Sleep isn't going to help me today

I am tired. Bits of my body ache and I know I haven't eaten properly. My lack of energy isn't going to be fixed by sleeping. Been up since 1. It's now 5:00. Done a bit of work but back in bed. I could get up, exercise, food shop, garden for an hour, prep a good dinner/lunch, and get stuck into today. Or I coild just go to sleep.

Part of me wants to spring out of bed and get into the day. But part of me doesn't. Limp through the day. Prep to make a better day of tomorrow.

Rule 1: Prepare for tomorrow

A difficult moment when you wake up is when nothing is prepared.

Here is a list of tjings to pre plan the day before

1. Gym clothes

2. Work clothes

3. Breakfast

4. Lunch

5. Dinner

6. Go bag essentials

a) Keys

b) Money

c) spare ph battery

7. Tidy up everyehere

8. Paperwork sorted

32-Things Only a Body Builder Will Know

Most people just eat and accept the consequences. However a bodybuilder knows exactly what they eat and knows the exact results. In fact the real challenge of a bodybuilder is not lifting weights. It is understanding nutrition.

This article is not so much about what to eat. It is an understanding of the mechanisms of maintaining your body.

Where to begin?

Human Growth Hormone (HGH)

When your body is growing, it uses the HG hormones to:

1. Stimulates organic growth
2. Cell reproduction
3. Cell regeneration

If you have no active HGH, your cells basically stagnate/age.

To stimulate HGH you can use one or more of the following techniques.
Don't get caught up in the science too much. HGH can be stimulated simply or your can go full on with every technique

1. Intermittent Fasting (IF)
2. Lift weights
3. Sleep effectively
1. Just the right amount. Not too much and not too little
2. Stay asleep
3. Get into REM
4. Breathe
4. Eat specific foods
5. Reduce sugar intake
6. Increase the time between your last food and bed time
7. Supplementation
1. GABA
2. Beta-alanine
3. Melatonin
4. Glutamine
5. Creatine
6. Ornithine
7. L-dopa
8. Glycine
8. High Intensity Training (HIT)
9. Increase Testosterone

The important factor here is not what you can do to increase HGH.
The important factor to note is WHAT YOU ARE NOT DOING.

Cardio, HIT, and or Lifting Weights?

A lot of people focus on cardio exercise as there exercise standard. However cardio can not achieve what HIT and lifting weights can because cardio basically only improves breathing, stamina, and strains a few muscles.

HIT will 'activate' your systems. Lifting weights will build your body parts.

When you lift weights you can target every area of your body to improve muscle and bone density.

How to Do HIT

HIT (High Intensity Training) is when you do a cardio activity as follows:

1. Do an intense cardio exercise for 15 to 60 seconds
2. Rest for 60 to 120 seconds
3. Repeat 3 to 5 times

This process confuses your system and 'switches on' your 'fight or flight' mechanism, HGH, and increases your metabolism for up to 24 hours.
With HIT, there is no need to run for 60 minutes, can be done once a day, and the benefits are considerable.

Burpees will do HIT as well as any exercise that gets your blood pumping for a minute or less.

Weight Training Secrets

Effective Weight Training is simply the process of maintaining 5 Rules.

RULE 1: Eat right
RULE 2: Work each area of your body on a daily basis

1. Upper Body
2. Arms
3. Lower Body
4. Abdomen

RULE 3: Engage the correct techniques
RULE 4: Progressive Overload

1. Repeat each exercise 3 times
2. Overtime do one of the following:
1. Increase the weight
2. Keep the same weight but increase the number of repetitions

RULE 5: Watch YouTube for hints and new ideas on weight training

Building muscle will give you so many benefits including:

1. Feel and look better
2. Improve muscle and bone density
3. Improve posture
4. Help eliminate pains
5. Avoid muscle degeneration
6. Live longer
7. Maintain drive

The Joy of Food

Food is love. It is the one thing that will never let you down for the enjoyable feeling of eating something delicious. However this feeling often has the after effect of making you lose your shape, wellness, and other joys of life. Everything in moderation is the best way to see this.

