Nothing For Her Birthday 🍰

If you have seen any of my November posts you might have heard me say that I was consistently not shaving my beard for November. It was No-Shave-November over here and my wife and my daughter were none too impressed. My daughter pretended to think it was cool but my wife was very open about how it made me look old and she thought it was not lovely.

This post should have come out at the beginning of December but I spent more time than I had anticipated on my last post: Long Rich Life of Novelty.

Dave at Target to buy minty beard balm with his adorables. Text on image "Nothing for her birthday"
Dave at Target to buy minty beard balm with his adorables

Why did I have a beard for November? Well, I am not going to lie, I like having a beard. However, the movement is about more than just doing what you like. I have a good reason to shave my beard, my wife hates it. No Shave November is actually a movement that recognizes men’s health. It is a statement to open the door for discussions around types of man-specific cancer and mental health. When a person struggles with their health they often lose some or even all of their hair. No shave November is an opportunity to grow out the hair, appreciate that you have health, and be thankful that you are healthy.

Luckily, my wife’s birthday was at the end of November, so I could shave the beard just in time for her birthday present. Unfortunately, for my wife, I still had the beard for our wedding anniversary but I think we look distinguished.

Dave and his wife, Jeab at the Ritz Carlton St. Louis
Dave and his wife, Jeab at the Ritz Carlton St. Louis

Dave and his wife, Jeab at Oceano Bistro, Clayton, MO
Dave and his wife, Jeab at Oceano Bistro, Clayton, MO

I do not have any pictures of after me shaving, to see that you have to watch the video of me shaving my face for my wife’s birthday.

In this video, my son documents my act of shaving my face

I did have options, but when I was searching around on the internet for beard knowledge I found pictures of other options I had. I found these images that I probably do not have the rights to use on this blog, but they are also probably a FaceBook post from an Instagram post from Reddit, so they have gotten around at this point.

Oakland A's starter Mike Fiers with a beard that wraps down around his mouth and the hooks back up around and makes his mustache.
Oakland A’s starter Mike Fiers
A man with a beard that wraps down around his mouth and the hooks back up around and makes his mustache.
Some dude who is not famous like
Oakland A’s starter Mike Fiers

I don’t know what you call that type of curly “G” shave but I got some flac when I posted it on my social media. Then there is this guy who is all over the internet with his spiral beard but I can’t seem to find his name

A man with a spiral beard that wraps around 3 times.
Spiral Beard
A man with a spiral beard that wraps around 3 times.
Spiral Beard

We were fortunate to go to the Missouri Botanical Garden Light Glow with our good friends, the Prechtels, this year! Yes, I have friends. What? Why are you looking at me surprised like that?

You see!? Real friends, I have. I didn’t even pay them to hang out with me.
…Well, I bought the tickets but they paid me back on VENMO right away.

In conclusion, I feel that there was some friction around growing a beard for health awareness in men, but nothing that would deter me from doing the same thing next November 2024!

Thanks for reading!

David Kolmer is an Instructional Designer who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theater and a Master of Science in Instructional Design and Educational Technology. Sometimes he shaves his beard and other times he does not. When he chooses to not shave his beard he always insists on keeping his beard well trimmed and adds minty beard balm from Target that his daughter says smells very good.

CYCLING ODYSSEY – DAY 31 of 30

So even though this was on October 1st, I will consider this the final ride of my Cycling More Consistently in September Odyssey. We drove over an hour and a half total for a 1-hour ride along the Katy Trail just North of New Haven, MO.

That being said, this might be the last official tour of the challenge but I have already recorded the next installment of Improvement Dave cycling. It is in the woods, it is mountain biking and there will be blood (literally). So, yeah, I am not going to stop cycling or making cycling videos anytime soon.

This Video Highlights the Content Below

Google Maps recommends a route that is just over an hour.

We took the scenic route for 41 minutes.

My daughter threw up right around Balducci’s winery, which was one of our favorite wineries and pizza spots until it was bought by a large conglomerate and they ruined it. Sorry, not going to pay top dollar for frozen pizza. Now the only thing useful at Balducci’s is the dumpster.

