Is That Insurance Person STILL on Vacation?

Parkour Classes at the Y

CEO said yes. Program Executive said yes. Leadership team said yes.

Just need their insurance company to say yes. Still waiting on that.

Last time I heard about this was March 6, and the big update at that time was that the insurance company representative was on vacation.

Not sure how long that vacation is, but it can’t be forever, right? 😜 

PK Coach Buddy: the first AI-powered parkour coaching app

Nobody’s done this before, at least not for parkour coaches.

There are tons of training apps out there, but few actually help coaches become better coaches.

That’s where PK Coach Buddy comes in.

Key Feature Ideas:

• Create journal entries to reflect on your coaching whenever you have thoughts to share, and let AI analyze them to give you insights

• Plan classes and let AI help you iterate on them or anticipate your next class plan based on your planning history

• Contribute to and benefit from a shared knowledge base with education on parkour and ADAPT coaching philosophies, mostly as a resource for the AI to draw from when helping you with lesson planning and guided reflections, but also for new coaches to get some fresh ideas from. Also, get information from the knowledge base quickly using AI chat.

  

• AI Insights dashboard where you can see the “highlights” of what AI has learned from analyzing your activities in the app

  

I gave a demo of this app on the ADAPT International Quarterly Call in front of a bunch of ADAPT-certified parkour coaches to get feedback from them on the concept.

Already had a prototype TestFlight-installed app that had essential features:

• signup

• login

• logout

• dark mode

This was a way to make the demo more credible and interesting. I thought about adding more features, but I didn’t for a few reasons:

1. Developing in a Vacuum → Yes, I’ve gotten feedback from 1 ADAPT-certified coach, but an entire group of ADAPT-certified coaches may have differing opinions on which features are useful. I don’t want to make features I’ll end up throwing out a day later.

2. Anchoring Effect → The audience will see what I’ve built and use that as a “starting point” for any creative thinking. This means I’ll miss out on ideas that look completely different from what I’m showing them, even if those ideas would have solved user problems more effectively.

3. Time Limitations → I only had so much time to give to this project between getting initial idea validation and hopping on this call. I built what I felt would be the bare minimum for a good feedback gathering session.

Nobody had any feedback right away on the call, but they did tell me to post in the Facebook group so I could get feedback later on.

Once I did, some useful comments and questions began rolling in.

Feedback

1. Who will make the knowledge base articles? Will they be paid?

2. Is it really faster to plan classes with AI if I still have to go over the lesson plan it generated?

3. How will this app help me deal with feelings of burnout due to difficult students or misbehaving kids?

4. Can guided reflections and planning automations really reduce burnout?

5. Any journaling feature that is more complicated than just writing stuff down on paper will just add friction. It’d be nice to record my voice and have that turned into notes.

6. What is the mission exactly? What does it mean for coaches to become “better” at what they do? How do you measure that outcome?

7. The power in this app will be in helping coaches iterate, not necessarily on saving them time

I even had a coach comment that an app like this isn’t even something that would solve their biggest pain point. Currently they’d like something that’s basically “Calendly with in-app client-coach messaging”. Their biggest pain points were invoicing and client comms, not reflections or class planning.

This has all gotten me thinking about 2 things:

1. I could totally try to make an app for that coach’s pain point. Feels like AI could make it since in-app messaging and paid event booking are solved problems in many SaaS apps.

2. What really is the mission of this app? I think it’s supposed to help coaches find more value from introspection, and that might be that they become faster at iterating on their past approaches to coaching and student management.

I’m sure more feedback will roll in.

Regardless of where this goes, I love that I’ve had the support of the leadership at Parkour Generations and that there seems to be room for an app that can help the parkour coaching community — somehow.

Weight Loss

I made it to 220 lbs. recently, which was a record low for me in the past X months!

I didn’t stay there, but I’ve seen a reduction in fat %, hovering between 25-27% now instead of the original 28.1% 🔥 

I also made (vibe-coded) a new web app called Funger, which gamifies the annoying hunger pangs I get while I’m staying in a calorie deficit. It lets me track how long I’m hungry, and when, so I can start to anticipate when I’ll be hungry. It makes it less frustrating if I have data to tell me it’s not going to last forever.

