The digital journal

Brand New.

raulrdg — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 13:41:43 +0200

So, after a couple of painful walking weeks, I found out that my knee was really hurting me, so I went to 2 different doctors, got some X-rays of my legs and started physiotherapy (looks like I have this one weak muscle that isn’t pulling my left knee as it should be, easily fixable). That kind of dropped me off the “let’s go training” mood, got a bit depressed finding out that my own body was against my plans.

But now, physiotherapy is going on, school is back and tomorrow I sign up for the school gym. Today (sunday) I am using most of the day to plan out my ideas, my meals, my workouts, my new life. I will take a picture of myself right after this post, and will save it somewhere online that only I or the people i choose will go look at. I will keep on a journal of self pictures, private.

My main goal? It’s a long distance goal, but it’s the only one I am really aiming for. To have the body of a fighter. More specifically?

Something around there. Yes it’s a pretty big change, but I need to change, I am getting really tired and bored with everything, even with myself! So I decided to go for a big change.

Well, I’ll try to post updates here as much as I remember to do so, and as soon as something new comes up, or as soon as I reach my goal, people will know.

The experiment.

raulrdg — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:10:02 +0200

I was quite scared when I woke up Monday morning. I hadn’t set my alarm the night before, and I didn’t know if it was 7 AM, 11 AM, or somewhere in-between. How late was I for work? To make it worse, my watches were locked away in a drawer in my desk. All the clocks in my house had tape or paper covering the time. Even the digital clock in the corner of my computer screen had been hidden, and all the settings on my alarm clock had, of course, been cleared.

I walked to the transit stop and took a bus — I still don’t know which one — to work. There seemed to be plenty of other commuters, so maybe I hadn’t slept in until noon. Fifteen minutes before my first meeting, the Outlook meeting alert didn’t go off. I had cancelled all alerts for the next work-week. Fortunately, a coworker walked by. ”Hey Erik, I’ll be a bit late to our meeting later on.”

“That’s okay!” I said, relieved for the first time all day. ”Just drop by my office whenever. I’m not going anywhere.” I sat back in my chair.

This was only the second morning of my grand experiment.

The Art of the Personal Experiment

Last fall, I decided it was a worthwhile idea to go without any time-telling mechanism for an entire week. No clocks, no watches, no alarms. The idea was born of a conversation with a friend about how much our wanting to know the time was useful and how much was just an addiction to some bit of knowledge that didn’t help us — something that made us feel better prepared, but didn’t make us any wiser.

Big questions to be tackling on a Monday morning, I’ll admit. And come the following Saturday night, I still hadn’t had a mind-blowing epiphany on the matter. I had more or less unreservedly arrived at the conclusion that knowing the time can be pretty useful, but isn’t always. Useful, I know. But while I laugh about it now, I don’t regret one second of that week.

See, I’ve got a thing for personal experiments. Self-science. In the past few years, I’ve done a week without clocks, a week with only one meal per day, a week of giving back to my network, and a stretch of a few months during which I recorded everything in my life that made me noticeably more happy or less happy. I’ve also kept track of more standard things at various times — how many push-ups I can do, how many carbs I’m eating, or how much money I’m spending.

In short, I’ve tried to treat my life as an experiment — or, rather, a series of short experiments. But whether it’s measuring if clocks are a needless stressor or figuring out the best weekly push-up routine, all of this self-experimenting stuff boils down to a few simple steps:

Think of a way in which you might live a better, happier life
Do that thing — at least for a short time
Reflect on what you learned and change your behavior accordingly

It’s not rocket science. In fact, it would be a stretch to call it science at all — but it’s based on the same basic principles: curiosity, a desire for improvement, and a humility towards finding the truth, wherever the search might lead. And it utilizes the same steps of the scientific method as well:

Ask a question
Do background research
Construct a hypothesis
Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment
Analyze your data and draw a conclusion
Communicate your results

In a way, though, this do-it-yourself experimentation has a leg up on labs and research papers. We live in a time where you can find studies to back up anything. Coffee is great for you. Coffee is awful for you. Fat is bad. Nope, it’s saturated fat. Just kidding, it’s carbs. Actually, meat is bad for you. Nope, you’re bad for meat.

