I quit smoking 6 weeks ago yesterday. Very proud of this.
This is amazing! pat indeed! People never fail to astonish me with their extraordinary creativity when facing challenges.
I’m a writer! Let me know if you need a beta reader! Totally serious here, I love swapping crits with people.
This past week was really rough due to four days of terrible insomnia and a protein shake debacle that made me sick (damned artificial sweeteners.) But I stayed the course with the workouts. I even invested in an absolutely badass adjustable exercise bench. I absolutely love strength training, it has the interesting effect of making me feel immediately thinner and more sexy even if I haven’t lost a pound. (I have no idea if I’ve lost weight, I am intentionally not paying attention to that right now, but I am tracking and consuming fewer calories so it wouldn’t surprise me.)
I found a protein shake without artificial sweeteners (Orgain) so I think that will help. My trainer has suggested relatively small adjustments to my diet as I go through this process. For example, I usually serve pizza on game night on Mondays. She suggested, instead of eating three pieces of pizza, I just have two and some raw vegetables with greek yogurt dip. So I’ve actually started loading the pizza itself up with vegetables too (peppers, onion, and pineapple.) So I still get yummy pizza on Mondays and veggies with pretty tasty dip. My gaming buddies think I’m nuts for putting veggies on my pizza, but they bring their own pepperoni for their portion, so it works out.
On the novel front, I’m submitting three more chapters of my revision for critique tonight. It’s stuff I’ve been working on for a couple months so I’m anxious to get my feedback and move on with the rewrite.
I have a pretty simple life improvement target right now. It’s … stand up straight. Yeah, that thing my mother used to nag me relentlessly about when I was fifteen I’m finally getting round to in my forties. Go Me!
So, there were a couple of motivations for this. Firstly, I’ve had chronic lower back pain on and off since forever, which sucks, and phisios have been telling me (since approximately forever) that my lower back was overly mobile and basically doing all the work of holding myself up, due to the fact that my upper back was a stacked-in locked-up lump. Such are the joys of large amounts of time spent in front of a computer screen. Secondly, I could see that I was developing a nasty case of Forward Head Posture and I just don’t fancy ending up with an epic Dowagers’ Hump at the age of sixty or whatever, and not being able to walk around without hurting myself.
I have posture exercises to do, I’ve given up using a pillow if I’m sleeping on my back, and my target goals are a) when I stand straight against a wall to have my head touch the wall naturally; b) to be able to lie on the floor with my arms above my head and my wrists and elbows touching the floor c) to have a back that doesn’t hurt.
I’ve been at this about a year and a half now. Results are mixed. After pummelling and harrassing my back in various ways, the upper half of it is now moving properly again, for the first time in maybe a couple of decades. When I’m riding my bike I can actually twist far enough to look behind me and see what’s there. And I haven’t had any lower back pain for a year. So … yay! Goals a and b are … progressing. Probably. It’s a long haul, and sometimes difficult to tell the difference between moving forward reeeeeally slowly, and just staying in the one spot.
On the other hand, my back still hurts. It’s just, now it’s the top half instead. It was quite happy with its life of luxury never having to do any work, and now that it DOES have to do work, it complains about it all the time. I tell it to shut up and keep doing my exercises. Physio advice at the moment is ‘yeah, you’re doing the right thing, it’s just going to take time.’ Lots. And lots. Of time.
So the take-home message here is … kids? Start standing up straight when your mother tells you to!
Ive described in several other recent posts what I’m dosing. Basically, drawing a very very sharp and nearly impermeable line between the past and the future, and going from one to the other with only a carry on bag. I don’t really know if any of you will ever hear from me again after July 12. My family and a few closest friends will. mainly because I’m reluctant to totally burn bridges.
I have to do this now, while I still can.
jtur -
I fully recognize and respect your plan. It is sometime necessary.
Just remember - the past is what makes you who and what you are.
Leave, but don’t forget.
Aspidistra good for you for tackling this. My father just let it go. He’s got a hunchback now and I think will never correct it. It’s worth it.
jtur best wishes to you. I hope you’ll consider at least dropping us a line to tell us how things are going.
Cleaning some old stuff this weekend, I ran into a bunch of old writings; beginnings of stories. I’m copying them into the computer. Some of them I’ve got no idea what they’re really about, but still, it’s kind of like having a chat with myself-from-20-years-ago, back when my handwriting was actually readable.
