A Man Reborn

This January I came up with the idea of a list of 100 things that I wanted to do in 2010.  I thought about it for a little while and came up with a varied list of things.  The things on my list were new, old, little, small and in general, things that I thought would be fun or interesting.

I ended up finishing just over half of the things on my list – which I think is pretty good.  I did a lot of new things that I wouldn’t have done otherwise and I got to know myself a lot better by taking myself out my comfort zone.

There were a couple of unexpected side effects from making this list.  The first was that I had a lot of friends step up and ask me about doing things on the list together with me which I thought was really awesome of them.  We got to spend time together and often tried something new or it was something that they were able to teach me, or the other way around.  The second was that it inspired some of my other friends to do something similar.  In particular, my friend Carolina made her own list, which then inspired her friend Jeannie to make a list.  This was all over half a year before I had even met Jeannie – but since then we’ve been inseparable and I definitely think that the two of us making our lists played a part in building that connection.

One other thing that I definitely know this helped with was boredom – I can’t think of a single moment in 2010 that I was bored, as I always had this list to fall back on for something to do.

So here’s a list for 2011.  I don’t expect to do all of them.  Some of them are things I did last year and loved.  Some are things I didn’t finish last year.  Some are completely new to this year.  They’re in no particular order and again – they’re just things that I think would be interesting or fun.

2011 is going to be amazing and I am really looking forward to it!

1. Go skydiving
2. Do something special with Jeannie on our anniversary
3. Do a 48 hour fast
4. Plant and maintain a mini garden
5. Spend a day at the beach
6. Hike part of the Bruce trail
7. Go to the gun range
8. Go kayaking
9. Get a new tattoo
10. Take some kind of dance lesson
11. Keep my blog updated while working on this list
12. Get rid of 75% of the things I currently own
13. Go running in the rain
14. Watch a thunderstorm
15. Watch the sun set
16. Play in a poker tournament
17. Ride the single track at Albion Hills
18. Try indoor rock climbing
19. Paintball!
20. Volunteer my time for a good cause
21. Give blood 5 times
22. Make a gift for someone
23. Work at a haunt
24. Surprise someone
25. Spend a weekend at the cottage
26. Play a round of golf
27. Make sure I always have time for friends and family
28. Make a short movie
29. Go whitewater rafting
30. Climb the CN tower in under 30 minutes
31. Beat last year’s time of 1:07:14 in the Niagara Try-a-Tri
32. Get back to running 5k+
33. Ride 200 km in 2 days at the Ride to Conquer Cancer
34. Try skating
35. Do 100 push ups in a row
36. Do a handstand push up
37. Exercise or do something active every day
38. Cook 95% of what I eat
39. Fit into size L shirts again
40. Try skiing again
41. Ride in the trees
42. Do both a FS and BS boardslide on a box
43. Comfortably do all 4 types of 180
44. Go on a snowboarding trip with my little brothers
45. Do a nose grab, tail grab and method
46. Put together a new snowboarding video
47. Go to the zoo
48. Go to a Jays game
49. Go to a Leafs game
50. Go to a TFC game
51. Go to the CNE
52. Go to the science centre
53. Go to the Tim Burton exhibit at the Lightbox
54. Go on a brewery tour
55. Explore an old cemetary
56. Go to the Drive-in
57. Go to Honest Ed’s
58. Go to the Art Gallery
59. Go to a big music festival
60. Go to Vermont
61. Go to Buffalo with MicHELLe
62. Go to Detroit with Myla and Nix
63. Go to Niagara Falls
64. Go to Vegas
65. Explore the following neighbourhoods in Toronto: The Annex, Yorkville, Seaton Village, Little Italy, Kensington, Liberty Village, St. Lawrence, Cabbagetown and Harbourfront
66. Go camping somewhere new
67. Move out of Mississauga
68. Spend a day at the island
69. Learn to cook a paella
70. Try 2 new recipes every month
71. Make a Turducken from scratch with Shayne
72. Make sushi
73. Go shopping at St Lawrence Market
74. Have brunch at the Hoof Cafe
75. Eat a tasting menu
76. Bake and decorate a cake or cupcakes
77. Eat 10 new things
78. Master one illusion really well
79. Learn to create a life cast
80. Take a cast of my face and sculpt it into a zombie bust
81. Make a set of clay figurines
82. Make a Halloween costume from scratch
83. Finish my Halloween painting
84. Make a haunted gingerbread house
85. Read: Rework, The 4-Hour Body, The Power of Less, Pound for Pound, The Gift of Fear, It’s Not About The Bike: My Journey Back to Life and The Real Bling
86. Redesign the zombie walk page and setup the store
87. Learn search engine optimization
88. Learn 5 more effects in After Effects
89. Learn joomla
90. Learn JQuery
91. Learn AJAX
92. Learn Selenium
93. Learn OpenID / FBConnect / Google Friend Connect
94. Launch zombiepedia website!
95. Launch portfolio site
96. Build a facebook app
97. Take a night class
98. Get a raise
99. Earn 15% of my income outside of my regular job
100. Teach someone something

