Project Small Fish Complete!

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:

  1. Be in a better mental state
    • In earlier posts I mentioned how I felt that I was mentally weak, and that I needed to improve my mental stamina and clarity.
  2. 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.

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