I doubt I’ll ever get them into any kind of shape where I’m comfortable showing them to others, but whatever.
Thank you. I see the past as the font of my lessons learned, and it has already done its work to leave an indelible mark on me. which will prevail without any conscious reference. Your user-name suggests that you have already experienced this, as well.
I think I must be careful with nostalgia. While it is a great treasure, I must not let it shake my resolve to shape my future.
Despite having resided in Asia for over a decade, I’m still functionally illiterate in reading and writing of Chinese. I have resorted to putting Chinese characters on my computer desktop background so I can read them and memorize them as I glance at them.
I didn’t visit with my story this weekend. I will do it this weekend.
I got a compliment after boot camp on Monday…one of my fitness buddies told me I was looking good. It made my day.
I’m not sure this completely fits with the theme of the thread, so apologies if this is an outlier.
My wife and I have struggled quite a bit with trying to finish off some of the major projects that need to be done in our house (painting, most notably—there are several rooms and hallways there are currently half-painted). We’ve been in our house nearly two years, now.
Over the last three weekends, we’ve shifted our focus to smaller things that make a big difference in how we perceive our home. In addition to general things like keeping up better with cleaning and laundry, we’ve been working on some real changes in the house’s aesthetics. We tackled wiring up outdoor lighting to the front of the house, which makes things much prettier (and was way easier than I imagined it would be). We’ve been replacing interior and exterior light bulbs that either weren’t working, or were mismatched colors. We’ve had a bunch of photos printed up that we’ve been framing and hanging (we previously had zero photos of ourselves or family up ANYWHERE in the house). We’ve started moving furniture to more useful places and decluttering rooms that had no excuse for being cluttered. We have plans for many more projects like these.
In the last three weeks, we haven’t done anything “major,” but our house feels completely different to me. So much more pleasant and homey. It has been a real eye-opener and motivator for me to get more done. We already loved our home, but it feels even better now. It has made a remarkable difference for me in terms of my mood when I’m at home. I really love the space we’re in.
But we’re still going to get around to painting, eventually. 
There’s a reason the first task in managing a project is “split it up into small tasks”
I’ve been doing better at finding more time to read. Still fat and living in a shithole mess of a house, though.
My kid’s doing great work learning to potty, though. He’s much better at self improvement than I am.
Zsofia don’t be too hard on yourself! Little ones are more than a full time job. If Z-kid is almost potty trained, you’re doing great!
Secret confession: I’m terrified once I have children that I will be so overwhelmed that I will become a failure at basically everything else.
NOBODY is good at being a first time parent. NO ONE. Those who say it was a snap are lying. Babies are tough, and you don’t know why they’re crying and your nipples hurt from breast feeding and you feel like a failure.
You muddle through. That’s the best you can do.
After the November election, I decided to try what I could do to personally have some impact. I started tutoring adult ESL, and have stuck with it since.
I also started doing push-ups and crunches daily-ish (not missing more than 1 day in a row.) Started with 2 sets of 10 push-ups, and 10 each of 8 different crunches. Increased 1 per week. To date, I have not missed more than 1 day in a row, and am up to sets of 46. Don’t think I’ve ever been able to do 50 push-ups, but in a month, thanks to that asshole Trump, I’ll be able to! 
Don’t know why, but I’ve recently been losing weight. Down from about 210# to 201# over the past couple of months. Other than the push-ups and crunches, haven’t really changed my diet/exercise. Going to the doctor for a check-up next week. Hope it is just fitness, and not something wrong.
Lying might be strong (or not depending on the person). I think the early years of parenting end up being like labor. You know it happened, but the memory fades. 
Good for you! I think small changes end up having a big impact over time. Now I can think of at least one positive thing that Trump is responsible for.
What?!
You’re a very unusual person, making some drastic life choices. I’m on the edge of my seat waiting to hear how it all turns out.
Yeah, that was kinda my idea. I remember how depressed I was for how long after W’s re-election - and how futile my subsequent forays into local government were at the time. Figured the one thing I COULD control and try to improve was my own body and time… Also heard my kids express distress over the election, and wanted to show as well as tell them to quit bitching and DO something, no matter how small.