its visibility varies depending on how recently I ate a big meal and on what position my body is in. Lying on my back, the sixpack is becoming quite visible.
I did go through a period of regular workout before, when my power-lifter buddy introduced me to weightlifting. It wasn't everyday though, but two-or-three days a week. Furthermore, I was just his gym bitch. He planned the lifts, he did the research, the decision-making, he even planned the diet. As a result, I didn't really "own" the lift and consequently I had very little motivation. I definitely learned a ton from my friend, who was an excellent and brilliant coach, however I had to strike out on my own and take charge myself before I could really take the motivational part of the lift to a new level.
THE ENDORPHIN HIGH
Another thing which I've noticed during the thirty-day workout period, is a high frequency of endorphin rushes after working out. Endorphins are chemicals produced by the body when we work out strenuously, and they make us feel really good. Sometimes after a workout, you can get such an endorphin high that you'll just walk around feeling euphoric. Well, with me, it seems I get that euphoria unusually often-- like maybe 25% to even 50% of the time. That's really good!
I'm not sure why exactly I'm so well-suited to enjoy these endorphin highs. Maybe I'm just naturally a high endorphin-producer, but I don't remember feeling the highs so often when I was lifting before with my power-lifting friend. It could also just be that I'm very mentally open to joy and happiness; I consciously seek out positivity and good feelings, and maybe that has something to do with it. Or, maybe just maybe, it's because of how I'm doing these workouts every day.
BENEFITS OF A 30-DAY CHALLENGE IN GENERAL
One of the benefits of a 30-day challenge is that it hits my self-discipline, an attribute which I'm trying to increase. Generally, I haven't had to summon a lot of willpower for this challenge, because, as I wrote about in "Getting Motivated To Go Lift Weights", once I took real ownership of the workouts, they almost seemed to motivate themselves. But still, I think any 30-day challenge will strengthen self-discipline.
If nothing else, it further cements in my mind the understanding of how dynamic and changeable habits are. A few years ago, working out was barely in my reality. Now, it's an integral part of my day. This helps me to be aware of how a lot of things in my personality are not set in stone, but can be changed if I deliberately resolve to change them.
The 30-day challenge is also an excellent way to see what it's like to lift every day, and get a better idea whether or not that's something I should do with my life. Thirty days ago, I would've said, no, that's too much, I have too much on my plate. That was before I knew about the awesome motivational power of lifting, before I knew about the endorphin rushes. More than ever, I'm seeing beautiful girls checking me out-- even more than when I was powerlifting before, when I was objectively stronger than I am now. Maybe something about the regularity of an every-day workout routine enhances the positive effects it's having on my appearance. In any case, a month ago I was mostly oblivious to, or at least drastically underestimated, these benefits. The Challenge gives me the knowledge to make a more informed decision about how I exercise in the future.
AN ENFORCED BREAK FROM LIFE'S TRIALS
Although working out is definitely strenuous and difficult, in another sense it's somehow relaxing. Running on the treadmill, at the fifty minute mark out of an hour long run, I might feel really exhausted, but at the same time, I feel at ease, at peace. My mind is forcibly removed from the cares and worries which beset me as a mathematician, as a grad student, and as an integral calculus teacher. Money, politics, drama, all these things are put on pause for a little while.
Indeed, it's really very similar to meditation. In fact if I was a little more deliberate and careful, I could probably turn it into meditation- at least the treadmill days. Besides any kind of spiritual hocus pocus, one of the big benefits of meditation is just simply taking some time out in the day to relax and unwind. And, despite the intensity and hardcoreness of my workout sessions, they too serve to relax and unwind.
DRINKING LOTS OF WATER
During my lift days, I often need to rest between lifts. In the gym, lifting on my own, there's not much to do during these rest periods, so I often use them to drink lots and lots of water. For one thing, this is necessary because of the very nature of the activity. But on the other hand, many people, whether they're working out or not, just simply don't get enough water. The lift days, with their frequent 1-minute rest breaks, give me lots of opportunity to drink drink drink.
