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The mountains are calling...


Simms

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Day #1

Unplugged the Xbox. Moved it to the storage room. - Installed "Forest" app on phone as a productivity reminder. - Need to find a way to block Reddit on my Android phone.

Gratitude journal

Cam for making this space available.

GF's enthusiasm towards being back on the right path.

 

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Started this journey

Workout/run

Squat 5x5 110

Bench 5x5 100

Row 5x5 100

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness

Reading + taking notes

Chapter 1 - Fifteen Dogs, no notes

Getting to bed before 10pm

TBD

Weekly Goal(s)

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x

Journal daily

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide.

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies.

Outline novel.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts.

What went well today:

Was a zombie in the morning - didn't think any work would get done. - Despite this managed to layout shell for valuation project. - Good progress.

What I could have done to make my day better:

Exercise in the morning or during the day.

Misc accomplishments:

Worked through the holiday.

Brought bag lunch.

Played with dogs for 5 minutes.

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Day #2

Mediocre productivity at work. - Read google news a little bit too much. - Replacing reddit, need to shut it down.

Gratitude journal

An excellent client meeting. - Thanks to MAB for including me.

 

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Threw my name in to referee the Midget Provincial Tier 1 game on Thursday. - Got it.

Workout/run

Climbing - 1.5 hours - 2 auto-belay, 2 tall top ropes, 2 tall leads.

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness

Reading + taking notes

Chapter 2 - Fifteen Dogs, no notes

Getting to bed before 10pm

TBD

Weekly Goal(s)

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x

Journal daily

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Update - Prepared the request - Submitted, but the form timed out, lost the tentative itinerary I put together >:(

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies.

Outline novel.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts.

What went well today:

Good climb, felt strong, didn't get completely shut down on the hard route.

What I could have done to make my day better:

Try out "scribing" for lack of better word existing novel. See if it helps to improve prose.

Misc accomplishments:

Brought bag lunch.

Climbed during the afternoon. - Worked Late

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Day #3

Feeling very tired today. Took a long time to really get moving. Ended up progressing all my tasks to where they need to be at work.

Gaming feels like the easier part of this at the moment. There's a constant urge to check my phone, look at news, social media, whatever. Frustrating trying to stay focused.

First time I'm really taking agency over quitting gaming and following the process. It's helping with accountability and is a daily reminder of all the things I'd rather be doing that I'd been neglecting.

Gratitude journal

GF for bringing my skates I'd forgotten to work so I could get them sharpened.

 

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Came to terms with a destructive habit - when upset, I need to get active, doing something positive about it. All I can control is me.

Workout/run

Squat 5x5 115

OHP 5x5 70

Deadlift 1x5 145

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness - struggled to keep mind from wandering yesterday.

Reading + taking notes

Taking a break from Fifteen Dogs - the chapters are long, there might only be 5 to the whole book. - Finished The Blood Mirror.

Note: Dropping the "Be in bed before 10PM - not a focus area"

Weekly Goal(s)

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x

Journal daily

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Got the quote - $925 per person for the trip I want to do. Alternative option is $625 per to learn the skills, then do the trip on my own. - Both options more than I'd like to spend. Needs more thought.

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies.

Outline novel.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts.

What went well today:

Moved all the bars forward. - Came up with a new blog topic to write in the future.

What I could have done to make my day better:

Worn glasses instead of contact lenses.

Misc accomplishments:

Brought bag lunch.

Spent no money today.

I think on Sundays I'm going to do a weekly reflection - something to keep in mind.

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Hi

I notice you do climbing and strength training. I was thinking of doing some sort of strength training too but I have little to no experience with workouts. What would you recommend for someone starting out and what type of workouts do you think would benefit climbers? My parents got me a rowing machine for my birthday. That is more cardio but it is great for rest days I believe. I have been looking at this full body workout but I don't really have the right equipment. If I was going to invest in some equipment what would you recommend? I have been looking at this sort of thing. Some pushup bars and rings for dipping too. Also I have been recommended a small beginner simple workout which is:

20 pushups

20 squats

20 sit ups

20 crunchies

1.5 mile run

Edited by Schwing
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I'll recommend the most straight-forward beginner climbing workout I know: 4x4's - Trainingbeta explains them very well here: https://www.trainingbeta.com/4x4s/ it's a great site to explore for climbing info and as your training progresses. I have their advanced workout plans I can share down the road if you start pushing into harder grades and want something more structured.

I like Reddit's bodyweight fitness routine and if you can do most of it, follow it, but for beginner strength training I like "Stronglifts 5x5" the most. https://stronglifts.com/5x5/ - There's an app for it for both Apple and Android. You can learn the whole thing in about 10 minutes. You alternate days, and you'll see changes within 8 weeks. I'm actually doing it again now.

