I was a bit hesitant to do this post as I feel it would come off as bragging, but really it was me experimenting on myself to see what I was capable of. It helped to have several accountability groups in various areas and also to share my progress or when I hit snags.
- This month I joined the 800 gram challenge with 25 other people at Crossfit box. Eat 800 grams (g) of fruits and/or vegetables, by weight, per day. No foods are eliminated, but only fruits and veggies count toward the 800g. Eat the fruits and veggies of your choice. Raw, cooked, canned, frozen; doesn’t matter! If you can weigh it as a standalone and unprocessed fruit or vegetable, you can count it. Yep, that’s it! Being vegetarian. I thought this would be a breeze, but part of the challenge was to weight my food, and that’s when it hit me that salads don’t weight much, but fruits do. And thus. I began to eat fruits daily not just bananas like I did occasional but apples, oranges, pears, and really anything that caught my eye at the supermarket. It became a bit of a game to buy something I normally didn’t and know that it wouldn’t go to waste. I managed to do 800 grams every day for February. Another unexpected side benefit, my energy levels shot up, and I also managed to lose weight faster than I’d anticipated.
- Running: So I never really thought of myself as a runner, but after doing several races and then the LA Marathon last year, I realized that the reason I don’t consider myself a runner is due to my speed, and the fact that I don’t run everyday. Again, crossfit friends came to the rescue. Running is not about doing it daily or length, it’s about consistency, and so I managed to run 50 miles in a month which to the old me would have sounded insane a few years back. So far this year I have run 95 miles out of my 1000 mile goal for 2021 (another insane goal)
- I also began tracking my habits as per Atomic Habits book, and I made a list of 15 habits that I wished to know how I was doing. I managed to meditate for 15 minutes every day, read a chapter of a book every day (which allowed me to finish reading 4 books this month), write 100 words every day (which got me to 3500 words on a short story), I exercised daily, mixing it up with Crossfit, running and swimming and only missed one day (Valentines Day, but that’s a very good reason to miss). journal daily which included my morning pages, my clear habit journal as well as my food journal. I also managed to do 10 pushups (minimum) 26 days out of 28, but I am most proud of that everyday I took the opportunity to hug and kiss my wife. It may seem silly to track that, but I realized that it became a form of self-care to know that my partner is by my side even if she didn’t sometimes get my crazy schedule. I also managed to cook 23 days out of 28 which for me is pretty huge. While I only managed to not drink 14 days out of 28, I did stop drinking Mondays through Thursdays which meant I was less groggy, and able to wake up earlier which leads me to my next point.
- I began to wake up at 5am on weekdays because I realized that a lot of my self care (reading, writing, meditating, journaling) required quiet time that did not interfere with quality time with loved ones. What worked was not drinking on weekdays, and also habit stacking as outlined in the Atomic habits. Became I woke up early, I meditated, then journaled, then read, then wrote one after another, which made my day already a huge win because even if I got nothing else done, I knew I had done the things that nourished me.
- I also signed the most clients this month than ever before, and hit several personal records in weightlifting. So I ended the month with a need to do more, to keep pushing myself, to keep growing and so this month, I am adding acts of service, completing more MasterClasses, diving deeper in study for ADA Access and Immigration legal matters, doing an act of service of some form, and marketing.
It feels crazy to write this post, but I know that unless I don’t acknowledge my wins. I will also focus on the losses and feel like I am not moving forward when in reality, the movement isn’t a sprint, it’s one step at a time. Happy Monday!
Sanjay Sabarwal's Blog 