Intermittent Fasting (IF)

IF is the process of fasting from time to time. Some people use this approach on a daily basis where they may only eat between the hours of 12 noon to 5 pm. This is known as the 'eating window' and in this case;

• Fast for 19 hours
• Eat for 5

Where as if you eat from say 7:00 am to 7:00 pm the result is:

• Fast for 12 hours
• Eat for 12 hours

The difference between these two points is that IF gives your body an additional 49 hours each week of digestive rest where it will 'clean up' cells of waste deposits and fat.

The effect is considerable:

1. Lose weight
2. Gain energy
3. Increase HGH
4. Be more focused

However there are some rules:
Only eat quality foods
Be prepared
Eat the right amount of calories

How Many Calories do you Need?

If you do not consume the right amount of calories, you are going to do three things:

1. Be tired
2. Cellular Atrophy (your body will destroy muscles, organs, bone, and fat to get the fuel it needs)
3. Degrade

Of particular interest is the effect on fat. See if you are wanting to lose weight, then you need to be in a caloric deficit (not eat as many calories as your body requires) because this will cause the burn of fat.

This chart gives you a guidline
https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/appendix-2/

Not all calories are equal. There are good calories and bad.
The bad calories tend to be doug, sugar and alcohol
The good tend to be veggies

How to Lose Weight

Some people think they only have to look at food and they gain weight. Funny but not true.
To lose weight is simple science.

1. Work out how many calories you need to maintain your weight
2. Eat less calories than you need 
3. Caloric deficit = required calories - calories eaten

If you increase exercise then the calories required to maintain weight increase. If you don't eat more, then you are automatically in a caloric deficit.

The food Groups

There are three food groups:

1. Carbohydrates
2. Proteins
3. Fats and Oils

These groups need to be consumed in exacting amounts for your body to function correctly.
You need to research the balance for you based on your situation.

30. Dreams

This life has many paths. Some you choose and some you don't. As you get older your path is pretty fixed unless you break it.

The old dreams, are they gone or just lost somewhere? In the Theory of Living 300 Years you have a lot of time. You can go back to all your dreams, think about them. Are they still what you want? If so, why not chase them? It's not over. You have simply gone through or are going through the right of passage.

So what? You want a degree? Then go get one. Take a year or two to prepare, then go get it. Make it a 10 year plan. Time, it doesn't matter. But to stay in the game, have you learn't or are you still learning the basics?

Keep fit

Eat right

Sleep well

Develop emotional intelligence

Let go of fear and learn to love

Plan

Develop

Build

There are so many things you need to evolve if you are going to go the distance. You can"t harbour doubts as they cannot serve you.

Everything is about knowledge, planning, and application.

The core values of longevity and fullfillment are:

Health

Finances

Relationships

Vocation

Spriritualisim

Environment

Planning

28: How To Break Out of Sedentariness

Before you read this blog:

It is 4:15 am on Tuesday. I have just spent an hour updating blogs. It's nice and warm in bed. I don't want to get up. But I know if I do, and I go exercise, this day will be better.

This is the choice you need to make. Ignore the 'comfort' message and get into life :)

Yesterday I made a list of everything I need to do. Now I just need to finish it. One of my first new initiatives kicked in yesterday. Buying groceries online. Saved so much time ;) I just have to place my shopping order for today and then one on Friday and we are set for all meals. No more hassles regarding food shop.

So many new things to discover and I am only 58! Today shapes how tomorrow will be.

I normally have bags of energy. I wake up and just want to get going. Everyone who knows me thinks I am unusual in this trait but I don't think we are any different other than:

1. I try not to drink alcohol
2. I drink water
3. I eat clean and intermittent fast
4. I have perfected sleep
5. I plan a lot to be ahead
6. When I wake up I don't get caught up in thoughts or concerns as I have a plan and this makes me relax

But I consider the main point of difference is exercise. Everything else is massively important but without exercise, I get sluggish. My body kind of aches. Not a painful ache but a feeling of tiredness and where movement is an effort. My breathing is also affected. It gets slower and I feel like I have more breathing obstructions.

I only notice these things because I don't normally have them.

However; a recent trip to Thailand saw me do something silly where I tore my left soleus and gastroc muscle, in my calf, and I was/am out of cardio action for over a month now. Consequently I am not my usual self.
I can tell I am becoming sedentary and it's time to break out of it. My leg is good but still hurts. So how to get back into cardio?

