This is something I have been thinking about for a while. It is something I have learned about how I learn and adopt something. I think this is a crucial life skill and I want to document it. Maybe this works for other people. But it has worked for me.

There are many habits one may want to pick up: being more organized (this is a habit), going to the gym, running, etc. There are numerous apps out there to help you. There is also the old adage of “just be more disciplined”. Sure. But those things didnt work for me in particular. And through some trial and error, going back 15 years, I think I have figured some of these things out.

Building a habit is like getting on a train. When the habit is working fine, it feels natural and flawless. I don’t require a lot of cognitive overhead to keep that habit going. It is a flow state I guess.

I like to use the imagery of a wagon. Once you are on the wagon, things are going great. But there are many ways in which you fall off of the wagon. It is important to understand this whole dynamic.

Some critical questions are:

• How do you get on the wagon
• What makes you stay on the wagon
• What makes you fall off?
• And how do you get back on?

I am currently on the wagon. And I am liking it.

Lindy Effect: The longer you stay on the wagon, the more robust you are

Getting on the Wagon

• The 0 to 1 process
• Reduce activation energy as much as you can
  • The gym clothes being ready
  • The todolist stuff being easy to do

Staying on the Wagon

• Building momentum
• Gamification
• Feedback loop
• The past reinforcing the future

Why fall?

• This blog is a great collection of failures.
  • I have articles on this blog describe that SPIRAL INTO THE DEPTHS OF HELL
  • I started to try to reduce the tail events that could trigger a spiral. I think I am getting better.
• Work causes decline
  • I get busy with work, and I am unable to keep the momentum going.
• Travel, family
  • This is another one. I get obligations which start to impede on stuff.
  • I just need time and space to secure the momentum.

Getting back on the Wagon

• Bootstrap with action
  • I build bootstrap process for getting back on the wagon.
  • Simple actions that I could take
• Action is the answer to laziness

How does it feel to be on the wagon

• I am currently on the wagon for many things. The todolist stuff is going fine. Running is going okay. Weight lifting is starting to ram pup.
• It feels like a glove

Examples:

• GTD Framework
• Gym attempts at college, before then getting on it in 2012
• Running attempts, until Jan 2023

What is the purpose of this disrespect? This is unbelievable. A mockery for what god has given us.

Stay the fuck away from this kind of thing. This is noise. Focus on healthy whole food diet. And stop with gluttony. You dont need it anymore.

Disgusting.

Fuck. The marathon is coming up. I do not feel ready at all. 76 days and counting. What the fuck have I gotten myself into.

Concerns

Regret

I will kick myself if I don’t run this marathon on that particular day. I have a visual in my mind. A visual I constructed in December 2022.

Reorientation and Plan

I am going to cram for this exam, like I have done in the past before.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Marathon_Training/comments/1euugsj/whats_the_max_distance_you_do_during_training/lin0g73/?context=3&share_id=EGi0WeEaRoQS40SmbNCZM

    https://old.reddit.com/r/firstmarathon/comments/1euhy6s/how_do_you_feel_after_your_long_run/limiec9/?context=3&share_id=lFZ3onSq3ujcR-7eatbKH

    https://old.reddit.com/r/firstmarathon/comments/1euhy6s/how_do_you_feel_after_your_long_run/lilo1hl/?context=3&share_id=_VswGYh-OKSVfiulXbEcc

Revised Marathon Plan

• Remember the taper
• Number of long runs
• Weekly mileage
• Don’t over train

Updated split

Think in terms of workout chunks. And do chunks once in a while

• Strength Group
  • Push
    • Bench press
    • Shoulder press
    • Overhead
    • Flys
  • Pull
    • Dead lift
    • Lat pulldown
    • Rows
    • Biceps
  • Legs
    • Squats
    • (Running augmentation)
• Strength Option Full Body 2x
  • Workout A
    • Squats
    • Bench Press
    • Dead lift
    • Barbell Row
  • Workout B
    • Deadlift
    • Overhead Press
    • Squat
    • Lat pulldown
• Running
  • Easy Run: 40 minutes
  • Intervals: 8x
  • Long run: 2 hours to 3 hours

Schedule 5 day

3 x cardio

2 x strength (We will do full body)

• Monday
  • Full body strength
• Tuesday
  • Interval
• Wednesday
  • Full Body Strength
• Thursday
  • Easy
• Friday
  • (Optional Full Body)
• Saturday
  • Long run
• Sunday

The goal is to MAXIMIZE the protein and reduce the calories. The research backs this. I trust the research. I have seen the research work for me in other ways.

Remember the concept of market impact Food satisfaction impact model.