In the noisy commotion of the science-media complex, sometimes the clearest voice is a simple one-man experiment. ”I tried two things. I found one was better. I’m going to do that thing until I find something even better.” Those with a background in science and engineering might balk: a sample size of one isn’t valid! How can you base your life off of something as trivial as a week-long, one-person experiment?

My answer is simple: I’m not trying to test cures for cancer here. Treating life like an experiment is about curiosity and attempting to live better, not “proving” beyond any shadow of a doubt the merits or demerits of any way of life. When I found that not driving to work drastically increased the chances of me not having a bad day, I’m wasn’t trying to legislate anything based on the conclusion. I’m just trying to figure out how I can get one step closer to better.

What to Test With Your Experiment

The experimental life is one of boundary-pushing and agency over one’s environment. To those ends, you can test almost anything. Here are a few things that I’ve heard about people testing — or experimented with myself.

Health and Exercise

Diet - The most common thing to experiment with. Give up carbs, give up snacks, give up all food for a day. A friend of mine ate nothing but ice cream for 100 hours — so there’s that too.
Endurance sports - Swap training plans. What’s better — long-distance cardio workouts or sprint/interval workouts? How do you recover from injuries faster?
Strength training - How frequently do you lift? Number of reps and sets? Does your sleep or diet affect your ability?
Sports skills - A very large category: golf swings, tennis serves, baseball pitches, etc. From rock climbing to unicycle riding, when’s the last time you put some variation and reflection in your training?

Work

Productivity - How do you focus and be most productive? What are your biggest time-wasters? There are all sorts of productivity systems out there, from the Action Method, to the Pomodoro Technique, to Kanbans.
Schedule - When are you most efficient? How often do you check email, and what if you checked it less?
Goal-setting - Do short-term or long-term goals help you achieve more in your job?

Lifestyle

Hobbies - Maybe you’re not intense enough about your hobbies to care how quickly you improve at them, but studying how you do at new, different activities is a great way to understand your personal learning style.
Addictions - What do you have an unhealthy dependence on? What do you default to when you feel stressed and lazy and can’t seem to pull yourself away from? As far as addiction testing goes, cold turkey experiments always yield the most fascinating results.
Any question about yourself - What makes you happy or unhappy?
Any question about others - What makes other people happy or unhappy? What is attractive to them? What is interesting? Use only for good!

Tools for Quantifying and Experimenting With Your Life

The Art of Manliness has long preached that true manliness is not about purchasing an image, buying gear, etc.– it’s how you act and the attitude you hold. Similarly, the experimental life is not one that requires fancy equipment or expensive tools.

In fact, depending on the experiment, you probably own everything you need to get started. But in the interest of knowing what’s out there, here are some apps and websites that are useful for running experiments on different aspects of your life. Most are either free or have a free version.

Excel or Google spreadsheets - If you’re tracking something quantitative or long-term, you’ll likely need a spreadsheet. Both Excel and Google spreadsheets are accessible anywhere and have great chart-making capabilities.
HealthMonth - This website is based around trying to make one-month improvements to your health. Quit caffeine for a month. No alcohol for a month. Etc.
NudgeMail - If you need to send yourself email reminders for whatever your experiment is, NudgeMail is a great service. Just email monday9am@nudgemail.com and whatever you put in the subject line will appear in your inbox at that time Monday morning. Or, if you’re in a long-term experiment and need reminders, daily8am@nudgemail.com.
RescueTime - Want to see what you’re spending your time on your computer doing? Rescue Time and similar programs are great for tracking your productivity and internet usage.
daytum - This site is devoted to tracking and displaying all kinds of data about yourself. Advanced experimenters only!

There’s also a few other things I want to mention in the area of data-tracking.

Quantified Self - This is an international network of self-tracking enthusiasts. They have free monthly meetings in cities around the world and lots of lessons online. As the name implies, this group is a bit more into the numerical side of things. I’ve always left their meetings excited and curious about myself and the world around me.
Fitbit - Fitbit is the most popular product I’ve seen for tracking some basic metrics around steps walked, calories burned, and sleep. You can clip it to your belt and whenever you’re within 15 feet of your computer, it will automatically upload all your data to your computer. At $100, this may be worth checking out, depending on what you want to measure and learn about yourself.