As far as the rack you linked, it looks ok, but is limited in function. I'd recommend this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bodymax-CF415-Squat-Spotter-Catchers/dp/B00MFP2TMU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1487909246&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=squat+rack&psc=1 - It's what I own. You can do all the major lifts off it when combined with a bench. It also has dips handles on the back. For pull-ups, just about any sports store should have one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/GM-Door-Gym-Black-Large/dp/B003TTUGRQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487909584&sr=8-1&keywords=door+mounted+pull+up+bar They don't damage doors and are simple / easy to use.

The simple beginner workout you listed will get you going. - Stronglifts will make you strong - Fast. You'll see the muscles within 8 weeks if you follow the progression, stick with it for 12 or 16 and others will start to comment. - Do 4x4's and you'll fly through the grades in climbing. Remember your fingers are going to take the longest to get strong and finger injuries suck, so watch out for thin holds and if something feels like it's going to tweak, better to just let it go if you're training. If you're projecting... go hard ;)

 

 

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Day #4

Had another slow start to the day. Am I having a gaming hangover? Hard to see. Been feeling sick and it could be coincidental, could be gaming. I'll continue to monitor closely.

Brain fog all morning, struggled through the afternoon with a difficult project.

Gratitude journal

Well behaved hockey players for a smooth provincial game.

 

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Floated dates for a mountaineering trip with my dad and GF. Great progress towards who I want to be here in the mountains.

Workout/run

Worked lines for Midget A provincial game.

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness - struggled to keep mind from wandering yesterday. - Struggling with meditation in general.

Reading + taking notes

No reading today. Cut time too tight, going to get some more sleep, see if I can shake this "sick feeling."

Note: Dropping the "Be in bed before 10PM - not a focus area" - reevaluate?

Weekly Goal(s)

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - So far 1x climb, 2x stronglifts. Still on pace.

Journal daily - So far, so good.

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Persuing the alternative option.

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies.

Outline novel.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts.

What went well today:

Nice smooth hockey game, performed well.

What I could have done to make my day better:

Put my laundry away.

Misc accomplishments:

Brought bag lunch.

Dressed up for hockey game.

Got taxes 95% done.

I think on Sundays I'm going to do a weekly reflection - something to keep in mind.

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Day #5

Ended up reading a lot of gaming blogs today. I had been planning to buy a Nintendo Switch for the new Zelda before trying to get my life back. Also reading a ton of Eve Online news. The game fascinates me even though I've never played it for more than a couple hours.  I am going to add into my next weekly goals list to write a "gaming from the perspective of an ecstasy user" type blog. - There are things that are best left alone... and in hindsight it's easy to say. - That being said I put it to use by not even trying "Overwatch or Rocket League" because I knew those games would literally ruin me. - Homeless level ruin me.

The swelling in my hand went down overnight. - Overall feels pretty good and didn't bother me climbing today. - Was a little worried!

Got through a few difficult projects at work today. - Had a challenging client call that seemed to go well. Will need to debrief with the partner on Monday.

Climbing was a mixed bag. Every 5.11 shut me down today. From climbing 5.12 last year it's mentally tough to realize just how much I've let things slide.

 

Gratitude journal

Grateful to have discovered Spotify. (I'm a slow adopter of technology) - Discovered some amazing music in New Volume and One OK Rock - finding more stuff in all genres every day I love. - Recommendations welcome!

@Schwing for the meditation suggestion.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Lead a 5.10a at the end of the day on the tall wall, I was already completely exhausted from the day. 2 clips from the top everything was shaking and my mind went to war. "Fall, just fall, let go, give up..." and another part screamed back "Just try. Fight until you can't fight one more inch, if you're going to fall, why would you give up. PULL," So I pulled... and my fingertips brushed just enough of the next hold to continue, inch by inch, breath by breath, clawed my way to the top. Took a moment to reflect before coming down. It was a good win.

Workout/run

Climbed - Up/down/up warmup on the auto-belay. didn't track my routes. Climbed til T-rex claws were all I had left.

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness - tried out the suggestion from @Schwing (I can't figure out how everyone is tagging each other!) - helped to give a simplifying focus. Thanks!

Reading + taking notes

Fifteen Dogs - Chapter 3

Note: Dropping the "Be in bed before 10PM - not a focus area" - reevaluate?

Weekly Goal(s)

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - So far 2x climb, 2x stronglifts. Still on pace.

Journal daily - So far, so good.

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town. Watching kajiji for local sales options.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Persuing the alternative option.

