RJ's daily updates of becoming awesome

[RJlogs]

Hey Guys,

Inspired by Ken Nubo, I decided to start my own mini-blog of my personal development progress, partly because I hope that this kinda public commitment will boost my motivation and partly because I hope if I achieve some great results, it may be inspiring to some of you.

I always struggled with getting things done, but for the last few weeks something has changed bacause I feel much more compelled to move towards my goals and achieve results, so I hope doing this publicly will kick me over the edge

I've found that this forum is one of the friendliest out there, and the forum members are very supportive, that's why I chose to write it here instead of a separate blog.

Ok, here's a "short" overview of where I am now and where I'd like to be in the near future:

General
I'm a 19-year-old-guy,living with my parents and my younger brother (18).
Currently I study programming at a local university.
Desired change : I definitely want to move out as soon as I'm financially stable. My parents are good, but sometimes they're too much of a distraction for me, not to mention there are certain barriers I can't overcome while I live with them, or at least while I accept their financial
support.

Health
In the past few years I seriously neglected my health, I become really overweight and stopped also doing sports.
I'm 92kg and have a body fat ratio of 23% ( which really sucks ).
Desired change : Though a few weeks ago I was 95kg and 25%, so I've already made some progress here, but I want to take it more seriously and get in shape as quickly as possible. I also want to make some changes in my diet which I'll explain further as the days go by.

Financial
I'm currently a student, but not really because I love to be one. When I finished high-school, I told myself I'll go to university so my parents won't nag me to get a job..., meanwhile I start a good online business and
leave school as soon as I've got an acceptable income. Unfortunately I took serious action towards this goal only in the past 2 weeks, but at least it's finally started to manifest in some way.
On the bright side, I love programming, and I go to school only 4-5 hours a week, so I have plenty of time to do what I want.
Desired change : I'm going to take it much more seriously, I have a lot of different ideas (I'll share them later), and I'm going to take serious effort into implementing them.

Social & Relationships
Now this the area of my life that really sucks. I've never had a girlfriend and about a month ago I stopped all communications with my few friends from high-school, but honestly it doesn't really affects my life, my relationship with my brother is really good now and most of the time I like to be alone anyway.
Desired change : I'll definitely address these issues as well some time, but I don't feel I could handle it with the others simultaenously, so I'll only focus on these things after I made some other progress.

Hobbies & Other
There are a lot of other skills I'd like to develop, and I'll build them into my schedule when I feel it's right. I'm interested about anything, so there'll be plenty of things to improve here.
Desired change : currently my main interests in this category is self-expression ( various kind of art -> dawing, photography, digital arts mainly ), yoga, playing the guitar, and doing acrobatics ( or that parkour-thingy, you know...) and game development.

As you can see, I'm in pretty bad shape right now, so you can say I start from zero ( or even somewhere in the negative numbers ) and actually I'm happy about it, because it can be even more inspiration to others when I succeed.
I'll start the updates tonight

[RJlogs]

I have mixed feelings about today's achievements because on the one hand I did much better than on an average day, but some surprisingly big setbacks...

Waking up early
This is a habit I'm trying to install for a long time now with no particular success. Every evening I have a lot of energy and swear I'll wake up early tomorrow and start right where I left, but then morning comes and I feel like I'm on drugs or something and so addicted to my bed I can't even think about getting up.
Anyway, today I succeeded, I slept 7.5 hours ( quite good ) and wake up at 6.30.

Study
The exams are coming, and since I don't go to classes and lectures too often, I need to get myself together. Not because I'm compelled to get good grades, it's just a lot of stress going on when I try to learn everything in the last moment. I don't want that now.
I basically have to study math and programming. Today I couldn't get to math but practised programming for like 2 hours, that's good enough for now.