There are two tricks:

• Replace ultra processed food with an orange or cucumbers. Same craving addressed in the mouth
• Eat HALF, and that will reduce the impact’s peak. You will still address the craving, but not be as hard

Do this over and over, and it’s done.

And sleep lol

• Any alcohol will DESTROY your Testostrone and Muscle
• Sleep will also mess your Testostrone
• Obesity will FUCK YOUR TESTOSTRONE
  • Get down to the TEENS in body fat
• Have sex

It is not a singular temple. It is a arena of temples. A combination of beautifully engineered systems. This is an AHA moment.

The main blocks are:

• Cardiovascular system
• Skeletal system
• Muscular system
• Neuro system

Everything you do should be in service to those subsystems

• Strength training and protein to build up the muscular system
• Running and activity to build up the cardiovascular system
• Sleep for Neuro and the other systems

Useless fucks:

• Alcohol serves none of those systems
• Sugar serves none
• Neither does processed foods

So, maximize whole foods with protein first and do strength and cardio. That’s IT.

And yea, sleep.

• Uric Acid
  • Fructose -> uric acid

• Protein and Appetite
  • It is more satiating than anything else
  • Higher protein diet reduces caloric intake (why the fuck were people saying “eat fat” what the fuck bro)
  • 400 calories less per day.

#313 – AMA #62: Protein’s impact on appetite and weight management, and uric acid’s link to disease and how to manage levels

• Viceral issue
• Blood sugar issue

• Strength training reduces VICERAL BODY FAT
• Muscle increases Insulin Sensitivity

How to go from 30% to 10%

• Obviously, too many calories
• Are we over-eating or not moving enough?
• The root cause is eating too much
• Heavily processed food does bad this.
  • You can end up eating +600 calories a day due to this.
• Don’t get fooled by macros — processed foods are just bad
• Processed foods are optimized and engineered to get you addicted

• Behavioral psychology : eat whatever you want as long as its whole foods
• 600 calories less per day

JUST STICK TO WHOLE FOODS

• Get protein from normal sources, not powder
  • You know the ones to get
  • White meat, fishes, chicken thigh, ground turkey

• Don’t necessarily get the shake. Interesting!
  • I do get hungry after the shake

How to do it

• STRENGTH TRAIN
  • Not circuit training
  • But OLD SCHOOL STRENGTH
• YOU HAVE TO HIT YOUR PROTEIN INTAKE

One thing I picked up from Serhant was working out almost every day and in the mornings.

I tried this a few times and I felt powerful. It was Fucking amazing. But I couldn’t keep it going. I wasn’t recovering well. But I want to get back to this. It was awesome. Maybe we do it in busts.

Key points:

• Workout 5 to 6 days a week
• Do it in the morning if you can. Highly recommended.

The other thing I am picking up with body by mark interviewing all those people.

Key points:

• It confirms: workout 5 to 6 days a week
• Bet ones are a mix of cardio and strength.
• Push, Pull, Legs was a classic one
• Muscles worked out twice a week

Arnold also talks about the same thing. Working out every day. And similar sort of splits.

A general theme is that cardio is for the heart but strength is for muscles, recomposition and weight control

tldr:

• I implemented the running change for HDL https://cnsnnts.wordpress.com/2023/11/26/runnings-impact-on-hdl-ldl/
• I want to implement this aging thing too
• Basically, a 12% decline for me will be 1800 calories per day. That is enough. And it is achievable.

David sinclair posted this:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-024-00646-8

The key piece being:

Caloric-restricted subjects have lower aging rates
One important application for aging clocks is to evaluate the impact of intervention strategies on BA. The CALERIE phase 2 randomized controlled trial was designed to test the effects of moderate (25%) calorie restriction (CR). A cohort of 220 healthy non-obese volunteers between the ages of 20 years and 50 years were randomly assigned to either CR or ad libitum (AL) control groups and followed over 2 years55. Although, in practice, subjects from the CR group achieved only relatively moderate CR (12%), this nevertheless resulted in a significant reduction in several known CVD risk factors56, with reduction in BA estimates based on three different algorithms (Klemera–Doubal BA, PhenoAge and homeostatic dysregulation)28,57. However, a post hoc analysis using DNAm clocks found that only one DNAm clock (DunedinPACE) was able to identify significant effects, with no changes reported by several other DNAm clocks, including PhenoAge and GrimAge58. Unfortunately, the parameters reported for CALERIE do not overlap sufficiently with LinAge to apply it directly. However, the PCA approach can be used to re-train custom clocks based on different subsets of the feature space.

Comparison to running

Remember that I implemented this: https://cnsnnts.wordpress.com/2023/11/26/runnings-impact-on-hdl-ldl/

And I saw the results of it.