Hi, Chris, haven't found much literature on this: does cold weather (or slight physical endurance in some other fashion) foster more effective learning? (better, more robust memory? more effective learning, more focused, succinct thoughts when enduring physical discomfort, could it be our survival instinct at work?)

If you know something about this, please share. Thx.

hi G G, great question, you should absolutely look into the Wim Hof Method. I have done the course since 2016, however, doing it a little less than daily now, more like weekly. The course is a breathing exercise, coupled with Yoga AND, lots of cold exposure.

Much scientific research is being done on Wim Hof (the man that created it), because he can do things you would not believe if you just heard them. I can attest to it, I was able to resist serious cold.

I can not fully say how much more functional my brain was during the time, but my feeling tells me it was very helpful, I was definitely more awake, more alert and had slightly longer focus capabilities. Overall, things were easier and some chronic pains that I had went away.

Absolutely worth a try, a simple start could be, once you know the breathing technique.
Do 3 cycles of the breathing and then go into a normal shower, at the end of the shower, you turn it to ice cold for 30 seconds and endure. Over time you will get used to it, at my best I was able to go into a 10 minute pure cold shower or do ice bath for 10 minutes, but I found the cold showers harsher. Don't do the breathing technique in the shower, because there is a chance you might pass out and that could prove fatal. If you want more instructions, I post some more, but I think his course is so worth it!

In general, activity that gets your pulse up and your blood flowing, aka, cardio, has been shown to have very positive effects on cognitive function, faster learning and stronger connections. 3 Books to look into of the top of my head: Spark; Brain Rules; The Owners Manual for the Brain

The other thing that has been shown to bring improvements and more effective learning are naps and meditation. As during a nap, some neural connections can be formed.
Hope this helped a little

Procrastination.... don't we all know it?
I would urge you to journal on what works and has worked well in the past, for you specifically and what you wish were working or pretend is working but in reality is not. For me for example, cheat days are dangerous, because they do work, but I more often than not let them turn into 2-3 days instead of 1. Last year I lost 50 lbs. changing my nutrition and for 9 months I had 0 cheat days, then the last 3 months I was still very moderate with them and it went well but the progress slowed down a little.
So, while they do work for me, I have to admit, they sometimes make it harder and not easier (mentally). So I just leave them out or reduce them only to special occasions.

In my case, I went with a Ketogenic diet and intermittend fasting.
I had different reasons. 1. because of being overweight for a couple years, I wanted my nutrition to also battle some potential metabolic deseases or weaknesses, even if it took a little longer. 2. I already knew from experience of years past during my athletic career, that I had no trouble following through with that nutrition. 3. I created an excel cheat and would weigh all of my food ever since I started in early 2017 and then put it into the sheet. Many might find that annoying, but I did not and I knew it would go well with me. Quickly I discovered on top of that, that I started not looking at weight loss anymore, but rather I looked into getting the right numbers into the sheet every day, so my focused switched from watching to go through with the diet to wanting to punch in the correct numbers that I needed.

Before I had started with the diet though, I took 2 weeks to read a couple of books and do my research, so that my knowledge from a few years ago would be up to date and that I am not missing anything.

I am actually planning on a video tackling some self-knowledge concepts
Some simple tricks are usually:
- identify where you stand
- get the big things right and worry less about the small things, the further away from where you want to be, you are.
- put the harder things of the day into the early portion of the day, where you still have some more energy to follow through
- don't get into an energy zapping routine early in the day, then everything will become very hard.

In one of the next videos I will talk about organizing oneself.
One tip from that. Get early wins in your routine

No worries about your rambling, as you can see, I like to ramble a lot as well :)