Health
I want to make a habit of logging what I eat every day, so I can make more conscious choices about the food I eat and gradually make diet adjustments.
I've already gave up refined sugar about a month ago, that was fairly easy.
As for logging the food, I'd need to eat around 2600 calories a day to efficiently lose weight.
I've just finished calculating the calorie sums a few minutes ago when the shock came: today I ate over 4500 calories!!! WTF? Then I saw it was because of some spaghetti I ate today. I ate about 2x 0.5 kg which didn't felt like much, but it has an awful lot of calories in there. I guess I have to give up pasta too. ( np, I don't like it too much anyway ) I'm not really worried about this, I've done this logging before, and on a usual day I stay in the 2000-3000 calories category, but I have to look out for these things, it can easily destroy a week's progress.

As for the exercise, I did 45 minutes on the elliptic trainer.

Online business
I spent about 2-3 hours working on the website, mostly on the design and coding CSS, it's gotta be ready in a few days, so I have to hurry up.

Getting the most out of the day
One more thing I'd like to focus on is not wasting my time. I have 16-17 waking hours a day and I wanna get the most out of it.
In the morning I was really efficient, did what I planned to do, but in the afternoon things started to fall apart. I still managed to get some work done, but I couldn't focus really well. I hope improving my health and diet will solve this issue, until then I'll try to do my best to get up early and get things done in the morning.

So, that's it for today. Overall, it wasn't bad, it was actually a very productive day compared to the last few ones, but I hope over time it's gonna get even better.

[Desmond]

Good luck! ^^

[gretzkyjunior]

Definitely keep getting up early!

I do too, It helps me clear my mind before a long day at school :P

[ken nubo]

Cool, keep it up.

[RJlogs]

Today I had to go to school, which really sucks cause all it does is waste 4 hours of my life. And I haven't prepared for today's class either, and there I was, one stop from the university, so I thought I rather do something fun instead. I didn't want to go straight home with public transportation, because I have to at least pretend like I go to school ( for my parents, hey, I know it's lame ) so I thought I walk all the way home.
I've never done it before, cause my school is in the other end of the city. It was a great experience and it gave me some ideas too. I had to walk about 3 hours to get home, and that's not too much, I expected a lot more.
That means if I go with a bike for example, I could be there in about the same time I do with public transport, and I also have my exercise for the day.
Though I'm a really bad biker, I might give it a try some time.

Ok, here are the day's "accomplishments":

Waking up early
Slept : 7.5 hours
Woke up : 6.30 AM
Check.

Health
Exercise: : though after 3 hours of walking on concrete I could barely lift my legs, I thought I'll be a good boy and did another 30 minutes on the elliptic trainer.
Diet:: Still not good enough. Today I ate about 3700 calories. Pff. I'm amazed I could even lose weight in the past few weeks eating this much.
I guess my only option is planning my whole diet in advance so I don't overeat. That's a lot of work, so I hope it's worth it. Tomorrow I'll write a simple program that calculates the intakes for me and then get started with it.

Study
My whole day fell apart in the afternoon, no study at all today.

Online business
Okay, I managed to work a little on my website, but I couldn't tell exactly how much, I was slipping in and out of consciousness... I'm gonna measure the time precisely I spend on work from now on.

That's it for today. Tomorrow's gonna be much better I promise
My most important goals for tomorrow is to finish my website and start a special workout program, which sounds really cool, more info tomorrow.

[Grandiouse]

Keep chipping away! You are developing some good habits. I really need to get as much sleep as you. I am in a play right now and have to get up that early for call. But I don't get nearly as much sleep as I should because I stay up late.

[RJlogs]

Originally Posted by Grandiouse

Keep chipping away! You are developing some good habits. I really need to get as much sleep as you. I am in a play right now and have to get up that early for call. But I don't get nearly as much sleep as I should because I stay up late.

Yeah, I get ya, I've been there before. I always stayed up late at night because that's when I had the most energy and the less distraction. But it's just a matter of habit, try going to bed earlier, although I'm pretty sure you won't sleep easily in the first few days. That's what happened to me, it takes some time for the body to adjust.

