bazera

Day 8 / 90 Morning Routine (❌ didn't do it because I woke up late and had work-related stuff to do in the morning, I did some of these throughout the day) Checking the internet no more than 5-10 minutes Bathroom & making bed Spiritual Practices (without checking anything online in-between) Workout Reading / Studying till work Sleep Schedule 02:30 am - 09:30 am (7 hours) Spiritual Practices Kriya Yoga - preparatory exercises Mind Illuminated Meditation - 13m Candle Gazing Concentration - 7m Career 3h call 45m timed block, other times a bit distracted untimed blocks Diet & Exercise 1591 calories, 225g carbs, 25g protein Fasting 19:5 Took D3, Omega3 Internet Habits YouTube: 0m LinkedIn: 20m Reading & Studying Listened ~1h of an audiobook: "Levels of Energy" by Frederick Dodson General Notes I had to work in the morning and also in the evening today, so didn't do much else. But I haven't skipped practices and diet.

Week Summary Sleep 04:30 am - 10:00 am (5.5 hours) 00:00 am - 10:00 am (10 hours) 02:00 am - 09:00 am (7 hours) 01:00 am - 09:00 am (8 hours) 01:30 am - 07:30 am (6 hours) 01:30 am - 09:00 am (6.5 hours) 01:00 am - 06:00 am, 08:00 am - 11:00 am (8 hours) Summary Fixing my sleep schedule is the hardest of my endeavors at the moment. But I have to put more effort into this next week. Again, the goal is 10-11 pm - 6-7 am Spiritual Practices Haven't missed a day, but taking baby steps. This week I'll do 15 minutes of Mind Illuminated Meditation, still the preparatory practices of Kriya Yoga, and 7 minutes of Candle Gazing Career I've been working with distractions most of the time, but still, some part of it was timed 45-30 minute blocks. I have to put in more of those. My work becomes much more productive and I don't have the stuff to do in the evenings if I do the work during the day as best as I can. Diet & Exercise Weight: 99.1kg 650 calories, 4g carbs Fasting: 19:5 30m running on a treadmill --------------------------- 1219 calories, 126g carbs Fasting: 19:5 --------------------------- 923 calories, 104g carbs Fasting: 19:5 30m running on a treadmill --------------------------- 1328 calories, 129g carbs Fasting: 16:8 --------------------------- 1696 calories, 136g carbs, 135g protein --------------------------- 1611 calories, 174g carbs, 59g protein --------------------------- 1496 calories, 110g carbs, 154g protein Summary Diet going well (7/7), fasting can be improved (3/7) and exercise was kinda failed but better than nothing, running (2/6), weights (0/3) Internet Habits YouTube: 27m, LinkedIn: 8m YouTube: 14m, LinkedIn: 16m YouTube: 1h 12m, LinkedIn: 17m YouTube: 1h 26m, LinkedIn: 22m YouTube: 22m, LinkedIn: 14m YouTube: 1h 13m, LinkedIn: 17m Summary YouTube should be reduced. I'll try to only visit it on weekends General Summary As far as week 1 goes, I was okay, but can be done much better. The changes I'll try to make over the next week based on what I've found/realized this week: Having and tracking the morning routine Waking up (preferably 6-7 am) Checking the internet no more than 5-10 minutes Bathroom & making bed Spiritual Practices (without checking anything online in-between) Workout Reading / Studying till work I need to start reading and studying things more actively. At least 45 minutes of reading, and 45 minutes of audio-book, would be great to do algorithms and technical courses. While eating, I need to remove the habit of watching something. I'll be changing that to listening to an audiobook. Listening to music during work decreases my productivity. I should experiment with working without any external sounds, maybe even with earbuds this week. I should also be more mindful of procrastination. I procrastinated a lot last week, so probably I'll be having the same tendency the following week. I'll set my mind to becoming more aware of it because awareness tends to be curative here. YouTube become an escape and I binged watched some stupid shit the other day. This week I want to experiment with removing YouTube from my daily tools and using it on the weekends to check subscribed channels. Maybe I'll visit YouTube in case I have some topics to research for my studies. I think having a morning routine will help me exercise more consistently or else I won't be able to meet my weight-loss goals. And also, I feel much better after I exercise. Good luck to me