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies.

Outline novel.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts. Did some work "scribing" then re-writing a scene. Went fairly well. Need to devote more time to it.

What went well today:

Got some labwork done I've been putting off. Keeps life moving smoothly.

What I could have done to make my day better:

Put my laundry away. - STOP PUTTING THIS OFF AHHH

Misc accomplishments:

Brought bag lunch. - Whole week! - Bought breakfast twice... - Pretty amazing week.

Initiated going climbing! - Helping GF towards her goal of being strong for April course.

Got taxes 95% done. - Deciding on weekend whether or not to make RRSP contribution.

I think on Sundays I'm going to do a weekly reflection - something to keep in mind.

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Hi, @Simms

About workouts. I live in the middle of nowhere so for the holidays it is very inconvenient for me to get to the gym. When I'm at school I can just walk down the school gym easy. I would have to face all the arseholes in there but what ever. If I was going to lift weights I think I'll go down there when school is on because I don't have room in my house for this equipment. I can do dips in between my kitchen counters but my parents wont let me buy a pullup bar for a door (or let me do pullups anywhere in the house for that matter) because the house is built like a cardboard box. My step dad suggests dumbbells and I looked some stuff up which looks really promising. If I buy this set  do and this workout what do you think? I can buy a squat rack in the future if I decide I want to do stronglifts 5x5 at home and the plus is I have a longer bar option for the dumbbells for it. As for warmups can I just do any full body warmup? Even this one for bodyweight fitness?

Edited by Schwing
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I really like the Rudy workout you linked for dumbbell only work. Great compound lifts that hit every major muscle group. The flys and lateral raises will help you with climbing strength. As far as warmups go... I honestly don't know. I've never done a proper warmup and haven't had any issues.

As far as the set you linked, the trouble with a 20KG set is you're going to outgrow it fast. Ideally you'll be able to increase the weight you're doing in many lifts by 2.5KG per week. Things like flys and lat raises you'll never want to do that heavy, but things like dumbbell squats, stiff deads, even dumbbell press and rows you'll max out with that set very quickly. I know it's a little more expensive, but I'd look at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TNP-Accessories-Dumbbell-Weights-Dumbbells/dp/B01CGDLYTY/ref=sr_1_14?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1488069135&sr=1-14&keywords=dumbells&th=1 If you buy something like that, it should last you 5-10 years, and you'll have enough weight to do squats and deads for many months of development.

Really like the way you're investigating training. One of the most inspiring articles I ever read when I started in the gym was by Henry Rollins about "The Iron" - http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/strength-articles/iron-henry-rollins give it a look if you're ever looking for a motivation boost.

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Day #6

Tired right now. Been a long week. Need to get into work, put it off until tomorrow. - Short overall checkin.

Ended up on reddit briefly looking at specific pages for a specific purpose. Going to treat it as if those were any other web-pages on the internet when they're visited with intentionality and not mindless surfing. - That being said, still going to avoid reddit unless it's the only / best source for something.

Gratitude journal

Checking in with Cam! Great to swap stories, what a journey!

Grateful today for McDonald's. Sometimes... you just need to indulge.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Reffed the Midget Academy girls today. I've reffed a couple games in the past with one of their players and she was playing today, gave her a hard time during warm-ups and she got an assist, good little hockey player! The team pulled off a comeback with less than 5 minutes to go in the 3rd. It was great to see how pumped they were, don't think they've won too many this year.

Workout/run

Midget reffing was the workout today.

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness - getting better.

Reading + taking notes

No reading so far. Vegging out.

Note: Dropping the "Be in bed before 10PM - not a focus area" - reevaluate?

Weekly Goal(s)

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - So far 2x climb, 2x stronglifts. Still on pace.

Journal daily - So far, so good.

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town. Watching kajiji for local sales options.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Persuing the alternative option.

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies.

Outline novel.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts. Did some work "scribing" then re-writing a scene. Went fairly well. Need to devote more time to it.

What went well today:

Managed to get my technology to co-operate with me! Mic and webcam both. Amazing... - Time to start playing with my voice to text software some more.

What I could have done to make my day better:

Put my laundry away. - It's poured out on the bed now... no more avoiding it =p

Misc accomplishments:

Checked in with GF about gaming - climbing goals - finance goals. Making some decisions about paying down student loans.

I think on Sundays I'm going to do a weekly reflection - something to keep in mind.

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Day #7

This is where it's nice to be tracking things. It's been seven days and it feels like nothing. I feel absolutely exhausted, in a good way. Fell asleep on the couch at 7PM last night... woke up at 11, went to bed then slept onwards to 9AM. Recharging the batteries. And I never fall asleep on the couch... feels like physiological reactions chasing me.

