It's been a few days already, but I can finally report that Project Small Fish is officially complete! The final deliverable is in the video below:
Here's a recap of the goals I originally set for myself:
- Be in a better mental state
- Be in a better physical state
- I haven’t really took my physical fitness seriously for a long time, and there can’t be a better time to do this than now.
Here's how I've evolved on both of the above fronts:
1. Be in a better mental state
To contrast my current mental state with how it was prior to Small Fish, here's a snippet from an earlier post I wrote back in September:
When I left my job almost three months ago I wanted to spend more time focusing on my physical fitness, as it’s something I haven’t been putting as much attention to as I’d like. Here’s how things evolved:
- I came up with a plan that I wanted to train for Half Iron Man and be ready by next Summer.
- I ended up procrastinating and didn’t do much training, but a big hindrance for me was that a big pool was inaccessible. Traveling to Lebanon and not sticking around one location long enough makes it more difficult for me as well to commit to a gym for pool access.
- I changed my plan to do something very simple but over an extended period of time. I decided every morning that I’d spend a couple of minutes doing ab workouts, following the guidelines of the book Convict Conditioning.
- That plan lasted (with many misses) for 40 days, but relocating several times and the sheer ease of the workout didn’t make me feel like I was actually working out, so I subconsciously made the decision to stop.
- The whole workout plan fell apart.
As the above points out, I was in a state of mental weakness, and even simple ab workouts I haven't been able to do consistently.
In contrast, I started Small Fish while I was in Dusseldorf in Germany, and then I moved to Paris, Bonn, Lisbon, El-Gouna, Giza, and Cairo. In all of these cities I managed to find what it takes for me to finish my workouts. Whether that's a calisthenics park in the city center, a tree, a fence, or a shitty pull up bar from التوحيد و النور. I stuck to the program in all these scenarios despite the very different environments.
I feel like I'm in a much better mental state and in a more positive mood.
2. Be in a better physical state
A number of friends and family members have been commenting that my physique has improved lately, and I certainly feel that as well.
- I can now easily do 10 pull-ups, and have done 40 chin-ups across four sets on some days. I couldn't do any of that before.
- For the first time since my shoulder injury, I can comfortably and easily do a wall handstand.
- I can now last a lot longer doing a frogstand, and my stance is a lot more stable.
- There were two skills I haven't been able to do yet: the elbow lever and the clap pull-up. I'll incorporate these in the coming fitness project.
This project was the first one that I structured in this formal and written way, and given how well it has worked out it certainly won't be the last.