Day 7 / 90 Sleep Schedule 01:00 am - 06:00 am, but at 08:00 am I slept again and woke up at 11:00, so my body naturally filled 8h of sleep, in spite of me trying to sleep for only 5 hours, to fix a schedule Spiritual Practices Kriya Yoga - preparatory practices Mind Illuminated Meditation - 10 minutes Candle Gazing Concentration - 7 minutes Career Nothing on Sunday Diet & Exercise 1496 calories, 110g carbs, 154g protein Exercise: none Fasting: none (ate banana before sleep) Took D3, Omega3 Internet Habits YouTube: 73m LinkedIn: 17m Reading & Studying Listened to an hour of the audiobook: "Levels of Energy" by Frederick Dodson General Notes I noticed that when I'm eating, I always have a tendency to watch something. Then I spend minutes looking for something to watch, and mostly it is just something that I just watch for the sake of passing a time while I eat. Ideally, I'd eat without any other stimulation, and be mindful of what I eat. But before I get to that, I will change mindless watching and eating while listening to an audiobook. It will be like a routine: cook, eat, and clean up while listening to something interesting instead of watching something stupid Also, I need to set up proper morning and evening routines. Those are like systems set in place that I have to surrender to and do daily, or else I'm in a constant fight and struggle between procrastination and productivity. This drains my energy more and more. I'll track my routine here to make sure to follow it. Maybe I'll start with a morning routine because I know exactly what to do, and I'll add the evening one when I'm more clear about how I want to spend my evenings.

Day 6 / 90 Sleep Schedule 01:30 am - 09:00 am (again, goal: 11-10 pm => 6-7 am) Spiritual Practices Kriya Yoga - Preparatory Exercises Mind Illuminated Meditation - 10m Candle Gazing Concentration - 7m Career Nothing on Saturday Diet & Exercise 1611 calories, 174g carbs, 59g protein No fasting No Exercise Took D3, Omega3 Internet Habits YouTube: 22m LinkedIn: 14m Reading & Studying Finished the book "Will" by Will Smith, an audio version, narrated by Will himself. It was a fun one, and quite insightful regarding fame, fulfillment, success, achievement, discipline, family, etc. Will got into spirituality (or as he claims) in his 50s. I have to make sure not to make that mistake and do it sooner, lol. But still, he burnt through lots of karma before that, so. Some of that is necessary. General Notes One thing I noticed is that I have a tendency to check something online, whether notifications or forum posts or news or something, like every 10 minutes. That urge comes up when I'm reading or between practices. So if I do candle gazing for 7 minutes, I'm checking something online for a couple of minutes and then starting Yoga. That's a very toxic habit that I want to get rid of, and yes, it's just a habit. I'll be mindful of that next time I do it. Also, I need to install routines, morning and evening ones. In that way, I'll introduce a structure in life. I'll start doing that next week.

Day 5 / 90 Insight From Yesterday Procrastination is the reason why I do practices in the evening rather than the morning. It is also the reason why I skipped cardio. It's also the reason behind decreased work performance. Procrastination needs more energy expenditure than actually doing the shit I'm supposed to be doing because it comes with guilt and shame, and basically, it's a form of self-sabotage. I need to engage in spiritual practices with more intention. I need to do them with quality in mind every time. And the best time to do that is in the morning after waking up because my mind is the clearest. When I do it in the evening, all the shit that's been happening during the day are like pinned in my mind and concentration becomes nearly impossible. Or that's because of the lack of experience. Sleep Schedule 01:30 am - 07:30 am (6 hours, too little, but I need to get used to getting up early) Spiritual Practices (at 08:45 am) Kriya Yoga - Preparatory Exercises Mind Illuminated Meditation - 10m Candle Gazing Concentration - 7m Note I decided to start Meditation with 10m and add 5m each week until I reach 45 minutes Career 1.5h calls, 2x45m undistracted work, rest distracted Diet & Exercise Weight: 99.3kg 1696 calories, 136g carbs, 135g protein No fasting, I ate an apple before I went to sleep Took D3, Omega3 Note I haven't exercised for 3 days. That's a failure. I need to fix this. Internet Habits YouTube: 86m LinkedIn: 22m Note I'm wasting too much time on YouTube. I was mindlessly watching some stupid videos after work. I want to experiment with allowing myself to only visit YouTube once a week, on the weekends. That's what I'll do next week. Reading & Studying Still nothing 😕 General Notes Yeah, as I mentioned, I need to experiment with removing YouTube from my daily tools. I have better things to do than waste my hours on watching mindless videos. If I want to watch the creators I love, I'll do that through other websites, not through youtube.com, because it comes with the search bar that gets me into mindless binge-watching sometimes. Also, if I need to research something on YouTube, I'll do that mindfully.

