1 year plan and hitting reset

[tweek]

The past few years have been both very stressful and a ton of fun, however I’ve decided thing are going to change. Back in May I had some interesting interactions with my career advisor that caused me to decide that I’m going to quit my job in one year. The drop dead date is 2014-06-01.
There are details that I won’t provide here as to why this will be possible, but quitting a job for me is not a big deal. However, it does require some preparation and being the chaotic person I am: I can’t make things easy. I also am going to fix some health trends that I do not like while I am at it.
To clarify, here are my goals:


Stop being a whiny little school girls who talks about starting a business and just !%#@#% get on with it. Whatever it takes this year I’m going to start some experiments on the side to produce income that will replace what I’m walking away from.
Get in proper shape. Proper shape to me means being able to pass the Marine Corp’s PFT with a score above 225 (Screw the age adjustment)
Spend more time with my family. Does this actually require explanation?


The business stuff will be challenging. I’m a software developer so I already have the tools to create products (I’ve done it all my life), I’m also a decent writer and have even been published. The stumbling block has always been the step after I’ve created a product. Things like marketing and advertising don’t come easily to me. Time to get over it and follow the many good examples I know.

I’m also going to take advantage of some classes and mentoring programs that are available. I’ll be happy to report back about their effectiveness after I’m done with them.

For the fitness thing: The first thing I can tell you is that just working out will not cause you to lose weight. Sucks. I’m not fat, but I’m heading there if I don’t do something about it now. So here’s the thing: not only do you need to work out you have to stop stuffing the twix bars down your pie hole.
Here is the program I’ll be following for the rest of July:
1. Slo-Carb diet
2. No soft drinks of any kind*
3. 3 mile run/walk daily with a total elapsed time of less than 28 minutes
4. 10 minute high intensity work out 2x a day

The soft drinks is actually a challenge to me b/c I drink way too much diet coke. Mostly out of habit, but the issue is that I don’t want to deal w/ caffeine withdrawals. The solution in my case is coffee and as a backup I bought a bottle of caffeine pills.
The high intensity workout thing has been discussed here. No idea how effective it will be which is why I’m only planning on doing it this month. I’ll report back in August if I like it or not.

Physically I actually have a date that I need to work toward. In October Tiger Valley has their bug out drill which is a 15+ mile obstacle course. I’d like to finish in the first quartile of participants which is a tall order. Some of the people who show up are pretty hardcore.
The diet aspect is not a big deal to me b/c generally speaking the slo-carb thing is generally how I eat anyway. Cutting out dairy is probably the biggest challenge. The other challenge is eating way more veggies than I usually do.

In conclusion: this is where it starts. I’ve told you the goals and target dates. Should be an interesting journey

[JimD]

Two comments.

One, make sure you include some Olympic lifts in your workouts don't just do "cardio". Second you may want to add a pack to your walk/runs as you get in better shape. I would ASSume the Tiger Valley thing has you carrying a pack.

On the diet aspect, make sure you eat a lot of protein and a lot of good fat-four to six meals/snacks a day.

Good luck.

[tweek]

One, make sure you include some Olympic lifts in your workouts don't just do "cardio".
[/quote]
Good point. I plan to work in lifting as well. We go to LifeTime everyday, generally just to swim, adding some weights won't be a bid deal.


Second you may want to add a pack to your walk/runs as you get in better shape. I would ASSume the Tiger Valley thing has you carrying a pack.

Yup - the bug out drill allows you to carry whatever you want. You just gotta carry it. So part of the challenge is figuring out what to carry and what gets left behind. Throwing a few sandbags in my assault pack is a no brainer. Thanks.



On the diet aspect, make sure you eat a lot of protein and a lot of good fat-four to six meals/snacks a day.


I'm pretty good about eating throughout the day. Right now I'm focused on making sure I get 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. In some ways this is a huge PITA b/c usually I think of eggs as breakfast. Problem is: eggs only deliver 6 grams of protein. Ever try to eat 5 eggs for breakfast? Luckily, most of your meats deliver 10 grams of protein per once so a left over chicken breast or piece of steak fills the bill nicely. Throw some veggies on the griddle (Zuk, Squish, shrooms, onion) and you have a nice well rounded breakfast. Toss in some French press coffee and you're rocking!