[RJlogs]

Straight to the point:

Waking up early
Hours slept : 6.5
Woke up : 6.00.
I love spring. At six AM, the sun shines directly into my face, waking up cannot be easier ( Though I'm not sure less than 7 hours of sleep would be enough in the long run. )

Health
Two great things today:
Excercise:my elliptic trainer is in really bad shape now, I wanted to let him rest a little, and since the weather was great too, I went out for a run.
Running outside is not favorable because, for one, after a few weeks of running on concrete I always injure my knee, my shins or my whole leg, that's why I neglected it in the past few days. But it turns out these injuries were probably due to my bad running technique. I've recently stumbled across chirunning.com where they demonstrate a simple technique to run injury free. Check it out if you want, the basic idea is you never step in front of your hips, so you don't put additional strain on your knees by interrupting the movement. I hope it'll work, it makes sense, so why not...
The other thing about running outside is the intensity. A 20-minute run outside can be much more overwhelming than two hours on the elliptic trainer (I mean it!), and it's also much less aerob, so I think it's the best if I mix the two.
Today I ran my greatest. It was awesome. I always run around the forest near us. My average time is about 20-22 minutes, but today I broke my record with 18.30! so now I'm happy like hell, which is funny, cause 3 hours ago I wanted to die, my lungs hurt so much
Diet: today I didn't eat much, I had a lot of stuff going on, I consumed 2200 calories, which is about 1100 calories below my maintenance level. I'm happy I could finally manage to eat less, but 2200 is too low, I feel hungry now and my metabolism can also slow down if I don't get enough, which only makes more damage in the long run than eating a little more.
But that's not a problem anymore. This evening I wrote a little webpage where I can easily check how many calories I eat. I only have to type in the food data once, it stores it in a database and calculates it automatically. So form now on, I'm gonna be able to calculate what and how much I'm gonna eat, in advance. That way I can always ensure to stay around the desired 2600 calorie-range.
Today I also baked a whole-wheat bread, trying to change to healthy foods you know...
Workout: Had to delay it, I was so tired after the run, there was just no point trying anything with so little energy.

Study
I still couldn't get myself to study math, but I got a book from the library and will start tomorrow.
As for the programming, it was rock &roll today, it went so smoothly and easily I couldn't even believe it.
Practised haskell for about 3 hours.

Online business
Ugghh, no time for this today unfortunately. But I did so great in the other so no problem.

Reading
This is new. I always read a lot every day, but I thought it's best if I set aside some time each day to read, especially in English, cause I'd like to improve my grammar and my vocabulary. Today I've started Stephen King's On Writing. It's a biography and basically it's about how he became a writer. And OMG how great this book is. I've never thought this kinda thing can be interesting, but it is. Poor guy, had some though moments, but it's kinda fun to read, he's not shy about making fun of himself, I laughed a lot.
I'm gonna read it some more after I finished this till I fall asleep, and I think that's gonna be a great habit, reading something in the evening. If I fall asleep, no problem, if I don't, then I haven't wasted my precious energy lying in bed doing nothing.

Overall, today was a really great day. I'm a little tired now, but I'm feeling happy and stuff, it's so cool. I don't know if it's because the programming went so well, or the running, or because I managed to write that calorie calculator, and all the other stuff, or it's just another mood swing of mine, but I could enjoy this a little more

[RJlogs]

Yesterday's quick burst of motivation couldn't help itself but to last for at least another day.
Today was amazingly great and productive. I think the key to my motivation is simply creating some results first, then it's a done deal, just go with the flow, create more results and so on.
Today's log:

Waking up early
Woke up : 6.30 AM
Slept 6.hours

Health
Diet : with my new calorie counter page it was piece of cake
Consumed calories : 2500 ( 20+% below maintenance )
Exercise: 45 minutes on elliptic trainer

Study
Programming:
2-3 hours of Haskell, I start to get it, usually I write good code for first try, today I did 3 times the work than yesterday in the same time
Practised some C++ too, read some code and wrote some, back to the basics, cause I don't really like this language, it's better to build a strong foundation first
Math: I finally got myself to study some math. It was about 30 minutes, two chapters of the book. If I can do an average 1 chapter / day, there'll be no problems with the exam.