We stopped at Quick Trip to get coffee and slushies. (The slushy and the crazy backwood roads are probably what caused my daughter to “blow chunks”.) …at any rate, I was so very excited to see that the bill was exactly $5.55 after tax. I explained to my family that 5 is my lucky number.

In the United States (and most of the West) 7 is lucky. In China, Thailand, and most of the East 9 is lucky. So I figure I can like any number I damn well, please.

  1. The number of men is “5”. (6 being the number of the Satan, and GOD is 7 in traditional Judeo-Christian thought.)
  2. The number I swam for as captain on the J.V. water polo team in high school, was “5”.
  3. Our numerical system is based on repeating 10s so “5” is the center, to me this represents the “middle path” or the “straight and narrow”.
  4. I spent 7 lucky years in Thailand and saying #5 in the Thai language is “Ha”. So “555” is synonymous with laughter or happiness.
  5. I don’t really have a 5th reason, but I want a list of 5 reasons for why I like “5”. So, I imagine being 5 years old probably is one of the best ages to be. Self-aware, but you still have that “Child’s Mind.”

Well, on my Google Maps, I dropped a pin long ago and named it “Riverside Jamz“. More specifically, we were north of New Haven, MO, due west of St. Louis, MO. Just south of a little town called Pinckney, MO. If you have never heard of Pinckney, that’s because it is in the middle of nowhere. Neither Google nor Wikipedia have a single picture or even a population count. Google Maps does not go through Pinckney and the best picture I could find online was this. (below)

The Road to Pickney, MO.

When we arrived I started by getting all the bikes set up.

There was only one picnic table in the shade and the table top was not level. I didn’t get a good picture of the table before I started to level it with the pile of limestone rocks nearby, but trust me it was not useable. I then leveled out the benches as well. We threw a quilt over the table and had a nice lunch of spring rolls, salad, and melon.

While we ate a few families drove by the road on little buggies, and then a family drove up in a truck pulling a pontoon boat. This made the trip feel like a short vacation away from our normal routine.

After we ate we packed up our picnic stuff and got on the bikes. For a 41-minute drive one way we did a nice 1 hour ride on our bikes. So, that was a lot of driving for a 1-hour bike ride, but we just really liked this spot because of the old bridge right on the river. We have stopped at this little spot on the side of the road 3 or 4 times now.

The only issue we had on the ride was that a chain fell off the gear so we had a fun time working on getting that put back on as a team.

We found it one time while driving home from my uncle’s farm out in Osage County, MO. This is also known as the middle of nowhere, MO.

It was another perfect day. Living life to the fullest, sucking the sweet marrow out of life, and making great memories.

Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni (CC)
Polo & Pan – Feel Good (CC)
John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music (CC)
To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco Free Music Archive (CC)

Consistently Cycling More Often in September 2023 – Day 30

This was the final day of the cycling more often in the September challenge.
Getting out and riding around the park right next to our house was sublime.

This challenge has taught me that the process is more important than the destination. I never really rode to any specific place while riding as much as I could in September. Spending more time with my family, getting some exercise, and seeing places I never would have seen otherwise. These were the benefits of cycling more frequently in September. Being grateful for the simple pleasures in life and recognizing them as the moments that make up our life, is the secret to happiness.

John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

Wandering in the Woods

In this video, I share my experience as a father. As a member of a family where we all have aspirations and we all have goals. Everyone in our family unit has their perspective and their set of objectives when I get out of any given situation. This post is a continuation (Day 25) of my September Cycling Challenge.

Consistently Cycling More Often in September 2023 – Day 25

In the video, I focus on how we chose to walk through the woods on this day because the day before I planned a bike ride in my mind where my daughter would not ride as the third wheel behind my bike. That is a format that we call the copilot in which my daughter’s bike only has one wheel and is attached to my seat post. my mind it would be great if we could go out on a bike ride and she could ride her bike by herself. This was a large leap that I made on my own because she’s really only written on her bike a few times and her confidence is still low. We can add that, but it was late in the day she hadn’t had a nap, maybe not eaten the most healthy food and she wasn’t in her best form. More importantly, I packed the car without consulting anyone and when we got to the bike ride, that’s when she realized that she would not be riding with me but she would be riding on her own. This was met with unhappiness, tears frustration, and of course, I ignored all of that, because this was going to be the best thing ever.

