S2E6 21-Day No Surrender Fast Journal

Compdude · March 20, 2020, 2:13pm

Day 0/21 No Surrender Fast

While searching through YouTube to compile a list of motivational/inspirational/educational videos to post at least one video in each of my journal entries, I came across this joyful one from a No Surrender Festival. It inspired me to create the No Surrender Fast.

Fasting for 21 days is a challenge for both body, mind and spirit. As many of my past readers know, I usually take a “nose to the grindstone” approach which works for me but may not work for others. So I thought to take a different approach, as its so much more fun to celebrate a win with a crowd.

Therefore, whenever I or those of you who to choose to accompany on this part of my journey encounter those inevitable times of challenge and adversity, re-watch this video.

Later today I’m going to have my final meal to kick off the start of this fast. I’m going to walk to Chipotle to pick up a Double Carne Asada Burrito, a large bag of lime flavored tortilla chips and salsa in about 2 hours. I learned to start with a positive reward at the BEGINNING as the best way to ensure behavior change. Learned that from a TedTalk. Yes, it will be one of the videos in an entry in this journal. LOL

For a daily mantra, I’m going to modify one of the chorus lines from:

“No retreat, baby, no surrender” to
“No retreat, no excuses, no surrender”.

Anyway, here’s the theme for this fast and the lyrics are below:

No Surrender
By Bruce Springsteen

We busted out of class had to get away from those fools.
We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school.
Tonight I hear the neighborhood drummer sound.
I can feel my heart begin to pound.
You say you’re tired and you just want to close your eyes and follow your dreams down.

We made a promise we swore we’d always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter’s night with a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender

Now young faces grow sad and old and hearts of fire grow cold
We swore blood brothers against the wind
I’m ready to grow young again
And hear your sister’s voice calling us home across the open yards
Well maybe we could cut someplace of our own
With these drums and these guitars

Cause we made a promise we swore we’d always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender

Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
There’s a war outside still raging
You say it ain’t ours anymore to win

I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies in my lover’s bed
With a wide open country in my eyes
And these romantic dreams in my head

Cause we made a promise we swore we’d always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender

No retreat, baby, no surrender

Ranjeeta_Sharma · March 21, 2020, 5:39am

Loved the theme… And I m surely not going to surrender this time

Compdude · March 21, 2020, 9:13pm

Day 1/21

This DJ is going to focus on the mental process I use to be a successful faster. It’s one that I’ve crafted over the years from my windsurfing teaching and competition days, computer career and two years of personal development seminars.

If you’re looking for more of the practical tips, standard motivation and information go to my other 21-Day DJ: S2E2 21-Day Water Fast Journal.

This is the track record resulting from my mental process:

Overcame a devastating knee injury and told I could never play sports again without surgery. (Before arthroscopic was available). Proved them wrong by doing my own rehab over a summer break and at the end was running 10 miles 3 times a week.
Became a Certified Windsurfing Instructor, in spite of being the WORST student in my Beginning Windsurfing class
Became a Nationally Ranked Windsurfing Amateur
Established the first UCLA Internship Program in New York City
Be named I.T. Department Employee of the Parsons Corporation, the 2nd largest international engineering construction company in the world at the time.
Project Manager/Account Executive of new technology that was the subject of a Microsoft Case Study that involved Boeing, ADT, NCR and Microsoft.
Re-invented myself from an I.T. Computer Programmer to a Software Engineer
Re-invented myself to be a Certified Personal Trainer for 5 years
Lose my Personal Training business due to illness and re-invented myself to becoming a Digital Marketing consultant.

I’m not trying to brag here, I’m listing what I’ve accomplished with my process. I’m sharing it here in the hope it will help others achieve their own goals.

As a computer guy, I’m painfully aware of the limits of information. Its the reason that when I was at the peak of my I.T. Career working at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood and received my Windsurfer national ranking I turned to personal development which helped me hone my mental process.

Let’s start with this clip from the Mask of Zorro movie:

Pretty amusing, right?

Unfortunately, it encapsulates a common mistake I see so many beginning fasters do. They make a “decision” to fast, make BIG pronouncements and the second they encounter harsh reality they fail.

The next clip sums up what I learned from my personal development phase. It’s from the movie, The Peaceful Warrior, based on the book, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman.

My first task for you is simple. I want you to start your day when you wake up by spending 5 to 10 minutes thinking of 5 to 10 things you are grateful in your life. If you’ve had a rough day, I recommend you review your list when you’re lying in bed going to sleep.

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My Daily Entry

Completed: 1 Day - 24 Hours
Starting Weight: 211lbs
Weigh Gain/Loss: 0
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Almost fell prey to unconscious patterns of snacking. Caught myself in time and CHOSE something different.

Last 3 days at the end of my Core & Endurance workout phase I pushed HARD to add more lean muscle mass and aerobic endurance before this fast. Felt it in my legs this morning, thought about not taking my 1 mile walk. Then told myself I can rest AFTER I do my walk. Then did it.

