Emiko: Day 21, Spoken Secrets, Broken Day

I told the first of many coworkers, Juliet, today about the PCP, and she had a really positive reaction. I showed her the blogs and told her briefly about the format of the Project. At slow moments in the shift (which were few) she stopped and read our blog, commenting out loud and laughing. She wanted me to send her the link so that she could keep following along, and assured me that when I was weighing out my food that she never thought that I was 'weird'. It was really great. We left the blog up on the staff computer, and my manager came in and happened to see it too. He said it looked awesome, and emailed the link to himself right there. So, we have two new witnesses to our PCP journey! And there are more to come!

I am enjoying having this little secret, and it is really really neat watching people's reactions, whatever they are, as Adrian and I let the secret slip out into the open.

So, after being at work from 6:30am-3pm, I biked home and collapsed next to Adrian on the couch. We talked and had a good time, knowing it was the only couple of hours we'd see each other today. Eventually I had to rush to start my exercises. Emphasis on start, because that's all I got to do before I left for class at 5:20pm. I only had time for 700 or so jump-ropes, and ended up finishing the rest of the work out after class (past 9pm).

I remember Patrick making a post about having to break up his work out during a very busy day, and for that reason I was afraid it was going to really suck. But I got a good sweat going pretty quick --probably helped quite a bit by crazy heat here in Oakland-- and felt like I got a good work out. So this rushed, broken-up exercise routine went alright, but in the future I will try to stay on track and do my jump-ropes and exercises all in the same period.

We also got our new diets today, and like Adrian said we will be drinking lots of tea. I am sad because I am eating less fruit and meat, which are really the best parts in my opinion. Adrian has come up with a KILLER cayenne-pepper doused turkey burger recipe (I think he put it in an earlier post), and I am in love. But moderation is continually emphasized and further enforced each week with smaller portions, and I am grateful for that reminder.

I am also really excited because it's almost time for the pounds to really start melting off, and boy am I ready!

And HEY! Keep yer eyes peeled! New Flickr photo coming tomorrow of me and Adrian posing like macho men (hopefully with some noticeable changes this time). Aren't you thrilled?!

Either way, good night all. I hope that you get some good rest and, for those of you like Tim and Patrick living halfway around the world and already well into your Friday, I hope you are having a lovely, lovely morning.

Adrian: Day 21, Time really does fly!

Have 21 days really gone by? Wowaweewa. It went by really quick. The way I'm feeling right now is that none of this PCP stuff is out of the ordinary. All the meat, veggies and egg whites that I'm eating every day just feels like a normal part of life, and it's almost hard to imagine it any other way. I guess I've finally hit that groove, and I'm going high octane if you catch my drift. And I really can't imagine going back and eating all the old junk that I used to.

At this point, I feel like I'm 90% over all my old cravings; they just don't really come up anymore. And I haven't felt the least bit bothered by hunger in an "I could go for Chinese take-out" sort of way. I do get hungry by dinner time, but I feel very satisfied by my apple, banana & milk soup, & egg whites. Though, I do have to admit that my mouth watered just a tiny little bit while after looking at that picture we posted yesterday. It looked pretty disgusting to me, but my body's instinct was for my mouth water, because that's the sort of stuff that Emiko and I used to eat. Weird how that works huh? And I still look twice at the chocolate bars when checking out at the grocery store. Also, for some reason, after eating my egg whites for dinner I am sometimes tempted to eat the yolks.

We all got our new diets tonight, and our portions have been cut quite a bit. I'm not even worried though. That means less groceries, and I'm not gonna miss running to the store every other day. Looks like we'll have to stock up on tea though.

Some day soon, Emiko and I hope to grow our own food. But that's a post-PCP project, so keep an eye out!

Adrian

Emiko & Adrian: Day 16, Good Snooze and Bad Snooze

So, remember how we mentioned that Patrick wants us all to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night? One would think that forcing ourselves to get that much rest would allow us to wake up refreshed and jumping out of bed. But what we've been doing is more like crawling out of bed. For some reason, the body just says, "hey, I like sleep! I want to keep doing this." *Emiko hits snooze button* Emiko has actually learned how to hit the snooze button while still in REM sleep.

The bad news (or bad snooze) is that the first hour of the day is spent in a groggy haze. We shuffle around in the morning going through the motions, weighing our veggies and peeling our eggs, etc. The lack of energy might also be because we are not seeing the results yet, and it's hard to keep feeling excited every day when we can't really imagine our bodies looking any different.