In this post on my Vlog, I resolve to better include my family in decisions, that impact outcomes that they will be a part of. I will attempt to pause and plan with everybody included. This idea of mine, to have my daughter ride her own bike, which was not malicious, or in any way an act of me wanting to negatively impact her experience; doesn’t change the fact that it did negatively affect her experience. It was hot and sunny in the only empty parking lot we could find, and she fell numerous times. She was angry, frustrated, thirsty, tired, and she cried; and then, of course, I was frustrated and angry at myself because I didn’t get to ride my bike at all or exercise.

What I learned
Don't make big decisions in a silo.
Include the whole team/family
Be open to possibilities you didn't expect

We didn’t cycle the following day. My wife had a great idea to lower the bar and just go run through the woods. This turned out very well because everyone in our family is good at running in the woods.

Stepping down off the bike also enabled us to talk more, and I realized that maybe my children would like to be more of a part of my video creation. You can see in the video that the kids are interested in being involved so I started including them more.

In the video, I talk quite a bit about wanting to have consent from my kids. While also not asking them to speak, or asking them to do something for the benefit of my videos.

Consent is something that came up while I was on a business trip last week. We were all at a table, eating and drinking and I started recording my colleague.

I had no ill intent in this act, I just really liked what was being discussed at that time and the designer in me had an impulse that I should record the conversation.

The second time I hit record on my phone the recording app stayed on the screen and I laid the phone on the table. My colleague noticed I was doing that, and he politely said, “You need to ask before you start recording me” he was 100% accurate, especially in a business setting. I will add that we have discussed the idea of starting a podcast together, so this is a person that I know rather well, but that doesn’t change the fact that I need consent and can’t just start recording without sharing what I am doing.

I will say that I had already had a few cocktails and did not make a good choice at that moment. The next day I felt very guilty about my behavior. I apologized and he said that he was kidding, which felt good but didn’t change the fact that had a good point. Moving forward I will commit to always asking for consent before, including anyone and one of my recordings.

Music by RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

Music by John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Polo & Pan – Ani Kuni

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

Consistently Cycling More often in September 2023

In this Vlog post, we rode around Creve Couer Lake which was around 5.6 miles in 30 minutes at an average speed of 11.5 miles per hour. I rode with my daughter on my old Trek ZX 600 from the 1990s towing her on the green Co-Pilot by Wee Ride. (The tail end of the ride on the map was actually in the van, I didn’t ride up that treacherous bluff with my child.)

It was a perfect day for a ride, I realized I had an hour free in the afternoon so I picked her up early from her “school” (daycare). We drove straight to the park with the bikes in the back of our Honda Oddesy to have a lake-side Oddesy of our own.

Even though my 50 Pushup-a-Day Challenge for St. Jude Research Hospital is over I am still doing pushups. So I added that to the end of this video for the fun of it. It’s nice to hear the pushup music again.

My daughter as we reach the halfway point around the lake near the new soccer/(International football) feilds.

This post is from the Series I created in September 2023.

Consistently Cycling More often in September 2023

polo-pan-ani-kuni

To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

The Best Day Ever – Writing Prompt

Hello, this is improvement Dave, and I am David Kolmer. I used and continue to use the WordPress platform to build this blog. There was a prompt on my WordPress dashboard of an idea for a blog post which was “Describe your best week “, or maybe “Describe your perfect week”… something like that. I didn’t click on it, but then realized last night that I had started one of the best days ever.

At any rate, I am going to use this prompt even though I didn’t click on it and submit it to the WordPress Metaverse officially. I will alter it a bit and narrow the scope to 24 hours.

My perfect day involves me :

  • Supporting my kids
  • Supporting my wife
  • Supporting myself

Initially, in that order of importance.