Started with my daily routine: weighed myself, took my blood sugar reading, entered results in a tracking spreadsheet, daily exercise, a “wet” hot treatment for my osteoarthritis, cup of coffee w/stevia and THEN began my work day. (YOU are priority #1 in your day)

Talked to my Toastmasters Division A Director regarding developments on upcoming Division A speech contest.

Worked on my book on my fasting experience and then did more consulting work.

At 1:16pm (marks 24 hours), doing my Daily Journal entry, will update my FB friends who I’m accountable to, and add stats to the Fast Forward FB Group post thread I started.

Good day so far.

Compdude · March 22, 2020, 9:42pm

Day 2/21

Let’s start with this clip from the movie, Mr Holland’s Opus:

The student, when she screws up, immediately focuses on all her past failures taking her out of the moment. Mr. Holland is able to change her focus by asking her to “play the sunset” which is ambiguous and forces the student to stay in the moment by having her use her imagination.

Now, let’s watch another clip from the movie, The Peaceful Warrior:

I see so many beginning fasters when they “fail” change their focus to past mistakes and beat themselves up. Instead of just looking it as a result to learn from and move on.

This leads us to today’s daily task that I want you to add to your routine:

Yes, the daily weigh in. Normally, to those who get overly emotional when they plateau or see a temporary gain I counsel to focus on a weekly weigh-in or the overall trend. Instead for those of you willing to do this, it will be an exercise in “taking out the trash”.

For myself, this is the next task I do after doing my appreciation exercise. I record the result both in my Daily Health Tracking spreadsheet and my Zero app.

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My Daily Entry

Completed: 2 Days - 48 Hours
Weigh Loss: 6 pounds (2.72155 kilos) water weight
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk & Full Body Workout
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
Had some faint hunger pains yesterday afternoon, but that’s it. Spoke too soon about my energy level. After doing all my required journaling I got hit by a wave of fatigue and took a 1 1/2 hour nap.

Losing 6lbs is a new high for me during the 1st 3 days of a prolonged fast. I credit that to the increased exercise I can do now and Increased lean muscle mass from the last workout phase which caused an increase in burning up the glycogen stores in my muscles. Btw, I’ll be glad to get out of this phase as I’m urinating every 2 hours as my body dumps the water from burning up the glycogen!

Exercise:
Felt less stiff on my walk. Also cut short the time of my “wet” hot treatment after all my exercise routines.

I modified my Full Body Workout: Doubled the dumbbell weight for the Back/Deadlift exercise and used the same weight for the Chest Press exercise that I swapped in for the repeat of the Back/Deadlift exercise.

Since its only the 2nd day of the fast, I’m still running on glucose from my glycogen stores from my liver and muscle. Therefore, I’m not in full Ketosis. In my opinion, I don’t have scientific evidence to back this up, is that I can still add lean muscle mass during this period. So I’m also going to add the 3 basic ab exercises to my Flexibility workout for tomorrow. Then I freeze all my workout routines for the remainder of the fast because once in Ketosis the body has higher priorities than lean muscle building since its such an energy intensive task.

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk & FW (Flexibility Workout)

Writing:
Finished editing the journal entries for the 14-day Potato Diet. Got surprisingly emotional editing the final 14 day entry. Besides my goals of breaking my carb/sugar addiction and changing my taste palate, I also looked on it as a willpower test. By passing it, it gave me the confidence to set my sights higher.

For the past 9 years, I’ve been coming back from severe health challenges, as those of you know who’ve read my past DJs. From being bedridden, overcoming congestive heart failure and having cataract surgery in my right eye which caused a 40% depth perception between my eyes resulting in my voluntarily choosing to not renew my driver’s license. As you can imagine I’ve had to battle depression which led to calling the Suicide Hot Line in February 2018.

To successfully complete the Potato Diet and not surrender once was a game changer for me. As a result, I felt I could set my sights higher. I did research and found out that there is no first person narrative book of someone who reversed their T2 diabetes through water fasting. Only diet books and those written by doctors.

Being an introvert, I knew I wasn’t going to gain attention through social media. Instead, I thought I would knock the rust off my public speaking skills which I had honed through Toastmasters. I had been a member on and off since 1995. When I had my health crisis back in 2010 I was forced to drop out. I checked out a couple of clubs. Found one that’s only a half mile walk from my house. Surprised myself with how rapidly my skills came back and now find myself competing for the World Championship.

It reminds me of a saying from a book written by Richard Bach, Illusions, the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. I’ve modified it for personal reasons to “Imagine the best world possible for you. God has imagined it way better than you ever can.”

Compdude · March 23, 2020, 9:30pm

Day 3/21

Congratulations on completing Day 3! Celebrate because this is the last transition day from glucose burning to Ketosis as your body should have depleted all of its glycogen stores and is forced to turn to fat as an energy source.

This clip is from an Amnesty International concert held in Argentina with Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel and the E-Street Band.

Today’s lesson is from a TedTalk on how to accomplish any goal you set in life. It’s a very inspiring talk as it gives a detailed roadmap.

