Archive for the ‘Goals’ Category
Dan on June 27th, 2008
That’s right my friends, a new post after a year and 3 months of nothing. Recent ideas rekindled my interest in this site. As I’m heading off to the gym in a few minutes I don’t have time for a major update, but here are a few high points that occurred during my off time:
- Graduated from college with an AS in Business Administration in April ‘07.
- Sentenced to probation with community service and restitution for my past crimes in April ‘07
- Landed a web development job in November ‘07.
- Continue to push myself in the gym. Doing my first bodybuilding show later this year in October.
I’ve updated the site’s software to the latest version of WordPress and Gallery2. This broke the old skin. It was time to change it anyway. For now I’ll be sticking with a default skin until I have time to find and customize one that I like.
Dan on December 10th, 2006
Last year I posted my goal of forming a diet and nutrition plan based on Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. I wish I read it years ago! It gave me a complete understanding of how to properly organize meals and eat correctly. I’ve followed it now for a bit over a year and I’ve never looked back. Sure, there have been plenty of days that saw the consumption of foods from the list of things you should never eat. However, even on those days I still followed most of my meals.
So what does my current diet look like? I eat 6 meals a day for a total caloric intake of about 2350 kcal. Over the past 2 months I’ve raised and lowered my total intake. For over a month I was eating 2500+ kcal a day. That was a bit much so I lowered it to 2350 kcal. For my current activity level I find this to be just right.
This isn’t to say that I’ve been very strict. I was strict from when I started in November 2005 to the end of March / beginning of April. At that point I was reintroduced to my nemesis: jellybeans. Jellybeans are one of my favorite food products. Easter is prime jellybean time. I had decided that I would enjoy a few of the little balls of sugar since I had been so strict for so long. The problem was “a few” meant an entire bag in one sitting, and multiple bags per week. I had gone for so long without sugar I forgot how good it was and over compensated. That goes to show how important cheat meals can be.
From that point on I continued to follow my nutrition plan but cheated a lot more than I should have. I’d go for a few weeks without any cheating and then I’d hit the candy hard. Over the past few months I’ve gone way overboard, eating all kinds of junk food. I have developed the bad tendency of eating an entire package of something in one sitting. I never used to do that but for some reason I do now. I knew I would gain fat with the plan of losing it again before spring. At this point I think I’ve gained enough fat. I started at about 140 lbs and about 10% body fat at the end of summer. I’m now about 150 lbs and 18% body fat. Those body fat numbers aren’t necessarily accurate as they came from a scale and not calipers, but they illustrate how eating the wrong foods in excess can impact your body.
I’ve begun figuring out how I’m going to get rid of this excess weight, my “cutting plan” so to speak. For the next two weeks I’ll be sticking to my current 2350 kcal diet with some minor cheating allowed. I’ll be visiting my parents the week of Christmas. As such, there will be travel, Christmas dinners, Christmas junk foods such as candy and cookies, etc. I will still stick with my meal plan but won’t be strict. I want to spend that week enjoying myself, my family, and food. January is when the fun begins…
January 1, 2007 will be the beginning of my cutting plan. My diet will be reduced to 2200 kcal with very restricted cheating, limited to one meal per week and only within my total 2200 kcal guidelines. Those calories will be distributed as 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat. I will continue to follow the Max-OT workout plan that I’ve been following since February. I’m currently hitting the gym 5 days a week with 2 days off. That will be changing, with 5 days of lifting and 2 days of cardio as I was doing over the summer. If after 2 weeks I don’t notice much loss of fat I’ll cut my diet to 2100 kcal. That should be plenty low enough to see results. If not, I’ll continue cutting out 100 kcal a week until I see what I want. I’m aiming at losing at least 1.5 lbs of fat each week, with a total loss of 15 lbs of fat. My overall goal is 8% body fat. While I could lose it quicker than that there would be greater muscle loss, which I want to avoid as much as possible.
One thing I haven’t discussed much is my supplementation plan. I’ll be writing an article about supplementation in the future but I’ll cover my current and future plans here. Currently I’m taking a cheap multi-vitamin, a fish oil cap (for Omega 3s), 2 green tea caps (EGCG and antioxidants), 2 500mg Ester-C caps (immune system boost and antioxidants), 3 CLA caps (promotes greater muscle gain vs fat gain), 4 Z Force caps (ZMA + test boosters, questionable), and 2 25mg DHEA tabs on workout days (test booster). I always make sure to research supplements before I try them. Pubmed is your friend. I was taking Diesel Fuel before as a thermogenic and metabolism booster, but they recently changed it and added a lot more caffeine and Yohimbe. I didn’t want to take it regularly because of that, but I’m considering adding it back in at least a few days a week.
So that’s where I stand today. I watch my diet closely and know what everything I put in my body will do. Measuring and tracking everything comes naturally now. I’m not sure how I managed without doing either for 23 years of my life.
Dan on December 3rd, 2006
Seeing how it has been nearly a year since my first goal was posted I thought it would be suitable to review my goals. I haven’t looked at this list in quite a while and the results are mixed.
Goal #1: Sell One Item A Day
This goal was short lived. I did manage to sell off a lot of my extra junk over the past year, but not one item a day. I probably have enough stuff to get rid of that I could continue this. Not a high priority, but something I could start doing again.