I had a promise to myself that I wasn’t going to purchase myself a new bicycle for my September biking challenge until I purchased a new bike for my wife. My wife has gone through a few bikes, and they were all gifts or someone else’s bike, and none of them fit her. She’s not an avid biker, but I can tell that our lives would be better if we all had decent bikes.

I should state that I have purchased two balance bikes for my kids since before they could walk. These are bikes that do not have pedals so they can get used to riding without worrying about pedals. Let me see if I can dig up a retro photo…

Look at that handsome dude rocking that balance bike! Proud as a pig in mud!

So, when the kids did get pedals they learned to ride in about 24 to 48 hours. If that doesn’t sell you on a balance bike then you hate children!

Last month, I bought my son a brand-new bicycle. It was a trek pre-caliber at the TREK store. It was what he wanted for his birthday. He shared that his perspective is that I always get him something secondhand and that Grandma and Grandpa put down real money for the big ticket items. (Well, this is my extrapolation. What was said is that my mom bought me a Game Gear portable Sega gaming system for $130+, and he stated, “You never bought me something that expensive.”) So when the grandparents offered to buy this bike I said, “I am buying this one.”

A picture of my son with his brand new TREK Pre-Caliber

The TREK store on Manchester Road was very well-equipped and very clean. The service charges for tune-ups and the price for components seemed expensive. Or at least they cost more money than I want to pay. Anyway, purchasing my son a new bike provided my daughter with a very nice silver hand-me-down bike.

We bought her a Unicorn bell that she got at my son’s birthday party to make it more of a “her” bike…

She also got some nice flashing lights.

She wasn’t getting the hang of the pedals so I hooked up the Co-pilot by Wee-Ride and she felt better about pedaling. Just watch her RAWK that for the first time.

SO BOOM MY KIDS ARE TAKEN CARE OF. I HAVE SUPPORTED THEM IN THE MISSION OF HAVING QUALITY BIKES.

While I was at the TREK store shopping for my son’s bike, I noticed the Marlin. Now this is a bike that I have read about, and I know that the marlin is a quality bike at a good price. However, I also discovered that Roscoe, which is a higher-level mountain bike with a Hardtail, costs significantly more money. I ordered one of those in the view and then the TREK store never called me back. Exit Trek store stage left.

I ALREADY DISCUSSED BUYING A NEW BIKE WITH MY WIFE FOR MY BIRTHDAY AND WE HAD AGREED THAT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA HOWEVER, SOMETHING DIDN’T FEEL RIGHT ABOUT IT. LATER, I REALIZED THAT I SHOULD BE GETTING HER A BIKE FIRST. OK SO THAT’S ALL OF THE PRE-LOG OR EPILOGUE AND NOW WE’RE GONNA GET INTO THE PERFECT 24-HOUR PERIOD WHICH I STARTED LAST NIGHT.

Last night I drove with my whole family to pick up some sandwiches at Potbelly. We had some gift cards, so essentially, I paid no money for them, which is pretty awesome. We eat the sandwiches in the car, which is something my family loves to do because it’s somehow wrong but then so right.

We drove to Billy Goat Bicycle Co. down on Manchester Road in St. Louis Missouri. This bike Shop had been recommended by one of my daughter’s friends’ fathers at my son’s birthday party as the most awesome bike shop in St. Louis to go to. I guess it pretty much qualified as that because when I walked in, they had the marlin eight that I was interested in in the dark blue to dark gray fade in my size. They also had a Marline that was very small, which also had incredibly nice coloring from more of a blue to yellow fade which fit my wife perfectly. We did some test drives in the front parking lot. I was wearing sandals, but I didn’t let that hold me back from curving and carving some banks covered with grass on the apartment complex behind the bike shop.

After some amazing discussions with a man called Ben, who was wearing a T-shirt that had bandit from the show, Bluey and the word “DAD” on it, I found I had learned a lot about bikes, gotten some very quality advice on the downfalls or potential pitfalls of tubeless tires, and essentially purchased my wife’s bike moments before I purchased my bike.

So now we both have brand new bikes, and we can fulfill our destiny of taking family bike rides together. Now, that was just yesterday evening.