Hello blog – been a while! I haven’t written in here since about halfway through September, which coincidentally is right about when I started really getting into the full swing of the Halloween season.

The last few weeks have been pretty damn fun and full of all kinds of random good times.  Spent many fun times with lots of good friends and basically just had a blast and was too busy to really do much writing!

Had one last Halloween party on the weekend, but now that the season is pretty much over it’s back to the norm for me.  I’ve been thinking a lot about everything that’s happened in 2010 and I’m really stoked about how my year has gone so far.  I’ve made some progress in almost every area of my life that I wanted to improve with the exception of one – my fitness.

I’ve had a hard time keeping a consistent workout schedule in 2010 and I’ve gained some weight back.  Anyway, thanks to some inspiration from my girl and another buddy of mine, I’ve decided that enough is enough and it’s time to reclaim the progress I’ve made earlier.  It took some sacrifice before and it’s going to take that again and I’m ready for that and I want this in the way that I am willing to commit myself to making it happen.

I know that once I get started I will keep going for a while, so I’m going to try giving myself a bigger push at the start and challenging myself more.  So for the rest of 2010, I’m going to work out a minimum of 30 minutes a day with no exceptions.  I’ll be logging all my work outs and my weight every Monday – starting today at 258.

2010 has been an awesome year so far and it’s time to finish strong.

Had a fun weekend!  Stayed in on Friday night and started work on my Halloween props – it’s been a while since I’ve worked with paper mache and I forgot how fun it could be.  It’s very satisfying to build up an armature in a creative way and watch something take shape out of nothing.

On Saturday I went to the CNE and had a really good time full of good company, rides, games and lots of guilty pleasures in the food department.  Can you say deep-fried? Tried the deep-fried mac-n-cheese, mars bar, corn dog and of course, the butter!  Mmm, deep-fried goodness.  I know this is in stark contrast to some of my goals, but hey – you gotta live.  I’m all for balance over absolutes and I know I’ll make progress towards my goals over the month – long term!

Sunday I took a trip to the ROM with a couple of friends.  I haven’t been there since they had the Two Towers exhibit for Lord of the Rings so it was nice to wander around and gawk at history.  I developed a fascination with patterns in the artwork from different cultures and time periods and took a lot of pictures for future additions to the sleeve on my left arm.  I’d been thinking I would keep that arm all black ink, but I might throw some colour in there … lots of sketching to be done!  I was going to come back into the city later on that night, but I ended up doing some reading and passing out (sorry guys!).

Monday I did some website work and visited my family.  My little bro cooked up a sweet meal like always and we discussed our plans to conquer the Turducken.

Also decided on a few more habits to change / try in the next 3 weeks – I like this approach… going to keep changing little things a few at a time -

1. Ride my bike to work twice a week.

So many benefits to this one: saves wear on my car, saves gas, pollutes less, gets me off my ass and improves my leg muscle stamina for the upcoming snowboarding season.  Plus I’ve got the Ride to Conquer Cancer next year so it’s time to start logging some serious distance on the bike.

2. Do yoga twice a week for 30 minutes.

I am actually quite flexible for a bigger dude from years of martial arts, but I could definitely use more flexibility.  I also enjoy the calming aspect of it.

3. Plan my meals.

Easier to shop, easier to stick to a plan and easier to monitor.  Plus there’s less of a chance of wasting any food… something I hate to do but it happens when I don’t plan and go crazy in the produce section.

So, first off – I went to Muay Thai class for the first time in a long while.  Today was nice and humid and the warm up nearly killed me (sprints!), but hey – this is my punishment for having neglected my cardio for so long.  I will suck it up and deal, because I know it will get better shortly.

It’s kind of strange to see what knowledge / technique I retained from when I used to go often.  Keeping my hands high at all times is no problem for me even when my shoulders burn with fiery pain.  Getting tagged more than enough times because my hands were low will do that.  But, it was good to come back and it felt great to do a really intense workout.