What I’ve Learned from Self-tracking and Living Out Experiments

Benjamin Franklin tracked his shortcomings for years and realized something that somehow evades many of us: we are not perfect, as hard as we try. But there’s a caveat. ”I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined,” he said, “but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.” He later added, “But, on the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.” We aren’t perfect, but we can be better, even if it’s just through the process of attempting to be so.

None of my forays into the experimental life are as weighty as Ben Franklin’s moral quest, but I feel like I’ve still learned a few worthwhile lessons — and while these may be nothing more than common sense to most people, learning them through my own experience means I’ve learned them better and will remember them longer.

If I want to eat healthy, the single best thing for me to do is never, ever see unhealthy food. I can resist any temptation until I see it.
If I want to be happy, I should go on good dates, eat healthy and delicious meals, enjoy nice weather, and plan things I’m excited about.
Being happy and avoiding unhappiness are not the same.
If I want to avoid stress, I should never drive in Seattle.
If I thought about whether or not to buy something for a length of time proportional to how much it cost, I’d save some headache and a lot more money.

As my Clockless Week drew to a close, I realized I had learned some things from that experiment too. The sun had made a better alarm clock than I thought. I hadn’t missed a single meeting at work (it helped that it was a slower season and my boss was out of town the whole week). Time did feel a bit more free and less stressed. There was a 45-minute wait at the restaurant Friday night, but I couldn’t have cared less. “That’s fine!” I beamed. ”We’ve got nowhere to be!”

Sunday morning, I woke up with nothing to do and no hurry to do it in. But I had a twitch. Before I brushed my teeth, before I got dressed, I went from room to room and peeled the tape off all the clocks. I still can’t figure out how it made me better off to know the time that morning, but even so, I had to breathe a sigh of relief.

It just felt good to know

Back on the youtube project “brazucas pelo mundo”,...

raulrdg — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:44:05 +0200

Back on the youtube project “brazucas pelo mundo”, that’s my latest video, from Paris! Can you help us grow by liking it?

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right."

raulrdg — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 20:26:22 +0200

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

- Henry Ford

September.

raulrdg — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:18:21 +0200

So, new month, decided to go full crazy on this one. Besides 3 days (from the 15 to 18) when I won’t be able to do much, i will dedicate 100% of myself to get better. Got some food tips and ideas with a friend, going into a no red meat diet, to add to the usual “Paleo-diet” that I’ve been on.

The plan is:

First phase: (1/09 ~ 21/09)

Still on vacations, therefore, 24h free time.

1- run, on a daily basis, not “walk”, not from home and back home. Actual run, go walking as a warm up and then run.
2- chicken and fish. Those are the meats, fish = mainly salmon. Will try to integrate sweet potatoes in there too.

Second phase: (21/09 ~ xx)

School is back.

1- get that gym card back on
2- opt in for English boxing
3- start the works, get real on it.

FLDI

My conscience is so heavy, That everything I eat, I feel bad, and somehow, I feel like throwing up?...

raulrdg — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 22:51:38 +0200

My conscience is so heavy, That everything I eat, I feel bad, and somehow, I feel like throwing up? I really need to find some motivation to start really working out, Otherwise this is not going to be good.

Upset

raulrdg — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:51:55 +0200

You can’t imagine how upset I am with myself right now, just calculated my levels with that usual website, got a real real bad result. The worst since i started it all! I don’t know what happened, where did it fail, what went wrong, but what I know is that I really am not happy with myself, with what I am looking like, with the way I’ve been living lately.

Need some new boost, some motivation.

Fuck.

Back on track

raulrdg — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 02:09:48 +0200

Yes i abandoned this tumblr, yes i abandoned everything i had promised.

But i am back on track now, hopefully for good.

Web design work of the week, continuation of another work, this...

raulrdg — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:57:19 +0200

Web design work of the week, continuation of another work, this is the website for the Johnnie Walker perfume.

Alright, I fell weird posting this, but well… This is what...

raulrdg — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:47:00 +0200

Alright, I fell weird posting this, but well… This is what I’m looking like right now. After 2 monthes of controlling my food and moderate phisical activity! Am i happy with what I got? Yes, and that’s good. Will I stop now? No, now I’m moving to phase nº2 of the changes, the gain.

This week’s school project, graphic communication. We had...

raulrdg — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:46:00 +0100

This week’s school project, graphic communication. We had to pick an existing brand and create a new product for it, that would be totally out of the brand’s original area. In my case I created a Johnny Walker perfume for men. The text says “we found his perfume!”