As I’m writing this, it is only 5:30 a.m. It is raining outside, and I have a window open. Rain is a big part of the perfect day for me.

So far, I have woken up at 4:30 and finessed the water I had in the 32-ounce mason jar next to my bed. I brewed a cup of coffee while I was filling the jacuzzi hot tub in the new basement bathroom with hot water and Epson salts. I noticed that all these push-ups and all these bike rides have made my body very stiff, and my muscles seem to be filled with lactic acid and they’re sticking themselves. Now after exiting the hot tub and dictating this blog post into my phone in the basement to play some of my favorite video games on the PlayStation 3 which I never give myself time to do. It is called PixelJunk shooter, and it is the best game ever in the history of everything.

After that, I plan to do 30 minutes of yoga. After that, I will help put my daughter in the car and give her a Dum Dum sucker and kiss her goodbye kiss my wife goodbye. Then I’ll hang out with my son for about 30 minutes, and brew some more coffee. He’ll probably watch some Minecraft on YouTube kids, that is, he will watch someone else play Minecraft, instead of playing a game himself, (which is normal these days), I think.

While driving to school I saw they were tearing down that old house on our street that was an eyesore!

Then I will go to work in my basement. I recently put together a spare bedroom with an egress window that doubles as a study and a bathroom in the basement and this is my home office.

Today I have finished adding audio to the four modules of EPEC BRONZE for the National Association of Electric Distributors. Next, I will look at the script and enter all of the new script into the notes section of the Articulate Storyline file. This way I can easily print out a user guide PDF because the screens will be updated, and the notes will match. I’ve already aligned all the screen animations with the audio, so the last step is going to be pretty easy. I plan to break my fast at 12 but will probably wait until 2 or 3 because I drank whey protein powder last night at 8 p.m.

This evening I will pick up my son from school, then pick up my daughter and we will ride home in the Honda Odyssey. Then I will pull some fresh vegetables out of the fridge and some eggs and stir fry that all up in the Thai style I’ll probably fry some tofu as well and heat some of those smoked ribs that I have in the air fryer. Then I will drive to the YMCA with my son, or he will take a level five swimming course while my wife and my daughter ride bikes after that I will ride home in the Honda Odyssey with my son where he and I will probably ride bikes, then we will probably eat some ice cream. (Well, I might not have any ice cream because I am back on my ketogenic and intermittent fasting diet.) The kids will take a bath and we will take our showers. We will read some dog man turn on some colored, moving lights and the kids will go to bed. Now on some days, I would turn on some TV but for the perfect day, I would choose to not do that, instead, I would go to bed early at around 9 PM after drinking some chamomile and mint tea or some decaf coffee.

That will take us to about a full 24-hour period for the perfect day. What was interesting to me is my perfect day started last night and I’m not even halfway through it, It is not yet written, but maybe that’s the most important part of my perfect day. Much of the day is still in the future. It is unwritten, it has potential.

You know what? On second thought I don’t think I’m going to play that video game after writing this post I feel like it’s time to do my first 25 push-ups (of 50) do some yoga and Brew, and some more coffee.


After I wrote the above content, I did some YOGA, My daughter woke up and then we walked outside in the twilight and enjoyed the rain.

We went back inside, I made her some hot chocolate and made a pinky promise that I would do some My Little Pony Cosmic Kids Yoga with her, but we did 15 minutes of the Frozen Yoga by Cosmic Kids featuring none other than Queen Elsa of Arendale.

My daughter said,

Music by RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

Day 31 – Push-Ups for St. Jude

I am happy to say that I did 50 (or more) pushups every day for August 2023. It was not as easy as I thought it would be to VLOG about 50 pushups for 31 days straight.

David Kolmer, Improvement Dave doing pushups on his deck looking down at the deck.

This all takes way more time than it looks like. There were times when my family missed me and I had to step away from this to tend to them. I learned a lot from this challenge and I am proud to say that I completed it. It forced me to learn how to generate “PNG” files with a transparent background and even apply those custom artifacts over video footage. I am at a different place than I was 31 days ago, (mostly I am just better at doing pushups. HA! 555+) but this has forced me to grow in more ways than one and for that, I am very grateful. Consistency is not easy but once it becomes a habit it is not difficult either. I will miss this daily grind, but at the same time, I am so glad it is over!