Your task today is to add an aerobic-based exercise task to your daily routine (if you don’t have one already). The reasons for it being aerobics based are the following:

Fat burning requires a lot of oxygen. The better shape your respiratory system is in the more efficient your body will be in using fat. It may also relieve some of the fatigue as using fat as an energy source is more demanding than using glucose.
It aids your lymphatic system
It speeds the adaptation of your vascular system to the rapid body change you will experience. It’s the primary reason I was able to dump my 2 hypertension medications in only 4 months and 5 days after dropping 81 pounds last year. Normally, it would have taken longer.

The Daily Routine recommended looks like this so far:

Morning Appreciation exercise
Daily Weigh In
Daily Exercise

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My Daily Entry

Completed: 3 Days - 72 Hours
Weigh Loss: 4 pounds (1.81437) water weight
Total Weight Loss: 10 pounds (4.53592 kilos) water weight
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
Hunger pangs have gotten fainter. A sign I’ve achieved “metabolic flexibility” meaning my body being able to seamlessly transition from glucose burning to ketosis. I should note that since I began my custom treatment protocol back in August 9th of last year I’ve fasted, in one form or another, 204 of 227 days.

A physical sign I know from previous prolonged fasts that I’m making the transition comes from the depletion of my glycogen stores. I’m not urinating every 2 hours and the amount I’m releasing is becoming less.

However, I still took a energy hit as my body transitions. This manifested itself in that during my walk I had to take 2 breaks. Both times I was breathing hard which did not happen the first 2 days on my walks.

The arthritic symptoms are abating. Reducing the time for the “wet” hot treatment after my exercises. Only issue on the walk was my left knee would ache every now and then from my old college injury. I just slowed down to compensate until the ache went away. Otherwise, feet and ankles were good.

10 lbs of water weight is more than the 9lbs I’ve averaged on my previous 2 prolonged fasts. I credit that to gorging on carbs the last 3 days of my Core & Endurance phase though.

The final physical sign is tomorrow. When the weight loss drops to 0 or the amount of loss drops significantly from the last 2 days. From my previous 2 fasts, it usually drops to 2lbs per day.

Exercise:
After taking a short break from the walk, I was able to complete my Lower Body Flexibility workout in good shape. Again noticed I was breathing hard than usual upon each exercise completion but my recovery time was still good. Therefore, I added the NEW Ab workout which is:

50 reps of 45 degree sit-ups (Upper Abs)
50 reps (25 each side) elbow-to-opposite knee (Obliques)
50 reps of 45 degree leg raises (Lower Abs)

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW

Writing:
Started first draft on the Intermittent Fasting section.

Speaking:
Waiting to hear back from my Division Director on the results of the Dry Run of the Virtual contest and details for our Division contest. Thinking I’ll work on the speech again tomorrow. I think I’ve had a long enough break for my creative juices to be back.

Keep safe out there!

Compdude · March 24, 2020, 9:30pm

Day 4/21

Congratulations on completing Day 4!

Today’s video is a reminder of the mantra for this fast:
“No Retreat, No Excuses, No Surrender”

Your task today is creating a daily results tracker. As an experienced project manager, I learned a long time ago if you can’t measure it, you don’t control it. The advantages are it will give you a way to see your progress over time and compare different fasts to each other.

For myself, I use an Excel spreadsheet. I have two: a Daily Health Tracker that I’ve been using since I began my custom treatment protocol back on August 9th of last year and a Project Plan tracker for my current “6-Pack at 60” project which this 21-day fast is a part of.

NOTE: I only consider a day complete when ALL tasks for the day are done. For example, daily weigh in, taking my blood sugar, exercise and 24 hours of fasting are ALL complete.

Daily Health Tracker:

Project Plan:

The Daily Routine recommended looks like this so far:

Morning Appreciation exercise
Daily Weigh In
Daily Exercise
Track Results

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My Daily Entry

Completed: 4 Days - 96 Hours
Weigh Loss: 1 pound (0.453592) fat
Total Weight Loss: 11 pounds (4.98952 kilos) - (10 lbs water & 1lb fat)
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 2 mile walk & AW
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
Woke up with my left knee feeling achy. Heard the sweet siren song of taking the day off from exercise and entertained the idea since I’ve been pushing it hard for the last few days. Then I remembered my mantra: No Retreat, No Excuses, No Surrender.

I lost only 1lb so that’s the sign I’m going into full ketosis. Therefore, all weight loss will be accounted as fat for the remainder of the fast.

Feet and ankles felt good starting on the walk. The left knee starting aching on the uphill portions though, with one instance of a sharp jab of pain. I compensated by slowing my pace and shortening my stride until I could hit the level parts of the walk.

One thing I noticed is I had to breathe through the mouth on the uphill portions. I know its not a matter of aerobic conditioning. I believe its the body demanding more oxygen to use the body fat for energy. Another sign I’m in ketosis now.

Exercise:
The knee really started to ache the last .1 mile of the 2 mile walk. I just remembered the Tom Cruise video clip from the movie, The Last Samurai and repeated the mantra.

After a short break from the walk, I felt good so I decided to up the reps on the NEW Ab workout.

