I just started exercising at home after I cancelled my gym membership. I never really liked working out in the afternoon time slot which was the only time I could get to the gym. I much rather exercise later in the day, after I’m done with trading in the evening. So I was looking for a workout plan and some exercises I can easily do at home without getting equipment which I don’t want to store or spend on. So after looking around a little I found the P90X: Tony Horton’s 90-Day Extreme Home Fitness Workout DVD Program, but it was way way too much for my current fitness level. So I started with the 10 Minute Trainer: Tony Horton’s Workout for the Busiest People Fitness DVD Program which I really like. Anyone can put together a 30-60 minute workout, but designing a 10 minute one which is fun, challenging and comprehensive requires talent and experience.

It will take some time till I’m bored with the 10 minute trainer but I like checking out what else Tony Horton has out there since I like his style and exercises. I found the P90X One on One with Tony Horton: For P90X Grads, Collector’s Edition, Vol. 1 Workout DVDswhich is a more customizable program, just Tony doing workouts of different types.

If you want to see previews of the actual exercises you can check out youtube and even download some segments of the DVDs. You can do the exercises either with just body weight or get exercise bands like I did. It doesn’t get cheaper or free (er) than this.

Anyway, reading the review on Amazon for the one on one program one person commented on how Tony looked older and like he couldn’t care less sometimes about the workout and that he felt it was demotivating. I thought about writing a reply and figured Amazon has enough content so I might as well put this reply here instead, enter this post. So here’s the reply I started typing up and finished doing here:

I agree with this reviewer but want to offer an alternative view. When I watched the Road Warrior DVD I felt the same, man this guy is looking old, unmotivated and as if he doesn’t really want to do this. But surprisingly that had an opposite effect on me. You see, there are hundreds if not thousands of DVD’s showing super ripped, super motivated prime of their like people exercising as if that’s all they ever want to do. But guess what, life isn’t like that. Sometimes you feel unmotivated, tired, old, or overall crappy. But you still need to get off your gluteus maximus and put in the effort, the reason is obvious, because if you don’t you’d feel and look even more crappy!

So there you have it, a mini review and my opinion on Tony Horton’s workout DVDs. For anyone wanting to work out at home I’d highly recommend checking out these programs. I’m pretty sure the vast majority of people would be challenged by these programs, 10 minute if you’re a beginner, P90 Master for intermediate and P90X if you’re in top shape and want to get in an even better shape.

P.S. If I could have a chat with Tony and suggest anything to him, I’d say please please make a DVD working out with Kettlebells. Those things are the most effective weights I’ve ever tried, but that’s for another post.

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taking a power nap

In an attempt to regulate my sleeping habits a little I started putting an alarm clock to make sure I wake up at the same time every day, and by extension hopefully going to sleep at the same time each day’s early morning.. Since I live half way around the world from the markets I trade I end up starting my trading day at 8 or 9pm local time here. Nothing new in that, as I’ve almost always traded from Asia, but I’m trying to make some improvements in life like going to the gym more regularly, drinking less coffee, and living healthier.

Thing is though, staying up till about 3-4-5am means I can’t wake up at 6 or 7, or 8am like most people do. Well, not for a long period of time as sleep deprivation will start kicking in. So I’m trying a new compromise timing, in a kind of a personal experiment. Instead of getting my usual 7-8 hours sleep in one go and waking up late morning 10 to 12 depending on how tired I am and how late I went to sleep I will try to wake up every morning at 9:00 or so (we’ll see how that works first) and then take a power nap in the afternoon, instead of another cup of coffee – I have about 3 of them daily.

So far I haven’t looked at any fancy nap power techniques and just read through the Wikipedia entry and one of the references there, a NASA research on nap taking and astronauts sleep deficiency. I decided to try and do a 20min nap at around 4pm and see how that goes. Today’s first attempt only lasted 15min and I woke up by myself. I feel fine, slightly refreshed but nothing dramatic. We’ll see how it goes for the next couple of weeks, if anything interesting comes out of it I’ll update here.

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Happy Hanukka and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Everything went really well with the wedding and I’m slowly getting back to routine. Looking forward to resuming work in January 2009.

Just a quick update. I’ve been on tourist duty for the past week doing all the usual visits around the city, temples, floating market, shopping malls etc. while at the same time putting finishing touches on both ceremonies (Thai and Jewish) ahead of a really long Saturday (the Thai ceremony starts at the ungodly hour of 6am). Next week I’m out of town on vacation so expect regular service to resume mid/late Dec.

The mind is the root of all our experience, both of ourselves and of others. If we perceive the world in an unclear way, confusion and suffering will arise. It is like someone with defective vision seeing the world as being upside down, or a fearful person finding everything frightening. We may be largely unaware of our ignorance and wrong views, yet at present the mind can be compared to a wild tiger, rampaging through our daily lives. Motivated by desire, hatred and bewilderment this untamed mind blindly pursues what it wants and lashes out at all that stands in its way, with little or no understanding of the way things really are.

Akong Tulku Rinpoche – Taming The Tiger, Tibetan teachings for improving daily life.

There are many great lessons on life in this book, and of course lots of parallels to trading psychology and the mental strength.

Tags: buddhism, learning to trade, lessons, Living, mental, tibetan, trading mindset, trading psychology, zen

Good advice and observations, as usual, from the Financial Philosopher.

THE FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHER: Why it’s time to move on…

If you do anything today and this weekend, please take a moment to recognize your greatest priorities.

Would you rather have health or wealth? Would you rather have strong personal relationships or strong personal finance?

We were born with nothing and we will die with nothing. Now go hug someone you love, embrace life Giving.mother.child.flower and thank God for the opportunity to realign your priorities today. Do it now.

Turn off the media noise and tune in to your life…

I’m going to take a break from the screens and just chill out this weekend. Not that I was overly anxious or doing anything unusual in the market this week. But I was watching things closely out of fascination and realization that these are events of historic magnitude which will be remembered and then studied for generations.

This is a good talk worth listening to. I especially liked the last couple of minutes where he answers Q&A. H/T to DehTrader.