Meditation Challenge

I started this challenge back in January 2014. Meditation is a great tool to increase positive thinking and life quality and its practice doesn't need to be linked to a religion.

The goal was to achieve a 30 minutes duration 5 days a week.

Motivation

The motivation for this one came after seeing this video:

So after seeing this, meditation can actually increase your gray matter, great. Now this one will maybe change your mind about meditation:

Benefitial,free and really versatile practice, worth giving a try.

Considerations:

- The pain to be consistent with it.
- Find the right time to do it, hopefully in the morning.
- If you have issues trying to concentrate, is going to be really hard.
- If you want to know how to start, see this thread of videos:




This guy will tell you exactly how to do it.

Brain Evolution

I am against marketing of a product, but I have used it and it helped me. They have really deep studies with Dalai Lama and other monks, the behavior of brain waves and how their minds have been changed, you might want to check it out, if you need help, please let me know.

How I do the challenge

I normally do it after I finish work and I don't have any urgent matters, which never happens, anytime will be ok, 30 minutes was the goal for 5 days. I use the technique described in the Considerations part using the 4 pillars: body, thoughts, emotions and feelings.

The first days

I could not concentrate for 1 minute, I started increasing the time by one minute everyday. Really hard and frustrating

The first month

Using binaural beats helped me a lot, I felt happier and better. Positive thinking started being part of me.

Now

After six months of using binaural beats I started doing it the hard way, I still do it 30 minutes per day, every 5 days, I have never been happier.

Benefits

My experience

-Brain performance:

Lumosity scores started to go up, attention and memory started raising

- Tolerant:

I started being incredibly tolerant with people. Open minded as well.

- Happy:

If you are tolerant and comprehensive, there is no room for hate or frustration.

Science, bitch: 

- IF you want, you can check out this study that will tell you that meditation will help you with  "production in the brain of various neurochemicals associated with relaxation and stress release, increased learning and creativity, memory, and other desirable benefits. These neurochemicals include beta-endorphins, acetylcholine, vasopressin, and serotonin."

- This research confirms that "stress reduction with the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program have reported improvements in cardiovascular disease risk factors, surrogate end points, and mortality in blacks and other populations."

- This study tells you that it helps you when you age: "We conclude that meditation interventions for older adults are feasible, and preliminary evidence suggests that meditation can offset age-related cognitive decline."

- Batman does meditation

Lumosity Challenge

I started this challenge back in October 2013. After reading this 
This one is really beneficial, but it takes a lot of effort to make it happen.

In synthesis, the challenge is to train with lumosity for an hour, 5 days a week.

It has changed my life in a lot of ways.

Motivation

The motivation to do it came in after reading point 1 of this feel-good lifestyle article.

Is a great way to keep the track and measure a little but your progress, is also a great way to compete with yourself while playing.

The benefits of brain exercise with games can be summarized in this article.

And also in this video:

This other one also can give you a hint of the benefits:

Considerations:

- The pain to be consistent with it.
- Find the right time to do it, hopefully in the morning.

Lumosity

I don't want to publish any marketing or kinda help lumosity to sell, I normally don't pay for games online, but unfortunately Lumosity is the most complete tool there is.They also have a program that helps neuroscientific studies with data and reliable tests. But the benefits you get with it are immense, believe me, so I chose lumosity but you can find other tools if you like. If there is an app better than lumosity for free, please let me know.

How I do the challenge

Basically I get up around 8:30 a.m. and from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. I do the brain training specified by lumosity.

The first days

I sucked, I had a low score in every game, not to mention my flexibiliy part sucked more than the others. After 1 week my LPI improved and started getting better scores. Mildly progressing

The first month

I basically felt that my cognitive skills improved, memory was better, attention and problem solving were faster than before. Together with intermittent fasting my scores were improving and I could challenge myself more.

Now

It's getting harder to beat yourself, I paused this challenge for 1 month to compare results and I felt really bad, like my brain wasn't doing all the activity that normally would. I had to go back, these are my current scores:

 I still need to improve a lot of things, but I feel better when I'm part of the 93% among millions of people.