Limited urge to game. Ended up watching some netflix today, a couple old episodes of the next generation I'd wanted to watch for a long time. Chain of Command. - Classics, nostalgia. I wanted to do a larger overall reflection on the week and didn't figure out what that looks like. Managed to run out of time in the day for it. Will revisit the idea later.

Tweaked something in my hand climbing on day 5. It's angry at me again today. - After reading The Iron again, I need to remind myself to respect the wall. Climbing routes I'm not ready for could easily result in not climbing anything harder than a ladder for the next couple months. Make it an intelligent progression.

Gratitude journal

Girlfriend for being supportive in the journey.

Margo Hayes for being the first woman to climb 5.15a - the joy, pain, and disbelief captured by Matty Hong is beyond inspring: https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ_Hz2WldJb/

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Initiated everything, climbing, cleaning, the gym, walking the dogs. Felt like I got way ahead on the week ahead, it'll only make things better going forward.

Workout/run

Squat 5x5 125

Bench 5x5 105

Bent Row 5x5 105

Climbed - Didn't touch anything harder than 5.10c to see where my finger is. - The answer is: unhappy!

Meditation

 5 minutes - breath awareness - simple. effective?

Reading + taking notes

No reading today - few hours left, will see and edit if this changes.

Weekly Goal(s)

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - Climbed 3x, Stronglifts 3x, reffed 2x midget hockey games 2hrs+ at the rink - New weekly goals to come tomorrow.

Journal daily - So far, so good.

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town. Watching kajiji for local sales options.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Persuing the alternative option.

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies.

Outline novel.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts. Did some work "scribing" then re-writing a scene. Went fairly well. Need to devote more time to it.

What went well today:

Laundry put away, vacuumed the whole house, climbed, worked out, walked the dogs for an hour. Pretty epic "productivity day".

What I could have done to make my day better:

Attack my book outline. - Stop putting it off - I'm a beginner again - I've been a beginner before, and I can conquer this too.

Misc accomplishments:

The things that went well! - Finally got the laundry outta that list right above here :P
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What is your novel about?

 

I think my @ function is broken on firefox with all the adblockers I use. - Will try and figure it out in the future.

The genre is Fantasy, possibly skewing YA.

So far I have a setting: Alpine, mountain fortress school. - Some young warrior style monks.

I have a few characters vaugely drafted. - The work I still need to do is instilling who they really are, then plotting through the acts, write a few scene, do some dialogue back and forth to get a good feeling for writing the characters.

I also want to challenge myself to read a few romance novels and add elements of that. I haven't read much of the genre ... ever. And I feel like a lot of the fantasy novels I read by male authors do a one dimensional job of creating relationships between their characters and romance completely focuses on the interpersonal relationships between characters, creating tension through their interactions. So I want to lift elements of that.

Lots of work to be done!

 

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What is YA?

Haha. You'll never catch me reading a romance novel. I have been thinking of writing a novel but I have been having doubts. I have a lot of ideas floating round my head and I feel like I should externalise them in something to preserve them. But I am content with just sharing these through my art.

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Day #8

Had a lot of trouble sleeping last night. Had a crazy dream where my dog was laying up on the bed with me. I was petting her, everything was nice and relaxed, then I woke up and she wasn't there and my heart started racing. Freaked out when I couldn't find her. Of course, she was away in the den for the night... starting to wonder if she's trying to tell me she wants to be sleeping with us again.

Was very unfocused today. Had trouble getting to work. Have a lot of projects that are stalled out or with incomplete information. Poked away at a few things until a client meeting in the afternoon. Very nice people, they're very well-versed in their business and it was great discussing it with them. I enjoyed that and got some work towards completing their project done later in the day.  Need to get more done before I start drowning in tax season.

Watched some Zero Punctuation on youtube and did a fair bit of mindless news surfing. - Time to cutoff the news too. The Oscars marketing stunt last night blew me away. Still not enough to get me to watch the program, but interesting strategy... will have to see if they manage to leverage it to prop up historically low ratings.

Had a great chat with my parents this evening. Checked in with my dad about doing the mountaineering program and he's very excited. It's going to be great!

Gratitude journal

My parents for their support.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Ran my first client meeting as a Chartered Accountant. Was well prepared, professional, felt very good!

Workout/run

Taking a rest day!

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness - simple! :)

Reading + taking notes

Going to try and finish Fifteen Dogs tonight. - It's an odd book. Think I'll start Throne of Glass next.

YA = Young Adult if @Schwing finds this buried in here.

Weekly Goal(s)

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - Skiing Sunday

Journal daily - So far, so good.