Day 4 / 90 Went to sleep at 1 am. Woke up at 9 am. Slowly getting towards 10-11 pm => 6-7 am sleep schedule. Spiritual Practices Kriya Yoga - Preparatory exercises Mind Illuminated Meditation - 18 minutes Candle Gazing Concentration - 7 minutes Notes I noticed that I'm rushing through the practices as if I'm hurrying toward something. That won't fly. The key point in making progress here is to be fully engaged with intention and focus, and know what you are doing, without any hurry. Concentration is super important here. I've wasted many months in 20 minutes of meditation without progress in the past. The main reason was that I didn't have formal instruction, or I had but didn't follow it and I didn't have a firm intention. Also, I did the practices after like 11 pm today, because of procrastination. That won't work either. I need to do these in the morning after I wake up. That's when the mind is most clear. Career - Undistracted time blocks: 45m, 45m, 30m (need to increase these) - Rest of the time distracted, untimed blocks (need to decrease this as much as possible) Diet & Exercise 1328 calories, 129g carbs 150g banana: 134c, 34g 340g apple: 177c, 46g 250g strawberries: 49c, 11g 2 eggs: 147c, 0g 35g cheese: 110c, 0g 2 garlic: 9c, 2g 10g butter: 72c, 0c 230g chicken breast: 253c, 0g 60g sour cream: 128c, 2g 250g chicken breast: 275c, 0g 150g banana: 134c, 34g Took D3, Omega3 Fasting 16:8 Note I decided to increase the calorie intake a bit, to 1500-1600 calories, and examine the results. I don't know how much weight will I lose that way but as I look at it now, 25kg in 3 months doesn't seem healthy, but still, the goal is to be consistent with the diet and give my best. Internet Habits YouTube - 72m (Leo posted a video so, it's his fault, lol) LinkedIn - 17m Reading & Studying N/A (I need to optimize my time spending to create more room for those. I spend too much time procrastinating) General Notes I tend to spend my morning minutes on the internet mindlessly reading the news and scrolling through LinkedIn or checking out email and messages for longer than necessary. Morning hours should be spent more productively. I need to make sure of that. I started listening to music during working again, and the performance decline is very stark. Also, I had urges to check notifications and messages during work blocks, which resulted in most of the day being distracted, which reduces my performance further. So the lesson here is to be very attentive and disciplined about not wasting work blocks on distractions and getting the most out of 8 hours of work (including 10-15 minute rest blocks between work blocks) Also, I procrastinate on lots of stuff. And I think that is the most important factor in me not being able to consistently do stuff. So I have to somehow stop it. For example, today, procrastination was the reason why I did practice at 11:00 pm, and my mind was all over the place. Also, procrastination is the reason why I didn't start working on time and that's why I have to work in the evening hours which will mess up my sleep schedule again. And the cycle will continue because I won't be able to get up on time. So, the solution is to do the shit I know I have to do on time. Oh, and I haven't exercised because of procrastination, so that sucks. I still gotta put in 5 days of cardio and 2 days of weight training but it was supposed to be 6 cardio and 3 weights.

@Consept Thanks man, appreciate it. I'll consider your advice.

@Leo Gura So there is no concept of a "bad" trip for you anymore? You try to integrate and appreciate the trips and even deliberately induce trips that most of us would call a "bad" trip?