Online business
Coded the PHP part for one hour, almost functional, which is good, cause I have to get it done till 27th ( it's for personal purposes, but I've also got a school assessment that requires a website...)

Reading
Still reading On Writing form Stephen King, this book is brilliant! If you're interested in writing even just a little bit, I highly recommend it. If you're not, then after reading this, you'll be I was thinking maybe I should make writing a habit too ( though I'm the easily inspired type, so it doesn't mean anything yet)

That's for today, it went smoothly, probably it was the most productive day of this week. ( or even this year?! ten years ?! ever??!!! ) I'm really proud of myself, now everything is on track and I finally managed to make time for everything I wanted. And best of all, I feel really great. Especially my motivation. I just want to make every day better than yesterday, it's kinda cool, so we'll see what I can do about it tomorrow.

[RJlogs]

Right now I'm in a stage of my development where I'm on the right track, but I'll have to keep going a little bit longer to see some results.
I thought this would be frustrating, but it's not. Not at all. The results I make compensate for everything.
It' really great that I can finally control so many areas of my life, all at once. Before this log, I haven't achieve anything close to this.
I'm sure the public commitment helped a lot, posting here every day makes me feel a little more responsible, even if nobody reads it, because you know someone might read it some time, so just do your best.
The most fascinating thing about this is I feel this change will not be temporary.
There were quite a few periods of my life when I went for one of my goals in one or two areas, but I usually fall back to old habits after a few days or sometimes weeks. I really think that's not the case here.

Waking up early
Time slept : 7 hours
Woke up : 7AM

Health
Diet : ate 2366 calories ( -1000 calorie deficit, maybe too much, I'll eat a little more tomorrow ). Logging my food intake is really no big deal. I have a nice electronic scale, it's 2 seconds and done. And with my calorie counter page I can calculate it in 5 seconds.
So I guess I'll try to be a little more precise, and go for the advanced stuff. I also measure my carbohydrate, protein and fat intakes now, but I'll try to adjust my diet to get the best ratios of them soon.
Exercise : usual 45 minutes on the elliptic trainer. I love how convenient it is. Usually I watch The Simpsons or something while running so I don't get bored. Today I tried to read half the time and it's pretty easy, I think I'm gonna stick with it.

Online business
I don't work on it as much as I should, I'm not sure why. I love it, so maybe it's because I'm very close to the end of the project and I'm afraid it's gonna suck, I dunno. Anyway, I have to send a link to a professor on Monday, so I can't delay it much further, and once it's functional I can show you what I was working on.

Study
Piece of cake, I'll catch up soon with school stuff after not going to classes almost all year. Did about 2-3 hours of Haskell again, (I'm gonna finish it soon, so I don't have to practise more ) and learned another chapter of linear algebra. I even did some examples at the end of the chapter, I'm really proud of myself now

Reading
I'll finish On Writing soon ( probably tonight ). I'm seriously thinking about trying out myself in writing, the book really inspired me. I know, it sounds silly when I can't even write these logs without grammar errors, and my vocabulary is about the level of a fifth-grader, but I feel I could easily schedule it too, and I can learn those things. And I need some kind of self-expression anyway, so we'll see.

Today was also productive despite the fact that I haven't done anything meaningful until 12AM. But it only motivates me more, imagine what I can do with a productive morning Maybe tomorrow.

PS: WTF? Stephen King suggests 1000-2000 words to write every day. Just checked, and this post was about 550. Now 600. Ok, it's not that kinda writing, but still, it didn't take long at all. I can easily afford this much time a day...

[RJlogs]

I made a big mistake this week by randomly measuring my weight and body fat ratio, cause now the scale shows I'm 3 kg-s less, but my body fat ( according to that little electric device I have ) jumped up and down a lot, in fact after I started logging here, the next day it went up by 3%!!?!!
Never mind, now I can't do anything about it. What I'm going to do is measure myself in the mornings, 30 minutes after waking up from now on, so we can see the real progress then. I'm afraid I lost some muscle with the fat too, since 3kg's is too much for 1-2 weeks. ( I don't remember exactly when I measured last).

