The year is coming to a close and this will probably be the last time I post this year. So thought I would give a few updates concerning my goals for the new year.
As always, two of the biggest priorities in my life have been maintaining good physical fitness, which means exercising consistently, and maintaining my steadfast devotion to lifelong learning, which means reading a lot of books.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, and working full-time from home for almost two and a half years now, I've been staying home a lot more and also reading a lot more, but at the same time I've definitely gotten slightly out of shape. This is probably because for years I've commuted year round on my bicycle, riding to and from work every single day, rain or shine, riding at least 50 miles a week for years. So just riding to and from work, gave me my 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day. But working from home it all stopped. I only road my bike maybe once or twice a week to run errands on my days off, and so even though I did some exercise, it wasn't nearly as much as before.
It's possible I had a bad case of Covid last year, because I had to stop exercising completely for a few months because I had an abnormally rapid heartbeat, difficulty swallowing, and shortness of breath. Was really sick for a week, lost ten pounds, when I was already borderline underweight, and thought I was going to die, where I could barely walk to the mailbox without my heart rate maxing out. Well, a year later, I feel healthier than ever, and determined to get not only back into shape, but to get into the best shape of my life.
Fitness
Ok, so I've always been naturally athletic, even as a kid I was usually one of the first kids picked in gym class, and so it is fair to say that I've rarely ever not been in shape. I never really had to work hard to get into shape, it just came effortlessly to me, but the difference this time is that instead of just maintaining my fitness, it is now my goal to take my fitness to a new level, to become significantly stronger than ever before. This will be done primarily with calisthenics: pushups, pullups, crunches, dips, squats, and burpees, along with running and longboarding.
My fitness routine will be more focused with specific goals that are more challenging. Before, I used to work out just enough to maintain a decent level of fitness, but without actually getting any stronger. Well, now, I decided I need to get stronger, my upper body strength sucks! I've been neglecting my chest and abs for years and it is finally time I do something about it.
Like, for instance, this month I've been doing 100 pushups everyday. When I first started I could barely do one pushup, now I can do 10 perfect form pushups, and 20 not so perfect. Doing 100 pushups is actually easier than I thought it would be. You just break it up into sets, and space it out throughout the day. I've been doing it everyday, even though I was under the belief that it is not good to do pushups everyday, but guess what, it's okay to do so for at least a short-term basis without hurting yourself. It was really about getting into a routine and building up discipline, and in this short time, I feel noticeably stronger. I thought about doing a before and after picture of myself, but then I realized I usually regret posting pictures of myself, so it's not necessary, but I will say that there is an improvement, my shoulders are more pronounced, my chest is slightly wider, my belly flab is not quite as pronounced. It's a small improvement but it's noticeable. And that's just in a month, maybe in a year I will look like an Olympian.
One thing I will add is that I found it best to do regular pushups, as opposed to wall pushups, or knee pushups, aka "girl pushups", and if you can't do a perfect form pushup, then you just don't go down all the way, I call them mini-pushups, and you will gain strength, and as time goes by your form will improve and you will be able to go down all the way within a few weeks.
The month of December I've been focusing almost exclusively on doing pushups, but for January, instead of doing pushups everyday, I'm going to only do pushups four days a week, but increase the reps, from 100 to maybe 150, which will probably be 50 in the morning, 50 in the afternoon, and 50 at night, with added rest days, and additional challenges, like 100 triceps dips, 100 crunches, 100 squats, etc.
So the focus will be in getting stronger with measurable documentation of progress.
Reading
As far as reading, I will continue consistently reading, but with the added difference of it being more focused reading, picking a subject and reading several books on the subject, before moving on to another subject.
In the past, even though I was an avid reader, you could also say that I had scattered reading habits. Back in the days before I had a Kindle, and when I was on a more frugal budget, most of the books I read were whatever I happened to stumble upon at the public library that caught my eye. So I was all over the place. Which is fine to some degree, it's good to diversify your reading, to read widely, both fiction and non-fiction, to become knowledgeable on many subjects. But the thing is that if you really want to achieve mastery of something you need to learn a lot about it, which means reading many books on whatever subject you want to master. Whereas if you read 20 books, all on different subjects, while you may know a little bit on many subjects, you won't really know a lot about one subject.
So that's the difference now, I'm trying to become more focused in my reading habits. To read many books on one subject, before moving on to another subject, unless of course I discover the subject to be excruciatingly boring, in which case it's best to move on. And now that I have an ebook reader, I have access to more books than ever before, and can pretty much read anything I want to either for free, or at a major discounted price compared to the hard copy version.
***
Currently I'm interested in learning about the Jews and the State of Israel. And so probably the next twenty books or so I read will be on that subject. And no, I am not an anti-Semite, even though some of the books I read may be interpreted by some to fall into that category. Even if I were Jewish, and I learned that there are books written that accuse the Jews of having committed great acts of evil, I would want to know about it, to find out if it's true, because I am interested in knowing the truth, no matter how unpleasant or disturbing it may be.
Are Jews not interested in knowing the truth, if it makes them look bad as a people? That seems to be the case in my experience. It almost seems like the word anti-Semite is a word used to shut people up, and to avoid facing a disturbing issue that they don't want people to think about or to know about, even though it is true. Because that is I think the real issue at hand, is it true, is it anti-Semitic if it's true, is it not true simply because it could be interpreted as being anti-Semitic?
That seems really dumb, or a form of Orwellian doublespeak.
And if it's true, why would a Jew not want to know about it, and do something about it, to speak out against it, if what is spoken of is evil, and morally wrong? When a person says something offensive about the Jews, why do all Jews take offense, and consider it a personal attack?
You know, I'm white, if you point out evil things committed by white people, I don't feel offended by it, because you know, it wasn't me. Same thing for my nationality, I'm American, if people in other countries criticize America, I don't feel personally offended by it, especially since most people that criticize America, are talking more about the military, big corporations, and politics, not the average person on the street. But the Jews are different. If a person commits a crime, or does something terribly evil, and you mention that they are a Jew, and you notice a pattern, of many Jews being involved in it, such as Ponzi schemes, pornography, price gouging, and usury, suddenly you'd think you've waged war on them all, when that is clearly not what you said or what you meant.
So, anyway, I find this topic extremely fascinating, and it is currently what I am reading about. Other topics I plan to read about are transhumanism, transgenderism, and the ways that humans are being intentionally dumbed down and poisoned by people who may or may not be in a certain cult that goes by a name that begins with the letter J.