75 reps of 45 degree sit-ups (Upper Abs) +25 reps
80 reps elbow-to-opposite knee (Obliques) +15 reps each side
75 reps of 45 degree leg raises (Lower Abs) +25 reps

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW
Wed 3/25 - 1 mile walk & NEW Burpee Workout

Writing:
No writing. Reflected on what I wrote and decided to break into two pieces. The first piece is the minimum amount of knowledge a beginner needs to get going. The second piece will be in the reference with a full scientific explanation of the 24 clock, insulin, ghrelin, etc.

Speaking:
Didn’t have a chance to work on it. Had several unexpected consulting tasks pop up.

Keep safe out there folks!

Compdude · March 25, 2020, 8:52pm

Day 5/21

Congratulations on completing Day 5!

The final task to add to the recommended daily routine is journaling.
Tracking results in a spreadsheet is all well and good. You need a journal to put down what your feelings, triumphs and disappointments. It’s also a good way to look back and see how you’ve evolved over your journey.

The Daily Routine recommended is now complete:

Morning Appreciation exercise
Daily Weigh In
Daily Exercise
Track Results
Journaling

Today’s video just replace “making your bed” with “daily morning routine”.

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My Daily Entry

Completed: 5 Days - 120 Hours
Weigh Loss: 1 pound (0.453592) fat
Total Weight Loss: 12 pounds (5.44311 kilos) - (10 lbs water & 2lbs fat)
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk & SW (Squats Workout)
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
Left knee was a bit stiff starting out on the walk. But the real test would be the uphill section. No pain. However, it started to ache walking up the driveway to the front door.

I lost another pound. I was a bit disappointed as from my previous fasts usually Day 5 started a week of daily 2 pound losses. We’ll see what tomorrow has in store.

Today has been tough. My oldest client is really stressed as she’s in the restaurant business and has been impacted by the pandemic. I almost quit. Even now, I’m taking a break from her before taking on a task she asked me to do. Well, I learned the truth of the saying “adversity reveals character”. I will say that when I’m able to I will DROP this client ASAP.

Exercise:
Today I thought I would start working toward doing a regular burpee. I’m thinking of doing the 100 burpees a day for 30 days challenge for my next 30-day workout phase. Found this great YouTube video on how to progress to performing regular and advanced burpees:

Problem is when I squatted I couldn’t quite get my palms flat on the floor when trying to perform a Gentle Burpee. At first, I thought of giving up but then thought better of it. Instead I changed the workout to doing 10 rep squats with each rep working of getting those palms flat on the floor. Did 23 total reps. Didn’t get there but I got closer.

I’ll add more stretching exercises to my regular Flexibility Workout and keep doing the Squat Workout on this part of my 4-day exercise cycle. The goal being by the end of my 21-day fast being able to do a regular burpee.

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW
Wed 3/25 - 1 mile walk & NEW SW (Squat Workout)
Thu 3/26 - 1 mile walk & FBW

Writing:
Worked on the book some more. The break was good for my writing. Good news is I’ve been negotiating with someone who I’ve collaborated with in the past. She’s amenable to working together but is concerned about the time demands. I answered I’m willing to adapt to her schedule as I have speaking and possible getting re-certified as a Personal Trainer to keep me busy. I told her my goal is to have this book be able help as many people as possible and not to rush it out there as a money grab.

Speaking:
It’s been 8 days since I last worked on the speech. It was just what I needed as I finally nailed the conclusion. Now its just a matter of daily practicing until the Round 2 contest.

Keep safe and sane out there folks!

donna · March 25, 2020, 9:17pm

I hate burpees!

Compdude · March 26, 2020, 9:07pm

Day 6/21

Congratulations on completing Day 6!

One of the most important things I’m working on accomplishing with my journey is to change my behavior. After all, its my previous behaviors that led to my health crisis in 2010. It got me curious as has there been research into the topic on the best motivation practices to change behavior. There has and here’s a TedTalk about it.

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My Daily Entry

Completed: 6 Days - 144 Hours
Weigh Loss: 2 pounds (0.907185) fat
Total Weight Loss: 14 pounds (6.35029 kilos) - (10 lbs water & 4lbs fat)
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk & FBW
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
First time in awhile I was able to walk with NO stiffness in the feet and ankles. The problematic left knee only twinged once when I finished the uphill portion of my walk. The right ankle twinged while in the shower after the walk and the Full Body workout. I can live with that.

It makes me realize I need to re-examine my Refeed diet for foods that are inflammatory and causing flare ups of my osteoarthritis. Because I believe the abatement of my symptoms is because of the cutoff of foods causing the inflammatory response in my joints. Oh well, another research project to add to my list!

I lost 2 pounds which is a signal that I’m in full ketosis now. I’m curious to see how long the trend of 2lbs/day loss continues. During my 40-day the trend lasted 8 days and during my last 21-day it lasted 5 days. (Another reason why you should be disciplined in your record keeping is to be able to do these type of analysis) It should be interesting because my body has more lean muscle mass and I’m able to do more strenuous exercise than in the previous 2 prolonged fasts.