Waking up early
Time slept : 6.5 hours
Woke up : 6.30AM
Check, again.
Health
Diet:Today I ate a total of 2750 calories. My ideal intake is around 2650, but I intentionally ate a little more today, because in the last few days I was on bigger calorie deficit than I intended to be, and I don't want my body to catch up and my metabolism slow down.
Exercise: A great 1h 15 minutes session on the elliptic trainer. I kept my good habit of reading while doing it, so time just flew by. I almost finished the book after my usual 45 minute session, so I thought I don't stop till I finish it. And that's exactly what happened.

Online business
Closing in. I think I do a little more work every day now, but still not enough, considering it should be ready for tomorrow. I know it's lame, but I think on some level I'm afraid of screwing it up or finding it overwhelming, that's why I procrastinate, but I can control it better every day, mostly with timeboxing and portioning.

Study
Nothing new, the usual Haskell practise and some math, though I haven't finished the chapter today. I'll catch up tomorrow.
But I've found out that this linear algebra book is really-really great. My problem with math books is usually I must sit and try to figure out what the author wants to say, because they're so poorly written, I'm pretty certain most mathematicians can't even write for simple human beings like me, they're so caught up in their world.
This one is different. Lot's of examples and detailed descriptions all over. If I concentrate I can easily follow and understand every word, which is kinda fascinating to me, understanding such a complex system.

Reading
As I mentioned, I finished On Writing from Stephen King. It was a great book. I wanted to continue with a little more technical book, but now that I've got so inspired to write, I won't count. Instead, I'm gonna read some books I know ( probably ) will good to get some inspiration for my own writings and to take a closer look to the techniques I've read in this book and how other writer's solve them. So I'll probably go with my favorite Philip Dick books, maybe some more Stephen King, also The Prophet, just because Steve always keeps recommending it, and re-reading God's Debris. It's a very interesting free e-book about God, theology from a seemingly logical viewpoint, with pretty interesting results. I know it made me think a lot and I enjoyed it very much.
Currently I'm kinda busy with school stuff, but it's possible this section will get the "Reading & Writing" title soon when I make a habit of writing a few thousands words each day. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see...

So today went smoothly, although it was the first time I felt a little tired. Maybe that 6+ hours of sleep isn't quite enough, I dunno.
In the best few days I figured out my best motivational strategy, which I tend to follow from tomorrow. It's simple : I'm not that type of guy who feels great by doing extraordinary amounts of work in some area, but rather make the most out of everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. The more I can pack into a day, the better, with at least noticable results in each area.
So I'm gonna do my best to get done a wide variety of things in the morning, even if just little improvements, because the more I do, the more comfortable and the more motivated I feel, the more I can get out of the rest of the day. I'm curious how it's going to work.

[ShIxtan]

Originally Posted by RJlogs

I made a big mistake this week by randomly measuring my weight and body fat ratio, cause now the scale shows I'm 3 kg-s less, but my body fat ( according to that little electric device I have ) jumped up and down a lot, in fact after I started logging here, the next day it went up by 3%!!?!!

Don't worry about that too much, when I was checking my body fat % it went all over the place. I think it might be because fat takes a while to digest, and there might still have been some in your system from meals. (of course I really don't know what I'm talking about, so this theory would probably be proven wrong if either you didn't eat before you weighed yourself, or you didn't eat more fat than any other day.).

Good luck with the writing every day, that's a habit I'm going to try and start soon as well.

[RJlogs]

Originally Posted by ShIxtan

Don't worry about that too much, when I was checking my body fat % it went all over the place. I think it might be because fat takes a while to digest, and there might still have been some in your system from meals. (of course I really don't know what I'm talking about, so this theory would probably be proven wrong if either you didn't eat before you weighed yourself, or you didn't eat more fat than any other day.).

