I have a goal to do 50 pushups in one set by the end of August. Today is the first day I have done 50 pushups in only 2 sets. You can see in the video that I am pretty excited about this.
How Am I Preparing?
I have had trouble doing the 50 pushups a day in less than 3 sets this first week. Before today, I had been eating a ketogenic diet focused on cutting out carbohydrates. I have been focused on using ketones (energy from fats) as my fuel source, or in other words burning fat instead of carbs. That has helped me shed extra weight and I can feel that I have a more consistent energy source.
I have noticed that now that I am working out more I am having trouble performing. I ate a small bowl of oatmeal this morning with ground flax seed in it and then I was able to do 30 pushups in my first set and also 50 pushups in 2 sets. Moving forward I plan to eat carbohydrates 1 or 2 hours before a workout.
I have also had benefits from intermittent fasting, or not eating for 16 to 20 hours a day. I will have to find a way to maybe eat dinner earlier because I like working out first thing in the morning. Previously I was skipping breakfast but that was also not supporting this additional exercise.
I’m Doing 1,550 Pushups for St. Jude – Please donate to my fundraiser!
I did these pushups yesterday but am not printing the video until today. It is day 6 of my challenge where I do 50 pushups a day for 30 days. My goal is to get down to a single set of 50 pushups, but I am stuck at 3 sets right now with the first at 23 reps being the largest set.
At the end of this session, I did some yoga. I mostly did a backward handstand to stretch out my back. I also did some downward dog and child pose and then rolled up to the mountain pose.
The night before I stayed out late to see WEEN while they were in St. Louis. The show was amazing and I am glad I stayed out late to see it. I am putting together some video I captured on my phone and can post that next. I decided to spend time with my family yesterday, Sunday. I worked a lot in the yard and placed some large sandstone rocks in the garden. I couldn’t pick two of them up and had to roll them around. They were very heavy so I ate some extra protein yesterday. I can post some pictures of the final project.
Then the family watched the new Super Mario Brothers movie with Jack Black as Bowser. We all really enjoyed it and it was a perfect family movie night with slow-fried salmon and fresh veggies.
I’m Doing 1,550 Pushups for St. Jude – Please donate to my fundraiser!
Day 5 of my 50 pushups a day challenge fundraiser for St. Jude was Rough after 3 beers last night.
I accidentally call it Faint Jude in this video, probably a Freudian slip because I am feeling faint. On Friday night I start my cheat day and last night I had 3 beers. A Heineken and two Micilob Ultras. I am really feeling that today and it really reinforces why I don’t drink much alcohol, if any, anymore.
I’m Doing 1,550 Pushups for St. Jude – Please donate to my fundraiser!
I am attempting to do 50 push-ups a day for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I ramped up my repetitions while we were traveling through Thailand but I am still struggling. I am currently doing 4 sets in 30 minutes to get to 50 pushups a day. My goal by the end of August is to be able to do 50 pushups in a single set.
Day 2 was not pretty. I was not feeling it.
David Kolmer
Donate to a good cause to support my Public Vulnerability!
I’m Doing 1,550 Pushups for St. Jude – Please donate to my fundraiser!
My yearlong quest to be consistently something is continuing. Having a word for the year is really working out for me. I have resolved to be consistently growing or improving at something. It has also worked to do one thing consistently for a month. So, 30 days with no alcohol basically led to me not drinking anymore. A month of sugar-free led to not eating sugar, but now I just focus on eating more fiber than sugar and only eat processed sugar on cheat days (Saturday).
Last month I was consistently in Thailand for July. That experience could fill 100 blog posts, but here I will just share that the mindset of Thailand is that of accepting things as they are, not always improving. Even though that does not directly align with my word of the year, I found this mindset to still be beneficial to me; even when you want to improve you still need to be happy and accept where you are today. (*I moved to Thailand right after my bachelor’s degree and lived there for 7 lucky years.) But by Thai methods, it would have been 9 years to be lucky…
This month I am doing 50 push-ups a day. It was a total struggle but I made it through day 1.
Hello, 2023! May you bring me focus and consistency.
I recently read a post written by a friend named Stephanie Gerald. She was inspired by a friend (who will remain unknown) to have a word for a year. Since this came at the beginning of a year and the end of another year it resounds of a new years resolution. However, living your life according to a word seems so much more possible than going to the gym every day. It’s an ideal, something to strive for. Stephanie was nice enough to share the words she has had from the past few years and I love them: Intentional, Courage, Power, and the newest one Grit, inspired by the great Angela Duckworth.
I wanted to steal one of Stephanie’s words because they were so grand and illustrious, but I realized I need to be honest. In a way, honesty was my word from 2022. as I shared in a previous blog post, HONESTY. Now if you have read ANY of my recent blog posts, you will know that I recently went to my first DEVLEARN conference, (and I promise I will get over that someday), but for now, it is still a huge landmark in my career and life in general. While I was there, the learning guild offered these windows of unlimited coffee, and boy did take advantage of that. There was also an espresso bar at the Dochebo booth and I knew the barista on a first-name basis. I don’t even need to mention how much free alcohol was available.
Me at the height of my caffeine addiction being chased by the angel of death at DEVLEARN.
Either way, by Friday I was revved up like a locomotive. I attended a class on Podcasts hosted by the profound Betty Danowitz, from If You Ask Betty. I don’t recall why but there was some sort of delay in the training and Betty asked if anyone knew any jokes. So guess who started shouting out his favorite dad jokes? Yes, if you answered me, then you are correct. After the third joke, Betty asked me to sit in the front row to be her co-host. This was flattering but I knew she was just trying to keep the Heckler close to her so she could keep an eye on him. (Betty Shared a picture of me in this state but it looks like my chat history doesn’t go that far back on Linked In. Either way that embarrassing photo is not the point.)
Now, I was very engaged in this course on Podcasts, and I’d like to start my podcast soon, but for now, I can gather my thoughts in this blog. As preparation, I have also started listening to the I Love Betty podcast and writing on it religiously. (I am wondering why she is not sponsoring my blog, but I need to remember to take baby steps.) One of the Podcasts that has resounded with me over time was with Tim Slade about building your brand. All the talk about choosing colors and fonts made sense and didn’t phase me, but one thing stood out, it shocked me. The goal is to be consistent with colors, fonts, and designs AND in your behavior. To be true to your real self all the time. Often, the only thing I am consistent at is being random. It’s not because I am overly scatterbrained or legitimately mad, but because my brand of humor is conceptual and abstract. So, I realized, I say and do random things to be funny. In other words, hoping it will make people like me more. However, this often backfires with people who don’t know me well. People think I am being serious and I offend them or concern them. Or even worse, they don’t laugh.
So now that I am being more honest with myself, and the world, I want to take it a step further and be more consistent. Well, how do I do that? I have already taken a few steps.
Improvement Dave 