New for the week: Complete character arc worksheets for three protagonists. 

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan. Got the book on my nightstand.  It's screaming to be used.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Going to clear the vacation dates with work tomorrow and book it. Hell yeah!

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies. May need to bump part of this out to 6 months.

Outline novel. Chunking this. Creating manageable pieces relating to it in my weekly goals.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts. Did some work "scribing" then re-writing a scene. Went fairly well. Need to devote more time to it.

What went well today:

Solidified plans for beginner mountaineering class!

Great client meeting.

Nice chat with family.

What I could have done to make my day better:

I tried to tell my brain I had a "class" scheduled at 7:30-8:30 where I would be working on my character arc sheets. GF came home at 7:20 and I let myself get completely sidetracked. Had a nice chat with her, but need to follow through on writing.

Misc thoughts and plans:

Sundays - weekly reflection

What went well and what I could have done better will hold the misc accomplishments going forward.

Think I'm going to read Throne of Glass next.

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Day #9

Didn't have time to think about gaming today. Didn't have much time to think about anything. Worked, climbed, worked out, watched the Oilers make a baffling trade and hang on to a game they had no business being in.

Gratitude journal

Thanks to the world for coming through on something I started trying to acquire months ago.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Climbed a 5.11D just to remind myself I can. - took 5 takes and a bloody finger, but thrashed it.

Workout/run

Climbed, lots of nice easy/moderate stuff then the 11D. Then another 5.9 on the tall wall for mileage... wasn't gassed, not at all 9_9

Squat 5x5 125

OHP 5x5 75

Deadlift 1x5 150

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness - simple, loving it! :)

Reading + taking notes

Didn't quite finish Fifteen Dogs - Little ways to go. Interested to see how it ends. Will be interesting to see if the author goes black and white or leaves it a mess of shades of grey. If I was putting money down, it'd be on grey.

Weekly Goal(s)

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - Skiing Sunday

Journal daily - So far, so good.

New for the week: Complete character arc worksheets for three protagonists. 

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan. Got the book on my nightstand.  It's screaming to be used.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Going to clear the vacation dates with work tomorrow and book it. Hell yeah! - Deferred to Thursday

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies. May need to bump part of this out to 6 months.

Outline novel. Chunking this. Creating manageable pieces relating to it in my weekly goals.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts. Did some work "scribing" then re-writing a scene. Went fairly well. Need to devote more time to it.

What went well today:

Climbing

Appointments

Working

Working out

What I could have done to make my day better:

Stop staring at my stronglifts graphs from 2 years and wondering "what if..." it's in the past. Starting over again... again. It's not a new lesson, time to stop learning the same lesson over and over.

Misc thoughts and plans:

Nothing today. - Going to carve out some more time shortly to read more journals and get more active commenting.
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Day #10 - Weds

Early morning - Training day for tax season. Overall great day brushing up on the tax code.

Finished reading my book, emotionally wrecked. My GF said not to read books with dogs in them, they're only there for one reason... Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Marley & Me... they all end the same. :(

LOVING not gaming. - After finishing the book, watched Cam's interview with the CHAS up in Calgary. - The Q&A was pretty incredible to me. Heard a number of questions that echoed my own to Cam - Looking forward to seeing how he plans to grow things going forward. The auditor in me did some digging on the organization - http://chascalgary.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2016-CHAS-Audited-FS.pdf - The level of transparency they have is pretty incredible. For the 2016 year on $522,000 in revenue generated, they provided $501,900 directly to charitable organizations. - Great year. Page 8 was the most interesting to me. - Complete breakdown of the organizations funded and the amounts endowed. Some interesting trends there in organizational support and funds provided.

With Cam's recent work in Tanzania I wonder if he's considered reaching out to the Aga Khan Foundation - is gaming an issue in Africa? I tried to dig into more organizations that could potentially support gamequitters through https://charityvillage.com/directories/funders/canadian-foundations.aspx and was overwhelmed by the sheer number out there.

Gratitude journal

Thanks to the presenters putting on our tax course for keeping things interesting. For their clear enthusiasm in the subject matter.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Had one of those days of clarity - strong attention - focused. Love them.

Workout/run

Taking another rest day - laid out the week and realized I didn't need to double up yesterday. Whoops.

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness - simple.

Reading + taking notes

Fifteen Dogs had five chapters. At the end of chapter four I was sad and shortly after, upset there was more... it didn't make any sense. The only character with any development at all was gone. Why continue on? - The last chapter managed to successfully build a character, explore what it is to be human. Get just to the edge of being insufferably pretentious, then pull my heartstrings until I finished the last page and threw it away... It was worth struggling through.

