Lifestyle Report: August 2012
Last month I outlined my long term goals for this year. This LSR is to track my progress and set sub goals and mini projects to aid in progress.
Sleep
Most drastic improvement this month came from G Manifesto. His hangover cure is popping a multivitamin before bed. I decided to try this as a counter to early morning grogginess, suffice to say it works very well. Combined with a zinc tablet makes for a very good nights sleep and a good mood in the morning. Progress brah.
Work
No progress on work related goals, because I’ve been to busy doing actual paid work. The change I’m testing this month is not allowing myself to do any “leisure activities” apart from sex until after 6pm.
Read
Nearly finished 4 Hour Body.
Money
Slowly but surely I’m chipping away at my overdraft. I’m currently looking into freelancing as well as using wizpert. Once I’m out of debt I’m gonna begin a project in affilate marketing. More info on this to come.
Health
Convict Conditioning begins this month. I’m doing this first because it should aid in progress to other fitness goals. My other project is gonna be eating 4 meals a day rather than 2, and taking protein shakes.
Sex
1 new bang. My project for this (which will probably take more than 2 months, given how I don’t go out much) is to do 100 approaches. Social circle lays count towards my goal of 12 more girls, but don’t count as an approach. Only girls I’ve never met will count as an approach.
Write
Massively neglected. I aim to work upwards so the aim for this month is to write for just 20 minutes a day.
Lifestyle Report: July 2012
I’m gonna change.
This is a goal setting lifestyle report. I’m setting long term concrete goals for my 7 beneficial habits, to be achieved by a year from now. I aim to reach these goals by implementing specific behaviours for a trial period, then continuing them if they work for me.
Here are my goals for each of the 7 beneficial habits, to be achieved by July 11th 2013
Sleep
- Get up by 7:30 normally, 11:30 after nights out.
My plan for this simple – got to bed progressively earlier over time, nap and meditate.
Work (non paid work and GTD)
- Get a first (>70%) in my second year of uni.
- Get blog to 2000 unique visits per day.
- Play 50 shows.
- Release another EP.
- Play a show supporting a famous band.
Gonna have to turn up and work hard to get 70%, but I’m determined not to have a repeat of this year. The blog promotion will be achieved by writing regularly and promoting my blog in a way that still contributes to the manosphere, the other 3 will just take some serious band hustle.
Read
- Read 20 books.
I have a reading list I’m burning through, just finished Sex 3.0 and about to start 4 hour body.
Money
- Clear overdraft.
- Reach total savings goal of £10k.
- Earn £50 per hour.
The first 2 will be achieved by taking all the over time I can get my hands on over summer, combined with student finance and careful budgeting. The third will be achieved through the development of passive income businesses, affilate marketing and whatever else I may learn through the year.
Heath
- Be able to do 100 push ups, 100 squats, 100 sit ups and 20 pull ups straight.
- To reach intermediate level 7 on convict conditioning exercises 1 – 4, and level 3 intermediate on 5 and 6.
- Reach a bodyweight of 90kg.
- Have visible abs without tensing.
- Have a resting heart rate of 60bpm or lower.
The first will either be done with those android apps, or by adding a rep each day – I’ll dabble with both until I find something that fits. I’m restarting CC from the beginning. I’ll be experimenting with various diet and supplementation changes to succeed with 3 and 4. Goal 5 will be down to gradually more frequent walks and some form of high intensity cardio once a week, as well as reduced smoking and drinking and a paleo diet.
Sex
- Don’t masturbate.
- Have sex with 12 new girls.
The former requires the maintenance of my current unfenced relationships, the latter requires, to be blunt, going out more.
Write
- Write for 2 hours per day.
This will be achieved by gradually increasing the amount of time devoted to it, and doing it first thing every morning.
Lifestyle Report: June 2012
Hello, yes I am still alive. No my exams are not going well, but never mind. I want to talk about this site, and it’s direction in the coming months, before dropping my monthly accountability bomb.
PLANS FOR SUMMER
- New layout and updated blogroll
- Move house.
- Set up a SiME tumblr for all the stuff not meaty enough to be posted here.
- Follow the Roosh program.
- Get this site up to 1000 hits per day.
- Dabble in free-lance writing with the possibility of quitting my supermarket job.