Good luck with the writing every day, that's a habit I'm going to try and start soon as well.

Thank you, best luck with your writing as well!
As for the body fat, I measured it multiple times a day, so I'm sure it's probably right. ( Btw, the calculator depends mostly on how much water is in your body. )
I'm not worried though, I'm eating properly now and my ultimate goal is to get in shape and look good, not to achieve certain numbers anyway.

[RJlogs]

A whole week has passed. Not bad. Here's the final day:


Waking up early:
Woke up : 6.30AM
Slept: 6.5 hours

Health:
Diet: ate 2600 calories total, check.
Exercise: the usual 45 minute elliptic trainer session, must get boring for you , not for me though, read the whole time

Online business:
Today I redesigned the site and realized it's quite ok regarding it's functionality, it'll be absolutely ready within a week, I'm sure of that, mostly because my motivation for doing this got quite high. I'm not sure why, maybe because I've realized I might really finish it soon...

I'll post a link too in the following days, for now here's a screenshot of the design. I'm not a web designer, I just wanted to make something strong and bold, but not too bold, it's gonna be a functional website after all. I'd be interested in your opinions, I don't think it's even a great design, just want to hear if it's okay or not. Also note that it's a sketch only, made in Inkscape, I want the real one to be much more sohisticated:
http://i39.tinypic.com/6ib0g1.png ( the pics in it aren't the real ones either, I got them off the internet...)
Oh, and I know the text doesn't make sense, it's just filler

Study:
Some Haskell in the morning, I can finally finish all tasks tomorrow, had a great time practising it in the past few days though, pure problem solving.
I also learned some general programming theory in school, at home and from a book I read while exercising ( I was curious if I can do it with books that require more concentration, like math or this. Apparently, I can. )
And learned math ( linear algebra for almost an hour )

Reading:
It's not writing time yet, but it's gonna come too. Last evening I read some Stephen King ( The Cell ), I like this guy, especially the language he uses. It's so simple ( yet really-really great ), it makes me believe I could make something similar. I'm gonna continue it after I finished here. I can only read it at night, I'm not comfortable reading about zombies in daylight. Weird...

Multitasking:
Just a side note. I'm finally closing to a point where I don't waste a significant amount of my time on stupid things, so I have to start focusing on other means of making most of my time.
So far it only means I try to mix reading with anything I can ( exercise, waiting for the bus, on the bus, ... ), but I'll try to get the most out of multitasking by other "techniques" as well. So far I've been thinking about audio ( books, seminars, anything ) stuff and try to speed it up gradually.

So, that's it for the week, tomorrow I'm going to post a conclusion about it, mostly what habits I started and how is it going, and the effects, ...
P.S.: if you like alternative rock, here's a good song. It's one of the few rock songs that sounds great and also have a positive/motivational message:
YouTube - Nickelback- If Today Was Your Last Day with Lyrics
(I like Nickelback, but only found out about this track yesterday)

[RJlogs]

Okay, I promised it, and although I'm not sure if anyone's reading, I felt compelled to keep my promise, so here's a quick summary of the week's achievements.

Overall, it was the most productive week for a long-long time now, and I've made some changes and started some habits that affected my life immediately. ( And positively of course )
Here they are:

Health:
Maintained habits : - exercising each day ( average 45 minutes )
- counting calories
- eating whole-grain-bread instead of regular
- eating about 5 times a day ( frequent meals speed up my metabolism )

Needless to say, these habits had the most impact on me. My energy levels are much higher overall, and more stable too. ( I don't have those energy ups and downs during the day anymore. )

As for the weight loss, I lost 3 kg-s ( don't ask how ,I have no idea ) in the past 1.5 week. As I've mentioned earlier I'm not sure about the body fat ratio, but I'm gonna track it correctly next week, so I can give you accurate information too. I also make pictures every now and then, I'll post them once I get in shape

Waking up early: another kicker. I have more time than ever and thanks for the improved diet and exercise, it's easier than ever.
I've slept 6.5!!! hours on average and still had more energy. This habit is definitely a must.