Intellectually, I became aware of the importance of drinking enough water when I was in Air Force boot camp. Emotionally, this awareness increased a lot when drinking lots of water played a large role in a near-miraculous overnight recovery from a cold.
Anyway, just like you train weight-lifting by gradually increasing how much you lift, I've been increasing how much I can drink, slowly raising it. Of course, drinking too much water can be bad if it leads to hyponatremia (too much water in the body), but if you're paying attention to the signals your body is giving you, this shouldn't be a big concern. I can currently drink 37 gulps at a time from a water fountain; I suppose it would be more scientific to get a more consistent measuring system, but I don't like carrying a water bottle around ;)
SLEEPING BETTER
I've noticed that over the past month, I've been sleeping a lot better. I've been needing less sleep, and functioning better if I undersleep. This is definitely a god-send, considering my life right now is full of tons of awesome stuff I wouldn't want to miss out on. That, and I'm soo busy with school.
When I was power-lifting with my buddy before, we'd usually annihilate ourselves with every lifting session, staying at the gym for hours until our bodies couldn't take any more. Then I'd stumble home, scarf down some precious food, take a quick shower and then collapse on my bed, dead to the world. Not really very good for my sleep habits!
Now, my workouts are much lighter and less time-consuming. They still sometimes make me drowsy, but it's more of a pleasant drowsiness, similar to the drowsiness of a big Thanksgiving dinner. Not the overwhelming drowsiness that knocks your legs out from under you. I think it's ultimately a lot more healthy. Of course, I guess the lighter lifts won't let me compete in any heavy-duty lifting tournaments, but I'm not really all that concerned with how much I can objectively lift. I'm lifting for the numerous other side effects; as a mathematician, I seldom need to hoist heavy objects around in real life.
FURTHER GOALS AND CHALLENGES
I want to try to keep up the workout til day sixty at least. There are far too many benefits to stop now. Now, I know (sheepish grin) that I said similar things in my post about completing my 30-Day Write-An-Article-Every-Day Challenge. And I know I haven't exactly followed up on that very well. It's largely because I've been very busy. This school year is far, FAR busier than I imagined it would be. Partly because I'm such an awesome teacher that everyone and their mom wants to arrange appointments with me. I even started charging people who aren't officially my students; I thought at $50 an hour, that would free up some time because who would pay that much for math tutoring! But, I've been getting clients even at that price (most math tutors charge $20/hour). And on top of school, some (awesome) changes have occurred in my social life, which are also keeping me busy (in an awesome way). Anyway, the point is, I also said I would continue my article-writing challenge, and I kind of fell through on that.
But the workout challenge is different in a few key ways. Writing articles-- at least, high quality, creative articles which add value to the world-- is a mental activity. It takes a relaxed, well-rested mind with lots of creativity and inspiration and imagination. Well, at the end of my schoolday, it's my mind which is most exhausted. My body? I can always push that. Today, I wasn't done with my last tutoring client until 9pm(!) But I was still able to go to the gym and run for an hour. Granted, I'm also able to now sit down and write this article, but in some sense since it's a 30-day-challenge report, it's an "automatic" article-- the invaluable creative "work" in this article was done over the past 30 days (well, 32 actually), and now I'm merely relaying what happened.
So, since my job is more mentally taxing than physically taxing, I hope I can keep up the workout challenge where the article challenge became slightly neglected.
I won't stop there, though. I now have two 30-day challenges under my belt. Well, three if you count studying Japanese every day. Looking at my calendar, I've studied Japanese now for 53 days straight-- practically ever since I got back from my Japan trip! But I hardly count that as a 30-day challenge, because it takes less than an hour and is fairly easy even if I'm exhausted. (Well, it used to take a lot longer, but see my article about making the studying process more balanced) So, depending how you count, I've accomplished two or three 30-day challenges. It's time to decide on a new one.
