Gunnar’s 10 day Lockdown challenge.

Let’s try to use this lockdown and make it into something good. In Peru we still have 10 more days of confinement including today Friday April 17 – and then we shall see. I doubt we’d come out of the lockdown completely so there is probably more time to make changes in our lives. Permenent changes become habits. Habits form over time – and time we seem to have a lot of now. More about this further down this post, but first a recap.

During the last four weeks, I have formed some good habits, but also some very bad ones.

Good habits.

• Languages
  Among the good habits is that I have been practicing Swedish with my kids daily with Duolingo lessons. They love it. I have also been quite diligent with Duolingo myself studying Japanese and French principally, but also brushing up German, Italian and Portuguese. The Duolingo app is available for both iOS and Android, as well as for desktop.
  
  Duolingo has become much better the last year or so. I particularly like these:
  
  Stories – a new feature for comprehension – are very good. There is also a podcast for Spanish and French with some English narration in between. The French one is excellent.
  
  Leaderboards. One particular feature that stimulates me to do more Duolingo is the leaderboard feature. There is a weekly league where you compare your progress with 49 other who started more or or less at the same time as you. The 10 most dilligent user become promoted do a superior leage. It becomes quite addictive.
  On the desktop version of the Duolingo you can also check how you score compared with your friends on weekly, monthly and lifetime basis. I am BirdingPeru on Duolingo if you want to add me – and compete
  
  Timed quizzes – on desktop. It is a fast way to get more points on the leaderboards
  
• Yoga – OK. I have not been doing this daily but at least quite frequently. I bought a cheap app for the iphone and do a short Sun Salute with graphic video instructions. I have also included a couple of specific yoga poses for runners in my routine from Lexie Williamson’s Yoga For Runners – available on Kindle.
• Chess – I play chess on my phone. Not sure if this is a good or a bad habit. I have probably done a little bit too much lately, but it was cool to finally reach over 2000 in rating for the puzzles on the free Chess.com app. The mental challange of Chess is probably a good thing, though.
  
  When I play, I prefer the 3-5 day correspondance version. This way one can put it down for a full day to be productive in other areas. I am on Chess.com, Lichess and SocialChess as BirdingPeru if you want to play me. I have made most games on Social Chess, and there my rating is around 1550. If I’d be an active tournament player my ELO rating should be in that range. I can’t remember a lot of openings, but I am quite strong in the middle game. Anyone want to play me?
  Got inspired to do more chess as I was reading Bobby Fisher goes to war. Great book about how a chess game was a central feature of the cold war.
• Quality time with wife.
  Both my wife and I love a good movie. We don’t have a television, so we usually go to the cinema. That is obviously not a thing right now so we are confined to online options.
  For the third time I am trying a Netflix subscription here in Peru and this time I am sticking with it. Before, there were very few movies and series that one could see in Peru that were of interest to us, but recently even Scandinavian series are available with Spanish subtitles.
  I also have a Amazon Prime subscription and some good movies and series are available here as well, but in general many things we want to watch in Peru are blocked on Amazon Prime. A good VPN such IVACY which has purpose VPN to stream Netflix of US, UK and Australia, and Amazon Prime US help to watch a larger selection of movies even if you are outside of these countries, but this of course does not give us Spanish subtitles. Otherwise, Amazon Prime is of course very convenient for free 2 day Amazon Shipping, plus many kindle titles to loan for free, plus a bunch of other perks – try a 30 day free trial.
  
  Here are some tips of great series and movies that we have watched lately. To compensate for the inactivity and time sink, we often watch while I walk or run on a treadmill and my wife does her stationary bike.
  (I should run, but it is difficult to read the subtitles when I run, and it becomes annoying for non-english/spanish movies. Anyway, I’ll be more diligent with my running. I did 20 min barefoot in the treadmill yesterday, while watching a movie).
  
  Series:
  Sorjonen – Borderland. Finnish Nordic Noir Crime. Two seasons. I have written about it earlier on this blog.
  Fallet (The Case) – A Swedish Nordic Noir spoof. I have a hard time for spoofs, but this is very smart.
  Kalifat – Califate – Very intense Swedish series of second generation teenagers being recruited by ISIS to do a terror attaque in Stockholm.
  
  Movies.
  Mi Obra Maestra. Argentina. The agent of a misunderstood contemporary artist pull off a great stunt to make some money. A Comedy.
  Flu – a good Korean movie about a virus outbreak. Perhaps a bit morbid to watch movies like this right not, but in the light of things one realizes that things could have been worse. On Amazon Prime.
  The Cell – Fundmentalist terror attack in Egypt and a revenge. This action movie does not have to envy Hollywood.
  The Insult. From Lebanon. Tension between a Christian Lebanese and a Palastine refugee. Excellent and awarded movie in many film festivals.

Bad habits

The bad habits forming the past four weeks are easy to pinpoint. I have not been able to run much since I am not allowed to go out. Only to the market which is about a mile or so.
Also, I didn’t dare to train to hard when the quarantine hit us almost five weeks ago, as it could potentially compromise my immune system. I had just bumped up my running to around 80 km/week for three weeks prior to the lockdown. I figured I had best to take it a bit easier. But not this easy. I am not working out. I should at least do 7 minutes of strength training and at least 20-30 minutes of running on the treadmill per day. It should not be that hard. This will be part of my challenge below.

However, I go to bed too late (often at 3-4 AM) and hence sleep until very late. I can’t run after 8 pm because the treadmill makes too much noice.