Good luck.

Thanks.

[tweek]

This whole no soft drinks thing sucks. Normally I drink a ton of diet coke, close to a 6 pack of 16oz bottles a day. Way too much. I justified it based on it having no calories. It was generally just a caffeine delivery system.

Yesterday, the second day without soft drinks, I just felt weird. I'm drinking coffee instead, so no caffeine withdrawal. There has to be something else (duh - aspartame) in there because it was just strange. Not bad, just strange.

[tweek]

Not to completely spam this place, but I thought I might throw this tid bit in: For that stupid 10 minute (8minute, whatever) workout thing, get somebody else to run the timer for you. It allows you to focus more intently on your workout and provides the time keeper with entertainment. My daughter couldn't stop laughing while I ran in place.

While the 10 minute thing might not turn me in to an Olympian it's really tough to skip a workout when it takes a whole 10 minutes, the only equipment you need is a chair and maybe a parking space worth of room. B/c it is time based it doesn't really care whether you are in great shape or not. Do each exercise as hard as you can for the 30 seconds and move straight in to the next exercise. If you're really pushing as hard as you can you'll work up a nice sweat.

[tweek]

1 - Gave myself 1 year to resettle in the USA when returning from Mid-East. Hit the states July 4 1997 - June 29th 1998........ i had a house , a new business, furniture , 2 cars and a wife in nursing school. The business broker wanted to close on the 6th or so. ( I think July 3rd was closed for a July 4th which fell on a saturday ) I told the broker that if we didn't close before the 4th...... i won't buy the business because it would not be inside my challenge time table. We closed on the 29th of June!!!

2 - Doing another 1 year thing now upon returning from Colombia. Had a 1 year thing going to Colombia , which was becoming mortgage free on my properties. Now i am back and have until 28th August to launch the new career. Already got the house, car and motorcycle stuff completed.


You're to be commended for those achievements. I've done what I'm doing now for nearly 20 years and I'm really good at it. As a consultant and software developer I have no trouble finding more work. The problem is that I no longer want to find more work, but getting out of that mentality is not easy. It's no different that kicking any other addiction.

Between now and June 1st I'll launch a few experimental businesses and test a few things out with the aim of replacing one of my jobs with a business. I've already started the process and am looking forward to the continued development.



3 - Join a gym. 10 minutes jogging in place won't motivate you. I joined LA Fitness and go everyday with my wife and daughters. Nothing crazy yet......... but i always give 30 minutes to cardio or more and work out a body part.

It's not just 10 minutes of jogging in place, but I get you. Saturday I'm planning on doing a PFT on myself to get an objective measure of where I'm at. I have a pretty good idea and the only solace I can take is that I know I can score better than Zimmerman would. Pathetic.
Besides the 10 minute thing I'll be doing weights twice a week and daily running (that 1000yards/day thing).



4 - Eat well. Its amazing how long it takes to burn calories and how quick to consume them.

For weight loss eating is critical. It's also challenging. Between the insanity of work and family it's all to easy to pick crap foods. With a few clicks of the mouse I can have pizza, Chinese or some other crap on its way here. Or I can run out and bring something back.
No different than the diet coke thing - just quit. I cook for the family most of the time and if what the rest of the family wants is not inside my meal plan I'll cook something separately for myself. No big deal.

[BillyOblivion]

To clarify, here are my goals:


Stop being a whiny little school girls who talks about starting a business and just !%#@#% get on with it. Whatever it takes this year I’m going to start some experiments on the side to produce income that will replace what I’m walking away from.
Get in proper shape. Proper shape to me means being able to pass the Marine Corp’s PFT with a score above 225 (Screw the age adjustment)
Spend more time with my family. Does this actually require explanation?



1 and 3 are going to be at odds especially for the next year.

There are "mid value" ideas out there that one man or a small team can put build and generate revenue off of that will let you live a reasonably nice lifestyle (e.g. upper middle class to moderately wealthy) without having to run 60-80 hour weeks for years, but if you're going to build a business while working a job you're going to need to force yourself to "work to rule" at your primary revenue stream while building new streams. This will stress everyone.