@Consept Thanks for your suggestions 🙏🏻 Yeah I also feel this is a bit too extreme. I am aiming for at least 1.5-2kg per week. I know the healthy range is somewhere between 0.5-1kg but I thought to push this a little bit (but I think I can't maintain health and at the same time push this number to 1kg+). Eating 900 calories is too extreme, I agree. https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html According to this calculator, if I continue to exercise and eat 1900 calorie diet, I'll lose 1 kg/week on average. I'm thinking to decrease this number a bit to like 1500-1600 range, just to see the results. As far as protein goes, what would you suggest, eating more chicken? Or look for some other protein sources. I can double my chicken intake, I think that would be sufficient, plus that will add calories as well. I'm just experimenting with stuff, so far I haven't felt bad, but I also intuit that eating 900 calories isn't sustainable. So I'm aiming to 1500-1600 as I mentioned.

Day 3 / 90 Couldn't sleep until 2 am. Again, the goal is to restore my old sleep schedule, let's see how long it takes Spiritual Practices Kriya Yoga - Did preparatory exercises, ~10-15 minutes Mind Illuminated Meditation - Did 10 minutes but most of it was mind-wandering still Candle Gazing Concentration - Did 7 minutes, most of it in mind-wandering Career - 1h call - Undistracted working blocks: 45m, 30m, 30m - The rest of the time distracted working Diet & Exercise Weight: 100kg 923 calories, 104g carbs - 158g banana: 141c, 36g - 150g banana: 134c, 34g - 250g strawberries: 49c, 11g - 200g chicken breast: 220c, 0g - 50g cheese: 150c, 0g - 170g apple: 88c, 23g Fasting: 19:5 30m running on a treadmill Took D3, Omega3 Internet Habits YouTube: 14m LinkedIn: 16m Notes Had lots of anxiety on the background during the day so the quality of practices was bad. But still, better than nothing. Diet and exercise are going well. Work productivity was also not that great. Also, I need to track reading and studying habits as well because if I don't, I tend to miss them and forget to put them into an already full schedule.

Day 2 / 90 Woke up at 10 am. Slept at around 12 pm. In total 10 hours. Probably because last night I only slept 5.5 hours. Again, I'm working towards a 10-11 pm => 6-7 am sleep schedule. Insights from yesterday: Music makes me LESS productive. I need to remove it from the working blocks. Spiritual Practices Kriya Yoga - Did preparatory exercises, ~10-15 minutes Mind Illuminated Meditation - Did 15 minutes, but my mind was very scattered Candle Gazing Concentration - Did 7 minutes, most of it in mind-wandering Summary: Didn't go that well, but baby steps will make it better Career 2h 45m call, 4x45m undistracted work-blocks Didn't listen to music during work, much better performance Diet & Exercise 1219 calories, 126g carbs - 3 eggs: 234c, 1g - 10g butter: 72c, 0g - 130g strawberries: 42c, 10g - 280g banana: 125c, 62g - 120g cheese: 354c, 0g - 400g apple: 100c, 50g - 250g chicken breast: 275c, 0g - 145g cucumber: 17c, 3g 19:5 fasting Took D3, Omega3 Internet Habits YouTube: 27m LinkedIn: 8m General Notes The main commitment is on doing the practices and keeping up with diet and exercise. Didn't do cardio today though. Gonna do it tomorrow. Aiming for 5-6 times/week. Looking forward to tomorrow's plans.