- Monetise the site in a way that does not adversely affect the reader’s experience.
- Launch an information product to be sold through this site.
- Read a ton of books, fuck a ton of girls.
- Experiment with magic truffles/mushrooms, LSD and Nootropics.
That should keep me pretty busy then, onto the lifestyle report.
Sleep
No more sleep problems! I sleep 7 – 9 hours a night and although I sometimes go to bed at like 4am, this doesn’t cause problems the night after. The secret? Disco naps, meditation and zinc tablets.
Work
I’ve built my focus using the pomodoro technique, which is really helping with exams. My actual paid work is dull, hence the various money earning goals in the above list. The one I’m most excited about is freelance writing, essentially being paid to practice blogging. Neat huh. My next step in this area is going to be looking in to fixed schedule productivity.
Read
I was so sleep deprived last time that I forgot this bit. I finally got round to Frost’s revised version of F25. All I can say is that it’s much better than the first. This book has also started a friend on his own red pill journey. If you have any friends that need a bit of red pill therapy, but don’t want to force it down their throats, recommend this book to them. I also decided to read a psychology book called 59 seconds. This book is interesting in that it is a self help book where the advice is based on empirical, repeatable studies. This is a cool concept and offers some very insightful and interesting advice. The best part is the chapter on attraction. Any “game aware” guy reading this will see the core concepts shining through, as well as the clawing attempts to reframe them in a politically correct way. I’m currently finishing up Sex 3.0, review coming soon.
Money
All fine and dandy, I just want more of it. The site already runs google adsense, my intention is to add a “bookshelf” page of the books I’ve read and intend to read, with affilate links through which readers can buy the books. Once this is set up along with a new layout, I’m going to divide my time between freelance writing and growing the site’s audience via regular posting here (1 post every 2 days), tumblr (daily posts), twitter, the forum, and writing guest posts for other blogs. Once I’ve reached the goal of 1000 hits per day the promotion will continue, but with time spent on creating a saleable information product for the site.
Health
This part of my life is going very well. I’ve quit cigarettes for good, and have struck a balance with weed where it doesn’t affect my drive or ambition. I drink far less now. I’m eating SPFY as before, but now with the addition of eating liver a couple of times a week. Dat nutrient dense organ meat. I’m eating by a (rough) meal plan to help with gaining a bit of weight. Children’s multivitamins have joined the ACV and fish oil in my supplement regime. As for exercise – convict conditioning is slowly progressing. I’ve added a daily mini routine: 100 push ups, sit ups and squats, and 20 pull ups, per day, spread through the day. The eventual goal is just a straight set of each every day, but I’m not there yet. Over summer I intend to add a daily protein shake into the mix, along with doing a short, daily yoga routine. My only reservation here is whether eating to gain mass when doing convict conditioning could lead to poor results. Time will tell.
Sex
One new notch, a one night stand. Went radio silent on me for a week then texted me at like 2am, when I was asleep. Now she’s back on silence – never mind. The only bad point is that she is one of those “no means yes sometimes” girls. That’s kinda hot but when a girl goes silent on you after sex, and says that shit the night before, paranoia about false rape accusations sets in. Obviously I was over reacting, I probably just didn’t make her come. Outside of casual sex, I’m maintaining 2 or 3 unfenced relationships with those rare girls who are chill enough to let me do my thing.
Write
As you can see, I’m doing fuck all writing. The consequence of this is a file on my computer called “post ideas” being absolutely huge. I can’t wait to be back writing properly again.
Adios hombres, I’ll be free soon.
Lifestyle Report: May 2012
From a blogging perspective, this month was interesting. I published a series of posts that made April 23rd my busiest day ever, then making the 25th even busier. I was pretty chuffed that people were reading and commenting on my shit. (Thanks to Ferd at in bona fide for all the linkage).
But unfortunately reality is a bitch so I’ve had to put this site on hiatus for a bit. These lifestyle reports are the only posts that’ll still be published before my exams are over.
My band also released an EP, the launch party was sick.
So how’s the rest of my life coming along?
Sleep
As I write this I’m in a sleep drain. It’s where you deliberately skip a nights sleep then go to bed early the next day to reset your sleeping pattern. Its not fun but it works, Breaking Bad is carrying me through. Yes, this demonstrates that I still cannot sleep right.