Goal #2: Write A Blog Entry Every Day
This is another goal I followed for a while and then gave up. With polyphasic sleep I had plenty of time to blog. After I was done I lost all that extra free time and lost some of my interest in the site. I don’t plan on posting EVERY day, but I do plan on posting frequently again. I have plenty to write about.
Goal #3: Attempt polyphasic sleep for a minimum of one month
Goal #3 was accomplished. I followed polyphasic sleep for a month. When I went back to school I had to switch back to “normal” sleep because of my long schedule. Towards the end I was having frequent oversleeps. An interesting side effect I found over the past year is that my “normal” sleep went from 8 hours a day to 7 hours. Over the past month and a half or so it slowly increased back to 8 hours. I’m going to try to get another month of polyphasic sleep in once this school semester is over. That should give me time to work on some projects and possibly get that hour back again.
Goal #4: Between my personal net worth and the value of any companies I totally control I have a total worth of at least $1 million by the age of 30
Goal #4 was very ambitious. Making $1 million in 5 years is no easy task. Over the past year I’ve been met with a number of setbacks. My biggest investment had a bunch of issues. Overall I made quite a bit off of it but I was relying on it for income when they ran into trouble. They had to freeze accounts for a few months and I lost 40% of my principle. I was forced to take money out of my trading account to pay the bills. Fast forward to a month ago. I sold my investment property that never worked out. I paid off the bills, put some cash in my bank, and have the money to open another brokerage account.
I would love to have a high net worth at 30, and I think it’s still possible, but it is no longer as important to me. I will have that money at some point but it may not be as soon. I will outline what has changed in a future post.
Goal #6: Fix My Diet
Goal #6 was completed last year. I will be making another post about my diet and exercise but I’ll summarize here. Overall my diet has been good. Over the past month or two I haven’t been as strict but I still follow the basic guidelines.
Goal #6 2: Exercise
Apparently I numbered 3 of my goals 6. I never caught that before. Anyway, this goal was specific to my exercise goals. I met them. I was at about 10% body fat all summer. I decided I wanted to ease up on my food restrictions and bulk up so I started eating a lot more in October. My body fat is a lot higher now, around 17%. I plan on cutting in a few months and losing it all again.
Goal #6 3: Forex Investing
I had planned on developing a trading strategy and using it to earn a decent return. I did develop a few strategies that work but they require trading at times I’m not usually available. I haven’t made any trades in a while. The last few I made months ago were based on news trades and were profitable. I may do more news trading in the future. As I’ll cover in another post, I’ve taken an interest in economics and that can help predict the outcome of a news release.
Goal #7: 5 Year Financial Goals
These goals still stand. I’d like to have my income come from passive sources in 5 years.
Goal #8: Achieve a minimum GPA of 3.8 at my new school.
By the end of this semester goal #8 will be achieved. Last semester I got one B and the rest were As. I’ll probably get all As this semester, bringing my GPA up from 3.7 to 3.8 something.
Goal #9: Ambidexterity
I haven’t done much with this goal. I still write with my right hand at times when I’m bored in class. My handwriting is at a low elementary school level with that hand. Next time I’m at a store that has them I’m going to check out children’s handwriting books. This is a low priority goal so I haven’t put much effort into it.
There you have it. I’ll be outlining some new goals soon. The results from this past year have been mixed. How did your goals turn out?
Dan on March 10th, 2006
Finally, a new goal! While simple, this one is not easy to achieve.
In 6 months I can write at a normal speed with acceptable penmanship using my right hand.
When I was very young, early single digit age, I was ambidexterous. I could write equally poorly with both hands 
At some point my left became dominant. However, I’ve always used my right hand for more than average. I used to play skeeball with it. I wash dishes with it. I can bat at softball just as poorly with my right as my left. I’ve always been able to write with my right hand, it’s just very slow and has poor penmanship. Now, through practice, I want to increase my writing ability to the level such that others can’t tell I’m left handed by looking at writing done with my right hand. It will take quite a bit of practice but I know I can do it. I’m going to get some penmanship and writing books designed to teach kids how to write. I think combining that with repetitively writing things like the alphabet will bring me up to a normal writing level.
Have you ever tried writing with your non-dominant hand? How’d it go?
Dan on January 14th, 2006
It’s official. I’m matriculated, registered, and paid. I’m going back to college. Which leads me to…
Goal #8: Achieve a minimum GPA of 3.8 at my new school.
This time I’m going to do it right. This time I’m in a program that I want to be in. I don’t feel like I need to be there, I want to be there. I think that makes a major difference in how I perform. If I don’t want to do something I resist it.
I’m taking the maximum number of credits, 18. All of my academic classes fall on 2 days, running from 8AM to 5PM with a break in the afternoon. It was interesting squeezing it all together but I managed to find enough classes to make it work. I’m also taking Physical Fitness, which is supposed to help the attendee develop an exercise program for themselves. I think everything is fitting together nicely. To top it off, I’ll be getting a significant amount of money back from the government through grants. Most of that money will be going directly into an account at a broker for stocks and options trading.
I strongly urge you to look into your local community college if you aren’t in school already. Take a night class in anything. It’s cheap and a great way to learn new things.