Hopefully by posting my next 30-day challenge here, it will give me more motivation to get it done. So, here goes. My next 30-day challenge will be to write positive affirmations, at least a page, every day for 30 days. If you don't know what positive affirmations are, it's something used by athletes. After identifying a goal, you write about it as if it's already been achieved: "I am an excellent quarterback" or "I am an excellent high jumper". Well, the concept isn't just limited to athletics, it can be used on any goal. Ever since I was in junior high, I've irregularly gone through periods where I write affirmations daily. But never for more than a couple weeks in succession.
When you write affirmations every day for awhile, it changes how you think. Your thoughts take a shift toward positivity which is hard to even explain, it's so powerful. It's really one of the best things you can do, and in some sense it's sooo easy (just write one page of stuff!) And yet, I've never done it for a whole month in a row. The general pattern is that I start daily affirmations, the affirmations take hold and inject a whole new level of awesomeness into my life, which in turn takes up a lot of my time, which makes me stop writing them, after which my thoughts slowly shift back down from the ultra-positive state. Then some indeterminate time later, the cycle starts anew.
The last time I wrote daily affirmations was 11 days ago, and that was an isolated day. This challenge isn't hard, in the sense that it isn't time consuming-- in fact, it's almost perfect for a busy schedule like mine. And yet, it is hard, because I've never managed to go thirty days with it before. But I was never deliberately trying specifically for thirty days, either. One of the benefits of a 30-day challenge is that it puts a concrete, achievable goal in front of you.
So, to make it official: my next 30-day challenge-- ideally to run concurrently with days 33-62 of working out-- will be to write at least a page of positive affirmations every day.
I stronger recommend 30-day trials to my readers. Just pick any change you'd like to try out. And do it for 30 days. You might or might not decide to keep the change. But whether or not you do, by day 30 you'll be "in the zone". For example, my lifting and running are really progressing nicely right now, and I'm really looking sexy and feeling great. When I did my 30-day article-writing challenge, by the end I was writing some great articles with little ease. I've been studying Japanese every day for a long time, and when I speak to Japanese people, they're amazed at how good my Japanese is. It's like the longer you do something, the more it goes into your "muscle memory", and the more you enter a "trance" for whatever it is-- a workout trance, an article-writing trance, or whatever.
Just think how different your life would be if you took that one thing you've alllllwaaaays wanted to change about yourself, and made the change for just thirty days.
Here are some other articles I wrote, some of them during my 30-day article-writing challenge:
30-Day Article-A-Day Challenge Completed!
Metabolism As An Example Of Accepting What Is
Training Self-Discipline
Fighting Music Addiction: Week 1
Why The Gym Is Good Even If You Do Manual Labor
Posts
4 comments:
A very interesting and informative post indeed! Congratulations on your six pack. your workout challenge looks like quite tough. i don't think i can do it... but then on second thoughts that is the challenge! i would love to feel the endorphin high that you have mentioned! and yes, the self discipline...that part i really need to work on... i always give in to my temptations...the self discipline just melts away. I need to do something about it…may be this challenge will help me maintain some amount of self discipline. But there is one thing about me… if I accept a challenge, there is no turning back. I think I’ll take up this one and get a more healthier body in return!
Percy, I'm glad to hear you're thinking of joining the challenge. Once you get into it, it becomes fun and almost automatic :)
Your new challenge on writing positive affirmations every day seems interesting.
I'm inclined to do one as well as I have had similar experiences as you with affirmations in the past but never followed through on them even for a few weeks.
Do you have any advice or links that might come in handy for someone who doesn't have much experience with affirmations?
I would be very grateful.
-Lem
Lem: I don't have any links; I learned about affirmations many years ago, from a book, Louise Hay's "You Can Heal Your Life". I am planning on writing an "Introduction to Positive Affirmations" article here originally so stay tuned. Meanwhile, there is a forum where people can talk about positive affirmations, here: http://tinyurl.com/6n5gl6
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