Work
I have a job as you all know, I got some tax back recently too. Regarding uni I’m still chipping away with my 3 hours hard focus a day – as well as using a lot of goal setting and planning techniques I picked up from the book I’m currently reading. Things are going pretty well in this department.
Money
Had to front a bit for the EP launch, and a handful of people owe me some cash. Around £100 total. Thankfully I have a glorious interest free student overdraft, and a job. So I’ve basically got this handled too.
Health
Doing convict conditioning, taking it very slowly and enjoying every rep. My diet isn’t as good thanks to a delivery kebab shop and my impulsive nature, but I’m just gonna rationalise that as the “fuck you” element of Frost’s SPFYD.
Sex
Regular but no new notches, not leaving the house enough. Flaked on by social circle prospects. The plan is to finish exams and ten follow Roosh’s 9 step program over summer.
Write
Hiatus suxorz.
Red Pill Hygiene
Yep. As it turns out, there’s a lot of incorrect conventional wisdom about how we wash ourselves. The following post is a short list of red pill hygiene ideas I’ve picked up over the last few months.
The first two are from this Jezebel Article.
Brushing your teeth
Studies show that flossing is much more important than brushing. Dental floss actually removes the bacteria that clump together between your teeth, without scrubbing and stripping layers off them.
But before you run to your dentist and smugly assert that Cracked told you that brushing is bad for you, brushing twice a day is generally still believed to be the best practice. But you should do it away from mealtimes to give your teeth time to recover from acid wear — ideally, right before you eat or drink anything. And although you might instinctively prefer a hard toothbrush to really grind off those asshole bacteria, studies suggest you should use a soft brush and focus on your gums more than your actual teeth. So it’s really more of a tooth massage.
Bathing
The most important thing to do to keep the skin healthy is to preserve the horny layer. There’s no magic number of showers each week, though it’s generally agreed that the number would fall somewhat shy of seven. Skipping showers, or, if you’d like a fancy French term, celebrating sans douche days, gives your skin time to repair some of the damage that the last shower caused.
When you shower, use warm or cool water and a mild soap (if at all), and rehydrate the horny layer by rubbing on some moisturizer afterward. Better yet, convince an attractive friend to help with this. Once you’ve cleaned up, you’ll want to make sure you air dry. Ignore protesting roommates or family members and remind them, as you’re drip-drying at the breakfast table, that they should be grateful you’re showering only a couple of times a week.
Drip drying, however, is a pain in the ass. Towel drying is fine, but try to dab the water off rather than rubbing it off. This is much better for your skin and I have noticed I get spots far less frequently since adopting this practice.
Deodorant
Baking, fucking, soda. (In the UK we call it bicarbonate of soda. Do NOT confuse with baking powder). You know all the manosphere hype about how great baking soda is? It’s true. The cool thing is it doesn’t even work the same way normal antiperspirants do. Blue pill antiperspirants work by clogging your sweat pores with silver or aluminium, then mask the smell (which comes from bacteria, not sweat) with some kind of fragrance. Baking soda, by contrast, allows you to sweat. However, the soda absorbs the sweat. It also absorbs the odour and is naturally antibacterial.
It’s cheaper than the normal stuff, and leaves your smell as a blank canvas that you can change with body sprays or cologne.
Hygeine Products
I heard over at the forum that you can make your own shower gels, toothpastes and shampoos by combining baking soda with bauxite, among other things. This sounds cool and I might try it, but I don’t wanna turn my shared kitchen or bathroom into a fucking lab. I like my flatmates too much for that. A common blue pill product buying mantra seems to be “nuke the fuck out of my body”. People scrub themselves raw with harsh chemicals only to see limited results. My advice is to go gently. If you live like a caveman you probably already beat the shit out of your body – give it a break! I like to stick to natural products and avoid harsh or over perfumed ones. Easy really. The one exception to the smell is my awesome mint shower gel – but this is compensated by the fact it’s made of actual mint leaves. Also don’t use tons of product, just use enough. Conserving it saves money and, once your body acclimatises, gives better results.
Brands I like: Original Source, Head and Shoulders, Bulldog, Simple, Freederm, Pears.
The last one is the absolute shit and is also manly as fuck.