I am going to drive to my 24 hr gym and do an hour of low impact biking. The trick will be to;

1. Gently exercise my leg and get the mind muscle connection back
2. Get my heart rate up

Even with all my planning in motion I am not switched 100% over to it all yet so I still feel anxious about things I have to do. Put the thoughts aside. Get your metabolic functions back on track.

How to Break Out of Sedentariness?

The important thing is to switch off the tiredness, and get into exercise. It will automatically cause you to move out of the place that is holding you back.

27: Where are Your Thoughts?

Thinking more on the subject of being behind or ahead has made me realise just how far behind I have been and for how long.

Examples:

Darn there is nothing I can take for lunch. Oh well I will just buy something (going to be nutritionally bad and expensive). 

Yikes I am out of fuel and I have to jump into the traffic. (Stressful and makes you late for work).

What's for dinner? I didn't take anything out of the freezer. Oh well its fish and chips tonight. (Another bad meal and expensive)

We need milk for the morning breakfast. (Late night drive costing time and money).

Tax return is overdue!

I missed paying the power company on time. We lost our early bird discount.

Everyday you have 100s of thoughts that dominate your day. At the end of it, to stop you thinking of the next day, you switch on the tv, grab a wine or a beer, and switch off thinking until morning when the rollercoaster of thoughts sets off again.

Eventually, this thoughy process just becomes part of who you are. You may not even realise that you have the feeling of being behind all the time as it just becomes your new reality and 'who you are'. It's a society norm to be caught up in a constant stream of thoughts. In USA it is common for people to be on medication to control stress. Considering one of the big diseases today is that of the mind, it is no wonder; we are wearing our brains out with the stress of everyday living. Every thought has an affect.

If you were going to live for 300 years you certainly would not want this feeling every day of your life. It becomes part of your daily anxiety. You are always scanning your thoughts trying to work out what you have to do. For many of us we just give up and start releasing the feelings by just accepting chaos is just a fact of life.

The good news is it doesn't have to be this way but what is involved in eliminating it?

I have found that it just requires planning into a spreadsheet and working through the list on a daily basis.

Using the following column headings I plotted over 150 things I had to address each month. It turns out that in my case, if I allocate 3 hours a day to life management tasks, I am going to live constantly ahead of my tasks which means less stress, better nutrition, and a clearer mind. The alternative is to constantly be confused as to what I need to be doing and or accept this mental process as my daily operational norm.

I highly recommend living in the world of being ahead. Make a spreadsheet called 'Tasks' and start lisivng the various chores you meed to address.

1: Category

For analysis its a good idea to categorise Subjects:

Example

Fitness

Home Maintenance

Business

Vehicle Maintenance

Holidays

Work

2: Subject

Subject (>) is the main area of the task.
For example, we have a lot of cleaning tasks at home. So the Subject is Home.

Subject Examples:

• Home
• Office
• Car
• Personal
• Accounts
• Holidays
• Entertainment

3: Area

An Area is the focus of attention

Example:
SUBJECT - HOME
 > Area 1  > Lounge
 > Area 2  > Kitchen
 > Area 3  > Bedroom

CAR
 > Clean
 > Maintain

MOTORBIKE
 > Clean
 > Maintain

ACCOUNTS
 > File receipts
 > Cash Book Update
 > Review Budget

3: Task

A task (>>) is a further breakdown of an Area.

ACCOUNTS

 > File receipts
    >> Collect receipts
    >> Separate into relevance
    >> Enter into cash book
 > Cash Book Update
    >> Import bank statements
    >> Review Cash Account
 > Review Budget
    >> Does any part of the budget need updating?
    >> Are we still on target?

4: Frequency

How often does the task need attending?

5: Expected Time

How many minutes do you expect the Task to take?

6; Allocation

The Task may be allocated to someone other than yourself

7: Actual Time

How many minutes did it actually take?

8: Dates

There are two dates:

Date last done

Date next due

Manually calcukate this or use formulae.

Listing Tasks

Use a logical approach to listing tasks.

Don't worry if you dont get everything as you can always add to the list.