Today’s work stress not as bad as yesterday. Focused on the fact that the threats, ultimatums and snarky comments coming from clients is due to stress and lack of sleep. Therefore, I just ignored them and stayed focused on the details of the tasks that were asked of me. It’ worked, at least for today.

Exercise:
As planned, now that I’m in full ketosis I froze all my workouts at their current levels except for additions to allow me to be able to do a regular burpee at the end of this fast. Felt strong at the end of my workout today.

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW
Wed 3/25 - 1 mile walk & NEW SW (Squat Workout)
Thu 3/26 - 1 mile walk & FBW
Fri 3/27 - 1 mile walk & FW

Writing:
Too drained from work stress to work on the book.

Speaking:
Got in a practice session on the updated speech. Still knocking the rust off as I missed a couple of needed phrases and still working out the kinks in the conclusion. But its getting there.

This Saturday I have a virtual conference call from my Toastmasters Division Director in which she’ll report on the dry run and what the details will be for our own Division Contest.

Re-Certification as Personal Trainer.
I’m thinking I’ll just get re-certified with NASM (National Association of Sports Medicine) as they are the most respected organization along with ACE. I’ll look at their website after I finish journaling.

Keep safe and sane out there folks!

Compdude · March 27, 2020, 9:32pm

Day 7/21 - 1 week DOWN and 2 weeks TO GO!

Congratulations on completing Day 7!

Celebrating the first week milestone reached:

One of the best movie scenes that communicates the importance of staying in the moment is from the movie, The Last Samurai.

“Life with every breath, that is the Way of the Warrior.” Stay strong everyone.

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My Daily Entry

Completed: 7 Days - 168 Hours
Weigh Loss: 1 pound (0.453592) fat
Total Weight Loss: 15 pounds (6.80389 kilos) - (10 lbs water & 5lbs fat)
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk, FW & Flexibility exercises
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
Did the flexibility stretches before my walk which allowed me to increase my gait. Left knee twinged once on the downhill and the right ankle throbbed a bit after my shower. Otherwise, pain free.

I was only .2 away from losing 2lbs since in my record keeping I always round up. Close enough for me to consider that I’m still on a 2lb/day streak as I can’t remember yesterday’s fraction.

My new mental discipline on ignoring everything but details of the task to be completed is keeping the stress away.

Also, its the first time during a prolonged fast I’m not having problems sleeping. Guess its a combination of my body adapting to prolonged fasting and being physically tired from my increased exercise load.

Exercise:
I added the seated hip twist stretch, the side lying quad stretch and standing calf stretches before my walk to today’’s exercise. Here’s the YouTube video I got the seated hip stretch from, the other two are from videos posted in my S2E1 30-Day Flexibility and Endurance Journal.

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW
Wed 3/25 - 1 mile walk & NEW SW (Squat Workout)
Thu 3/26 - 1 mile walk & FBW
Fri 3/27 - 1 mile walk, FW & FE (Flexibility Exercises)
Sat 3/28 - 2 mile walk & AW

Writing:
Got my writing in for a piece to be included in the Prolonged Fasting section.

Speaking:
Got in a practice session. Smoother but still a couple of rough patches. Really happy with how the conclusion is coming along.

Re-Certification as Personal Trainer:
Found out that a mandatory requirement for NASM re-certification is renewing my CPR & AED certification. Did research and I found a company that holds classes 1 mile from my house. I’ll register when I’m ready. The certification is good for 2 years.

Checked out the NASM website. Sent an inquiry email on what I need to do to renew my certification beyond the CPR/AED certification. They’re closed down for COVID-19 like everyone else. Hopefully, they’re still checking emails.

Keep safe and sane out there folks!

Compdude · March 28, 2020, 10:05pm

Day 8/21

Congratulations on completing Day 8!

Continuing with our Way of the Warrior:

Way of the Warrior:

Life with Every Breath
Give Your Very Best

“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.” ― E.O. Wilson

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My Daily Entry

Completed: 8 Days - 192 Hours
Weigh Loss: 2 pounds (0.907185 kilos) fat
Total Weight Loss: 17 pounds (7.71107 kilos) - (10 lbs water & 7lbs fat)
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 2 miles walk & AW
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
Practicing “acting” instead of “reacting” to events. Helped in maintaining my emotional equilibrium yesterday during another stressful day with clients. A Peaceful Warrior technique.

Exercise:
On the 2 mile walk, increased my stride, which caused my problematic left knee to twinge twice during the 1st mile. I expected that since the stress points shifted with the longer stride. On the 2nd mile the knee started twinging multiple times plus I was getting winded. Decreased my stride length and that solved both problems.

During the Ab Workout, I drew on the Giving Your Best techniques. During Upper Abs, I wanted to give up at 50 reps and just reminded myself am I giving my very best. Finished at the targeted 75 reps. Obliques were not a problem. The Lower Abs were a challenge with the leg lifts. At 45 I wanted to quit, just repeated the question. At 60, it started to burn. At 70, it really hurt. Then I finished and it felt like the place where my legs joined my hips were on fire. But I DID IT!