P.S. Exams are starting soon, so posts will be less frequent (and judging by the last 2 days views of poorer quality). I’ll still be posting as often as I can.
How to be happy
Send £39.95 for more info.
That’s the problem with happiness, people think it has a price. People think it’s something you get by doing x, y and z. Be that a white picket fence and 2.5 kids or something less conventional like visiting a certain amount of countries or sleeping with a certain amount of women.
People think that happiness is a consequence. A result.
It’s not though, it’s a choice.
If you decide something will make you happy, it will make you happy. So why not cut the bullshit and decide to be happy. It’s easier than you think.
- Forget the past and the future. The past is done and the future is indeterminable, so stop thinking about the friend you argued with yesterday and the exam you have tomorrow. What matters is what you do right now, because that is the only thing in life that you can control.
- Realise that there is a time for grief and a time for sadness, but that time is not now.
- Stand up straight, in front of a mirror. Look yourself in the eye, smile and say clearly and with authority: “be happy”.
- If that doesn’t work listen to some music or some shit.
This is what works for me, I do it whenever I want my mood to improve.
The Caveman Principle
Homo Sapiens have been around for 200000 years. For 190000 of those years we were hunter gatherers, for the most recent 10000 we were “civilised” farmers. You know, with war and stuff.
I’m not gonna get into deep science here, I’m a (bad) physicist – not an evolutionary biologist, but 10k years is a not sufficient time to evolve out of are pre-agricultural brain and body.
Following me?
This leads to a fairly simple conclusion:
We have the brains and bodies of hunter gatherers. Therefore what is good for a hunter gatherer, mentally and physically, is good for us. And good for you.
Did hunter gatherers eat six meals a day in a diet based mainly on grains? Fuck. No.
Did hunter gatherers cuddle their way into sex? Fuck. No. Don’t. Be. So. Stupid.
Did hunter gatherers pollute their minds with politics and political correctness. Nigga. Please.
Don’t get me wrong, with game, eating, lifestyle etc you should do your own research and make considered choices. But you should always consider the following – would this suit a hunter gatherer?
Or the cooler sounding version:
Would this suit a caveman?
Would worrying about how many facebook friends you have suit a caveman? Would bitching about your coworkers (co-hunters) suit a caveman? Would a caveman worry about trivial political “choice” between identical parties?
No. The caveman is concerned with food, shelter, fucking, meaningful friendships and relaxing.
You are a caveman in fancy clothes, and thus your concerns should match his.
When I make decisions about virtually anything, this question is at the back of my mind.
Lifestyle Report: April 2012
It’s my birthday today. I’m not religious so good Friday can go fuck itself. Also, I worked yesterday and today, and I am again tomorrow – a true adults birthday.
I’m turning 19, which is possibly the most pointless age in existence. Purgatory between being allowed to get drunk and not being considered “one o’ them evil teenagers that goes around causing riots and stuff“. But I’m not complaining.
Honestly.
In fact I’m glad. I’m glad I’m not obliged to go out and get smashed. No don’t get me wrong, clubbing is one of my favourite pass times but as with all hobbies, it’s only fun when you don’t HAVE to do it. The same happens to be true for relationships, but I digress.
Also an announcement – I have my second year house sorted. I’m living with 4 friends and we actually managed to find a place I’d be proud to bring girls back to. I’ll post some pictures when I move in. We’re moving in in July so I get to work, party and fuck my way through Summer in Brighton.
Anyway – time for SiME’s monthly dose of accountability.
Sleep
I have a job now, so I kinda have to get up early. A useful tactic I’ve found is simply working out when I have to go to bed by, then writing it down in my badass journal. The increased accountability seems to help really well. The journal has also been good for writing down ideas so that I don’t spend the night scheming when I should be sleeping.
Work
Seeing as I now have a job, I’m gonna have to balance this with uni work. I’m still off for easter at the moment so I’ll reserve comment on maintaining a study/work balance just yet.
