I pay myself to do the things I want to

[andrewducker]

I've been meaning to get myself back into some kind of basic fitness for a while. I've so busy and stressed for goodness knows how long that I kept starting things and then something would happen that would throw me off, and I'd make excuses and stop again, against my better judgement.*

So, having bumped into a few people using BeeMinder to keep track of what they were doing, and spur them into doing it more, I signed up at the end of March, determined to go from a fitness of "fuck all" to "do something basic".** So I told it I wanted to start at 5 push-ups, and be doing 50 by the time I get married. And today I'm halfway there:


Now, BeeMinder can just keep track of things for you. But if you find it easy to drop out of your goals then you can do what I did. I bet them $5 I'd stay on track. And so far, I really have. I get a daily email from them, telling me how long I have until that yellow line catches up with me, and I make damn sure I can stay above it.

You can see how I'm doing here, if such things interest you (and also see the legend for the graph, if you want to know what all the different things mean).



*An effect known as Akrasia.
**I learned a long time ago that you have to start small and go for small increments. I watched a couple of flatmates start off a new exercise regime by pushing themselves too hard, pulling muscles, and never doing it again.

Comments

[likeneontubing.livejournal.com]

5 full push ups still isn't small -more than ic an do :)

[andrewducker]

True - my arm strength wasn't completely gone from previous health things. But it wasn't anything like it used to be. And I'm still massively less fit than when I used to play badminton.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Once you're married we should investigate badminton again!

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

If there is a badminton game to be had it's one of my favourite participation sports.

(Just saying)

[andrewducker]

That would be awesome. Used to play it regularly at Meadowbank, but I stopped when I got overloaded for time (about two years ago). I'll mention if/when I'm restarting!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

If you two are working on a doubles match... I used to play a lot.

[andrewducker]

That sounds lovely!

[likeneontubing.livejournal.com]

really well done though - 25 full push ups is an achievement :)

[andrewducker]

The week without any input, by the way, is due to my illness. I'm very glad I had some buffer space at the time.

[recycled-sales.livejournal.com]

That's a brilliant idea! I can generally manage about 2 weeks of regular exercise before I find excuses/ forget, so I'll be (bee) giving this a shot.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Quick suggestion - doing a lot of push-ups is how I bulked up a few years before I met you, but it gave me some problems subsequently.

Make sure you're exercising the opposing muscle groups too (don't know what they are off the top of my head, but Google will), and some pec and lat stretches probably wouldn't go amiss. Otherwise you're risking nasty side-effects from pec and lat tension, which can include, say, RSI.

[andrewducker]

Thanks, well worth knowing!

I'll probably switch over to something else once I hit that goal anyway - it was just something to get my exercising kickstarted. But I'll take a look into it to make sure I don't do something nasty to myself.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

50 is a lot. Once you can do 20+ (as you can) they won't (probably) make your muscles grow as they are insufficiently challenging. try elevating your feet that's harder. Stamina isn't everything.... [well, might be handy for some interesting activites ;-) ]

Yeah, totally 2nd the "use opposing muscle groups" thing - Rows or chins are the opposing action. There's an excellent book for bodyweight no (or minimal) equipment exercise which I am just in love with and can't recommend highly enough. You Are Your Own Gym

Its "Eating" section is pretty damn near perfect too (I think I can fault it on only ONE really minor technical point).

[andrewducker]

At the moment my stamina isn't up to a huge amount. Getting back into badminton (or jogging, or something else similar) will probably help a lot. I don't like getting out of breath after five minutes of exercise.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Have just bought that book - if I can find a way to exercise without doing my knees in that would be great!

[hirez.livejournal.com]

The 'couch to 5k' thing, is also a good thing. Although do go to a good running shop and get your gait looked at. I have shonky ankles due to lots of falling over (and only sometimes when drunk) and the flat feet, so it looks like someone giving it the full Rimmer with the wrong appendages when I run, but a fitted-by-experts-worn-by-a-pillock set of runners makes all the difference.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Right, doing that now!

https://www.beeminder.com/ciphergoth/goals/nosesteroids

[andrewducker]

Cool! Make sure you have the right kind of graph - they have several different types, and I started out with one that wasn't a good fit and had to restart.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I went for a "Do Things" graph, is that the right sort?

[andrewducker]

Kind of - I think that tracks number of things done per day. You want to track how often you've done things in the last week, which isn't going to work quite the same.

I recommend dropping them a line - they responded really quickly when I contacted them.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I'll wait until I can see it not working, then I'll be in a better position to describe.

I also just installed this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bsoule.tagtime

Am interested to learn more about how to use record-keeping to improve my life...

[andrewducker]

Right now that would mostly be "Work", "Wedding" or "Futzing about on the internet in an attempt to destress about one of the above".

I'm tempted to give it a go in September though!

[davidcook.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I guess I've been doing something similar with cycling over the past few years, using mycyclinglog.com - just having the record there of every ride, and some idea of my progress towards the goal (5000km this year - was 6500 last year, 6000 the year before), helps to motivate me.

I can also compare my progress to a whole bunch of other cyclists in Melbourne, and last year it motivated me to try to maintain my position. This year ... well, there's been a baby, progress has been slower for some reason, but I'm still riding - and in fact, spent 10 minutes in Excel this afternoon working out how long I'll need to ride 3 days a week for at the end of the year to make my goal if I get through the winter doing 2 days a week ...

[erratio.livejournal.com]

nifty! Now that my own accountability group has more or less given up I might try giving this a shot

[soon_lee]

Good for you. Making it into a habit is the hardest part for me. Building up from a small base works for me too.

The fittest I ever was was when I walked to the lab every day (~40 minutes each way). Because I didn't have to think about doing it, it was easy.

Currently with the swimming thing, I started with once a week lessons (last August) & built it up from there.