What went well today:

Finished my book, put dishes away.

What I could have done to make my day better:

Make some progress on writing plans. - Letting myself procrastinate with "projects" that aren't on track. - Need to "note" new ideas and set them aside.

Misc thoughts and plans:

Get June vacation solidified tomorrow.

Need to review past journal entries, make sure nothing is slipping through the cracks.

Sundays - weekly reflection

******************************************************************************************************************

Since there repeat so much, moving them all to the end. - Going to see if I stop reviewing them each day, if so will end up moving them back.

Weekly Goal(s) - Monday start

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - Skiing Sunday - So far 1x Climb, 1x Stronglifts

Journal daily - So far, so good.

New for the week: Complete character arc worksheets for three protagonists. 

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan. Got the book on my nightstand.  It's screaming to be used.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Going to clear the vacation dates with work tomorrow and book it. Hell yeah!

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies. May need to bump part of this out to 6 months.

Outline novel. Chunking this. Creating manageable pieces relating to it in my weekly goals.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts. Did some work "scribing" then re-writing a scene. Went fairly well. Need to devote more time to it.

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Day #11 - Thurs

Got up very early to try and get in most of a full day before having to leave at 2.

Exhausted this afternoon after driving back and forth for a couple hours.

Spent a lot of time mindlessly surfing the internet. I'm replacing reddit with sports news, "news" news, twitter, and facebook. Need to monitor / address.

Gratitude journal

GF for grocery shopping. It's an errand I really dislike, I'm thankful when she takes it on.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Did not feel like working out. Did not feel like meditating... or vaccuuming... or cooking. Did them ALL anyway. Going to have to watch for activity hangover tomorrow, feel like I've got some negative mental karma coming.

Workout/run

Squat 5x5 130

Bench 5x5 115

Row 5x5 110

Looking forward to the continued progress on Stronglifts. - I want to follow through all 90 days - would be the most consistent I've been since I started in the gym.

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness - simple.

Reading + taking notes

Listened to a couple chapters of Red Queen. I may not need to track down romance novels, this YA has enough elements of the love triangle to be a clinic. My understanding is it wasn't outlined beforehand, so I'm apprehensive about the story construction. Great examples of problem, solution, problem, solution over and over and over.

What went well today:

Work on existing project. - Getting organized.

Got information for June figured out. Just needed to discuss dates, will get it all booked tomorrow.

What I could have done to make my day better:

Start on other work projects, starting to fall behind. - Get on it tomorrow - solidify working Saturday.

Misc thoughts and plans:

Need to review past journal entries, make sure nothing is slipping through the cracks.

Sundays - weekly reflection

******************************************************************************************************************

Weekly Goal(s) - Monday start

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - Skiing Sunday - So far 1x Climb, 2x Stronglifts

Journal daily - So far, so good.

New for the week: Complete character arc worksheets for three protagonists. 

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan. Got the book on my nightstand.  It's screaming to be used.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Weekend. Booking it. Hell yeah!

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies. May need to bump part of this out to 6 months.

Outline novel. Chunking this. Creating manageable pieces relating to it in my weekly goals.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts. Did some work "scribing" then re-writing a scene. Went fairly well. Need to devote more time to it.

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Day #12 - Friday

Got into work at a decent hour, had a very slow day. - Weird for this time of year. Need to get moving or it's going to bite me later in the month.

Was completely distracted. - Wouldn't allow myself to focus, consumed by flipping from one app to another on my phone, flipping through the news over and over and over again. Bad habit. Need to extend the reddit disconnect to the news and put the phone away for the day. Nothing is so important it can't wait til 5. Emergencies ... people have my work phone number.

Saw @Hitaru mention an app called Daylio to track moods. - I've thought about doing this for a long time and haven't followed through. This app is so simple, it's exactly what I'm looking for! Here's hoping it's a positive tool in my journey.

My dad's coming down tonight and we plan to go skiing tomorrow. There's a snowfall warning in effect: Fingers crossed for epic powder day.

Gratitude journal

Work caters lunches on Fridays during tax season. Grateful for the wonderful people who got together and the great food today!

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Had a great conversation with my GF. Animated, fun, managed to touch on American politics without it becoming a trainwreck then kept chatting about life, the universe, and everything. The politics are something she's very passionate about and I haven't been willing to really talk about them much at all. I tried to put a succinct philosophy together of what it is I love about her in @Schwing's daily journal and it really helped remind me how much she means to me.

Workout/run

Climbed for an hour and a half. Worked a couple different 5.11's. Got absolutely wrecked by each... which is fine. Getting a feel for things, no specific process right now except mileage. Get in the gym, do the work.

