Steve v5.1

A serious (for me) countdown has begun as I realize I am just a month away from another milestone in my life… Another birthday. Normally I would celebrate another passing year by curling up under my desk and sobbing uncontrollably while agonizing over what should have been, but this year will be different. So says I– the guy with about a month to prevent the rue of years-passed.

OK, so it turns out that it is a lot easier to say that things will be different than to actually make things different. I need goals. I need a plan to achieve those goals. I need to take action on my plan. I need to review the effects of my actions (monitor progress or the lack of it). I need to modify my actions and my plan as I go to become more efficient at achieving my goals. I need to continue this progress beyond successfully achieving my set goals. I need to have been doing this all along. I really need to get started.

In shorter verbosity, I’m one needy individual.

How do I satisfy a need? Simple answer: get. These next 30 days will be all about getting; getting my goals written down, getting my plan devised, getting to action, getting my actions reviewed, and getting my plan adjustments in play as needed.

Today is B-minus-31. The calendar is…er…ticking? Go Steve, go!

Continue awesomeness.

 

The weather in these parts just turned gorgeous, which is awesome because months of gray above and damp below gets old (and no, I wasn’t trying to segue to my upcoming birthday). What’s less than awesome is that my manatee-shaped body is nowhere near tastefully expose-able outside a tank at Sea World. Turns out that blubber is sure clingy. It hangs there like sub dermal ricotta, or butter grapes, if that’s a thing.  So, whatcha gonna do, Stevemu?

Short answer, more and less.

More movement and less food– crazy-obvious amirate? The thing is, I’m starting to think I have an addiction… to food. It’s like, if I don’t eat, I feel as though I might starve– to death. OK, so not so much. I mean, I am luckier than many in the world that don’t have enough to eat. I get that there are those who don’t. I also get how fortunate I am and what an injustice it is that I have so much while others don’t. I do give some to charities– and know that others do as well. Perhaps there will come a day that hunger (and the other ills of the planet) will be overcome. But this is about me and my multitude of personality defects so let’s go…

First order of business; no more fast food. The one thing in which we Americans reign supreme culinarily is something I must now avoid. It’s a shame too– all those new Carl’s Jr ads make whatever they’re selling seem so delicious. No more.

Rock on.

 

I’ve been feeling like a bloated whale-man recently. Normally I would ponder the possible reason for such malaise, but I’d rather just not feel this way and analyze it. The thing is, we’re knocking on the door of Spring and I think I’ve been feeling confined and blah for so long that I’ve nibbled myself into being an overstuffed, mildly apathetic hulk of junk food and angst. Ta-dah! Analysis complete.

The cool thing is that I believe I’ve hit a threshold. I’m feeling angst-y enough to do something about it and have enough opportunities to get out of my cave and, well, leave my bloated blotto-ness in my rearview mirror.

Careful Steve-o, objects may be closer than they appear.

Continue awesomeness.

 

Heart Attack Grill owner “Doctor Jon” Basso, was present when his most famous patron flat-lined at the hospital- a witness to what may be the effects of his menu. Here’s more…

 

I returned to the gym yesterday after an absence of about a month. I look at it as a positive step because, frankly, I’ve been letting go. Letting go of just about everything that I once viewed as beneficial, motivational, or even interesting. My hardest self-critique is that I’m an individual in decay. In kinder, more committed to improvement terms, I’ve been lazy and need/must get my shit together and start placing it where it should be.

This had me feeling a little lost and melancholic. There was a time when I was hellbent on not being hell-bound. A time when I was laser-guided and tenacious. A trip down memory lane may be just what I need.

Here’s the first entry of my weight loss blog. I decided to start writing once I began to experience some success and honestly, what happened before this point was pretty friggin’ ugly death-march style horror and drudgery. I’m starting with the positive. Actually, I wrote a blog about it– it started a little something like this…

It’s not my fun day.

I actually like Mondays. It’s the day I get back to the gym after two days off. I get to check my progress on the scale. I get back to the challenges and opportunities of work. I, well, you know the drill.
I stepped on the scale today and discovered I had lost a little over half a pound since Friday. That is definitely not a bad thing considering that our garden is really starting to put out now and I went a nuts with the figs and salsa over the weekend. (more)

Rock on.

 

I, for one, am glad the holidays are fading into chronology. Behind me are all the food-focused gatherings and the ever-arriving plates of mass induction that muffin-top my waistline and conversely embolden my resolve to move more and eat less(C). I really don’t own a copyright on that or a patent on the method, but what do have is the desire, motive, and ambition to to fully impose the principle on my fat self.

This morning was spent like most every other morning; I awoke in the dark and went on a bike ride, then a walk, and then a bike ride again. Can that be called cross-training? I don’t care. It was painfully cold yet I am grateful for the opportunity and ability to go out there and spend time with my thought (intentionally singular- I rarely have more than one).

Today’s smoothie consisted of: protein powder, yogurt, blueberries, mandarin orange, carrot, and water. It was good and filling.

Rock on.

 

Nowhere in my selective memory can I find an instance of having made New Years resolutions. That is not to say that I never had a need or could not have benefited from such an endeavor, I just never did. I thought resolutions were just stupid list of good intentions one made at the beginning of the year, only to abandon two weeks later- and for many people I’ve known over the scant half century I’ve crawled the earth, it has proven true. Me being one to learn from the foibles of others and too lazy and apathetic to pioneer off on my own, never ventured down that trail of what I perceived as woe.

Still, I am a dogged zealot of goal setting. Perusing the cobs of my selective memory also fails to yield any important possession or event in my life that wasn’t the logical outcome of some (often ridiculous and petty) goal which I set, then set upon achieving. It has just been the way of my world; create a list of goals, narrow it down to the doable and sally forth. Onward and upward.

Truth be what it is, I’ve not set enough, nor have I achieved all I’ve set. And therein lies my mediocrity and the regrets of years passed. I must resolve to do something about that.

This year… no, this day, I’m making my list. Today will be my Resolution Day– which I will transform into Annual Big List of Goals Day, followed by Take Action, Observe, and Modify Actions Until Goals are Achieved Days.

In other words “2013″. Consider me, resoluted.

Rock on.