Wednesday was crazy, man. For some reason, I got ridiculously stressed out. I acted crazy.

And then to chill out, I broke my sobriety. I walked into a bar and I ordered a Yuengling and a Macallan 12. I took two sips of that Macallan and I immediately chilled out. Fuck. It felt so good in that moment. It stopped me in my tracks, my mind slowed down, and I relaxed.

Then, I went and I got 4 slices of pizza. And they tasted amazing.

The next day, I had gone from 277 to 280.

On this day, it was still a bit high levels of stress. I didn’t drink alcohol, but I ate a lot of protein bars. And I slept very bad.

On the next day, I had gone from 280 to 282.

So, a 5 pound increase over two days.

This is how I ended Q1.

So, am I done with this bender? Yes. I am done with this bender. The new Q opens up new opportunities. New excitement. Renewed energy.

It will be interesting to see how those two cheat days impact me.

Anyway, the new Q starts with a new race this weekend. Excited to how things go!

Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety | Huberman Lab Podcast #10

• The system that governs stress is GENERIC. So its not overfit to specific situations.
• This is a GOOD thing. It’s hardwired biologically.
• System for STRESS and DESTRESS. They are genetically encoded. You can control it.

• Real time tools to push back against stress.
• If you understand the mechanism, you can understand the cheat sheet.

• STRESSORS vs. STRESS
• Stress is the response to Stressors.

• Sympathetic Chain Ganglia – starts from neck to the stomach. These are neurons.
• Generic stress communicator – physical or mental stressors.
• This chain becomes active.
• They release a chemical called ACETOCOLYN at various parts in the body.
• Actually, this chemical is used to move muscles and even focus in the brain.

• Epinepherine / Addrenaline is then released to various parts of the body.
• Two functions: Muscles of heart and legs get energy boost?
• It also acts on digestion, etc. and constricts them. So digestion slows down?

• Stress response is GENERIC and it tilts the body to say MORE YES to some things (legs, heart) and LESS YES to others (digestion)

Tools to reduce stress

• Real time reduction
• Brain to spinal chord

• Best tool: Physiological sigh – breathing
• exhale more than inhale (opposite is true for opposite purpose), gets rid of CO2.

• You don’t necessarily want HR to come down too soon.
• But this physiological sigh is pretty cool.

Length of stress

• Is stress bad? It’s nuanced.
• Short term stress can be beneficial by narrowing focus. Better cognition. Combat nutrition.
• Whim Hoff Breathing? Rapid Deliberate Breathing?

• Deliberate hyperventilation 25x will feel anxious. it’s a way to increase adrenaline.

Chronic stress is bad

• Chemical imbalances due to lack of deep social interactions
• Social connection, actual people, not apps / messages / calls – serotonin
• Sleeping but not necessarily alone – oxytocin
• Actual chemicals start getting produced in long periods of lack of connection – Tachykinin

Q1 was all about just getting used to running. And this helped for sure. But, now I will need more organization.

Here is what I am thinking. I will think later about how to incorporate it:

1. Use the Run Keeper app to continue doing intervals 3 times a week. Monday Wednesday Friday. I have 2 races in April but thats okay.
2. Setup the home gym for upper body weights. I need a bit of that for posture and general muscle promotion

Maybe if easier, I should join a gym for the weight lifting and maybe stair or something. I want to get my legs and cardio vascular system pumping.

Perhaps I can double stack intervals with a trip to the gym. I can make it a thing to just run in the park before going to the gym.

My weight loss slowed down a bit so I have been trying to cheat this weekend. let’s see how things are when I get back from this vacation.

Today I did something interesting. I went to a different city, stayed at a hotel, and ran the next morning.

This was a novel experience for me. I am the most familiar with my usual running route. And I like that route. I figured running on the road is worth trying.

It was interesting. I am not sure I am totally digging it yet, because I am still a beginner. But I can see the draw. The main issue was the unfamiliarity and not being directed. Also, random people in the way. There were not a lot of runners around – I didn’t want to be the only one.

I am okay about it but I won’t necessarily go seeking it, I don’t think.

But, good job. Super proud.

There is something about this combo that helps me out.

I should do a day with only these two things but keeping it low calories like 900 calories for the whole day.

Maybe this is a bad idea, lets see

VIDEO

• Cutting too many calories
• Cutting calories too early. Stay at a level for a while.
• Cut carbs first.
• Less muscle
• Regulation of energy

• You have to rev the metabolism up. By eating for a few weeks at maintenance.

When he is plateaued:

• Small increment changes!
• -100 calories or + 10 mins cardio.

Lately I have been feeling the urge for booze. For 2 months i haven’t felt the urge. In fact, I have hated the taste. But lately, I feel like I have:

• Dehydration
• Covid recovery
• Headache
• Too much work

Let’s avoid it though. Its not worth it.

Takeaway:

• Strictly limit work hours. I dont give a flying fuck what everyone says. Be off of your phone.

I am annoyed.

For the last few weeks, two negative things happened and it is fucking me up. I got covid. Instead of taking things easy, I started to accelerate my work! And now this week, I have been working nonstop! FUCK THIS SHIT.

This company is not the most important thing. I am working as a salaried employee. I don’t give a fuck. The drama, the politics – bahmina di baqwas. Fuck these assholes. Nothing matters. Shit is fine. The world will keep moving on. No one will give a fuck in the limit.

But your body will. Your family will. Your relationships will. That is what I have to prioritize. Fuck work man, just absolutely fuck work. That is not my life.

I am interested by myself. I am excited about working on my body and mind. Becoming better. I have gamified this process and I want to bloody play this game. I will not let work get in the way of that.

Strictly

First few weeks of Feb, I lost 9 pounds and I felt it drop off. What happened in that week and the week before and after?

Let’s review!

Okay, did some analysis, but I’ll keep it simple. I was eating like 1100 to 1700 calories. That seems useful.

On those days, I ate:

• I ate like diginn and then nuts and cheese. Kept it around 1400
• Then I ate PIZZA and a lot of food.
• Then Indian food, kept it 1600
• Super high protein
• Sweetgreen salmon and Skinny pop – 1100 calories
• Slim rice!!! fish, peas, chilli oil, popcorn
• Ran a race and ate a lot of food. 2700
• Brought it back to 1900

So, you can see a wild oscillation, but generally high protein some days and high carb other days and then reduced it.

Not sure how much more I should analyze this, but I think I need to up the protein, keep low fat. And then also squeeze in pizza sometime to keep stuff moving.