Meditation

5 minutes - breath awareness - simple.

Reading + taking notes

Listened to more Red Queen. - Getting close to the end - Need to decide if I'm going to continue the series.

What went well today:

Fun chats with co-workers.

Good climb.

Great evening with GF.

Got vacation requests figured out!

What I could have done to make my day better:

Put the phone away at work. Focus.

Misc thoughts and plans:

Sundays - weekly reflection

******************************************************************************************************************

Weekly Goal(s) - Monday start

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - Skiing Sunday - So far 2x Climb, 2x Stronglifts

Journal daily - So far, so good.

New for the week: Complete character arc worksheets for three protagonists. 

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town. Good chats with people at work for options, going to investigate some closeby towns too.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan. Got the book on my nightstand.  It's screaming to be used.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Vacation approved, gonna chat with dad tonight - then it's booked!

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies. May need to bump part of this out to 6 months.

Outline novel. Chunking this. Creating manageable pieces relating to it in my weekly goals.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts. Did some work "scribing" then re-writing a scene. Went fairly well. Need to devote more time to it.

Edited by Simms
Fix broken @member links.
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Day #13 - Saturday

Got up early, made our way to the ski-hill early. - Good thing, it was crazy backed up on the highway and the parking lot was FULL by the end of the day. Cars all the way down a 6km access road to the highway.

Had a great day skiing. Amazing snow conditions and it cleared out into bluebird skies for a couple hours. The nice thing about having quit gaming is I wasn't distracted at all during the day thinking about what I was going to play in the evening, or what game related "achievement" I needed to chase later. Knee is giving me some trouble, I need to spend more time on stabilizer exercises to strengthen it.

Planned to go climbing with some friends from the city, but with the roads in bad shape they didn't make it out. Went with my GF anyway and had a pretty good day. Feel very worn out right now and still have a dinner to meet up with other friends later to go to.

Gratitude journal

Dad and GF for a great ski day.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Wasn't cold all day. Been enjoying skiing less and less lately due to the cold temps. Nice to have a great day.

Workout/run

Climbed for an hour and a half. Worked a couple different 5.11's again. Already wrecked. More mileage. No progress to speak of. Need a rest day shortly.

Meditation

N/A today.

Reading + taking notes

No reading today.

What went well today:

Ski

Climb

What I could have done to make my day better:

Sleep in tomorrow. - Sleep debt catching up.

Misc thoughts and plans:

Sundays - weekly reflection

Left the hardest part of my weekly goals until Sunday. Not making it easy for success.

Dad's very excited about alpine trip. Keep him on track doing some training.

******************************************************************************************************************

Weekly Goal(s) - Monday start

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - Skiing Sunday - So far 3x Climb, 2x Stronglifts

Journal daily - So far, so good.

New for the week: Complete character arc worksheets for three protagonists. 

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town. Good chats with people at work for options, going to investigate some closeby towns too.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan. Got the book on my nightstand.  It's screaming to be used.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Vacation approved, gonna chat with dad tonight - then it's booked!

3 Month Goal

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies. May need to bump part of this out to 6 months.

Outline novel. Chunking this. Creating manageable pieces relating to it in my weekly goals.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts. Did some work "scribing" then re-writing a scene. Went fairly well. Need to devote more time to it.

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Day #14 - Sunday

Totally exhausted when I woke up this morning. So glad I managed to get 9-1/2 hours of sleep. A little bit hungover from being out last night.

Dinner with friends last night went great - They're old friends and we got to catch up on a lot of things. They gave me some good natured shit for not setting up Halo nights anymore. I danced around it. They were only in town for the weekend and headed back to their hometowns today.

Had a nice chat with dad as the snow fell like crazy outside. He made his way back home too.

Had a really hard time today when they started bouncing around playing Halo in our google group. It's the primary way we keep in touch. Managed to not play by working out and watching a couple hours of TV. It felt good to recharge the batteries with some mindless entertainment. The past 2 weeks have been a ton of effort, physically and mentally.

Started a climbing skills course tonight. The group of people seem great, looking forward to seeing where it takes me.

Gratitude journal

Tadashi for being an amazing climbing instructor.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Went for a nice walk with the dogs in the foot of snow we've gotten over the weekend.

Workout/run

Squats 5x5 - 135

OHP 5x5 - 80

Deads 1x5 - 155

Climbed for 2 hours with some instruction. No hard routes. Lots of mindfullness exercises on feet and body position.

Meditation

N/A today.

Reading + taking notes

Finished listening to Red Queen today. - Pretty good twist ending. - In hindsight I should have seen it coming. It retroactively fixed a lot of the things that were bugging me that were accumulating as plot holes.