Online business : not my strongest area, but I've made some progress, I'll be ready to launch my first website soon. But I'll definitely have to get myself to work more on this in the future.

Study: study is clearly not a priority for me, but I love programming, so fortunately I don't have to learn much extra on the top of what I'd do anyway. I've learned a lot this week and I'm quite happy with my improvement. The less trouble I have with school, the less stressed I am, the more I can concentrate on the important stuff.

Reading: reading myself to sleep is also a useful habit. I get the most out of my time and have a good time too.

Self-discipline: I've made a little progress here too. Although it wasn't frequent, but it happened sometimes that I wanted to drop back to an old habit or just didn't feel like doing something and I usually pushed myself through this mental block which is great, I felt a little stronger every time.

Next week I'll continue these habits and try to change two important things:
1. spend more time on my website
2. in the evenings I'm not really tired, but I'm not fully capable of doing hard mental work either, so I'll try to install some light activities like drawing, maybe on computer ( digital painting or 3D ).

[RJlogs]

Today I was feeling down a little bit, mostly because I've wasted too much time on two little problems I couldn't solve ( regarding my website and a programming stuff ), then my family went crazy and I was stupid enough to waste my time arguing with them

Fortunately my new habits kept me from ending up with nothing.

Waking up early
Woke up : 6.30 AM
Slept : 6.5 hours
This seems fairly stable, but I'll try to reduce it even further and see what happens.

Health:
Diet: consumed 2750 calories, still good ( my optimal is 2660 and my maximum is 3330 ).
Exercise: 45 minutes, elliptic trainer, reading all the way.

Online business:
Coded half 70% of the new design and implemented two new functions

Study
No math today, but I was a little ahead yesterday, so I will be able to catch up tomorrow.
Did some programming too, although it didn't go so smoothly as in the past few days. But hey, that would be too easy anyway

Reading: yesterday night continued the Cell from Stephen King and read short story from Philip Dick while exercising.

Overall, it wasn't a bad day. Comparing to what I was used to weeks ago, it was absolutely productive and enjoyable.
Just thinking about it now makes me feel much better.

[RJlogs]

Today wasn't too interesting, but I enjoyed it anyway. I keep up my habits and make progress, that's okay for now. When I get bored with this, I'll probably juice it up by adding new habits, trying new things, but now I'll just "sit back" and enjoy being productive with no effort.

Waking up early
Slept : 6h 45 minutes
Woke up : 6.45 AM
Today it was a little harder to get up than usual, but I was fine all day after that.

Health
This whole thing is so automatic now, I'll have to take it to the next level soon.
Diet : ate 5 times, total 2550 calories.
Exercise : 45 minutes on elliptic trainer. I think my body starts to get used to this too much. I usually sweat like crazy after a session, but not today. I guess I have to get outside to run sometimes, but I don't really feel like it.
( Although my new self-discipline has surprised me in the past few days multiple times, so who knows? )

Online business
What can I say? I'm still not on the top of this, but I make some progress every day. The good news is, today I've found some series of thoughts that I can play in my mind and get motivated quickly about it. Have to practise it though.

Study
Today was Haskell day, I had some difficulties with some hard concepts, but now it seems okay, I have a few more hours to crunch, then I'm okay for this whole year.

Reading
Still Stephen King in the evening and some programming-technical thingy for 20 minutes on the elliptic trainer. ( I watched The Simpsons in the other half. )

[RJlogs]

Okay, just a quick update to be thorough. Yesterday I couldn't post it, because 75% of my day was spent in school and then helping my Dad.

Waking up early
Woke up : 6.15 AM
Slept : 6 hours 15 minutes

Health
Exercise : I'm glad this habit became so stubborn. It was 8.30 PM when I finally get there to do some exercise. That's when I usually delay it, but not now.
I did my usual 45 minutes on the elliptic trainer like a good boy.
Diet : today I haven't got much time, but I tried not to skip meals. I ate 6 times, although 3 of them were snacks ( like a banana or a really small sandwich ) only, because I was in a hurry, so I ate below 2100 calories. That won't be a problem for a day, but I'll try to avoid eating so little.