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW
Wed 3/25 - 1 mile walk & NEW SW (Squat Workout)
Thu 3/26 - 1 mile walk & FBW
Fri 3/27 - 1 mile walk, FW & FE (Flexibility Exercises)
Sat 3/28 - 2 mile walk & AW
Sun 3/29 - 1 mile walk & SW

Writing:
Got buried under consulting work again. Will work on it later today.

Speaking:
Got in another practice session. The number of hiccups has come down to only a couple. The conclusion’s wording is set, now’s its a matter of practice to make it smooth.

Earlier this afternoon, I attended a Zoom virtual conference call going over the technical details on the virtual Round 2 contest to be held Saturday. Now, I have to work on maximizing all the tech resources an location where I’ll be performing on my end:

High-end computer with a good camera
Place to perform the speech with excellent lighting
Place should have high Internet band-width and not be close to any competing Wi-Fi hot spots
Schedule and complete a dry run to make sure all the technical pieces fit together.

I have 1 week as the Round 2 contest is next Saturday at 9am.

Personal Trainer Re-Certification:
Waiting on email response from NASM.

Keep safe and sane out there folks!

Kyle · March 28, 2020, 11:47pm

Thanks for posting your updates. I especially like the videos you include. I went and watched the Peaceful Warrior the other day because of your videos. I really enjoyed the film. Good work on your fast! Impressive.

Compdude · March 29, 2020, 1:11am

The book is even better! One of the 3 books that changed my life. The other two both by Richard Bach, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” and “Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah”.

Compdude · March 29, 2020, 9:06pm

Day 9/21

Congratulations on completing Day 9!

Continuing with our Way of the Warrior:

“The Power is in the Choices YOU make EVERY day.”

Way of the Warrior:

Life with Every Breath
Give Your Very Best
Determination NOT Precision

“The possibilities are numerous when we decide to ACT and not REACT. - George Bernard Shaw

—————————————————————————————-
My Daily Entry

Completed: 9 Days - 216 Hours
Weigh Loss: 2 pounds (0.907185 kilos) fat
Total Weight Loss: 19 pounds (8.61826 kilos) - (10 lbs water & 9lbs fat)
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk. SW (Cancelled)
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
The stress from last week, pushing myself physically and the hours working on speaking and writing caught up with me. The first sign was I had no problem going to sleep. The issue was I couldn’t STAY asleep. Went to bed at 11pm and woke at 3pm. Tried going back to sleep by playing music. Only slept fitfully for another 2 1/2 hours. On my 1 mile walk I felt it. When I tried doing my Squat workout, I ran out of gas on the 3rd rep. So I cancelled the workout.

NOTE:. It’s important to know the difference between tired muscles and low energy. As evidenced yesterday, I pushed past the limitations of my tired upper and lower ab muscles despite the protestations of my muscles because I still had lots of energy. Today, I didn’t push it because that’s when you run the risk of injury.

I was right as an hour later I took a 3 hour nap earlier this morning.

I knew eventually I’d have to reign in my workouts as I got deeper into the fast. However, I expected it to happen when I hit detoxing when I started burning decades-old belly fat. Since I haven’t gotten to that point yet as I’m 8lbs away I will evaluate my energy level at the beginning of each day.

Exercise:
On the walk, the left knee twinged once and I felt my right knee feel a little achy. (BTW, I’ve injured both knees playing sports I had no right playing in: basketball for the left and volleyball for the right.). Right ankle felt sore during my usual “wet” hot treatment after exercising.

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW
Wed 3/25 - 1 mile walk & NEW SW (Squat Workout)
Thu 3/26 - 1 mile walk & FBW
Fri 3/27 - 1 mile walk, FW & FE (Flexibility Exercises)
Sat 3/28 - 2 mile walk & AW
Sun 3/29 - 1 mile walk. SW (Cancelled)
Mon 3/30 - 1 mile walk & SW

Writing:
I had a friend of mine edit the first section of my book. She sent me pics of the edits since she uses a word processing app I don’t have. Also got an email from another friend who read the same section and gave me her thoughts. I applied both edits and comments into revising the section. I’m very happy with it.

I think I will go and review my edited journal entries during that time. When I finish that, I will now have my writing sample that I can submit to literary agents when I’m ready. Will have to have a completed table of contents ready also.

Speaking:
Reflecting on the format of the upcoming virtual speech contest I made the decision I’m going to have to hold 2 practice sessions now. The first session is practicing the content of the speech. The second session is working on the staging and blocking like I’m performing for a single camera. Luckily, I spent a year in acting school and I did have a stint on a reality show to draw upon. I believe this additional staging and blocking practice will give me an edge in the competition.

Also, I called the Toastmaster club member who is holding a meeting at her law office to allow me to do a live practice, this Thursday. I explained I wanted to change the format to replicate the same conditions of the virtual contest format. I was able to get her permission to go down to her office and do a “location evaluation” tomorrow between 1pm and 3pm. Since some of our members may be reluctant to attend the meeting because of COVID-19 concerns, it works out for me as they can attend via Zoom and give me their evaluations on my speech performance after viewing it from their phones and computers thereby replicating what the judges will see. So it works out for me.

