Muscle Memory

One more quick change: I'm liking the term motor processes instead of physical processes.  I'll be using that from now on.  One thing to note, except for muscle spasms, I'm currently under the belief that motor processes can ONLY be started by system processes or control processes.

My thoughts on how user processes interact turned into how processes evolve, in terms of MP usage.  When you know how to do a process so well that you require no MP in order to do the task, you have committed the process to muscle memory.  In my current model, what happens is that by repetitive use, you wire your brain up so that all you need to do is start off the process, and then it will run in those exact steps.  This is what I'm calling a background process.  

Now, background processes have inherent risks.  The biggest is that they will only run the way they have been developed.  If the situation encounters something unexpected, either one of two things will happen: either you will continue your process without regard for whatever new variable has been introduced, and be subject to whatever whims this universe, physics, and the situation hold in store for you, OR you're paying attention to what you are doing, and you can switch to another process (Maybe one that's similar that takes into account the unexpected variable, or just take control and start modifying the current one).

This is the great thing about our brain, and the reason why we can get so good at tasks that we don't need to think about them.   Our brain is constantly rewiring itself.  Through a process neuroscientists call neuroplasticity, the brain is constant modifying the connections of our neurons.  It's this ability that allows us to adapt to new situations, and how effectively your brain does this determines how quickly you can adapt. 

In order for us to adapt, and to avoid the destructive potential that lies within muscle memory, we need to be present for the task we are engaged in.  While we are spending little or no MP on the actual task, we instead devote that MP to experiencing the task.  This is hard to do in a world where there is plenty of distractions, and everybody wants to multitask.  By practicing and applying this process of being present, I think we can more effectively improve ourselves, and live a richer life in general.

Modifications to the Processes Post

So, I've got some changes to processes.

First, I've still got processes in two categories.  System processes and user processes.

System processes are still those processes that are completely out of our control.  This is the beating heart, the digestion, and for now, breathing (I'm not so sure how to categorize this one, as you can take control of it).  I'm also going to add to this list our basic senses, and memory.

User processes are now categorized as both physical processes and control processes.  Physical processes are our muscles, and are anything that directly causes our body to move.

Control processes are decisions.  These processes can then utilize our system and physical processes to do what we decided to do.

I've decided not to do the master control process yet.  That will be my last segment.  For now, I'm going to work toward writing my article on how these processes interact.

Processes!

I'm going to finally take my blog in a new direction.  To do this, I'm going to start by relating stuff to software and hardware.  After I describe my life in terms of software and hardware, I'd hope that I'd be able to apply the many things I've learned about effective development in order to analyze my life.  It's something I don't normally do, so I'm hoping that looking at it from a different way will at least get me started.  (It's got me writing about it already... which is quite a feat).

I'm going to start with processes.  Processes, in development, are what makes the hardware do something.  Processes are made up of code, and is the software side of things.  I won't go too deep into it, but for everything you can make your computer/tablet/phone do, it has a process governing it.  As of now, I believe effective processes are as small as they are needed to be, not as big as they need to be.

Quick pause, I'm not used to this process of fleshing stuff out, so this might be very messy.  I may go back and clean it up, but for now, if you see connections between different articles that I don't mention, I'd love to being a discussion on it.

Now, to apply processes to myself, I'm going to define one other thing.  Mental Processing (MP, for those of you who are nerds), is how much "thought" I put into something.  This is how much my voice in my head is putting things together.  Occasionally, instead of the voice I get just this "flow", but this really only happens when I'm doing something that comes really naturally (Fighting against Connor in Persona 4 Arena is one of those times that comes most naturally).  So, all in all, the MP cost for a process is the amount of effort I have to put in to make the process happen.

So, let's get into what some of the processes are that I can do!  And that's basically... Everything!  I'll begin by sorting processes into 2 main categories: background processes, and active processes.  A background process is any process that doesn't take any MP to do.  These are the ones the brain does on auto-pilot.  Examples include beating your heart, breathing, and digestion.  Please note, some of these processes can become active processes by actively applying your mind to them (I'm looking at you, breathing and swallowing!).

Active processes are ones that I either have to mentally initiate, or that requires input through some part of the process.  This includes things like "Passing a car on the interstate", get out of bed (At a minimum, when I don't want to), and cooking food.  This category makes up a majority of the processes of which I'm capable. 

My final note for this post, is the different levels of processes.  There are processes that govern what other processes do.  These are considered "higher level".  This one includes deciding what I want to [eat/do/play/etc.], and the topic of my next article, master control process.  When I develop this a bit, the discussion will be on trying to define this highest level process a bit.

