4 January 2024

Since the holidays I’ve been sleeping in in the mornings until the baby wakes up, recovering sleep and the Winter makes it hard to operate before sunrise. Today is also the first day of push ups, exercise had to take a back seat for the last month while things were hectic. While traveling, packing, and hosting I needed to conserve energy and now I need to prevent my body from loosing ground. Too much work and too much play lead to disaster, switching from work to play is relaxing, when it’s time to switch back there’s a struggle. One day at a time is the secret, it’s not possible to pick up where I left off a month ago, there needs to be an on-ramp. In the moment 10 push ups now is harder than 40 before the break, I don’t focus on the moment though, it’s all part of a slow incline. There’s always issues going on in the moment that will distract and it’s easy to let the holiday distractions last until Summer when it’s time for another break, but that would be regression. The pain is never as bad as I think it is, it’s closer to an ice water plunge. This too shall pass, that was my mantra in Iraq. Then it was all about time passing, now what’s changed is I’m building something, waiting won’t be enough. The slow incline helps by going slow enough it feels like I’m doing the same things everyday, routine. By making my routine one of slight improvement, things get better over time. Gains will be short lived if I don’t continue to edit the routine, adding more where I see fit. Hopefully six months is when I’ll reached my limit, then take another extended break and start the process over again.