What went well today:

Walking the dogs, working out, getting most chores started.

What I could have done to make my day better:

I didn't achieve my weekly writing goal. Instead of pushing through and getting it done, I went and watched 3 episodes of TV. Could have been time better spent.

Misc thoughts and plans:

Sundays - weekly reflection

Left the hardest part of my weekly goals until Sunday. Not making it easy for success. - Fell down on it this week.

Dad's very excited about alpine trip. Keep him on track doing some training.

******************************************************************************************************************

Weekly Goal(s) - Monday start

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x - Skiing Sunday - Week complete with 4x Climb, 3x Stronglifts - Skied Saturday

Journal daily - So far, so good.

New for the week: Complete character arc worksheets for three protagonists. - Pushed to next week

Track mood daily at least twice on Daylio: So far - 3 day streak

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town. Friend LOVES mountain biking. - Going to follow his advice and spend the year renting high end stuff to see what I like.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan. Got the book on my nightstand.  It's screaming to be used.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Vacation approved, gonna chat with dad tonight - then it's booked!

3 Month Goal

Top-rope a 5.12a successfully on the tall wall.

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies. May need to bump part of this out to 6 months.

Outline novel. Chunking this. Creating manageable pieces relating to it in my weekly goals. - May need to evaluate if novel work is realistic with work and physical committments.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts.

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Day #15 - Monday

Pretty boring day. - Work went pretty well. - Worked late.

Feeling tired. - Managed to pull a download of my stronglifts over the past 3 years. - Best streak was 30 workouts in 3 months. Aiming, and on track to knock the doors off that.

Planning some scrambles around the local trails to start building fitness for ascents, all the extra light in long days is fantastic.

Buddies wanna play Halo and I'm having trouble saying no. Already envisioning a beer fueled Friday night. Amazing how easy it is to rationalize behavior.

Gratitude journal

The white dog for being the cutest. The black dog for being my love.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Made sense of the most difficult GST situation I've ever had to sort through. - Line your reporting periods up with your year end, ahhhhhhhh.

Workout/run

Rest day.

Meditation

Time to get back to it. 5 minutes, breath awareness.

Reading + taking notes

Not reading anything.

What went well today:

Had a solid 8 hours of productive work.

What I could have done to make my day better:

Had 2 unproductive hours.

Could have packed more food.

Misc thoughts and plans:

The news doesn't add anything to my life. Time to drop it too.

Did a quick exercise with my facebook feed - Looked at the first 10 items displayed:

1 - Video from yesterday's Canadian National Bouldering championships. - Interesting but not something I'm interested in watching.

2 - Ad for Whistler Blackcomb - Don't care

3 - High School friend I haven't talked to in 10 years posting picture of kids. - Scrolled right past.

4 - Old work friend "interested" in an Infant CPR course - Scrolled right past.

5 - For some reason the same as #3...

6 - Ad for Marmot basin - Don't care...

7 - Friend liked My Sunshine Creations? Some dinosaur kids stuff. Scrolled right past.

8 - Ad for Travelphotoswiki Busabout? No idea what that is. - Scrolled right past.

9 - Oilersnation post about Senior Hockey - Rolls eyes, scrolls past.

10 - Old work friend posted a travel meme...

So in 10 posts, 1 thing I'm vaugely interested in, 1 I'd normally care about but was pushing their credibility to build awareness of a fringe league, and 8 garbage. That's probably better than the signal to noise ratio I got on reddit too... I need some way to fill downtime / take a break. My brain is so hardwired to flip through the internet I can't think of anything else to do.

******************************************************************************************************************

Weekly Goal(s) - Monday start

Climb 2x, Stronglifts 3x

Journal daily - So far, so good.

Track mood daily at least twice on Daylio: So far - 4 day streak

Monthly Goal

Information gathering on buying a mountain bike. - Visit the bike shops in town. Friend LOVES mountain biking. - Going to follow his advice and spend the year renting high end stuff to see what I like.

Use Training for the New Alpinism to assist in shaping training plan. Got the book on my nightstand.  It's screaming to be used.

Get cost estimate for 11,000er guide. Vacation approved, gonna chat with dad tonight - then it's booked!

3 Month Goal

Top-rope a 5.12a successfully on the tall wall.

Climb 1x technical, 1x non-technical 11,000er in the Canadian Rockies. May need to bump part of this out to 6 months.

Outline novel. Chunking this. Creating manageable pieces relating to it in my weekly goals. - May need to evaluate if novel work is realistic with work and physical committments.

Do an editing pass of one of my shorts.

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