Moving on… I’ve always had issues with motivation.  Sometimes it seems like my motivation comes and goes like the wind.  I am going to spend some time trying to figure out exactly what triggers these motivation state changes for me so I can use them to my advantage instead of the other way around.  What I do know is that when I am in a good state, there is little to nothing that can stop me.  So I’m going to ride this wave and make some changes.  Gonna pick up some new habits and reclaim some others that I’ve let slip.  My immediate focus is to be super-strict on these for the rest of the month – I started yesterday, so that’s 21 days – in my own experience 3 solid weeks is enough time to make a lasting change.

So, here goes:

1. Stop complaining without doing anything to remedy the situation

This came from an article on Tim Ferriss’s blog.  I’m a big fan of his book, The Four Hour Workweek and I’ve implemented some of his basic ideas with positive effects.  I’m also working on an even bigger change, but that’s a whole other post for later.  Anyway, the idea is to not describe a person or event negatively without indicating some steps to fix the problem that prompted the reaction in the first place.  To remind me, I’ve got a blue rubber band on my left wrist.  If I slip up, it goes to the other wrist.  I’m big on the idea that thoughts become actions, so this makes sense to me.

Source: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/09/18/real-mind-control-the-21-day-no-complaint-experiment/

2. Cut back my meat consumption by 25%

For a number of reasons I am going to cut back on the amount of meat I consume.  I’m going to start by cutting it down by 25%.  I’m not going to do any set plan ala Meatless Mondays – just going to make sure that at least 25% of my weekly meals don’t contain meat.  Which leads right into my next change.

3. Keep a food journal

In the past my best results at getting in shape have been when I kept a detailed food journal.  I’ve got an iPhone coming in the mail soon which will make this a cinch.

4. Follow a morning ritual

Another belief I’m big on is that your mental state controls your outcome.  Starting the day off in a negative state  can quickly spiral into a bad day overall.  The morning ritual is designed to put me in a positive state of mind where I’m ready to take on the day properly.

1. Wake up – don’t snooze, don’t toss – when the alarm goes I’ll pop out of bed like a bat out of hell and open my blackout curtains to get  some sunshine in the room.
2. Drink a big glass of water – morning = dehydration.
3. Move and get the blood flowing – anything really, just 5-15 minutes of quick exercise.
4. Listen to a motivating song.
5. Read my goal list and feel and envision how I will feel when I achieve them.
6. Think about things in my life I am grateful for.
7. Clean myself up – groom, dress, etc. – self explanatory – but with a little more attention to detail.
8. Cook breakfast and prepare my lunch.

5. Intense exercise at least 4 times a week

Another habit that I’ve fallen out of with a negative result on my body and my mind.  Intense exercise does amazing things for me.  I think clearer, feel better and just plain feel great.  I’m writing this hours after a hard Muay Thai class today and I’m completely awake, full of energy and super focused.  The next 3 weeks are also going to be ridiculously busy at work.  One of my problems has been that I allow myself to make work an excuse to not workout.  This is just bullshit – there’s always time and the net result is that I have more energy and am more focused so if I am super busy it’s to my benefit to fit in a workout.

21 days (20 now, as I started yesterday technically) to go.  It might look like a lot, but each is a small change when broken down.  I know myself and I know that right now I’m in a hyper-motivated state so it’s a good time to tackle these.  When I make these into established habits then it will be easier to keep my momentum going when this state of motivation wears off – and it will.

I did a Try-a-Tri triathlon with some friends over the weekend.  It went pretty well – I survived the swim, did well on the biking and got slaughtered on the run.  It definitely showed me that I need to go back to a properly structured routine to get the results that I’ve got in the past and will get again.  With that said, I’ve planned out my routine for the upcoming week

• Monday – rest / endless amount of errands / work to do
• Tuesday – Biking / Pull ups / Push ups
• Wednesday – Muay Thai
• Thursday – Weights
• Friday – Muay Thai
• Saturday – Weights
• Sunday – Biking

For weights I’ll be going back to the Starting Strength program – heavy weights, low reps and simple compound movements.

Just added a page to the blog with some of my favourite quotes – things I’ve come across over the years and stuck with me.

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb

“Want a good body? Work at it. Want to be a success? Work at it. Want to be truly exceptional? Be a touch insane…You need a little bit of insanity to do great things.” – Henry Rollins

“What we think, we become. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” - The Buddha

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.” ~ The Tao Te Ching

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall”.  - Confucius

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” ~Samuel Beckett