RE: Animalistic Pleasures
I left my last post stating that as long as I was in a happy state of homeostasis, I shouldn't have desires for these pleasureful and stress-releasing activites including video games and TV shows.
Revisiting this topic, I don't think it's possible to maintain a happy state of homeostasis 24/7. There are external factors I simply cannot control. I can do my best to do so, but there's a lot I can't control. For instance, lately it has been super fuckin hot.. I mean 100+ degF with no A/C (I'm so thankful that it's been dry, though). When it goes from 70 to 100 in a week, it throws me out of homeostasis, and I'm not the happiest tiger in the pack.
In this mode, it's perfectly normal for me to seek out stress-relief. Meditation, listening to music, and walking or laying down and thinking are my preferred methods of relaxing. I hope to work closer and closer to using these as my only methods of relaxing because I think they are the optimal forms of recovery.
However, for now I have desires to play and watch StarCraft as some of my chill time. I spent three consecutive hours watching StarCraft games today and two yesterday. This is not okay AT ALL. I extremely dislike this use of time.
I came up with a possible solution today to fix this problem of mine. The problem is that once I'm in the zone, my state of consciousness changes; I'm not able to think about stopping. If I do, I quickly hush the thought so I can continue indulging--even when realizing the activity is detrimental if I continue doing it. (said simply: I'm binging and I want to stop binging).
My possible solution is to take a forced 15 or so minute break between every video/game where some or much of the time must be spent with a free-thinking mind (I can't be consumed by reading or doing hw). When I get into this state of consciousness, my desires typically dramatically change (this is where I severely regret binging for the last X hours). I think if I mandate that I enter this more in-control and less archaic state of mind between every episode or game, I will be able to successfully stop binging before I start. (after one or two videos/games).
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Animalistic Pleasures
By far the largest struggle I've had in my life was quitting weed. I've experienced and witnessed enough now that I'm pretty sure I'll NEVER touch it again. The consequences of abuse are so terrible, and I fall into abuse so easily.
Another less-difficult struggle I've had is with video games and tv-shows/videos. I find myself abusing them from time to time, especially when I am not feeling well. If I am sick, tired, depressed, stressed--I will abuse these activities.
Lately I've found it easier not to overdo it. I'm not feeling terribly conflicted, depressed, or stressed. My ability to moderate is a bit easier. I have successfully played a few games of Star Craft II every day without getting to the point where I am delaying sleep, food, or exercise to play more. However I have delayed studying to watch and play star craft, and I was late to class this morning because I was watching a series.
Overall my improvement is tremendous, I am really pleased with how well I've handled this. However, my usage of this pleasure inducer is still unacceptable. I want to be spending more time working, working on my personal projects, relaxing and thinking, etc.
I have been thinking on and off about re-eliminating star craft from my life. I enjoy it, it probably deals my brain's pleasure centers a load of joy. However it has been obstructing progress.
Now I'm thinking, what the fuck? Am I unable to do anything enjoyable unless it involves progress? If so, what kind of progress? I'm making progress in star craft--nearly platinum league, but for some reason I feel that's not nearly as important as making progress in fitness and academia.
There are many things which offer pleasure. Academic and health achievement are two which I have no quarrels with. What about sex, drugs, games, meditation, ...? How do I discern what is good pleasure and bad pleasure?
Academic and health achievement are pleasurable now, and they are investments for the future. I can't say the same for the rest. If they can be considered investments, they are investments much less-so.
If I give in to my desires, and nothing goes terribly, I am positively reinforcing that behavior. That means it will be harder to resist my desires the next time. So the question is: do I want to do X more frequently. If so, then do it in a manner which is enjoyable so that the behavior increases. And by want I'm not saying do I have a primal/animalistic desire for it, but do I have a long term desire/goal for that to be in my life?
My next question is, what happens when I don't activate those pleasure centers in the brain with sex, games, drugs, and other instant gratifications? I went a long while without the games and drugs, and I did fine. I'm still drug free although my cravings for games has increased. Next question: why did my cravings for games increase? I think it's partially due to the crazy-intense workouts. They're getting easier now, but I jumped from 0.5-1 hour weight training to 1.5-2 hour weight training which hit me pretty hard.
As I envision my future, I don't think playing video games would be bad in my life, but I think that time could be better spent. As long as I am happy, I would rather be programming, working out, listening to music, reading, ...
Here's my (temporary) conclusion:
I think I can be happy filling my time with mostly activities that are investments and self-improvements. I think some times I work too hard and get worn out, or I don't rest or eat adequately. Sometimes I don't take enough time to reflect about my life and problems and solve them--so I experience higher stress. Sometimes I could really just use 30 min to lay down and listen to music. What a pleasure that was today--and how little time it took. It dramatically improved my mood and energy levels.