The business stuff will be challenging. I’m a software developer so I already have the tools to create products (I’ve done it all my life), I’m also a decent writer and have even been published. The stumbling block has always been the step after I’ve created a product. Things like marketing and advertising don’t come easily to me. Time to get over it and follow the many good examples I know.


http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/

That may help. It may not. Once you have the product built and ready you can get loans or VC funding to get a marketing team together.



For the fitness thing: The first thing I can tell you is that just working out will not cause you to lose weight. Sucks. I’m not fat, but I’m heading there if I don’t do something about it now. So here’s the thing: not only do you need to work out you have to stop stuffing the twix bars down your pie hole.
Here is the program I’ll be following for the rest of July:
1. Slo-Carb diet
2. No soft drinks of any kind*
3. 3 mile run/walk daily with a total elapsed time of less than 28 minutes
4. 10 minute high intensity work out 2x a day

The soft drinks is actually a challenge to me b/c I drink way too much diet coke. Mostly out of habit, but the issue is that I don’t want to deal w/ caffeine withdrawals. The solution in my case is coffee and as a backup I bought a bottle of caffeine pills.

I've started drinking teas. Black tea in the AM to get a little caffeine in, and then Green Tea in the afternoon because I get tired of water. This seems to keep me relatively hydrated.

[BillyOblivion]

I'm pretty good about eating throughout the day. Right now I'm focused on making sure I get 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. In some ways this is a huge PITA b/c usually I think of eggs as breakfast. Problem is: eggs only deliver 6 grams of protein. Ever try to eat 5 eggs for breakfast? Luckily, most of your meats deliver 10 grams of protein per once so a left over chicken breast or piece of steak fills the bill nicely.

My wife cooks me 5 chicken breasts and 5 small steaks on Sunday night and puts them in the fridge.

I eat one of the steaks for breakfast, and one of the breasts (ahem CHICKEN breasts) for lunch every day with a piece of fruit and a salad.

[tweek]

So far food really isn't a problem. Although the steaks I cooked yesterday were outstanding.

On the soft drink front: I'm pretty much past it. Coffee, ice tea and plain old water do just fine. I have a refrigerator in my garage that still has a bunch of diet coke in it. I took the family out on Friday so the girls could run their karts around so I had a coke while I was there. It seemed oily to me. I can do with out.

On the business front I've finished the first part of the course I'm taking. The next part has a lot more lab activities which are what I signed up for. I'm looking forward to doing that stuff so I can make firmer plans for the rest of the 'year'.


The physical training front is alright but I need to kick it up a notch. the 10 minute thing does what it does, but in order to do 20 pull ups I need more.

[Glockologist]

From the sounds of your upcoming journey, I would HIGHLY recommend the book "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield.

It's about overcoming what he calls our "resistance" that keeps people from accomplishing their goals.

He's a link to the free PDF version.

http://hnguyen.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/the-war-of-art-steven-pressfield.pdf

[tweek]

Progress -
On the business front things are going pretty well. When I get back from vacation next week I'll start testing 3 business ideas to see which one I'll focus on first.

Cutting out soft drinks is a complete success. I honestly don't really like diet coke. On the other hand I've swapped one thing for another. I go through a pitcher of ice tea a day now. Way fewer chemicals so I'll call it a win. I also drink a lot more plain old water which is a clear win.

The physical conditioning side is more of a mixed bag. I'm getting out of the house a lot more getting my dogs in shape in preparation for adopting a German Shepherd puppy. Not getting to the weight room and food is a @#%^@#$^ mess. Really have no excuses on either front. I work from home, what could possibly prevent me from succeeding here? Me.

