Habit review

The major improvements for my life this year have been the improvement in some habits and the establishment of new habits

• Meditation. At the start of 2016 I was meditating most days for around 30 minutes. With the aid of several stints at the Blackheat Vipassana meditation centre, most days I'm meditating for one hour first thing in the morning.  While I am happy that I have managed to increase the amount of time I mediate each day, I am even happier that the quality of the meditation has improved.
• Weight. Starting the year at 95Kg, my BMI was 31. Officially obese. Now down to 88Kg. With the change in lifestyle bought about by constantly changing residence, I am no longer able to raid a fridge or pantry. This new feature of my lifestyle, in and of itself, has led to a lower food consumption pattern. Add in the walking about the place, with a change to a ketogenic / modified atkins diet, driven by several episodes on the Tim Ferriss podcast where Dom D'Agostino banged on about the benefits of a ketogenic diet, and the odds begin tipping towards some weight loss. For a period in the middle of the year I was vegetarian. But the vegetarian period ended when I chose to pursue the MAD (Modified Atkins Diet).
• Flexibility. Inspired by the information regarding Tiny Habits, and several episodes of the Tim Ferriss podcast devoted to Gynmastic bodies, I've added some stretching to my morning routine. The cue to do my daily stretching is tied to the end of my morning meditation session. After which I'm giving my hamstrings a stretch, with the aim of being able, eventually, to be able to get my head down to my knee when stretching my hamstrings and my glutes. Having started and stopped many times previously, I'm hopeful I will continue this endeavour for at least 9 months. The information from the Tim Ferriss podcast was that somewhere around 220 days is the time I need to persist at this to get some sustainable change. If I am able to be persistent in this endeavour, then sometime mid 2017 I will hopefully be getting my head to my knee.
• Poker study. Could do better.  I'm currently attending a 10 week course run by Alexander Fitzgerald. Five weeks in, with five weeks to go. A two hour webinar every Sunday morning kicking off at 05:00 am local time.  Not the most convenient of times, but luckily, most weeks Alex will send out the pre-recorded webinar in advance. And I get to sleep for an extra couple of hours, then join the webinar for question time. The major change to my game has been that I now take notes at the table on my ipad. On as many hands as possible. And especially if there is a showdown.  This will, eventually, become easier with practice. But initially there is much mental energy to be spent in keeping up with the game and taking notes. The major benefit is that I'm picking up much more information about the betting patterns and lines taken by various players. And in poker, information is power.