Online business
Just the usual, some progress, but still not ready.

Study
Okay, for a side note, I've been neglecting math lately, which will cause trouble if I don't start soon.
On the other hand, I've finished all my haskell examples, which means I coded almost 200 examples in one week, about 2x the amount they did in school during the entire semester. Not bad, I'll send it to my teacher, I hope it'll compensate for my absence from the classes

Reading
Last night I continued the Cell for about 40 minutes and today I've read from a book about string theory, quite interesting, and also some from a book dealing with programming algortihms.

[RJlogs]

Today was great, it was quite relaxing. I did my usual stuff, but I also spent some time doing stuff I like but not quite useful. ( Like watching some episodes of my favorite series )

Waking up early

Slept : 6.5 hours
Woke up : 7AM

Health

Diet: today I ate 3500 calories. I didn't count it and ate some pasta, and that did it. I'm not worried though, I've read it's actually okay to eat a little more every now and then, so my body won't adopt so easily. Although I'll try to avoid this in the future.

Exercise: 45 minutes, done.

Online business

I'm in big trouble with the design. I'm not a web designer, and creating a good site is harder than I thought. But I'm absolutely amazed by some of the designer's work out there, and I want to learn how to do it, so I'll do whatever it takes.

For starters, I'll practise visualization from tomorrow every day for at least 20 minutes. I figured my best chances are to make a good design quickly if I pull those pics out of my head. I've a general feeling and some cool pictures going around in my head, it's just whenever I try to "zoom in", it fades away, I can't get the details. I hope it'll help me.

Study
Finished Haskell, it was a great brain-training, now going on with C++. Practised some, but honestly, I'm not so in love with this language as with Haskell. It's much uglier to me.

Reading
Yesterday night I haven't got time to read, because I was doing programming till 0.30 AM, but today I've read from Brian Green's The Elegant Universe. Brian tries to explain string theory in simple words to lowly humans like me, I'm curious if he can, will continue tomorrow.

I do realize it's not too interesting for you reading this stuff and I wasn't in the mood to write either, but I do it anyway, because it helps me clear my mind, and for some strange reason I feel I'd lose a lot of my motivation if I wouldn't continue posting here.

Maybe I'll try to spice it up a little bit, I feel I still don't use a great deal of my time as I should, so there's plenty of room for improvement.
I'll also try to focus more on the results and my experiences on the trials, so you can see what to expect in case you'd also want to lose weight or install any other habit I do, and keep the rest of the nonsense for myself

[RJlogs]

Waking up early
woke up : 7 AM
slept : 6 h 45 minutes

Health
Diet : ate 5 times, a total of 2670 calories. Perfect. I can eat pasta, I just have to make sure I eat it in very small portions.
Exercise: 45 minutes on the elliptic trainer, I ran like crazy, it felt like I'm gonna explode, I had so much energy today. I'm "afraid" indoor exercising will no longer be an option soon, and I have to go outside to get tired.

Online business
I was doodling with the design all day. It's much harder than I thought. I'm still not satisfied with it, so I dunno if I'm gonna go with an acceptable one, or spend more time creating a better one...

Study
No study at all today

Reading
still reading the Cell and that string theory book

Visualization
I've done this for about 20 minutes total, mainly focusing on visualizing my design. I can't say much after one day, I hope I'll improve, although I've noticed that after a few minutes, when I get in the state, the images come more easily and clearer.

Today I've wasted too much time on the design, won't happen again. Fortunately my health habits are quite stable, but I have to apply some sort of timeboxing to get the most out of the day. Today I also felt a lot of motivation to learn some kind of art and do a lot of other things, I think I'm gonna do some personal experiments in the next few weeks to see how I can integrate more stuff into my schedule.