Day 1 / 90 I Slept ~5.5h, I'm fixing a sleep schedule, slept at 4:30 am, and woke up around 10 am. Hopefully, after not getting enough sleep today, my body will go to sleep earlier today at around 11 pm and wake up at 6-7 am. That's the ideal schedule for me. Spiritual Practices Kriya Yoga - I'm still doing preparatory practices and concentration, which takes no more than 10 minutes and is pretty straightforward. I'm not sure if I'm doing concentration between the eyebrows correctly though. Mind Illuminated Meditation - My mind is all over the place, super hard to concentrate on the sensations of my breath, but I'm gonna keep at it and also slowly increase the time till I go to 45 minutes. I did 17 minutes (had my timer at 20 but turned it off at 17 out of anxiety) Candle Gazing Concentration - Because I slept only 5.5 hours, my eyes were very irritated and couldn't kept without blinking, plus it's very hard to concentrate. Let's see how this skill improves in 3 months Career 2.5h calls, 3x45m undistracted work (aiming to have 6-7 45m blocks from April) Insight: music makes me LESS productive. I need to remove it from the working blocks Diet & Exercise 650 calories, 4g carbs 10g butter: 72c, 0g 2 eggs: 147c, 0g 100g sour cream: 214c, 4g 200g chicken breast: 220c, 0g 19:5 fasting Took D3, Omega3 30m running on a treadmill General Notes The hardest thing at the moment is fixing the sleep schedule. Not waking up early has some bad implications, including not using morning hours for meditation, exercise, reading, and studying. I have to do all that during the day or in the evening when I'm very tired. So somehow I have to manage to sleep earlier.

@Leo Gura Can you tell us what will those 2 courses be about?

I want to document my process of self-improvement which I've been doing pretty inconsistently lately and I want to hold myself accountable. I seem to need this because the systems that I use to track my progress or journal about this stuff lack the accountability part, which I think is a very useful thing to create momentum after which accountability might not be that important. Day 0 / 90 What are my goals for the next 90 days and what do I plan to change: I work from home, and I gained 50 pounds in the last 1-2 years from eating junk food and lack of exercise. I need to get it off and I need to get fit. I need to lose 50 pounds 30-45m running on a treadmill 6x / week. Maybe longer as time goes by, we'll see 30-45m basic body weight and dumbbell exercises, 3x / week 1200-1400 calorie and 100-150g carb diet Eating chicken, vegetables, some fruit, nuts, eggs, some dairy Fasting 16:8 or 18:6 Spirituality: For the past couple of months, I've been doing spiritual practices here and there, very inconsistently. As a result, I have zero progress. I need to change that. Consistency and attention to execution quality are crucial. I'm starting with the following practices (I'll do these as soon as I wake up): Mindfulness Meditation with the instructions from the book Mind Illuminated (starting with 20 minutes) Kriya Yoga with the instructions from the book Kriya Secrets Revealed (starting with 10-15 minutes) Candle Gazing (Trataka) for developing better concentration, from Om Swami's Meditation book (starting with 7 minutes) Also, - I need to fix my sleep schedule. Right now I sleep at around 02:00 am and wake up at 10:00 am. I need to change that to sleeping at 10-11 pm and waking up at 6-7 am (in those ranges). I'll document how this goes as well - Experimenting with Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming with the techniques described in the book The Phase. I'll continue doing it after I fix my sleep schedule Career-oriented goals: I am a software developer working full time (8h/day), mainly specializing in front-end web development. At the moment I'm learning back-end as well, and some other stuff to advance in my career Finishing the following Udemy courses: Nest.JS Node.JS MongoDB Reading the following books: Git Book Head First Design Patterns Doing Algoexpert algorithm challenges daily Work in 45-60m blocks followed by 10-15m resting Internet habits: Note: I've already eliminated social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc) habits, I don't consume any of those I tend to over-consume YouTube, and sometimes scroll LinkedIn mindlessly which I don't like. I'll try to reduce those as well Other goals: I try to read every day, and I have a goal to read 3-4 books each month. So I'll also be doing that. I need to learn how to drive a car and get a driving license. I'll do it in these 90 days. So, there is a lot to do daily, and no time to waste on stupid shit. I hope you'll get inspired by reading this thread and hopefully I'll be having massive progress in all these areas in 90 days and I'll continue developing myself further. I'll write the overview at the end of each of those 90 days. And also at the end of every week. Note: these might seem like a lot, but I've been doing most of this stuff already but very inconsistently. So I know it's doable, and we'll see how it goes.

@Leo Gura Are you also working on the more practical course you've been mentioning, or just a spiritual one? Also, will your spiritual course require some prerequisite experiences or can it be taken by a person with no spiritual practice/experiences, just having a theoretical foundation through your videos and some books?