3:30 AM: VR Wakeup/Warmup

My initial reaction as I kicked things off this morning was that I need more time! Sure, I had my coffee, butter and ice already set to transform into my morning drink, but I didn't set aside my keys, wallet or clothes for the morning. I gonna have to reexamine my 3:30 AM activity. Honestly, a 3:20 AM would have eased up things.

And thus, it totally ate into my VR time. I only did one song, that video I posted the other day with the Black Panther. I hit all 400-whatever boxes and still only came in 2nd place on my personal best. It was a good way to get up to speed on being alert.

4:00 AM: Resistance, Back

My 55 lb NordicTrack Select-A-Weight Dumbbells will arrive were canceled by Amazon today, so I used what I had, a pair of 25 lb DB sand weights, which was adequate for some sets and not enough for others. I only had 45 minutes before I drove off to the gym and it was not enough time.

• DB shrugs, 5x15
• Stiff-leg DB deadlifts, 5x15
• DB pullover, 5x15
• Bent over DB row, 3x15

I didn't have enough time with the last one, which is why it was only 3 sets. I wanted a 5th exercise, but again...yes, not enough time. Now for this new start, instead of a rest of 45 seconds between sets as I have done in the past, I gave myself a full minute.

5:00 AM: Cardio @theGym

You know what's a wild ride? Thinking a doppelgänger of a friend is the real McCoy. It's like, "Hey you—oh, wait—nevermind." I just pedaled on to complete my hour of stationary bike. Incidentally, I went a tenth further than on Saturday. A goal of 12 miles seems to be a good target with my current status.

While my plan was to do an inclined treadmill for an additional hour, my leg combined with hitting my head on limited time had me just doing a third of it.

Overall, I need to smooth out the rough edges of my program. Oh, there's yard work that awaits today and my pool time, but those are straightforward. It bugs me that I had to wait longer for Amazon to deliver the dumbbells until today and they just canceled it for no reason. That said, I don't mind putting $383 back into my pocket.

Something I Ran Across: Karl Casey

I like his sound:

YouTube Link

Saturday's Fitness Training

I have a solid, overall training regimen in place. An embed of the Google Calendar is on the Fitness page with a decent responsive styling. Honestly, Google really ought to provide something other than iframes for its rendering, but one gets the sense that they quit the development of the product a decade ago.

At any rate, I crammed a lot of good things into today!

Project Planning (4-6am)

I mapped out where I am going, something I will be planning every Saturday as I review my progress. It is beneficial to do this weekly.

Yoga & Meditate (7-8am)

I did not do too much yoga. In my first rep of a Sun Salutation, my patella said, "No you're not." I brought in my old gamma waves into my meditation session via my Bluetooth sleep mask.

VR (8-8:45am)

I played a new game, Gods of Gravity:

YouTube Link

I followed it up with the party mode of Beat Saber so that I could face off with my high scores for five songs, including the first one I did in that mode back in early December: The Weeknd's Save Your Tears. Yep, beat my personal best. I am lighter; I am faster.

Stationary Bike at the Gym (9-10am)

I had my second biking session since joining the gym. For now, I like to maintain a cadence of 65 and adust levels/resistance accordingly. Eventually, I will punch that up in the upcoming weeks when my right quad finally comes to the party. It is the first I recorded with the equipment's app:

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Hey, and I did not spill my complimentary coffee again on that cooldown walk!

Fuel Up (11:15 AM)

I drink 12 tbsps of butter in my iced coffee before heading up to the gym each day. Now for today, what I whipped up after my gym time was fantastic! I cooked a whisked egg on a small pan in a tablespoon of bacon fat until it was leaning toward being brown. My intent was that it could be a taco shell. I then did another. I cooked my standard half package of bacon and...whala: 2 bacon tacos. I omitted the ground beef because I emotionally ate some prosciutto last night and wanted to pull back from the chance of that gluconeogenesis.

Pool Things & Weeding (just too long)

At one point, I just had a pair of needle nose pliers going after the neglected growth that is housed in the cracks next to the pool. *sigh*

@thePool: Cardio (4-4:45pm)

I just ran around with a skimmer in hand.

Retrowave

This has become one of my favorite songs to train to on Beat Saber. Now, I have already recognized The Weeknd is Michael Jackson Meets Synthwave. Today is the first time I have seen this video—it totally confirms my take. I want to build myself into THIS:

YouTube Link

Retrowave is coming back to this site.

Hometown Pride

I have now been a re-resident of Bartlett for over a month now. It is good to be back, though it is a stranger world than the one I left behind. Everything and everyone seem the way they should be, but it is just a little off-kilter, as if traveling through parallel worlds in the Sliders universe and I almost got it right in finding home again. Close enough. I just hit the one where Bolton, cotton fields and all, is a Memphis City School, Wolfchase is the Mall of Memphis and friends are not who they once were.

Fat Fast

A couple of nights ago, I consumed a LOT of protein; I ate a couple of days worth: 147 grams! I just had one of those days when I was hungry! OK, so, I actually overate. Hey, it was prosciutto and some slim, ALDI ribeye-simply irresistible! I may have worked a few hours out in the yard.

That evening, I thought I'd give something a shot for the next day, something I've heard other carnivores do in various iterations: a fat fast.

Now, I am no stranger to actual fasting, that is, water fasting. There have been an endless array of 1-2 day ones and others at various lengths, with my favorite being that 4+26 one in the Czech Republic that closed up my graduate work.

I had full confidence I could take on a single day. And frankly, this really isn't a fast, not in terms of discipline. All I did was make sure I hit my mark of 200 grams of fat. I already do the 0-carb thing. I could go without protein for a day.

It was simple: I did my standard stick-and-a-half of butter into an iced coffee in the morning. Later, I did the same with 6 tbsps of butter. That was my day.

Would I term it a fast? No, I would not. I am already adapted to a carnivore diet and I did not feel as though I abstained from anything. I just didn't eat protein for the day so as to mitigate the gluconeogenesis from the other day.

Yeah, that's the whole thrust of my HFC approach this time around: to avoid excess protein consumption thereby kicking off gluconeogenesis.

Fitness Schedule

Coming soon! I've got the general schedule in place and now I've gotta hammer out the daily schedule. Stay tuned!

Another Resolution Goes Down

A couple of days ago, I shaved off my untouched, New Year Beard. That Yeard will have to be shelved for 2024. I liked it, though I regretted I ever colored it. Still, I did it as I began taking my physical training seriously. I've got the resolutions in the shop right now as I figure out where in the heck do I want to take them.