Until next time, I hope you guys comment or start a discussion.  I can't really learn anything other than the way my brain works if I don't get any additional feedback. 

W00t!

Update and documentation:


I'm going to start taking my weight only in the morning, to try for lowest readings/consistent readings by taking it at the same day.  Hopped on the scale this morning, and voila!  I've actually lost 15 pounds!  Some of the weight being read the other day was probably from meals.  This is huge indications that what I'm doing is working, and a huge morale booster.  Now to keep adding in things that can only help me get better! 


I'm probably going to weigh myself Monday and Friday (Good times to ensure I get posts), and start taking my body fat percentage as well, since that is one of my goals for the year.

Slowing down a bit

I keep trying to work on too many things, and without taking cuts to the things I'm enjoying most, I'm not going to make that much progress. 


That said, I've still got some things I'm working on that have continued delivering benefits.  Mainly, that's my diet.


I'm down another 2.5 pounds from last post!  Cumulatively, I've lost 10 pounds since I really started changing up my diet.  My two biggest changes were replacing my lunch with a salad, and portion control. 


That leads me into another random thought: How I go about modifying my plans to reach goals.  I've been doing a bit too much of winging it, and then accepting results.  Or, after awhile of getting tired of it because its not working as well as I'd hope, I just drop it entirely.  Then, I repeat the process.


To relate this to my diet, I had just come up with a plan of what to eat/how much through the day.  I was finding I was getting hungry at parts, and made slight adjustments, but for the most part just stuck with it.  This week, I decided to start at a point, and build off of it instead.


I took the biggest problem I was seeing, and tried to address it.  I was finding that I was getting hungry between breakfast and lunch, and that was causing me to snack.  So, I changed it up and instead of a smaller breakfast, I had a large breakfast.  I was quite satisfied after eating (Who wouldn't be with steak and eggs? xD).  Next, I had to find out how long I went before getting hungry.  Luckily, I easily made it to lunch time. 


Combine this with cutting back during dinner, and add in snacks to tide me over until dinner, and I'm feeling like I have a better start to a good diet.  Now I can tweak it a bit, and see what I can do with it.


Next thing to address... my lack of getting up and working out.  Even though this is about getting in shape, trying to come up with plans isn't working.  I've determined that this is a personal lack of motivation, and needs to be addressed as such.  I'll work on tackling this, and see where every thing else goes.


Until next time!

Progress!

Happy New Year everyone!  I know its just an arbitrary day, but I like the concept of a solid point to say "I'm going to change".  Although, I kinda do that too much already, the New year is a great point because its the most solid one, with a large period (365 days!).  In the direction of the progress I'm about to talk about, here are some of my New Year goals:

• Write in my blog at least twice a week
• To help give me more content, I'm going to start writing out random dreams I've had in my pursuit of lucid dreaming, or story ideas.
• Lower body fat percentage to 16%
• To help facilitate this, and get me into the habit of working out, I've got my 6-day workout plan, but I'm going to account for various times I won't do it during the week.
• Until March, I can miss 3 workouts a week
• Then, until June, I can miss 2 workouts
• Until August I can miss 1 workout
• After October, I'd like to be keeping up with all my workouts
• Reach Silver 1 in League of Legends
• Beat at least 10 of the games in my steam account that I haven't beaten yet

As for what the title of this actually means, I've been slowly changing habits and working in general to improve my life.  My first one was to start moving toward a paleo diet.  The main thing that this diet did was cut out grains and very processed or sugary foods.  This meant I cut back on desserts and soda pop quite a bit.  I've also replaced my lunches at work with a salad.  While I'm still working on implementing this more fully, it has acclimated me to vegetables quite a bit. 

My second change has been working out.  I've tried to follow my schedule, but I haven't been keeping up with it fully.  However, I have been doing random workouts.  Even with this rugged regiment, I've seen physical improvements as well.  I'd like to start getting more cardio, and will be more inclined to when it isn't freaking -20 degrees (F) outside.

My last notable change was starting to meditate more.  This one is very sporadic, and I will continue on making it more consistent.

Here's what I've noticed in the past month and a half:

• I can do more pushups and more squats before I get tired
• I can also do 100% more pullups!  (4)
• I've lost 7.5 pounds
• My Lumosity scores are slowly increasing again, after dropping for awhile

I'll keep at it, and start making these small habits into better changes!

I hope everyone is having a good year so far!  Until my next post!