How To Use

With tasks loaded, pick a date you want to address the task. Some tasks repeat daily like cooking, dishes, tidying up. Other tasks happen strategically through the week like shopping. Where as some tasks happen once a month like cleaning the car. I create 31 columns to represent each day of the month, and then plot what I got to do copying the estimated minutes to the relevant column. Then I total the column to give me the relevant number of minutes.

Update 10/11/2019

I have been following my spreadsheet for about a week now and it is a totally different world. I can't fully explain it but there is a weird feeling, like something is missing. It's the stress. I now have a more solid foundation and a feeling I have not know before is my companion. It's a good feeling.

I decided to use this wet Sunday to build a mockup application to do this planning and management of tasks.

26: Second Project: Clear the Weekend!

1: Take a Day Off Work
2: You can Live in Two Realities: Always Behind or Always Ahead
3: Work out your Catchup Chores
4: Things for you to do

1: Take a Day Off Work

Today is Friday the 1st November 2019 and I have taken the day off work.
The reason being is that I have seen something important in creating this blog:

"I am always Chasing My Tail
and I will never get ahead unless I take action now!"

Does this sound familiar?

For my Second Google Spreadsheet Project I decided to list down all the things I needed to do at the weekend, estimate the time required, and map out how I would do everything..
It is a normal weekend BUT to my amazement, I have over 13 hours of things I need to do BEFORE I can get onto the things I also NEED to do!

I was going into the weekend thinking I had 4 or 5 hours of chores but it's a lot more.
In reality I would not get everything I need doing done. Instead, on Sunday night I would be wondering where the weekend went and wondering why I still have lots to do. This sets up the 'Chase your Tail Time Zone" or what I have called "Always Behind".

2: You can Live in Two Realities: Always Behind or Always Ahead

When I think of all the things I have to do it is overwhelming!
No wonder people like watching sport, drinking, biking, or anything else that gives you an excuse to get away from the things you know need to be done, but you feel too "fed up with it all" to look at.

Where as if I was living in the 'Always Ahead' reality, I would have to be forward planning and do things systematically and technically before they were due.

I want to live in the "Always Ahead Reality" which will require me to reorganise a few days, drop a few things, plan, and get ahead. Then develop a plan to always keep me ahead. This is where the Google Sheets are going to be invaluable.

3: Work out your Catchup Chores

This is the list that shocked me into reality.

4: Thing for you to do

1. Start using the Google Spreadsheet and create a 'Get Ahead Sheet'
2. Make a list of all the things you need to do
3. Give each item an estimated time in minutes
4. Sum it up and see what it looks like
5. Get stuck in and clear it

You want to get into the Reality of 'Being Ahead"

5: Monday 4:30 am. 

I didn't manage to get everything done because of unscheduled events. Friends, competitions, and the realities of life... but I did get a lot done and there are only a few small things left. I am pleased with the result. I am going to keep at it and by next weekend I should be living in the world of being ahead. One particular chore was time consuming and I haden't allocated enough time to. That was clearing a mouse out of the kitchen cupboards. Plus I entered a Karaoki competition and got into the finals. And then two parties and a few friends over. I am actually happy with what I did manage to achieve.

Here are some things that helped:

1. At the parties, i did drink alcohol for a couple of hours, but then I switched to water. Lots of water.

2. I didn't watch TV

3. Pre plan wholesome meals with as near zero sugar as possible

4. Cook a base on Friday night that meant weekend meals were 3/4 done

5. Review the list and keep working at it.

Pre planning this particular activity and having a list is absolutely the way to stay focused and get things done. It made me very happy to see that I had done so much.

An improvement to effective planning and action is to do shopping early.

6: Today's Plan

Well it's just turned 5:00 am.

Time to get up, drink water, dress, get to gym.

I need to add to the list a few things and I can see this is an ongoing process. What is going to happen is the list is going to get smaller and fresher. Stick with it. I can see the benefits.

Update: 5 March 2021

Just read this. Although the exercise was good, I didn't manage to stick with this level of planning. I know it would work and does work.

Second Update 31 May 2021 :3:30 am

Well I am still chasing things that need to be done. I/we do actually do a lot. A big difference is work. When you work from home it is both good and bad. Work and home mix tends to be affected by discipline. I have evolved to working around the house for 2 hrs a day. Exercise is also 2 hrs a day. Then the rest of the time is work.