End of week recap

So, I am not down to 255 from 269 a month ago. I am keeping a record in my fitbook lite.


Drinking eight glasses of water is easy. Just pick up some cheap flavor enhancers. I like the Kool-aid Brand.
Kool-Aid, Liquid Drink Mix, Grape, 1.62oz Container (Pack of 4)

I have had good improvements on the blog and posted 4x/week.

How are you improving?

I can keep adding on because of my willpower. Fourteen pounds is just a start.

Cheers.

Thanks to you all

The past two or three days has stomped my three day average by a few. I wanted to thank you all.

I am back on Twitter after a hiatus. I am @jtarb1 there.

I am working on my prospectus pretty heavily at this time. That means you get a short post today.
I will post a link to one of my books, though.

Thanks to you all. Keep reading.

Teaching about American Women

As I work as a history instructor at a small, Christian university site, I was surprised by the class they had me teaching this term. It is History of American Women.

First, I thought that this was a class better-suited alongside those programs with copious history classes required. Most programs at the site where I teach only require two classes. I am finding my classes increasing in size.

Second, I think this would be better for a social history, which the class does not necessarily require on the syllabus. Women until the early suffrage movement were diverse and mostly worked at the home. They raised babies and families.

Third, I think similarly with my history and theology. Women are to be protected as helpmeets. I acknowledge that men appear the servant class in most of history. Men charged the enemy, while women stayed and protected the family. Women, in my view, should not be in the military. They certainly should not be on the front lines. Women are the front lines to Western civilization.

I am very honored to have the opportunity to teach history again. I am finishing my doctorate full-time, but that leaves a little time for building my Vitae. This is said to be a very popular class in most appearances. I will teach history as the book and syllabus require.

Discussing and debating history may come up during breaks when I am not teaching. I welcome them. I, however, always learn more than the students.

Results arriving from habits

So, I started a program of ditching donuts, and using my Fitlosophy Fitbook Lite 6-Week Weight-Loss Journal on April 4th. Today is the 25th, and I am down 14 lbs.

It has been hard work. I even pushed down to 1400 calories a day. This was part of an effort to combat fatty liver. The GI doctor either hates me or loves me.

I am not sure, but I think I can get much lower. I will keep working towards 1400 calories a day. I have committed to it for three months. It has not been that hard.

I blame willpower. I have read many books on willpower, such as Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength and I think I've finally got to a point where I can beat my gut anytime.

Buy your  Fitlosophy Fitbook Lite 6-Week Weight-Loss Journal at Amazon. You won't regret it.

Donovan is spot-on

Jack Donovan's Becoming a Barbarian is amazing.

I am not finished, but will be sharing more insights from this book in future posts.

He writes about our system of tolerance and how it has turned into moral universalism. Everything, according to this universalism, is okay as long as no one is offended.
We ignore signals put out by people's body language and dress because judging people by their looks is wrong.

Donovan disagrees.

We should build tribes that we invest in, which I've posted about elsewhere. This investment shows who we should care about, instead of outrage journalism. The news should not inform who we should care about. Faith and philosophy should dictate that.

Our tribes, including our families, are build to extend our legacy and way of thought and living.

I'll share more when I am further along. Pick it up on Amazon.

Going out

Tonight, I have been selected as part of a group with the Wounded Warrior Project to attend a show at the Gaslight Theater here in Tucson.

That means that I am putting out this post a bit early and scheduling it to post when I want.

So, I'll post links to the two of my short works. I hope you will take the time to pick them up off of Amazon.

They are on Kindle Unlimited if you have that. Or pick up a trial from the link! It allows you to read selected books for free, up to 10 at a time.

Join Amazon Kindle Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial

My two books are:
Goals-based Homeschooling: Lessons from a homeschooling Dad

Red Teaming for Renegades

Review for Ikigai

I wanted to recommend a book. I am not posting it on my Kindle page because I was not exactly sure the best way to recommend this.

Ikigai is an amazing book by Sebastian Marshall. He blogs at sebastianmarshall.com.

It takes history, strategy, and philosophy and blends it into a personal improvement site. At the time I was looking for it, it was not on Kindle Unlimited. Yes, that means you'll have to put up the money for it.

It was an amazing book telling how to begin setting up a personal ethical system and improve yourself. I was recommended to it by Tynan, who blogs at tynan.com. Tynan was "Herbal" in the Neil Strauss book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists.


I especially liked some of the recommendations in it. I'll be checking out some more of them myself. I'll let you know if any are especially illuminating.

Let me know if you decide to pick it up and exaclty what you think. Cheers.

Join Amazon Kindle Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial

On Leadership

Leadership is simply the successful way of working with people. That is one thing I have learned from getting past the half-way point of my doctorate in organizational leadership.

