I just did a 5 day challenge and I feel like I’m ready for something more… Challenging.
I discovered Today that Sony has released A7C II and that’s the camera I’ve been waiting for.
I don’t like to switch cameras frequently, currently, I still use a6300 and overall I love it.
Some things about it do annoy me a little and I’ve been waiting for the perfect replacement to come out.
My dream camera has a full frame sensor in a a6000-sized body, with super fancy eye-tracking autofocus.
And a7c was that dream camera, however I wasn’t ready to stop using my a6300 yet and when I was, it felt like it was too old already.
Not because I want the latest thing, but a 3 year old model with a 5+ year old sensor just screamed fast depreciation to me.
So I said to myself that once Sony releases a mk2 of this camera, I’ll be all over that.
Now I find out it’s out. And I want it! But I want to earn it. Not in a financial sense, I can afford it right now, but more in a mental sense.
What was this post about again?
Photography is a hobby, one of many hobbies I enjoy. Dropping 2k+ euros on another toy (after all the other toys I treated myself to this summer) feels almost unearned.
My reward for myself in my last 5 day challenge was ice cream. I had that Today. A lot of it. It was great.
So that got me thinking. If I really want that camera, let’s earn it by committing to some hard things that are good for me.
What do I want to improve on?
- I want to become healthier and lose weight
- I want to become a decent SwitfUI iOS dev
- I want to become competent at Figma
- I want to become a better photographer
- I want to become consistent with my journaling and meditating
So what are the routine daily tasks and rules I can do for 33 days to improve on the above?
“Healthier” and weight loss
⎷ Workout
Health in my understanding is a bunch of muscle mass, healthy amount of body fat and healthy blood work.
To improve/maintain my muscles, I want to do some form of exercise every day, acceptable options are:
- Cardio: at least 30 minutes of walking, cycling or something similar
- Muscle growth/maintenance:
- Home/no gym: At least 60 push-ups + 30 squats + plank till failure twice (minimum 20 seconds)
- Gym: At least 3 different exercises, minimum 3 sets each, just make it count, you know what to do.
So I must do one of the above, for my Workout checkbox to be checked.
⎷ Diet
Since I’ve dabbled with the carnivore and it went well, I think a self imposed food restriction could potentially be of benefit.
I am not willing to go full carnivore, as that’s crazy restrictive and very problematic in different social environments, abandoning all processed foods is also problematic (burgers for example are then a no-go).
What I think I can do and it sounds reasonable to me is a complete block on all processed sugars in the snack/sugary treat context and an honest effort to reduce carbs in general.
Specifically: no ice cream or chocolate or sweets, fruit is ok, but only if I got it fresh or frozen (but not processed, so frozen fruit ice cream lollies are not ok).
I will also reduce yoghurt and soured cream in routine daily foods as it’s very easy to over-consume calories. A greek yoghurt with some fruits once a week is fine, more than that, no. No deserts of any kind outside of this.
No nuts, crisps or french fries.
If the above rules are followed, my Diet checkbox may be checked for the day.
Self development and creativity
While this one feels like it should have at least 3 checkboxes, like studying iOS and figma on the same day as well as taking x amount of photos, I think making it too time consuming is unrealistic.
So I will have 2 checkboxes
⎷ Learning
Acceptable options are at least 20 minutes of:
- Brainstorming iOS ideas or writing app plan
- Learning SwiftUI by coding
- Learning Figma by creating wireframes, mockups and interfaces
Watching tutorials on any of the above subjects does not contribute to the 20 minutes timer.
⎷ Photography
Post at least one photo to my kirill.rides instagram (because it has no followers, so it’s only for me).
Mindfulness and journaling
⎷ Journaling
This one is simple: write something, in the public galenko.lv blog or in the private journal. Just a thought, a thankfulness list or some event is just fine. Doesn’t have to be long.
⎷ Meditation
This one is tricky, I would like to do breathing and meditations, but I’m afraid of losing the challenge by setting unrealistic goals.
Let’s say daily, at least 3 minutes.
So here’s my daily checklist:
- Workout
- Diet
- Learning
- Photography
- Journaling
- Meditation
Full body selfies on days: 1, 11, 22, 33.
The streak runs for 33 days, I am allowed to skip/fail/freeze my streak 1 day. If I fail for 2 days in a row, or more than twice during any 7 consecutive days, my progress is reset and I’m back on day 1.
Exception to this is working out, if/when I get implants/surgery, if my doc insists on no physical activity, then I’m allowed to not check that for the duration of docs restriction.
The challenge starts on the 22nd of August. And if no freezes happen, ends on the 24th of September.
When successful, I am allowed to buy myself a Sony A7C II