Keep safe and sane out there folks!

donna · March 30, 2020, 2:21pm

I hear you on that! Looking in the mirror I can see the residue hormonal fluctuation still showing up, but eventually it’s got to give way.

Compdude · March 30, 2020, 11:39pm

Day 10/21

Congratulations on completing Day 10!

Continuing with our Way of the Warrior:

Context for video: Dan, a collegiate gymnast has suffered a terrible motorcycle accident in which he broke his leg casting doubts on whether he will ever compete again. He’s commiserating with his mentor Socrates in a room at the service station where Soc works:

Way of the Warrior:

Life with Every Breath
Give Your Very Best
Determination NOT Precision
Stay in the Moment - Take Out the Trash
A warrior does NOT give up what he loves, he finds the love in what he does
Life is Choice. You can choose to a victim or anything you want to be
A warrior acts. He/she does NOT react.
There is NO starting or stopping. Only doing.
A warrior is NOT about invulnerability. He’s about TOTAL vulnerability.

“You are NEVER given a wish without being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it. however.”.

Richard Bach, author.

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My Daily Entry

Completed: 10 Days - 240 Hours
Weight Loss: 2 pounds (0.907185 kilos) fat
Total Weight Loss: 21 pounds (9.52544 kilos) - (10 lbs water & 11lbs fat)
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk & SW
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
Still a bit tired; but, I have more energy than yesterday. Felt it during both the Squat workout and the 1 mile walk. Less stressful day working with clients, so that’s a blessing.

Compared where I am now on the current 21-day to my last 21-day. Exact same weight loss of 21lbs. Tomorrow will tell me a lot as it was on Day 11 my weight loss decreased to 1lb/day.

I hope to do the scheduled workout tomorrow but will see how the energy level is.

Exercise:
Bottom of the left foot stiff. Did not prevent me from exercising though that combined with the fatigue made me shorten my stride on the walk.

During the Squat Workout, I was able to touch the floor with the upper half of my palms. I felt I could have gone lower but my shaky balance prevented me. From here on out I’m going to do 1 set of 10 reps focusing on improving that balance and flexibility as its pretty exhausting getting all those muscles strengthening and coordinating when I can.

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW
Wed 3/25 - 1 mile walk & NEW SW (Squat Workout)
Thu 3/26 - 1 mile walk & FBW
Fri 3/27 - 1 mile walk, FW & FE (Flexibility Exercises)
Sat 3/28 - 2 mile walk & AW
Sun 3/29 - 1 mile walk. SW (Cancelled)
Mon 3/30 - 1 mile walk & SW
Tue 3/31 - 1 mile walk & FBW

Writing:
Finished a piece for the Reference section. Started editing the 14 Daily Journal entries I wrote during the Potato Diet.

Speaking:
Got in my scheduled practices: writing out the speech and blocking and staging in front of my iPad camera.

Walked to the lawyer’s office (that was my 1 mile walk). Went through a tech check. Ran through another blocking and staging practice as I was able to confirm its available for me to use for the contest this Saturday besides Thursday for the dry run. Also conferenced in a friend who I did a partial blocking and staging to get her feedback on what she saw from her home.

All in all a very good day!

Keep safe and sane out there folks!

iGallivant · March 31, 2020, 2:20am

u got this!

Compdude · March 31, 2020, 8:59pm

Day 11/21 - Final Countdown: 10 days TO GO!

Congratulations on completing Day 11!

Starting today we are going to take a different journey by using the inspirational 1993 movie, Rudy starring Sean Astin and the first significant movie role of Jon Favreau best known for as the director of Marvel’s Iron Man.

Context for video: Rudy’s dream is to play football for the University of Norte Dame. Faced with the fact his grades aren’t good enough he takes the same road as his dad and brother which is to work at the local steel mill. However, he doesn’t entirely give up. The one thing that helps him keep his dream alive is his best friend.

Lesson: Find that supportive friend(s) that believe in YOU no matter what.

Personally, I have two. An ex-girlfriend and a young man who overcome a time of being homeless during his teen years and is now set to graduate from the University of Southern California in May.

“Ask yourself the secret to YOUR success. Listen to YOUR answer, and practice it”

Richard Bach, author.

—————————————————————————————-
My Daily Entry

Completed: 11 Days - 264 Hours
Weight Loss: 2 pounds (0.907185 kilos) fat
Total Weight Loss: 23 pounds (10.4326 kilos) - (10 lbs water & 13lbs fat)
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk & FBW
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
Still having trouble staying asleep. My YouTube music playlists are coming in handy in lulling me back to sleep.

Happy that my streak of losing 2lbs/day continues. During my 1 mile walk got winded the last .1. However, during my Full Body Workout I was fine. Interesting that my aerobic endurance is taking a hit; but, not my anaerobic.