1st try of moving my Duke Nukem model, after the...

raulrdg — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:19:58 +0100

1st try of moving my Duke Nukem model, after the “skinning” process =)

Photo

raulrdg — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:03:00 +0100

4th mesures!

raulrdg — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:24:07 +0100

There we go again!:

178cm tall
76kg
100cm chest
75cm waist
38cm neck
33cm both arms
51cm both tights
42cm both calfs (the tibia area of the leg)

Usual website for BMI and Body fat, after a long month of controled food and not much sports, I got some pretty shocking results, I’m at my best right now, got a 24,0 BMI and a incredebly low 7,9% body fat! Weighting 76kg, my lean body mass is 70kg!

From now on, I’ll have to pay attention and focus myself on something I have never done: stop weight loss and start muscle gain. Oh boy.

3d work for school. started from 0.

raulrdg — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:07:17 +0100

3d work for school. started from 0.

Paris, cold Paris.

raulrdg — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:27:12 +0100

Paris, cold Paris.

Sudden BOOM

raulrdg — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:14:06 +0100

Well, my last picture post went oddly popular, considering that i don’t do much advertising for this tumblr! 12 likes/reblogs or something like so, it’s not much considering other tumblrs, but for this one, that is used to have 2 followers and only about 20 posts, it was impressive! Now there are 4 followers around here, and i’d love to say, Welcome to you all! I hope you enjoy reading about my personal goals and achievements, and that my own story inspires you to start boosting up your own life! :)

Third mesures!

raulrdg — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:10:58 +0100

There we go again!:

178cm tall
75.9kg
99cm chest
81cm waist
39cm neck
32cm both arms
56cm both tights
40cm both calfs (the tibia area of the leg)

Using the same usual website, the result was the expected ones this time, because of the weather and my new class times, i have missed my morning walks, body fat went back up to 12% and BMI is 24.2.

I will use this month to concentrate on some life quality areas, such as finding a job and controling my food with more will power.

Photo

raulrdg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:27:29 +0100

Weekends

raulrdg — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:57:00 +0100

So, today is sunday, 29/01/2012, and I decided to talk about this.

It’s the end of the weekend, tomorrow is monday and the week starts again, usual things. But ever since I can think about, I’ve never liked weekends. But now it’s just getting worst and worst! The problem with the weekends? Boredom. To have nothing to do is my biggest enemy, to sit around and just sit there is a very good definition of my personal hell. During the week days, there is quite a few things that I can keep myself busy with, things that will occupy my head and therefore won’t allow me to be bored, making everything good and awesome. That doesn’t happen on the weekends, and nothing lately has been helping out!

I won’t get into details about some stuff, but let’s say that some of the things that pass by my head scare the shit out of me, and I only have time to think about that when I’m bored, and that’s where the weekends are a big problem for me, such as vacations were I don’t have plans (also known as longer weekends). My only few things that would get my head busy on days that I don’t have classes would be

sports
work
friends
girlfriends

And guess what?

It’s been raining and cold: no sports.
I can’t find a job: no work.
My friends are busy and don’t go out: no friends.
I’m in trauma with relationships: no girlfriends.

Sports is going outside and running, doing push-ups/pull-ups and squats, since it’s raining almost daily, can’t go for that, and since I got no job, no money for gym. I’ve applied to jobs, but got no answers from them, all the friends I have are on the 2nd year of uni and are very busy with their projects, the rest of my friends live 10.000km from here. And the only girlfriend I’ve ever had hurt me enough when we broke up, that I can’t see myself getting into a relationship any time soon, on the level that the sight of my parents hugging make me fell sick.

Yes, I’m in a bit of a depression, as usual this only lasts 48h or so, it lasts for the weekend and than it’s gone, but as I’ve said, it’s getting worst, for a few reasons other than the ones I’ve shared here, reasons that don’t include only me and therefore I don’t fell like it would be right for me to share it, here at least. I’m just tired of being like this and knowing that I will be like this, living with the idea that everything is good and awesome only 5 days a week, and than in order to have it again, I must pass by this awful couple of days.

Sorry for the non-positive post, the crappy post. I’ll do all I can to avoid posting these around, I’ll do all I can to find something to save me from the weekends, something to keep my head busy 24/7.