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I discussed the right and wrong priorities in a healthy lifestyle, and I said I’m slowly growing into one of the small minority with the right priorities. Part of that transformation is the number of “active days” in a week.

Q: Regarding my active-day defninitions, how long (years) will they stay relevant?
A: I choose to be optimistic and believe in myself, so 5Y at least.

— critical_mass and self-sustaining .. At the above specified level, if you hit At_Least 5 times a week for 8 weeks , it can be easy to maintain for a month. I told my friend Raymond Teo that once you hit 15m x 5 times a week , and maintain it for a few months you will notice the difference in your physical and mental condition.

My friend Ashish told me he could hit 4 times a week, of unspecified duration.

Some workouts don’t feel exhausting/sweaty though they can be challenging and require absorbency:

• jump-rope
• yoga
• gym, or chin-up
• swim 800m

“Piggyback” and “Qualified yes” are assertions of self-acceptance, concrete acts of self-encouragement.

Now the full list:

1. [s] swim .. 1k counts as [3<-4k] jogg
2. [s] squat .. [200<-400] 16 reps count as 1 floor of stairs. I mean standard squats [shallow, no more than 16]. In other words, the lower or faster, or longer run of squats will count as more than 1 floor.
3. [s] stairs .. [15<-20] flights of stairs in one or more segments. 15 is max of “achievable”, giving a reasonable workout to my system + a boost to self-confidence. 16 flights would sound daunting and /uninviting/. walking down stairs takes 1/3 of the “effort” as climbing
   .. If not continuous, then 20 flights spread out throughout the day.
4. .. double-step [13] is fast and effective for heart rate and muscle
5. [a] chinUp x [80<-90].. harder than 10m of jog or 20 continuous flights of stairs. Whenever we hit this target, we should always add some other exercise [chin-up, push-up, stretch, squat, stairs,,,]
   .. continuous 15 reduces by 2
   .. If I hit the target on Day 1, then Day 2 target can be reduced to 50 and still qualifying as one active day. I call it piggyback or rollover. Beware harsh standard won’t promote/encourage/induce consistent effort.
6. .. Same or additional discount apply if Day 1 accomplishes two full yet distinct workouts. “Additional” if one of the two is chin-up.
7. [a] pushUp, sitUp for 100% of the jogging duration but with more rests. These workouts demand more absorbency than jogging. See star_rating.
8. [a] stretch for [15->20m-30] even without sweat or heart rate. Reasonable amount of rest, similar to yoga classes. Stretch is tougher (less self-sustaining[1]) than all other exercise, so in terms of absorbency 1m is comparable to 2m jog. Unfortunately, I need at least 10m to maintain the critical_mass.
9. .. Lotus .. 10m can count as 1m of stretch.
10. .. Stretch is the most needed [rewarding?] ingredient in my exercise roster. One or two yoga sessions each week is very good but tough. To encourage and reward it, to hit once stretch a week, I will reduce the quantum from the original 30m.
11. —- a few outdated alternatives
12. [s] basketball
13. [s] playground with meimei
14. [as] lunges .. One round in the playground ≅ 5->6 continuous flights of stairs, or 40->50-60 continuous squats [shallower than lunges]. Lunges are between strength [push-up, sit-up]  and CRE [jogg, swimm]
15. [as] jump-rope .. [800<-2000] skips may match a 20min jog (or 30 flights of stairs) in terms of calories, but demands way too much absorbency, so I choose jump-rope only when no time and no facilities. Everything considered, [300->350-450] skips count as 10 steady continuous flights of stairs. Unfortunately, jump-rope is cardio-only without any muscle benefits, so it’s good to 1) complement it with strength training or else 2) skip 200 more
16. [s = heart rate, sweat or increased breathing]
17. [a = lots of absorbency required]

[1] more boring, harder to work up the heart rate.