Exercise:
Upped my game on the chest press. Instead of doing the 15lb dumbbells, I went for grabbing the edge of my work desk and doing the chest press that way. A bit more challenging since I had to do them continuously for 45 seconds. Will do the same technique once more. If I feel good, will progress to using the edge of my office chair which will be at a lower angle.

What I’m very happy about is all the work at building lean muscle mass during the preceding 30-day workout phase is showing visible signs. Doing the elbow-to-opposite knee exercise for working the obliques, I could see the definition of my quads. Also seeing the outline of my abs in the stomach area. Didn’t see that in my previous 21-day fast.

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW
Wed 3/25 - 1 mile walk & NEW SW (Squat Workout)
Thu 3/26 - 1 mile walk & FBW
Fri 3/27 - 1 mile walk, FW & FE (Flexibility Exercises)
Sat 3/28 - 2 mile walk & AW
Sun 3/29 - 1 mile walk. SW (Cancelled)
Mon 3/30 - 1 mile walk & SW
Tue 3/31 - 1 mile walk & FBW
Wed 4/1 - 1 mile walk & FW

Writing:
Didn’t have time with the location scout of the lawyer’s office, tech check and blocking and staging.

Speaking:
Got in my scheduled practices: writing out the speech and blocking and staging practice this morning.

Personal Trainer Re-certification:
Got an email from NASM. They’ve updated their certification content as I thought might be the case. Had a couple questions I sent in reply.
Waiting to hear back.

Stay safe and sane out there folks!

Compdude · April 1, 2020, 9:04pm

Day 12/21 - Final Countdown: 9 days TO GO!

Congratulations on completing Day 12!

Continuing with the inspirational 1993 movie, Rudy.

Context for video: Rudy has left his hometown after his best friend, Pete, died in a steel mill accident. In spite of his father telling him at the bus stop that following dreams only lead to sadness for the family, Rudy boards the bus to South Bend where the University of Notre Dame is located…

Lesson: Don’t let the doubters destroy your dream.

I have come far since August 9th. Become medication free, regaining my health, writing a book, competing in the tournament for the World Championship of Public Speaking and meeting so many amazing people. I’ve had the doubters; but, I politely acknowledged their opinions and ignored them.

“The journey is what brings us happiness. NOT the destination.”

Dan Millman, author.

—————————————————————————————-
My Daily Entry

Completed: 12 Days - 288 Hours
Weight Loss/gain: 0
Total Weight Loss: 23 pounds (10.4326 kilos) - (10 lbs water & 13lbs fat)
BGL: Normal
Exercise: 1 mile walk, FW & FS (Flexibility Stretches)
Energy: ( In Pain, Tired, Ok, Strong)

Personal:
I’m at that point its time to crank back on the exercise. Yesterday, after writing my journal entries a wave of fatigue hit me. Had to lie down for 45 minutes. Today, I had to breathe through my mouth to get enough oxygen for my body to burn the fat stores while walking up hill. Also I had to take frequent breaks during the Flexibility Workout. One piece of good news. My balance is getting better. During the one-legged 3 way (swing leg back and forth, then to the side and finally bring the knee up and rotate out), I didn’t have to use holding onto my work desk as much. I want to finish the 4-day exercise cycle though, so I will do the final day of a 2 mile walk. Then its just 1 mile daily walks from here on out; especially since I’m close to going through the detox part of my fast.

Sad that my streak of losing 2lbs/day ended with today’s plateau. I expected it would happen sometime as my last 21-day fast I experienced 2 1-day plateaus. Interested to see if I pick up back to 2lb loss or decrease to 1lb loss.

Exercise:
Did my hip, quad & calf stretches before the walk. During the squats, still can’t quite get my palms flat on the ground. With my eliminating the workouts from my daily exercise it will have to wait until I start a new 30-day workout phase after the ReFeed.

Fri 3/20 - 2 mile walk
Sat 3/21 - 1 mile walk
Sun 3/22 - 1 mile walk & FBW (Full Body Workout)
Mon 3/23 - 1 mile walk, FW (Flexibility Workout) & AW (Abs Workout)
Tue 3/24 - 2 mile walk & AW
Wed 3/25 - 1 mile walk & NEW SW (Squat Workout)
Thu 3/26 - 1 mile walk & FBW
Fri 3/27 - 1 mile walk, FW & FE (Flexibility Exercises)
Sat 3/28 - 2 mile walk & AW
Sun 3/29 - 1 mile walk. SW (Cancelled)
Mon 3/30 - 1 mile walk & SW
Tue 3/31 - 1 mile walk & FBW
Wed 4/1 - FE. 1 mile walk & FW
Thu 4/2 - 2 mile walk & AW

Writing:
Suspending until Monday, April 6th in order to increase practicing in front of the computer camera for the contest.

Speaking:
Content practice: 1st time NO hiccups.
Camera practice: Smoother than last time.

Personal Trainer Re-certification:
Got one question answered. Waiting on answers to my final questions.

Stay safe and sane out there folks!

Anna · April 2, 2020, 2:33pm

What a fighter!
So impressed by your determination!