Tag: #HealthyHabits

  • Ideas for 2022

    I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. Mainly because, they always fail.

    I, on the other hand, try out new ideas to see if they stick.

    As you can see, two totally different things.

    This first thing I will try out is not drinking. Not total sobriety, but taking a break. It comes down to two things; health and finances. On the health front; I am twenty pounds overweight. I have the middle age man belly, which isn’t really surprising, as I am middle aged. The alcohol isn’t helping with the gut, and I think it’s adding to my depression as well. I don’t feel as positive of a person as I used to be. I don’t think I have a problem with drinking, but I feel like if I don’t start making steps to take my health seriously, that I could have a problem. The other thing is financial. Not that the wife and I are spending a huge amount of money on alcohol, but looking at our year-end review, we spent, on average, $100 a month. I think we can say that we know of a better ways to use that money.

    The next thing is that I will, oh god, start going to a gym for 30 minutes at a time. You might have heard that I am about twenty pounds overweight. Though I would like to say that it was all alcohol and sugary drink’s fault, it’s also inactivity’s fault. Yes, we were hiking most weekends this summer and fall, but one day every two weeks just isn’t enough. (We will pick up hiking again in the Spring.) It’s also the mental health benefits that comes with exercise that I am missing. In the past year, I have been harder on myself than usual. I know everyone has that nagging self-sabotage voice in their head, but most people work through it. For me, this past year, it has been harder and tougher for me to forgive myself, or even have the energy to follow through on a project. That’s not who I am. I was the guy who followed through and got shit done.

    And the last thing is that I have to admit that I didn’t meet my writing goals for the last four month, and in essence, for the year. I did okay, but I didn’t make the goal. I wanted to have three short stories completed by the end of the year. I got two finished, and I think they are in good enough shape to submit, but I wanted to have three. Now, I know full well there is nothing stopping me from submitting the two, but, you know, I didn’t complete what I set out to do. I have maintained the blog, though my viewers have dropped by half. So, instead of four people viewing daily, I now only have two. (And I think I know who those two people are. Hey, guys.) Maybe I do need to spend the $100 and get away from the free WordPress site, or might just need to come to terms with the fact that a random blog about one guys thoughts isn’t that dynamic anymore. It’s not 1997 when confessional blogs were all the rage. Anyway, the blog still brings me a level of joy and feeling of accomplishment daily, so I think this will keep going. The other writing? I need to get back to the grindstone. I need to put in the work.

    And I need to read more!

  • Parent Fail

    Yesterday, I took the kid to the dentist, which she thinks of as a fun thing to do. She was nervous to go to the dentist at first, but we talked to her about who the dentist and the technicians are, and how they are there to help her. What also helps is that we found a great children’s dentist practice in the neighborhood, wherein everybody there is open and friendly, and fun, so the kid loves seeing them every six months.

    But at this latest appointment, the dentist found a little cavity in the kid’s back baby tooth, and it made me feel like a failure as a parent. I didn’t get my first cavity until I was eighteen, and I swear, I ate way worse than my kid does, but still; how did this happen? No matter what the answer, at the end of the day, it’s the parent’s fault, right?. We approve everything she eats, make sure she brushes, and if we allow her to eat bad stuff and not really brush her teeth, that’s on us. But, I thought we were doing a really good job on this.

    Maybe it was a reality check. Maybe we do suck at this parenting thing. Maybe we need to work a little harder.

    But what I think really bothers me is that I didn’t do my job correctly, and she might have to suffer for that. I know it’s just a little cavity… It still feels like I failed.

  • ODDS and ENDS – Stop Drinking Apps, Kids n’ Oysters, and Harry Kane

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    Last June, I took a month off from drinking. Not that I felt I was out of control or anything, but more a matter of having a drink everyday isn’t the healthiest. This year I decided to do the same thing, again for health, and also wanting to help lose the Covid weight. Then, yesterday morning, I noticed an ad on my Instagram feed for an app to help you “cut back.” And that was the phrase they kept using; to help you “cut back” on things in your life. Drinking, it’s clearly talking about drinking, but oddly not saying that. Not that I need the app, but the Cloud/Algorithm knew. It knew I was going to stop drinking in June. We’re living in The Matrix, people.

