#120 - The October Project

2 minute read

Motto: Like Before, but More

It’s October. That means a few things - Halloween is coming, it’s getting colder, and my second second-a-day video is already 16% done.

I was writing in my Moleskine during lunch on Tuesday (the 1st), when I realized I wanted to try something big for October. A post came up the other day on r/fitness about what really really tall weightlifters can and cannot do well. I learned a few things from reading that (for example, 6’2” is considered really really tall for some people). From that post, I moved on to articles aimed at weightlifting for the “vertically gifted”. I decided that, with my diet, I hadn’t ever given my body much of a chance.

Here’s what I wrote -

So that’s my plan. The October Project: get Large.

…and because I’m Life Tracking, I’ll be able to see objectively how well I adhered to the guidelines.

Day 0: 223 lbs

optimistic before photo

Day 1 -

  • Calories - 3013
  • Fats - 85
  • Carbs - 454
  • Protein - 183

Day 2 -

  • Calories - 4088
  • Fats - 147
  • Carbs - 494
  • Protein - 230

That brings us through today. Still haven’t eaten out. Still haven’t had caffeine. That’s pretty cool.

There’s a Google Engineer by the name of Matt Cutts who gave an excellent TED talk that I saw a long time ago. It’s 3:27 long. If you have that kind of time, I suggest you watch this:

this is a link now. Click me I guess.

The TL;DW of it is this: Try something you’ve always wanted to try for 30 days. That’s long enough to evaluate how you like it, long enough establish habit, but short enough to be doable. When I stumbled across this video I considered trying it, but decided to forego in lieu of a different project: the first iteration of the Demetri List (the list of 35 things a good person does every week (which was later adapted to the list of 25 things I aim to do every day in the Life Tracker)).

The October Project is me testing out the “try something new for 30 days” waters.

In other news, I was correct about GoPro announcing a new model, making my camera officially “old”. It took less than a day before I decided to start throwing it around:

EDITOR’S NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: this image is gone. :-(

Top 5: Big Changes of the October Project, in Brief

  1. Workout every weekday.
  2. Eat 4000 calories every day.
  3. High carb breakfasts, high protein and nutrient lunch & dinner.
  4. Drink 2 gallons of milk a week.
  5. Drink no highly caffeinated beverages.

Quote:

“You should dress up as a bigger version of yourself. [for Halloween]” Josh