It doesn't matter if your leadership style is servant, transactional, transformational, or any other. If you work with a successful group, your example matters more than those in unsucessful organizations.

I don't mean that in a failing organization that you can't be a good leader.

I mean that the way self-improvement culture teaches is that successful businesses have good leaders and failing ones don't.

This is a mistaken thought.

Leadership is the more successful way of working with people. You can have an executive that is failing and still be a successful example-leader in the organization.

Leadership, simply, is what a leader does. It doesn't matter if authority is there or not.

Week's Progress

Progress is still underway on the Ditching Donuts project. I haven't had anything junky in a few days. My weight is still the same, but I know it takes time.

I got a lot done today, so I am taking my daughter to the park in a bit.

I've been reading a lot of Lesswrong's sequences and watching videos on Bayes theory. It sounds like a bunch of hooey if you go to far, but it is good regardless.
i.e.: It is more likely we can complain in a world in which we exist is a truism. I'd suggest the sequences for improving your thinking.

I am reading Harold Bloom's The Western Canon. I recommend it more than I can write.

Not much else going on except for playing the Mechanical Turk.

Ditching Donuts

The ditching donuts project is going well. I went another day eating extraordinarily clean. I avoided it if it was questionable. I know I cannot hold up for this forever. I'll break.

That's not the point.

I am on a streak right now. It is more important to keep the streak at this point than much else. I need to exercise my willpower. 

At some point, the rest of my family will go out for hot fudge sundaes. I'll join them.

The point is when I am alone, not to dip towards the donut, fried pie, or candy bar. Save it for social occasions. 

Quitting Gutbombs

So, I have been a junk food lover forever. I don't know many days that I haven't had a donut, fried pie, or candy bar.

I guess you could say I still am...

But today, I haven't had anything worse than nuts and a couple of oranges.

I feel like I have really achieved something. It's not a lot. It's a day.

But one day starts a few, and a few starts a month. I think that the thing harmful about carbs is something like addiction. We become addicted to the biochemical feel we get when we taste a donut. And that addiction can be slowly separated from the fried pie.

Bread has been something easy to part from. Yet, I know I can do this.

What are you trying to separate from?

Progress by fitbook

I've made some wonderful progress through a book the Wounded Warrior Project sent me. It is called fitbook lite.
It focuses on several goals.

1. Move 30 (exercise for 30 minutes a day).
2. Sip 8 (8 ounces of water a day).
3. Eat 5 (5 servings of fruits and vegetables).
4. Stop by 9 (Stop eating at 9 PM). 

I have only been at it for a week during the six week program, but we'll see how it goes. I have kept up with every goal for six days a week or better.

A week over...

So, last week was my seventh year wedding anniversary. My wife and I are going out this weekend. It'll be nice to have a little break again.

Marriage is nice. That does not mean that it is all fun and games. It is hard work.

Even a dream job (Hello, Google!) would suck most of the time. In fact, I heard it said somewhere (?) that most things suck most of the time. I try to scrape by with contentment.

I was good at that in the military, where almost everything sucked most of the time. One can apply "Embrace the suck to mostly everything." Especially when they get a satisfaction out of the feeling of our feet after a 25 mile ruck march.

Four Times a Week

So, I decided that blogging four times a week is just enough. It seems to work. Gives me one night to pursue other projects within the week but keep the streak going. I got four posts in last week. I want to blog, but I'll either increase as this gets easier or decrease as time gets scarce. 

I am happy that I came at the time of the internet. While it is annoying that people are on their phones all the time. Especially while driving. Yet, I am happy I did not come when there was little anesthetic for surgery. When children had to work all day just to keep the family going. 

I put another short read on Amazon.com this week. It is called Goals-based Homeschooling. It is on Kindle Unlimited, so feel free to give it a read if you have KU. 

I have one more post to make this week, and I'll have a goal for tomorrow. 

Too busy for exercise?

Exercise is the culprit to my productivity.

I seem to make time for journaling, meditation, and many other activities that help my productivity. I get plenty of sleep and am eating a diet with enough vegetables and fruits to keep my goals alive.

I do not make time to exercise.

I recognize that I am busy with my family and homeschooling, as well as being a doctoral student. I need to make more time for exercise.

I want to do it five days a week, but the shyness of being seen exercising seems to change that.

Oh, well. Time to get dressed for night and do some calisthenics.

Books and reading progress

I have been reading pretty widely. I finished about 10 books last week.

I have started participating in a goal planning group with Wounded Warrior Project. 

I am working on eating better and lifting weights when I can.

I have a few leads towards material that will get me closer to my goal.

Read of last week (though, I am still working on it): Ikigai by Sabastian Marshall. I highly recommend it.