The Plan So Far

I've made a plan that I am trying to follow.  Here are the routines I am trying to implement followed by the reasons I am doing them.  You may wonder how I am fitting all of this into my everyday life.   There are only 24 hours in every day, and I want at least 8 hours of sleep.  That leaves 16 hours to get all the things done I want to get gone.  On the days that I work that takes another 8 hours.  With eating and other incidentals taking about an hour and a half to two hours.  This leaves me about 6 hours in a day, which I am ashamed to admit that was about the amount of time I used to spend watching tv, playing computer games, or just reading articles online.  By cutting down my media consumption I have made more than enough time to get all the things done that I want, and in the end after I am done I still have some spare time to peruse the joys of the internet.

Every Day

   Pedometer:  I am mostly tracking my exercise with a pedometer.  It can give me better metrics on how my excessive is going.  My pedometer app links up with my exercise and food tracker.  

   Measure Weight:  I want to be able to see this change over time.  There is also been evidence that just by taking your weight down every day without changing any other habits will lead you to loose weight.  As you are conscious of what your body is doing you tend to make slightly different choices without thinking about it.

   Food Journal:  By tracking my nutrition with a food journal I can better estimate how my weight loss is going to go.  I also need to be tracking the protein I eat so I can maximize my potential muscle growth.  Also, like tracking weight, by paying attention to what you eat and recording it you will naturally make slightly different decisions.

   Walking (about 30 minutes):  Having good cardiovascular health is very important.  If I am going to live to see the singularity then I need to get this into shape.  Once I loose enough weight I will begin jogging.  For now I am walking so I don't damage my hips, knees, or ankles (I have previously injured my ankles and knees fairly severely).

   Stretching (about 30 minutes):  I am not very limber, and this should help rectify that.  It will also help me with the aches as I get back into shape.

   Music practice (about 30 minutes between singing, trumpet, guitar, and piano):  This is a little right brain creative exercise   I also love music and it helps me stay centered.  I will probably only end up doing the singing and the trumpet, but it is very possible that I will take a day to do some of the others as well.

   Math review (Khan Academy one lesson a day):  Left brain exercise.  I also want to remember all the math I have learned so far in my life and maybe learn a little more.

        "Philosophy is written in that great book which ever lies before our eyes- I mean the universe- but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols, in which it is written.  This book is written in the mathematical language... without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth." ~Galileo Galilei

   Memorize something (10- 15 minutes):  Right now I am memorizing little inspirational quotes.  I figure having inspirational things floating around in my head can only help.  This exercise is just to keep my brain limber and plastic.

       "Never memorize something you can look up" ~Albert Einstein 

   Planning:  This daily planning is to make sure I have time the next day to get all of this stuff done.  This should only take about 10 minutes.

   Dual-n-back training:  This is one of the only things that has been proven to increase IQ.  20 minutes will leave you mentally exhausted. The way it works is that you must track 2 things, a letter and a position of a square on a board.  They both will change (or stay the same) every second or so.  You have to remember if the letter or position or both were the same as they were two iterations previously.

   Meditation (about 30 minutes before bed):  After the Dual-n-back training this will be to just calm and center my mind.  Daily meditation has been shown to decrease stress levels and increase the ability to stay detached from problems.

   Sleep tracking:  This is mostly just a segment of my quantified self exploration.  A large portion of the important information is keeping track of things that may be changing how well I sleep.  Factors like caffeine before bed, exercise before bed, eating before bed, what kind of noises there are, what temperature the room is, what position did I sleep in.  

Sunday

   Weekly Planning:  Keeping track of any one time adventures, activities, or other anomalies that may come up will mostly take place during my weekly planning.

   Measure BMI:  I am using an electrical impedance test for this.  I am only tracking this weekly because it is very variable on a day to day basis depending on hydration.  To track trends I will have to do it at a consistent time with a consistent hydration.

   Input weekly data into spreadsheets:  Right now this includes my BMI and daily weight. 

Every Third Day (2-3x a week)

   Weight Training (upper body and core):  Currently my legs are fairly massive.  They've had to cart my over-sized body around in all of my activities.  So they are strong and large.  My weight training is to gain some strength and size in my upper body and core to match my lower body.  After I've gotten things about to the proportions I want I will switch to an endurance and plyometric (speed/agility) muscle training.

Once a Month

    Long term planning:  This is where I will track my long term goals on weight and overall health.  Looking back at the last month will help me tweak the plan for the month going forward.

    Body Measurements:  I am currently measuring all of the major muscle groups by circumference.  I will be able to track long term muscle growth and fat loss with these measurements.  This along with BMI will give a good indication of my body composition over time.