This post is the fourth of my Month in Review series. Read my first post here for more information.

Fitness

I’ve been focusing more on eating less again. I have found that selective eating can be difficult in social situations, but portion control always works. I have also been grilling my dinner Korean BBQ style after being inspired by this Tim Ferriss show podcast.

I gave up on running a marathon this year and have shifted my focus to building a good aerobic base, where I focus on consistency more than increasing mileage. I have also added pushups and planks to my workout routine. I installed an app for pushup tracking and for plank tracking that you can find under obsessions and finds below.

Here is how my workouts look now.

My pace has been improving continuously over the last few months. At the end of September, I was running around a 10:00 minutes per mile pace at 150 bpm HR. I ended October at around 9:15 minutes per mile. I’m pretty happy with my results and I’m going to continue this for a few more weeks before increasing my mileage again. Also, I returned to my normal mileage in October after September saw a drop to 24 miles from 75 miles per month the 3 previous months.

October also marked 3 months since I got a DXA scan. The results are below.

I lost 4.6 pounds of fat and 1.3 pounds of lean tissue. My bodyfat percentage dropped from 24.6% to 22.5%. I’m pretty happy with this result and will continue to improve my eating habits so that I can drop more fat before my next scan. I also gained a modest .5 pounds in my arms.

Obsessions / Finds

100 Pushups All-Star – iOS My app of choice for the 100 pushups challenge. I’ve been using this to track my pushup workouts. Warning: this app will require an in-app purchase to continue beyond a few weeks.

Plank – iOS I have been using this app to track planks. It will slowly work you up from 30 seconds to 5 minutes over the course of a month.

Neil Gaiman – Inspirational Commencement Speech at the University of the Arts 2012 – YouTube Jeff and I launched our Kickstarter this weekend. I know that failure is a distinct possibility. I couldn’t have watched this talk at a better time. Make Good Art.

Calendar

October 4 // Breakfast @ Brohaus  – I finally got around to hosting breakfast at Brohaus. We had omelettes, hash browns, pancakes and smoothies.

October 5 // Burma – Part 3: The People – post A post about the people of Burma.

October 10 // Month In Review – September 2015 – post The month in review post for October

October 10 // K̶o̶r̶e̶a̶n̶ French BBQ?  – With the help of everyone at the Haus and a few other friends, I was able to mash up French cuisine with the Korean BBQ eating style. We grilled beef on electric grills and dipped them in French sauces.

October 11 // Lucia di Lammermoor at San Francisco Opera  – Q and I watched the tragic opera in San Francisco.

October 12 // Burma – Part 4 – post The final Burma post.

October 17 // Clay Pigeon Shooting and Hotpot  – Natalie and Steve hosted Q and me for a fantastic day of clay pigeon shooting followed by a visit to a pumpkin patch and hotpot for dinner.

October 23 // SEF Dandia  – Q and I dressed up and attended the SEF Dandia at the Santa Clara convention center. pic

October 28 // Hawaii – Birthday in the Aloha State – post Post about my trip to Hawaii with my father.

October 30 // Past-Me Versus Future-Me – post A crosspost of my first ever Medium piece.

October 31 // Halloween in SF  – Q and I dressed up as a bamboo steamer with a dumpling and soy sauce respectively for Halloween and went up to SF. pic