Happy Easter everyone! All 10 of you that read this. As it’s Easter and I’m getting a late start on this, I’m going to keep it brief this week.
Mostly the past week I kept my head down and did programming related to research for my trading hobby/career. One thing I realized was that anything after 2 cups of espresso is counter productive, and I do better when I forcibly stop myself in the evening. It made it a lot more enjoyable to start in the mornings when I didn’t code until my vision goes blurry. I know this sounds logical and obvious, but when I’m doing big projects it often feels easier to just work day and night until I drop as I’m keeping everything in my head. I was surprised to find that not only was I able to retain the main points of my research projects, but taking the time away would actually allow me to come up with new improvements and enhancements. My current research project has kept growing on almost a daily basis as I keep having new micro ideas that lead to more ideas. It’s been really good, and hopefully will turn out fruitful financially for me.
Outside of the research I stuck with my habits nearly everyday. Meditation, writing, studying writing, Spanish, and being healthy. I did have my first meal out in a few weeks on Friday night, but was surprised that I barely gained a pound. Today that pound was gone, and then some. I’m under 190 (189.7 or so) for the first time in a while, probably 5+ years ago when I owned a gym. The past couple years I’ve conceded being 200-205 as almost acceptable, even though I hated it. Turns out I just needed to eat protein, vegetables, some coconut oil/fat, and a piece of fruit for 90% of my meals, and it comes off like magic. I set a goal that I didn’t feel confident that I could achieve, and I still have a ways to go (I don’t lose weight as fast now), but I have this shiny vision of being under 180 in 10 weeks. I made some big 13 week goals in my self journal, and this was one of them. I’m not obsessed with hitting some exact weight figure, I’m more concerned about how I look at feel, but I think somewhere between 170-180 would be perfect for me. My body has already changed a lot (in addition to eating my “reddit recommended routine” builds a pretty ideal body for me), and I’m looking forward to seeing how the next 10 lbs off will look.
I finished Neil Gaiman’s writing MasterClass on masterclass.com. This has become my current preferred outlet of writing education, although they have something for many different arts. I tried Masterclass in the past, but always ended up dropping out. With my new Kaizen style micro-habits I just do a class a day, and magically at the end of a month I’m done. In the past I wanted to do all of the extra assignments, go through several classes a day, etc., then of course I would be overwhelmed a few classes in and drop it. I now treat it like passive education, although I do take notes. Sometimes the daily class is only 7 minutes (and I usually do 1.5 X speed), but I feel like I absorbed some good wisdom from Neil and enjoyed it in general.
I watched the movie “Coraline” on Netflix as Neil Gaiman often talked about writing the book in class. It was an enjoyable and creative film, and every time I thought I might get bored with a children’s film it grabbed my attention back. This would have been a pretty perfect movie for my childhood. A little scary but interesting, and with some good subtle messages. If I’m ever with a friends’ child I would put this on.
Book wise I’m in my usual routine reading a little bit of several books daily. One that I’m 92% on though and would recommend is “Anam Cara” by John O’Donohue. I usually read between 1-2 fiction, 1-2 non-fiction, and 1-2 positive message/spiritual books. This is the last category. I read every night in bed, and a lot of the fiction I read can be intense, so I like to finish with something to soothe my mind right before sleep. This has been one of my regular books that I often read just a few pages to calm my mind. You can start and stop it at any point, and it has some pretty profound passages on occasion. The book is about Celtic wisdom, something I knew nothing about, and have been pretty impressed with their traditions. John was a poet and it shows with the writing. There are strong opinions on many spiritual subjects, but I never felt like any religious dogma was being forced on me. The book overall helped me feel more connected and accepting of others and myself. You could do a lot worse before bed.
With that I’m going to take it easy tonight and get ready for another big work week and the arrival of my girlfriend after nearly a month. I’ll leave you with a random spot along the coast of Puerto Rico (I don’t know the name) from a past road trip. It’s a very beautiful island that I feel fortunate to live on.
Andrew Manser 