On the food thing: We have to make menus and I have to stop stuffing every friggin Twinkie that crosses my path down my pie hole. Several years ago I got myself down to my ideal weight. Here are the things I did (several you're told not to do):
*I did skip meals - if I wasn't hungry at meal time I didn't eat.
*I cut my portions down to around half what I would normaly take
*slo-carb - if it was white or could be white I didn't eat it
*I did eat fruit which is something the slo-carb diet says not to.
*I did have milk and cheese
*menus for the family - we made menues for the family so there was less likely hood of the 'I'm tired, lets just order a pizza' thing happening. When the menu had something not on my plan I prepared a different meal for myself.

The strange part was going out to eat with my team where everybody else would be eating and I'd sit talking to them without ordering anything. Socially that is a bit strange, but I work with smart people and they got over it.

So what happened - big motorcycle accident and my contract ended. Talk about hitting a reset button. The motorcycle accident was the real stressor, contacts ending are just part of my business but they do contribute stress.

An observation that I have about all of the things I'm engaged in: feedback. I'm primarily a software developer and I'm very successful at it. The great thing about software development is that you have constant almost immediate feedback. As I work I can my creation coming together minute to minute, hour to hour and day by day. Add some code, set some break points, run it and see if what I did works. Just like shooting - you take aim, squeeze the trigger and if you did it right you're rewarded by the beautiful sound of steel ringing. Same thing with racing motorcycles - you do the lap you see the time and if you did it right you're time is good. Physical fitness, dieting and building businesses run on a different time scale. Real weight loss takes more than a day or two to occur, same thing with physical fitness. If you have 30lbs to lose it can take anywhere from two or three months to a year to get it off. If you want to add 10lbs to your bench you're not going to do it overnight. At least not without pharmalogical assistance.
Business is even uglier. Figuring out what product the market needs takes time, creating the product (what I do) takes time, and then the really ugly stuff happens: marketing and advertising. You often don't know if your marketing campaign works for weeks!

For me those gaps in time without feedback are opportunities for distraction and loss of focus. The usual course of events: I eat really well on Monday - couple of eggs for breakfast along with some blackbeans, salsa and a few slices of bacon (30g of protein), lunch would be a grilled chicken breast w/ grilled veggies and dinner would be something along the same lines. Tuesday - no weight loss, similar meal plan. Wednesday - no weight loss, similar meal plan. So on and so on. It's gotta piss you off at a certain point. Then the jujyfruits come marching in. !#%!#^%!@#^@#$^^@!

Too bad I can't reenlist. 12 weeks in the gentle care of some Drill Instructors would solve the fitness and weightloss issue without any fuss.

[tweek]

An update for the fun of it: No plan survives contact. It's a fact. If the plans you make don't allow you to take advantage of opportunities that come up they are not plans. They're wishes.

Back in April we started fostering dogs for the Humane Society. Besides being a nice thing to do it was also an insane effort to try putting off adopting a German Shepherd. Things happened and opportunity came a knocking. The name of the opportunity was Kaiser and I believe I've bragged about him here already.

So how does this relate to the rest of this blather? Quite well actually.
Kaiser is one of the luxuries I want to build my new life around. He is a totem of my desire to stay out of the soul killing cubicle farm that so many people allow their lives to revolve around. Additionally he has helped me completely rewrite my fitness plan. Either I have cancer or he has caused my physical activity level to skyrocket - I've lost 10lbs over the past week and a half and it honestly has nothing to do with diet. If anything I'm less concerned about what I eat than usual, but for some reason I'm eating a lot less. I'm in front of the TV a lot less and I take breaks during work to go play fetch and bleed off some of Kaiser's energy. Oddly, my productivity seems unaffected by the additional breaks I'm taking.

On the business front: the class I'm taking has finally gotten interesting and I'm learning some much needed skills.
Here is one thing for the other geeks like myself: Before you go off writing a pile of code for your break through product that is going to completely change the market place: go get 3 people to pay you for it in 48 hours. If you can't do that: pour yourself a drink, take a seat in your comfy chain and have yourself a think. Maybe you're not explaining it the right way. Or, and most painfully, nobody is ever going to want this product. Sort of like building the next Apple III, Lisa, or NeXT, all really cool products but nobody (or way too few) was interested.
And in case you're wondering - I've created 3 products, all of them were brilliant, that went no where. The reason: I didn't bother to see if there was a real market for my product, I just assumed.