    We went out to eat as a family the other night. It was strange to be inside of a restaurant again, but we are vaxed, and we want to support the local places in the neighborhood. Anyway, the place we went had oysters on the half shell, and the wife and I couldn’t resist. When they came to the table, the kid wanted to try one, which took me by surprise. I told her no, that raw oysters aren’t safe for kids, as their immune systems haven’t developed enough. I didn’t know if that was true, but I felt like it was something I was told a long time ago. (We looked it up, and the FDA says that kids over five are safe to eat raw oysters and fish.) I want my kid to be an adventurous eater, but, even though she is six, she still seems too young to me. Still, I proud she wasn’t icked out by a raw oyster. In fact, she tried to take an oyster shell home.

    And is Harry Kane coming back to Tottenham, or is he going some where else? The last thing I really want to see is him off to Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea. I really hate to see Kane, Son, Bale, and Lucas split up, especially that Dele was worked back into a starting position at the end of the season. The defense does need work, and I understand why Kane said what he said about leaving; he wants to be on a team that wins trophies. I just hope the Spurs Management get their act together and build a proper team.

  • No More Late Night Snacks

    Spring is here and Summer isn’t too far away. The seasons of rebirth and change is upon us. I think I have mentioned that I have put on twenty pounds of the course of the pandemic, and before that, I had put on a stress ten pounds from my former shitty job situation, my mother’s death, and moving away and then back to NYC. Food was the only thing giving me any comfort, and ice cream was my best friend. So, I’m front loaded now; just completing my slow transformation to middle aged white male – balding with a belly. As you can read, I’m not too happy about this.

    I am trying to wrap my head around getting back to a healthy lifestyle, as I don’t think I have really ever had a healthy lifestyle. I just sort of lived, and it all took care of itself. Well… those days are over, and I have to move this to the forefront of my thinking. This week, I am starting small; no more snacking after 9pm. This might be low hanging fruit, so to speak, but I think it is the lynchpin of the issues I am having. Mainly, no discipline. I want to see if I can go a week without snacking, controlling my behavior. If I can do this, then I think I can move on to more complicated things.

    And the complicated things are; running, maybe daily; eating better, or at least what we all can agree on as a family; and the really ambitious one, hiking.

    But before I can get there, I have to say goodbye to my 11pm ice cream break.

  • It’s 2021, Ya’ll!

    And so we are in a new year. Today, Monday the 4th feels like the start of the new year to me. The kid is back in school, remotely that is, and the wife is also back at work, also remotely, but we are all back to the routine.

    Walking our dog around the neighborhood this morning, I saw that the crossing guards are back, as well as the delivery trucks, and people waiting at bus stops. Even the stupid construction on the condo tower behind our building was up and running at 6:30am.

    Everyone is back, and that’s why, for me, it feels like we are all starting this New Year.

    Today is also the day that I will try 30 days of no alcohol. I will jump on the band wagon of everyone else, and have a dry January. I don’t think our drinking is out of control, but the wife and I wanted to start this year off on the right foot with cleaning up our life style. We have put on some Covid weight, and alcohol doesn’t help. And over the holidays, we sure did eat our fair share of cookies, and cakes, and all sorts of other tasty treats that really aren’t good for us. The wife is taking the extra step and is cutting sugar out of the next 30 days. The final step is that we will be doing a 30 day yoga program. Yes, it is a form of exercise that we can do after the kid goes to bed at night, but for me, I need something to help me center and calm my mind down. I am looking for healthier ways to deal with my anxiety.

    We were talking last night, about how everyone does shit like this at the start of the year, and then they give up in February. We seem to be building in our quitting with this 30 system, thus we won’t be upset with ourselves when this ends on February 3rd.