The good news (snooze) is that despite this lack of energy, we know it's important to continue going through the motions, and we are. We've been sticking closely to our diets, struggling through the exercises, and pushing on.

Adrian found this proverb in Buddhism, A Very Short Introduction, the text we are reading for our Buddhist philosophy class:

"Sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny."

We both found this quote to be inspiring, and we hope that it's inspiring for the rest of you as well. Every action we're undertaking right now with this new lifestyle is creating better habits, and will eventually strengthen our characters and not just our bodies.

On that note, we are off to bed for another full night of rest! G'night.

Adrian: Day 14, Time flies!

Nate mentioned in his last post a very interesting quality of time:

"...when we are busy time goes really fast in the moment, but in retrospect seems to have been forever. And when we have little to do in the moment time seems to drag but in retrospect went very fast. "

That's definitely been true for me. Working from home gives me a lot of time to do whatever I please, and usually, it doesn't amount to much activity. Prior to PCP, there was lots of reading involved. And walking, lots of walking. Walking to book stores and more reading. I've gone for a couple weeks without knowing what day it was. Maybe this is what the Zen masters were alluding to when they spoke of "no mind".

Probably not. But speaking of Zen, I came across a really interesting quote in a book I was reading today:

"To observe the regulations and keep to the rules is tying oneself without a rope. To act freely and unrestrainedly just as one wishes is to do what heretics and demons would do."

The quote goes on quite a bit, but those first two lines I find particularly relevant now in terms of how we've all been thinking about time and structure.

Our relationships with others are very intimately and almost exclusively related to our schedules. There are the people we socialize with when we have to be at work, and people we talk to when we're at school. There are friends that we see on the weekends, that we meet for dinner, and that we see only on birthdays. There are our parents, who we may see very little of. The person you live with you might see even less of. These social rules are incredibly powerful, and they define all of our relationships. There's seemingly very little room left for choice.

But these schedules, these routines, we have to keep them, how else would we live? At the same time, this is the invisible rope which binds us together, or keeps us separate from one another.

The second sentence of the quote is about separation. And I feel like it very much applies to a person like me. I have felt like a 'heretic' and an outcast many times in life (very strongly during high school). I was always very opposed to going with the flow. But going against the flow for too long may result in much suffering and eventually drowning. Without routine or schedule, our relationships become severed. When no one cares about you, its easy not to care about yourself.

So tell me, what is the right way?

Adrian: Day 13, Spirals.

I've been kind of lamenting the fact that I haven't been able to meditate on a regular basis this week. Yesterday was the first day I missed my morning sitting, and I wasn't able to sit this morning either. It doesn't really irritate me, but it is a part of my old routine that I relied on. It's kind of like realizing you forgot to brush your teeth the night before, and feeling sort of cheated.

I've been thinking a lot lately about this new way of life that we PCP'ers have been living, and I wonder if when it is all over, I'll just revert to my old ways. I remember when I was younger seeing issues of the National Enquirer about how Luther Vandross had lost 200 lbs only to gain 400 a couple months later. Will it be the same way with me?

Emiko and I quite often talk about the kinds of foods we want to indulge in, and I imagine us hitting up our old haunts and just going back to being lazy and inactive. It seems all too easy for us to go down that same route.

However, I feel like I'm learning things about how to live right now that will stay with me forever. Prior to this project, I was just sort of ignorant about what I put into my body and how I used it. I mean, even things as simple as jump-rope techniques, which Amy so kindly posted for us, are things that I wouldn't normally think about. I've always been somewhat physically awkward, and mostly ignorant about why. These days though, I am more able to feel when and how I am using my body improperly.

For example, today in drawing class, the teacher gave us a concentration exercise. We were instructed to take a sheet of sketchbook paper and to fold it into 4 boxes. In the first box, we were to draw a spiral as tightly as possible and with one continuous line, until the spiral filled up the entire square. During this exercise, I consistently found myself tightening up, hunching my posture, gripping my pen too tightly, and holding my breath and becoming frustrated. Normally, a person can go on for hours like that without noticing what they are doing.

It's easy to be carried on a wave of subconscious activity. But the PCP has really forced me to look at many aspects of my life simultaneously - How I deal with stress and pressure, how I physically exert myself, how and what I eat, the feelings of frustration and irritation that I am sometimes prone to, everything... And I'm grateful for it.

I hope everyone is well.

Adrian



It's a hot and sleepy day...