My goal WAS to do 50 pushups every day for August 2023. My stretch goal STILL IS to do 50 quality pushups in a single set. Today I did two higher-quality sets of 25 pushups, for only 50 quality pushups in total! I think this is the best approach overall to do an actual set of 50 by the end of 2023.

David Kolmer, Improvement Dave doing breathwork on his deck.

I did a 5-minute breath work session between the two sets as preparation and a reset for the second set of 25 pushups. This video is available to view after the two sets of pushups. In this video, I do the basic 4-count in, 4-count hold, and 4-count exhale. Then when that feels comfortable I up it to 8-counts for all three. Normally I would do a 4 or 8-count hold after the exhale but having just done pushups and preparing to do more pushups I do not tend to hold on the exhale very often.

David Kolmer, Improvement Dave doing pushups on his deck looking at the camera.

I have done more than 1,550 Pushups for St. Jude – Please donate to my fundraiser!

https://www.facebook.com/donate/1690575421423292/?fundraiser_source=external_url

Music by RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

Music by John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

Music by Khruangbin Live at Boulder Theater on 2019-05-08
https://archive.org/details/Khruangbin20190508017/Khruangbin2019-05-08-008.flac

Day 30 – Push-Ups for St. Jude

I am feeling better today than I did yesterday. It got down to 65 degrees here in Saint Louis, MO so I decided to do the pushups outside. I am trying to trim the videos down shorter now so there is less dead time and less talking time.

My goal is to do 50 pushups every day for August 2023. My stretch goal is to do 50 quality pushups in a single set. Today I did two higher-quality sets of 25 pushups, for only 50 quality pushups in total! I think this is the best approach overall to do an actual set of 50 by the end of August.

I did a 5-minute breath work session between the two sets, which is available to view after the two sets of pushups. In this video, I do the basic 4-count in, 4-count hold, and 4-count exhale. Then when that feels comfortable I up it to 8-counts for all three. Normally I would do a 4 or 8-count hold after the exhale but having just done pushups and preparing to do more pushups I do not tend to hold on the exhale.

I’m Doing more than 1,550 Pushups for St. Jude – Please donate to my fundraiser!

https://www.facebook.com/donate/1690575421423292/?fundraiser_source=external_url

Music by RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

Music by John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

Music by Khruangbin Live at Boulder Theater on 2019-05-08
https://archive.org/details/Khruangbin20190508017/Khruangbin2019-05-08-008.flac

Day 25 – Push-Ups for St. Jude

I made the mistake of looking at YouTube on my phone right before recording this. The YouTube Channel for Improvement Dave was reporting zero traffic on my phone. So, I recorded my video with the sub-context of “nobody watches any of my videos. This is futile. I have to be consistent anyway.” Now that I have had a moment, I logged in on my laptop I see that people are watching the videos and..

SHAT! I got a few likes. Not the reason I am doing any of this, this is mostly practice for me. This is about me being consistent. I am posting for the sake of consistintly posting. However, the main point of this is to hold myself accountable for doing the work. If I was not posting these videos I would have stopped doint the 50 pushups a day, and that is the point. Still, I was hoping that someone had at least watched a single video! Funny how our minds react so quickly on such a visceral level to people paying any attention to our work. I know that I am insignificant in the universe especially when you add the 4th dimension of time… but it still burned like hell.

Burned like hellfire.

Knocked Me Off My Game

What is especially interesting to me is on this day when I felt creating was futile my production was absolute garbage. I failed to record the preparation. I also failed to record Set 1. and Set 2 was cut in half. Was this a user error or were these alarms that popped up on my iPhone? Or was it both? I do not know. I do know that I should stop using my phone, which I also use in my life, to generate this content.

What is all this, Anyway?

I am doing 50 pushups a day for August 2023. My goal is to do 50 pushups every day for August 2023. My stretch goal is to do 50 quality pushups in a single set. Today I did two higher-quality sets of 25 pushups, for only 50 quality pushups in total! I think this is the best approach overall to do an actual set of 50 by the end of August.