I actually kept expanding on this app after I made the hunger tracking feature, so now I have a Cookie Jar feature where I earn a cookie each time I beat a craving, and a Garden feature where I earn a flower (or a rare garden ornament) each time I go on a 30-minute walk outside. I even added upgrades and garden customization, among other things.

Here’s a quick demo of what I have so far:

My weight has continued to drop the past few days since starting to walk more and use this app to reward myself for eating less and resisting my cravings:

That said, I haven’t gotten under my new PR of 220 lbs. I’m hoping to get in the 210s before the end of the month.

Training

I’ve been committing to at least 1 workout a day, no matter how small. I’ve started going back to the skatepark too, now that it’s warmer.

My weeks are now filled with running, walking, parkour-specific conditioning & technical training, and weight training. I’ll add biking to the list once it gets even warmer out and I can see myself biking 5 minutes downhill to the local park by the lake.

Thanks to my new Funger app feature, inspired by joining some friends from 𝕏 in their Touching Grass 30-Day Challenge, I'm now taking 1-2 daily 30-minute walking breaks, too. It’s been a great way for me to get more sunshine and not spend an entire workday staring at my computer ❤️ 

I noticed yesterday that my pull-up count has increased by 2 across 3 sets, which is a promising indicator that I’m heading in the right direction 💪 

ADAPT Level 2 Course Prep

My boss approved my time off and I finally booked my hotel, so all travel arrangements have officially been made.

I’ve also made some more progress on the First Aid/CPR course: 160 minutes remaining.

I forget how long the course was initially, but I’ve completed a few modules and am about halfway done.

General Health

I had my first visit the other day with my new primary care doctor!

Haven’t had one of those in a long time, mostly just been urgent care visits and one-off specialist visits like dermatologists and psychiatrists.

But I figure since I’m 30, I should have a go-to physician who knows me better than the urgent care staff.

Passed my initial exam with flying colors:

✅ Blood pressure
✅ Pulse
✅ Physical

I have to get my blood drawn next week Tuesday so they can know my full situation, which I’m not excited about (I hate needles), but I’m curious about my LDL and A1C numbers, so I’m invested enough to go through with it.

But also he won’t prescribe me any ADHD medication until I do that, so I’ve kinda gotta do it lol. Yeah, I’m going to try ADHD medication again, this time maybe a non-stimulant variety, which would be new for me.

It’s been at least 2 years since I was on ADHD medication, I forget when I was on it last, maybe 2021 or so?

There’s a reason for that, though.

I’ve taken a lot of stimulants for ADHD over my lifetime and I’ve never been satisfied with the side effects.

The meds always made me overanalyze everything and I wasn’t able to relax, even though I was able to get my homework done without getting as distracted.

The only other thing I asked for at this time was a referral to a nutritionist so I could get some accountability while I’m DIY-ing my weight loss. I’m sure they’ll have some food recommendations for me which I’ll be happy to try, but mostly, just like when I had a nutritionist at Trek, it’s mostly to help with diet adherence. I know which foods are good for me and which aren’t, at this point.

What’s Next?

I’m just gonna keep on tracking calories and getting my daily exercise and hope the weight starts to fall off.

The Funger app seems to be helping me move more and eat less, so we’ll see if there’s a noticeable drop in weight over the next 30 days from using the app.

I’ll want to finish my First Aid/CPR course ASAP, hoping to get most or all of that done this weekend.

I’m pausing on development of the PK Coach Buddy app for now since the pace has picked up at my 9-5 and I need to use some of my “side project” time to clear my queue so I can chill again.

Hoping the next time I post on this blog I’ll have an update on the YMCA classes, ideally a Yes/No and what the next steps would be there. If I don’t hear back from them by next week Monday, I’ll probably reach out again just to keep the email thread warm.

The next blog post will definitely have my blood test results, though. We’ll see how naughty I’ve been with saturated fats based on how my LDL looks. Fingers crossed my A1C is still super low 🤞 

Anyway, til next time 👋