Read
Guess what, I have a job. This means a 1.5 – 2 hour round trip on the bus. This means lots of reading time. Since my last lifestyle report I’ve finished Day Bang
Money
12.5 hours a week at £6.50/hour, being paid every four weeks (why doesn’t every employer do this? It makes so much more sense than monthly paychecks), with a load of overtime available throughout the year. This means a minimum of £325 per month to supplement my student loans and savings. Because I’m moving in to my new house in July, rather than spending the summer living with my parents, I’m gonna save all my wages and stick to the same £100 a week budget as before. This should give me enough for rent and expenses over summer (when no student loans are paid, obviously).
Health
I’m blitzing through Convict Conditioning so that I can start this program. Otherwise body weight training is going well except that my pull up bar doesn’t like the doorframes in my halls. As for diet – semi paleo ftw. I’ve got an upcoming diet post that will be the first in a series about health. Stay tuned.
Sex
Rotation’s still (!) going strong, acquired a new notch. Turns out she wasn’t that crazy. So I might try and make her semi regular. Also working on other prospects. I have a feeling this new house will be an amazing tool over summer, for girls on a night out who are from a different town, and for prospects visiting to “hang out”.
Write
I wrote a bunch of posts that you should read, and decided to keep a journal (see yesterday’s post). Feels good to have a clear mind.
Giving Up Drugs Was a Waste of Time
Sort of.
40 days ago I quit drugs and cigarettes. I was getting stoned too much to focus on my life. I decided a long break would help me sort everything out.
It did, but it didn’t.
It did because I wasn’t staying up blazing til 4am when I had to get up the next day. It didn’t because I just got drunk instead, or stayed up reading useless shit on the internet. I was wasting just as much time and losing just as much sleep, but I wasn’t enjoying it as much. This gave rise to two conclusions.
1. Alcohol is shit. When I was smoking before I drank less to compensate, otherwise I’d just whitey which is no fun. During the break I was drinking a lot more on nights out and hangovers became a lot worse. I also drank more frequently out of boredom. This boredom leads to…
2. Most drug (including alcohol/tobacco/aderall) problems have little to do with drugs. If you are getting stoned every day (when you don’t want to be) and you just flat out quit, you don’t address why you were getting stoned every day in the first place. You may do it as a coping mechanism, to de stress, to sleep or, if you’re like me, because you’re bored and easily distracted. The point is that without drugs as a solution to whatever you will fill that void with something else. The best course of action is to fill that void with something productive, but if you don’t properly evaluate why you take drugs too much you’ll probably just substitute in alcohol, forums, or chronic masturbation
What to do if you take drugs recreationally but want to cut down.
Take the ZenHabits approach to self improvement. Identify bad habits and their triggers, then gradually replace them with new better habits.
This would vary based on your situation. My trigger is boredom, so when it strikes I’ll work on a blog post, read a book on my kindle
Apply this to whatever instances of drug use are caused by your trigger, not the times when you do it for fun. This means if I’m bored and on my own, I’ll do something productive; but if I’m chilling with my friends I’ll happily smoke up and enjoy it.
I’m taking this same approach to alcohol just because that shit is expensive, not sure about cigarettes yet.
Our health is dictated by our lifestyle. The more good you do to your body and mind, the more bad you can get away with before seeing adverse affects. I’d rather smoke weed every day than live on readymeals.
PS: if you aren’t into drugs, please shut up about how people should get their enjoyment exclusively from wholesome activities. People like their endorphins, and there are a million ways to get them. Variety is the spice of life.
How to be Nice
Without being a massive pussy.
If you’ve been sleeping with a girl for a while you can end up over amping the asshole end of your game. Sometimes you may get asked for genuine advice or comfort. The problem is these requests look like shit tests. For example:
“Have I done something wrong?”
This could be a standard shit test, to which you could either sarcastically agree and amplify, evade and reframe, or if it’s by text just ignore. But there is also the chance that your lady friend just wants some genuine comfort.
The problem is that it’s very easy to slip into supplication and ego stroking, which lowers your value. You need to think of a response that adds value for the other person whilst simultaneously maintaining your high value.
Ideal response:
“Nah, you’re fine for now.”
This adds value (consolation) whilst maintaining yours (by appearing discerning). This can also be used as a standard neg, the importance is in the delivery. Said with a smirk, the above line is a neg. Said with a warm smile, it’s comfort.
This leads to part 1 of being nice: alpha reassurance = light negs with warm smiles.