I think that when I am out of balance in one of the above or other ways, my desires for instant gratification increases. In fact, my desires for instant gratification is probably a ginormous indicator that something is out of balance. If I am in a happy state of homeostasis, my cravings for instant gratification should be fairly mild.
Hypothesis made. I've been shooting for something like this for a while, but I've had trouble keeping to it. Now it's documented and I can keep working on it here. I'm off to bed! fuck I'm tired and it's not even 9pm lol
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Motivation with daily exercise
This Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I didn't work out at all, and today I've found it difficult to get back into it. Albiet I had excellent reason to take Saturday and maybe even Sunday off: I've been working out fairly hard.. but even with the excuse I don't think it's good to skip a day.
This has happened several times now and in different lengths. I'm too fatigued, don't have enough time, forget, or don't have the motivation to work out one day, and then I end up skipping workouts for much longer than I originally intended. I don't like it.
I don't think I've ever regretted getting my ass to the gym as long as I have the appropriate nutrition and rest. Even if I don't feel incredibly motivated, once I start working out I'm so glad I did. But it's that initial motivation..
If I work out every day the motivation is natural. As long as I'm not working out too hard, I'm eating enough, and I'm resting enough, I'm pretty sure (and my experience supports) that I can work out every single day and have the motivation to do so. The benefits of such are axiomatic to me--I won't discuss them further here.
If one of these things falls out of line (I'm not eating enough, resting enough, or I'm working out too hard) the motivation dies. I skip a day which turns into several days to weeks.
Supposedly taking off a day or even a few weeks every now and then from weight lifting is beneficial--maybe so. But that doesn't mean I have to take off cardio. When I go a full day without working out.. it just doesn't work for me. I really want to make a plan I can stick to without fail (or with very rare and small lapses).
Here's the plan: I'd like to get back into my hancock phase--with a twist. The time at hancock I'm refering to is a time where my goal was to keep my metabolism up all day. I was trying to lose fat at that time--and my plan worked great. I'm not trying to lose fat right now. I have a bit more than I'd like, but losing fat isn't a big concern to me. Having my mind in the best state possible for the most time possible is my concern.
Cardio:
low weight high intensity weights: As long as I don't go to failure (single set), fatigue myself (many sets) or lift too heavy, I shouldn't need much recovery. I'm talking 300-style non-stop weightlifting for ~10-15 min, but not too high of intensity -- not to failure. Pullups without weights and only a few, dips without weight and only a few, pushups, squats with 135 or less, clean and press with 95 lbs, up-downs, bear-crawls, etc. The purpose of this is just to get my heart really pumping and get the metabolism up.
medium-high intensity cardio: Purpose is again to get the heart going and metabolism up.. target is ~20-30min. The reason it's high intensity is for how demanding it is of the cardio vascular system, not of muscle strength (same as above). Target as many muscles as possible. swimming, olyptical, cycling, running (alternate)
Strength training & Hypertrophy:
Heavy weight high intensity weights: The goal of this is to build muscle. I like having extra muscle, and I'd like to continue building (slowly). I'm pretty sure the time I built the most muscle was when I was doing one set of 8 reps to failure every day on a two day split. I think the frequency was important for the one set routine. I think doing a two day split with one set not to failure (but close to it) with a target of around 5-8 reps will work well with the plan I've got.
Other:
Just small bouts of easy pushups, pullups, planks, walks, body-weight squats, jump rope, up downs, stretching, light cycling, statics, etc. The goal here is.. I don't fucking know. But it was fun just doing something small all the time all day.. With the cardio and heavy weights, this isn't necissary and is just extra. These sets should be far far far from failure, and just to keep lose, and pump a little blood. I imagine my primate relatives climbing trees or walking to the water hole. I don't think it's such a bad idea to do small little bouts of work all throughout the day. I'm a software engineer and a student--my life is very sedentary if I don't make it active.
The low weight high intensity weight lifting needs to happen in the morning. There's no other time. I need access to all the gym equipment which means I need to be there when no one else is there. That's either before 8am or some time after I'm asleep. Swimming also needs to happen in the morning.. I don't want to expose myself to too much sunlight, I don't want to do heavy cardio at night.. so cardio in the morning it is. I like doing my cardio in the morning anyway--it's an excellent start to the day, you can start off slow and not feel bad (as with weights), it gets the metabolism up... I'll have to experiment with before or after breakfast. I think before breakfast is best. It makes it so I can't go for long (which is good.. otherwise sometimes I can go for over an hour cycling or swimming), although I don't like the idea of driving much.