Benefits

My experience

-Brain performance:

You start feeling that you can think faster and that you can surpass yourself.

- Challenge:

You challenge yourself, that makes you better in every way.

Science: 

- Improve cognitive functions

To further expand this statement, read this article

To quote the study: " breast cancer patients who had undergone chemotherapy showed “significant” improvement in cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency, and processing speed after playing the company’s games four times a week for 12 weeks."

Give it a try, improve, Batman approves.

 

Intermittent Fasting Challenge

I started this challenge back in November of 2013 and now is part of my lifestyle.

If you don't know what intermittent fasting is, I suggest you go and read point 2 of this website.

It all started with this training guide this guy Martin Berkhan posted on his website.

So basically what you do is to eat for 8 hours and fast for 16 hours, easy.

Motivation 

My motivation was, according to the first link I posted, that it was going to improve my brain performance.
After doing a little bit more research, I found this Ted-ex video that was confirming my willing to do it:

Considerations

- Hour you go to sleep and the hour you wake up.
- Exercise routine schedule
- If you are diabetic or have gastritis, is not recommended.

So in my case I get up at 8:30 a.m. and I go to sleep at 1:30 a.m.(a new challenge).

How I do the challenge

What I do normally is that I don't eat breakfast, technically I do but at 2:00 p.m. That is my first meal of the day. Then I eat some more at 6 p.m. and my dinner is  at 10 - 11:00 p.m.

The first days

Yes, you feel hungry the first hours, because normally I needed to eat every 2-3 hours everyday with the last diet.

When the days go by, I would say after the first week, you don't feel that hunger and the urge to eat until 2:00 p.m. If you are strict, your body will learn the hours to eat and the hours to not eat.

The first month

I felt lighter, my thoughts and mind were clearer than before, the hunger was gone. I could skip a meal hour and don't have that urge. Benefits were revealing themselves.

Now

I keep doing it everyday, now I do it for only 14 hours but I have plans to increase that time to 16. I workout in the evening prior my last meal, which gives me a great combination of hours and workout time.

Benefits

My experience:

- Boosts brain performance:

I saw it using Lumosity that my LPI increased  a lot after I started fasting.

- Mind is clear:

You start to think clearer, faster, like if your brain is in a clean state. Works a lot better if you meditate in the hours of fasting.

- Improves athletic performance:
This one I haven't tested it too much, but I get great results when I workout two hours before my first meal.


Science:


According to the feel good lifestyle research:

The Mind-Blowing Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Here are the scientifically proven benefits of doing regular fasts of 14+ hours for women, and 16+ hours for men:

1. Increased Fatty Acid Oxidation (Body burns more fat as energy, leading to fast weight loss)
2. Increased Cell Resistance (Slowed down ageing process, improved immunity)
3. Increased Insulin Sensitivity (Less fluctuation in blood sugar levels, more constant energy & mood levels)
4. Reduced Cortisol Production (Lower stress levels)
5. Reduced Inflammation (Faster body healing, repair, and recovery)
6. Reduced Cancer Cells Proliferation Rate (Reduced incidence of several types of cancer)
7. Reduced Cognitive Decline for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease
8. Reduced Incidence of Heart Disease

And last but not least:

Conscience about world hunger: On the first days, I started wondering: "how people get to do stuff with so much hunger?" In other words, made me change my perspective about it.

Take the challenge, the only thing you will feel is hunger. Batman approves.

Challenges

This is a list of challenges that I have done and  now they are part of my life:

- Intermittent Fasting for 14-16 hours

- Lumosity Brain Training 5 days a week

- Meditate for 5 days

- Eating healthy

- Drink 3 liters of water everyday

- Exercise 3 times a week

- No drinking alcohol 

- No smoking 

- No porn 

I will do individual posts for every challenge with their references. I will update them weekly.

If you would like me to try a challenge that improves brain performance, please let me know.

New blog

I've created this blog to keep records of certain challenges that I do for the brain and body.

The objective of this is to enhance the performance of the brain, to become what is called "superhuman", for further reference go to this link.

Hopefully my experiences will help and motivate people to challenge themselves everyday and be better, maybe like batman