At this juncture I’ll point out that this isn’t actually what goes through my head in these situations, it’s become internalised as a part of my personality. The important thing is to break any habit of supplication you may have, this thought process is a tool to do that. If after 6 months you still think this shit through step by step – you might be a sociopath. More likely autistic.
So that’s reassurance covered, how does one give advice without being a pussy?
The problem here is that even if you aren’t a pussy you can still piss people off by giving advice the wrong way. This method should prevent that.
Step 1: Let them vent.
A lot of the time when people ask for advice they really just want to get things off their chest. They’re not actually interested in your advice, they just want someone to share the mental and physical load of their problems. It’s not their fault, they don’t realise they don’t want your advice – fucked up right? Women tend to be worse for this than men.
Step 2: Non evaluative listening.
Now you’ve been presented with whatever problem your friend/partner/coworker faces, you need to explore it to find possible solutions. Ask them to delve deeper into specific issues, and sit back as they vent some more. CH has an excellent post on this skill, so read that shit. The point is to listen, without judging the content of what the other person says. You are simply trying to get as much information out as possible. Once people verbalise information, they begin forming links and coming to their own conclusions. You can end up with them solving their problems and thanking you for the advice without you ever actually instructing them to do something specific.
Step 3: Only give direct, specific advice if asked.
Unsolicited advice is annoying. Sometimes people want to tell you all about their problems without hearing your opinion at all, other times people ask you for specific guidance because they see you as wise or knowledgeable about a specific subject. In the latter case, go ahead and speak your mind. If they react well keep going, if not do some more non evaluative listening then try again. If they still don’t react well skip to step 4.
Step 4: Identify underlying problems.
If they didn’t ask for specific advice you should skip step 3 and go here. The aim of being nice without being a pussy/annoying is to on one hand not be a supplicator, and on the other hand not impose your beliefs on someone.
Let’s say your friend got dumped. Saying “quit being a bitch and adopt an attitude of abundance, you fucking pussy” isn’t gonna be as effective as “I know it hurts mate, but there’s like 3 billion women in the world, why get hung up on just one?”
The key difference here, apart from tone, is the use of a question. Consider less extreme examples:
“Don’t get hung up on one girl, there are 3 billion girls in the world.” vs “There are 3 billion girls in the world, why get hung up on just one?”
“I think your problem is fear of rejection.” vs “Do you think fear of rejection is involved?”
By phrasing whatever point you’re trying to make as a question, it forces the other person to analyse your point (so that they can answer your question) rather than ignore it. It also means that they won’t think you’re disparaging their character (people are so sensitive these days).
Step 5: Let them draw their own conclusions.
People remember the advice that they come to by forming logical links. If you lead someone to a conclusion, they’ll always remember it better than if you just flat out tell them what to do, because they remember the mental journey to their conclusion and the emotions associated with that journey.
Step 6: If they don’t want to hear it, back off.
There’s no point trying to “fix” someone. There’s a certain type of girl that does this, and they also love giving unsolicited advice. Those girls are annoying, and are often projecting their own imperfections onto their hapless boyfriends.
I digress.
If the person you’re trying to advise starts dismissing or strongly opposing what you say, end the conversation. Neither of you are getting value from it and unless you are in a pro debate, there’s no point. You can fall into what I call the “Theists vs Atheists trap”. This is where both sides are convinced that the other side is deliberately trying to subvert them or disagree with them.Leading to no progress being made. The important thing is to not be a bitch about it. Saying “fine, suit yourself” suggests that you are a passive agressive faggot, and shows that you need to preserve your ego. People like that shouldn’t be giving advice in the first place. Just be courteous and change the subject.
The classic example of someone who doesn’t want to hear it is the friend who “doesn’t believe” in game. You point out that it gets you laid. They in return start making excuses either about how it only works for certain kinds of people or that it’s manipulative and evil (by that logic I asume they believe that make-up, hair extensions and high heels are also evil). This person does not yet want to be helped, and the more you try to help them the more they resist. Ultimately you can only advise a person that wants advice, so with these people only take it up to step two. Eventually, if you’re not chatting shit, they’ll allow you to go further and you can end up really helping people. I did this recently with a female friend who was verging on depression (see, it’s not always game relate, promise).
The next time someone asks you for advice, try this shit out and see how it goes.