I did a 5-minute breath work session between the two sets, which my iPhone filed to capture. In this breathework session, I did the basic 4-count in, 4-count hold, and 4-count exhale. Then when that feels comfortable I up it to 8-counts for all three. Normally I would do a 4 or 8-count hold after the exhale but having just done pushups and preparing to do more pushups I do not tend to hold on the exhale.

I’m Doing more than 1,550 Pushups for St. Jude – Please donate to my fundraiser!

https://www.facebook.com/donate/1690575421423292/?fundraiser_source=external_url

Music by RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

Music by John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)

Day 23 – Push-Ups for St. Jude

I am doing 50 pushups a day for August 2023. My goal is to do 50 pushups in a single set. Today I did two higher-quality sets of 25 pushups, for only 50 quality pushups in total! I think this is the best approach overall to do an actual set of 50 by the end of August.

In this video, I share that we had a recent death in the family. This caused some truncated schedules, so I got straight to work. I do not waste the opportunity to remind us that we should all be grateful for the lives and loved ones that we have. Give your loved ones an extra hug or phone call, tell them you love them all the time, and don’t forget to be thankful for what you have.

I did a 5-minute breath work session between the two sets, which is available to view after the two sets of pushups. In this video, I do the basic 4-count in, 4-count hold, and 4-count exhale. Then when that feels comfortable I up it to 8-counts for all three. Normally I would do a 4 or 8-count hold after the exhale but having just done pushups and preparing to do more pushups I do not tend to hold on the exhale. You will notice that in this video the breathwork is cut short. An alarm actually goes off on my phone turning off the video recording. I would say this is both bad and good because the alarm is to remind me to take my son to school, which is a top priority. However, on this specific day, he asked to attend the funeral we had for a family member, so the alarm was not critical. It still reminded me I have things to do today so start PUSHING UP DAVE!

I’m Doing more than 1,550 Pushups for St. Jude – Please donate to my fundraiser!

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Video Transcript

his is David Kolmer for Improvement Dave Hello you’re watching Improvement Dave This is David Kolmer with Improvement Dave this is day 23 from my understanding I do have my new microphone working so you might notice a difference in sound quality if you’re watching these back to back I have a feeling maybe people aren’t watching them back to back but just so you know I got a new mic so that’s cool I’m gonna go ahead and do 25 push-ups for the first set if I can do a little bit more that’s great if not well I’ll still get up to 50 in one day and all of us will get to heaven on time set one

thank you [Music]

okay

n=Not terrible right had a few pauses not too bad pretty good form As I said I have a lot to do today I had a lot going on today so fresh breakfast and added carbs back into my diet I was only eating ketogenic just fat and vegetables and fruits so I added carbohydrates back in because of these push-ups and I just ate like two pretty good sized waffles about 30 minutes ago and ideally I would have waited an hour or two but you know my privilege has been diminished today because I have a funeral to go to so rid of passing in the family

so it’s kind of a sad day

Okay so the breath work was diminished because I had another alarm go off it’s time to take my son to school so I need to knock these 25 push-ups out as fast as I can and then get things moving

whatever [Music]

oh that was the end of the set too it was 50 push-ups total thanks so much for tuning in this is Improvement Dave and today I’m just reflecting on the fragility for agility of life and being thankful that we still have life cherishing the moments that we do have together and just making sure that we’re making the most of it and being thankful for what we have awesome thank you so much. see you down the line [Music]

thank you

Okay I just finished set one I’m gonna set a timer for five minutes and do some simple breath work here just to calm myself down and put some oxygen back into my system I said Almost electrolytes we should drink some water I mean it’s a sign right

This is just water

systems telling me telling me that I’m thirsty

Freudian slips speaking very well today

Music

Music by RoyaltyFreeMusic Nver Avetyan from Pixabay Technology Dubstep

Music by John_Kensy_Music from Pixabay Mindfulness Relaxation & Meditation Music

Music by To Hot to Play, Lobo Loco, Free Music Archive (CC)