Friday Thoughts 61
Greetings! Happy Holidays. Welcome to the 255th blog of the year, and also, the last blog of the year. I do enjoy writing the blog, especially these Friday posts, but I’m looking forward to 10 or so days away from it ready to come charging out of the gate in January.
New Year, New Me?
If you don’t have any big, drastic, life-altering goals set up for the new year, or any new habits you want to develop - that’s okay. I’m at war with half-assed goals and would venture to say that not having one is better than some non-specific, hard to define wish. If you are eager to make change in the new year, please, start small. Tiny changes that don’t seem like much, that seem too easy, are the ones you’ll be able to stick with for the long haul. Don’t ‘burn out’ from your goals after a few weeks. Set it up to be manageable.
Other Notable 200 Day Streaks
I’m one of the most impressive habits I’ve seen pulled off this year, my wife Hannah just hit her 201st day in a row of 10k steps. I asked her how long she plans to continue and she said forever. For the most part, she rolls out of bed and gets straight on the treadmill for a 30 minute walk before running or lifting in the garage. There’s been some days she gets an extra walk in at night to hit the number, or a couple of crazy travel days involving overnight flights and time zone changes. Which, funny enough, at the GAIN party when I overheard Hannah telling Taylor her account of getting her steps in that day he replied, isn’t that kind of missing the point?
Their conversation has sparked a lot of discussion between Hannah and I over the past couple weeks.
I see Taylor’s perspective. The point of a steps goal is to have something to strive for and encourage you to move more and make it a natural part of your day to be exposed to more movement and more walking. While I get Taylor’s point that it could be seen as unnecessary or over-the-top to take a late night walk (early in the morning at home) after an international flight. To Hannah’s point, that’s the exact reason she’s doing it. Nothing can unwind 12 hours of travel like a nice walk, and if keeping the steak going encourages you to do it, I think it’s good.
KB Swings Update
The kettlebell swing challenge continues on. On Day 19, I’m averaging 295 swings per day with 5600 total 95% with the 24kg kettlebell, some lighter if I need to warm up or some heavier with the 32kg. I’ve taken more 0 days than I expected but that seems to be helpful to get a big day in. The most I have done in a day so far was 800. That was spread out throughout the day plus a workout of push ups and swings that accumulated 400. It takes about 5 minutes to do 100 no matter which way you slice it. It’s more time consuming that I expected and I thought sneaking in sets of 25 throughout the day would add up more, but it’s really only worth it when you can bang out 100 at a time, so I try to work within 5 or 10 or 20 minute chunks to get some work done. Technique feels great, and well-connected to the ground. Initially my forearms were a bit stiff and I’ve been trying to stretch my wrists more. I’m looking forward to moving on to something else, but in the meantime I’m going to keep chipping away at these swings, and hopefully log a couple of big days (1000+) over the holidays. I’ll keep my kettlebell roasting by the wood stove.
Holiday Hours Reminder
CLOSED: 24-25-26-31-1
Until next year!
Justin Miner