Weights should happen sometime well after the cardio. I'm thinking afternoon is best. It's one set to failure with at least 2 minute rest between each exercise--I can afford to wait around for a machine or two (or possibly just get my set in real quick and leave)
I don't know exactly how cardio is going to work yet. I don't want to drive all the time, but I can't ride my bike to school then do high intensity cardio unless I have a sizeable snack first.
Cool. We'll see how this goes. I'll figure it out as I go but I definitely want the weights and the cardio every day.
This has happened several times now and in different lengths. I'm too fatigued, don't have enough time, forget, or don't have the motivation to work out one day, and then I end up skipping workouts for much longer than I originally intended. I don't like it.
I don't think I've ever regretted getting my ass to the gym as long as I have the appropriate nutrition and rest. Even if I don't feel incredibly motivated, once I start working out I'm so glad I did. But it's that initial motivation..
If I work out every day the motivation is natural. As long as I'm not working out too hard, I'm eating enough, and I'm resting enough, I'm pretty sure (and my experience supports) that I can work out every single day and have the motivation to do so. The benefits of such are axiomatic to me--I won't discuss them further here.
If one of these things falls out of line (I'm not eating enough, resting enough, or I'm working out too hard) the motivation dies. I skip a day which turns into several days to weeks.
Supposedly taking off a day or even a few weeks every now and then from weight lifting is beneficial--maybe so. But that doesn't mean I have to take off cardio. When I go a full day without working out.. it just doesn't work for me. I really want to make a plan I can stick to without fail (or with very rare and small lapses).
Here's the plan: I'd like to get back into my hancock phase--with a twist. The time at hancock I'm refering to is a time where my goal was to keep my metabolism up all day. I was trying to lose fat at that time--and my plan worked great. I'm not trying to lose fat right now. I have a bit more than I'd like, but losing fat isn't a big concern to me. Having my mind in the best state possible for the most time possible is my concern.
Cardio:
low weight high intensity weights: As long as I don't go to failure (single set), fatigue myself (many sets) or lift too heavy, I shouldn't need much recovery. I'm talking 300-style non-stop weightlifting for ~10-15 min, but not too high of intensity -- not to failure. Pullups without weights and only a few, dips without weight and only a few, pushups, squats with 135 or less, clean and press with 95 lbs, up-downs, bear-crawls, etc. The purpose of this is just to get my heart really pumping and get the metabolism up.
medium-high intensity cardio: Purpose is again to get the heart going and metabolism up.. target is ~20-30min. The reason it's high intensity is for how demanding it is of the cardio vascular system, not of muscle strength (same as above). Target as many muscles as possible. swimming, olyptical, cycling, running (alternate)
Strength training & Hypertrophy:
Heavy weight high intensity weights: The goal of this is to build muscle. I like having extra muscle, and I'd like to continue building (slowly). I'm pretty sure the time I built the most muscle was when I was doing one set of 8 reps to failure every day on a two day split. I think the frequency was important for the one set routine. I think doing a two day split with one set not to failure (but close to it) with a target of around 5-8 reps will work well with the plan I've got.
Other:
Just small bouts of easy pushups, pullups, planks, walks, body-weight squats, jump rope, up downs, stretching, light cycling, statics, etc. The goal here is.. I don't fucking know. But it was fun just doing something small all the time all day.. With the cardio and heavy weights, this isn't necissary and is just extra. These sets should be far far far from failure, and just to keep lose, and pump a little blood. I imagine my primate relatives climbing trees or walking to the water hole. I don't think it's such a bad idea to do small little bouts of work all throughout the day. I'm a software engineer and a student--my life is very sedentary if I don't make it active.
The low weight high intensity weight lifting needs to happen in the morning. There's no other time. I need access to all the gym equipment which means I need to be there when no one else is there. That's either before 8am or some time after I'm asleep. Swimming also needs to happen in the morning.. I don't want to expose myself to too much sunlight, I don't want to do heavy cardio at night.. so cardio in the morning it is. I like doing my cardio in the morning anyway--it's an excellent start to the day, you can start off slow and not feel bad (as with weights), it gets the metabolism up... I'll have to experiment with before or after breakfast. I think before breakfast is best. It makes it so I can't go for long (which is good.. otherwise sometimes I can go for over an hour cycling or swimming), although I don't like the idea of driving much.
Weights should happen sometime well after the cardio. I'm thinking afternoon is best. It's one set to failure with at least 2 minute rest between each exercise--I can afford to wait around for a machine or two (or possibly just get my set in real quick and leave)
I don't know exactly how cardio is going to work yet. I don't want to drive all the time, but I can't ride my bike to school then do high intensity cardio unless I have a sizeable snack first.
Cool. We'll see how this goes. I'll figure it out as I go but I definitely want the weights and the cardio every day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)