Thankful for this

Most likely not ironically, I've also been working out/exercising several times a week for about two years alongside not getting sick It used to be hard for me to get motivated to do it, I had a bad habit of waking up and immediately looking at a screen to see what's going on w/ my work

From there I'd dive into things and next thing I'd know it'd be afternoon and I'd feel less motivated to do any kind of workout

I still struggle w/ this () but a big unlock was finding a workout that I like, something that takes just a little bit of time but has a fuller body effect

That workout was pushups

I told myself, if I can't make time to do some pushups in between meetings or other parts of my work then I really wasn't that committed to actually trying to be in shape

So I'd do pushups at the end of a phone call, if I was feeling tired in between switching from one thing to the next, and/or randomly if I was feeling bored

If more than a day or two went by where I didn't do pushups it'd start to bother me b/c I'd think I was being lazy not carving out at least a few minutes here and there to do more pushups

The point wasn't how many pushups I could do, but the routine of just taking a couple of min and doing more pushups

After about a year I started to get really bored w/ pushups, and wanted to challenge myself to do something more and different

A few years ago I saw a YT video of this scrawny looking guy doing a type of pull up I had never seen before; basically he would do a full pull up, pull himself up over the bar and then push himself up further to complete a full front-facing dip -- I thought it was really cool and also in the progression video he posted you could see how it made him get A LOT more in shape, getting ripped & building muscle

The workout itself was exactly that, it's called a muscle up

So a year a go I set a goal that I wanted to be able to do 5 muscle ups in a row before the end of the year

I got a pull up bar from a company called Base Blocks

For me it was really hard to even just do a pull up, I could only do like 1 and then my whole upper body/core would be wrecked -- and so would my hands

I had a weak core from working on a laptop all of the time

But over time I got better, I could do more and more pull ups; similarly to like I did w/ push ups, I'd tell myself that if I couldn't make time to at least try to spend a min or two doing them, I wasn't really serious about it

End of last summer I was finally able to do a muscle up, just one, and it was really ugly

But I've kept with it and keep getting a little better each week... I can do 3 not-so-ugly muscle ups in a row now

I wasn't able to do 5 at the end of the year but halfway isn't so bad, I think for a lot of life goals accomplishing half is still a win

Many people fail at just getting started

This year by EOY I'm pushing myself to be able to do 10 muscle ups in a row without stopping

So let's see what happens; hopefully also another year without getting sick*

--

* Other things that I think have helped:

1. Rarely drinking alcohol

2. Only eating between 12PM - 8PM

3. No processed food

4. Taking creatine every day

5. Going on walks each week for 1h

6. Playing Ultimate Frisbee every Sunday

7. Bodyboarding a few times a month

8. Taking Vitamin D + K2

9. Taking Spirulina

10. Having a wife/partner that is active and puts health/wellness first

11. Having friends that also push health/wellness first

12. Not spending time w/ people who don't