Additionally, I have drunk far too many beers and too much wine. And lots of snacks after midnight. I’ve gained two kilos in a month.
It is really time for a change. Join me in my challange for 10 days! What changes would you include in your challenge?

10 DAY CHANGE HABIT CHALLENGE

First let’s get some inspiration. There are three good books I have read that has helped forming my habits. You will find that many have similar recipies such as meditation, exercise, journaling, etc. Rather than following any single plan, try to work out what works for you. What one thing will you need to change to cause a casquade of good effects to form other good habits. For me it is to get up earlier and to cut booze. Both will result in going to bed earlier and get better quality sleep, which leads to better morning alertness and better productivity.

Even though I am a night-owl, I am certain that for me it is best to create good habits in the early morning. Get them over and done with, and when having won the morning, it is more likely to keep a good streak for the rest of the day.

Have you read any of these books?

• The Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod. It is all about the first hour in the morning.
• The 5 AM Club – Robin Sharma.
• Tools of Titans – Tim Ferriss. This is a bible to tips from Top Performers.

So the one thing I will do that will make permanent changes for me is to get up at 5 AM for 10 days in row. Today, I got up at 8 AM, but note that bedtime was 3 AM, so it was a good start. I plan to go to bed earlier tonight.

Here are some tools I have that to make all this happen.

1. Alarmy App (free) on my phone. I place this in the bath room well away from my bed. You can set some tasks to be completed. In my case it math. I have to calculate in my head 5 operations like (3×72)+28=
2. Water, vitamins and minerals. Next to the phone is my toothbrush and a big jug of water. First I drink the water with 1g fizzy C-vitamin and a fizzy Magnesium supplement. It hidrates me and I avoid cramps at night having my daily Magnesium. I also take B12 as I mainly eat a vegetarian diet. Right afterwards I brush my teeth.
   After the first two steps it is hard not start to the day. I am awake!
3. Exercise. All morning routines include some exercise. A very fast routine I like is called Seven app – it is a very effective 7 minute workout. This, I shall include in my 10 days and hopefully keep on doing.
   I later do the Yoga routine explained above. It usually takes 10 minutes. I do that on our terrace in the sun only in shorts to also get my daily dose of Vitamin D.
4. Meditation. I had a subscription of the Headspace app on my phone. This is a good way to get started. I can meditate now without the app, so it is not something I need anymore. Although I do find that I tend to forget about meditation if I don’t include it in the morning. The first 10 lessons are free.
5. Bullet proof coffee. I usually don’t have breakfast and often practice intermittent 14-16 hours fasting with carb back loading at the end of the day.
   But I also often drink bullet proof coffee. I prepare it with turmeric and coconut oil (which contains a high amount of MCT oils) in a blender, and sometimes I add cinnamon. It is good for your brain and keeps you in fat burning mode. Follow the links if you want to buy the original bullet proof coffee and brain octane MCT oils.
6. Naps. I am a night owl, so it is likely I will sometimes go to bed too late. It is vital to get enough sleep. When sleep deprived I revitalize immensly by napping.
   One of the best Nap-apps is Pzizz (free). Put your ear buds on, and set it for a 20 min Nap. You hear a soothing voice of a male British gentleman. The phrases…. a deep and refreshing nap …. and luxuriate in that feeling…gets me very relaxed. It is amazing how well this works.
   With between 4-6 hours sleep and 1-2 naps of 20 minutes each, I can get very productive, not having to sleep my usual 8 hours.
7. A great way to plan the day and get more focused is using the kanbanflow app – I use the desktop version. It is based on the pomodoro technique and the Japananes Kanban tables of project planning and task management. I found out about the The Pomodoro technique almost 10 years ago and it became vital for me with my quite noticable ADHD traits to be able focus on the important things and to get things done, as we were bombarded with information and constantly interupted checking emails, social media to whatsapp messages. Whenever, I get overwhelmed with too many things that needs to be done, systematically organizing them in the kanbanflow table and take them on – one by one – in short bursts, soon have me back on track.

Hold me accountable, please.

These are my 10 commitments to forming habits these 10 days. Not everything is new and I already do many of these, but I plan on being more consistant by checking each box daily.

• Get up at 5 AM
• Meditate everyday
• Do a Seven work out – everyday
• 20 minutes minimum of running every day. I have to get better at reading the subtitles of the Netflix movies running on the treadmill. A great way to combine leisure with exercise.
• 10 minutes mininum of Yoga
• Some additional running strength and flexibility
• minimum 20 minutes of Swedish with the kids
• Duolingo French and Japanese. I usually do languages in the evening.
• Chinese on HelloChinese app – this app is similar to Duolingo, but better. It has a far better voice recognition than Duolingo.
• No alcohol

The main thing for me is to get up early to get more things done. I get some healthy habits and I will be able to produce more, and stay more resilient with a strong immune system, should I later get COVID-19.

Realistically, even if protecting oneself as much as is possible with social distancing, sooner or later most people will get the virus. We just have to make every effort for that to be as late as possible, and to be as healthy as possible once we get hit. Now is the best time to get in shape both mentally and physically.

Look out for updates on this blog and on Facebook to see how I am coming along.

Your turn. What will you do the next 10 days? Stay Safe!

Disclaimer: The Amazon links give me a very small commission if you purchase. You don’t pay any extra by using these links. Please see this as a small way to support me during the lockdown, as I currently have no income from tours. I have personally read all books I am linking to and can vouch for the positive effect they have made on me. .