As we pass the milestone of the third day, it’s time to finally admit something to myself that I’ve been avoiding.

I hate my new Bluetooth headphones. Like, pure unadulterated hatred. I hadn’t listened to anything at the gym prior to this challenge so I just bought my current pair. I specifically got them because they wrap over your ear to stay in while moving around, such as when, for example, doing 50 minutes of cardio every morning. For some reason, they fit well and stay in place on my right ear, but continually fall out of my left, lazily laying on the bottom of my ear like they’re waiting for the bus. Because they almost fit but slip often, it’s sort of infuriating. I’ve been ignoring it at first, but finally snapped today. I just requested a return from Amazon, and ordered a new pair. Hopefully that will make the cardio more pleasant.

Tried to take a photo of my view. Turns out it’s so dark out all you see is me.

Finding Motivation in Very Different Places

Spending 2+ hours at the gym every day is giving me a lot of time to listen to podcasts. So far, I’ve been switching between episodes of The Moment which discusses the backgrounds and process of different creative people (musicians, screenwriters, etc) and Jocko Podcast, where retired Navy Seal Jocko Willink discusses leadership and discipline. They’re obviously extremely different, but have both been inspiring. The common theme they both have: do the work. Hearing a successful screenwriter talking about doing 85 revisions of a script before it sold, or having to figure out how to motivate a team to continue on a mission you might not agree with, both provide a good perspective on the need to sometimes just put your head down and grind through the task as hand. As I work on my launching my own business, it’s good to hear the common challenges people share.

I Expected To Be Sore. And Yet…

This is, by far, the most intense workout regiment I’ve ever followed. And yet, I haven’t had any real muscle soreness. Even after the insane Leg Day on Tuesday, still…nothing. It’s an odd feeling. Even my previous fitness routine, which I had done for months, left me feeling a tad sore and tight. But on this plan I’m haven’t had that experience. The only thing that could account for that is the diet.

So I did some research, and it turns out that this lack of soreness is likely due to all the protein (cod, steak, chicken, eggs) and high-glycemic carbs (white rice, potatoes) that I’ve been eating. For someone who is somewhat carb-phobic, I was concerned with how many carbs were part of this plan (white rice is pretty much the devil in my mind). But I’m starting to see how all of this fits together. I reached out to a nutritionist to get some thoughts about this and will share the response when/if I hear back.

Daily Stats

I’m doing the same exact cardio every day: 50 minutes on the elliptical and have used the same incline and intensity settings. It’s crazy to see how quickly my heart rate is adapting. The first day I spent about 20 minutes above 130BPM. Today I never cracked that. My calories burned are also dropping as a result. Time to dial up the intensity.