I mentioned a few days ago that my first “Project” might focus on personal health. In fact, I’d like to use a personal health kick to fill out a few areas of the site, which I think would help me both follow through and keep track of changes over time that I can analyze. I mentioned going on a health kick to my wife, who promptly rolled her eyes
Although I wouldn’t say that I’ve been exactly health conscious my entire life, I’ve definitely increased my interest over that past few years. And now that I’m a father, I feel like I have a responsibility to maintaining good health, not just for me, but for my family, too. As my daughter grows older, it’ll be more important for me to be in good enough condition to keep up, and I owe it to her and my wife to stave away the spiral of age and poor self-care as much as possible. Before moving back to the UK, I remember spending a week with my old mentor, Gregory Heyworth, and his family. We visited a canyon near their home in Rochester, New York, and while he and his wife went to fetch refreshments, I decided to play with their kids, who at the time had just entered their early teens. I wasn’t in the best shape, then, and am probably somewhere still in that ballpark now, and to say I was outpaced would be charitable. With that experience haunting me, I’d hate to relive it on a daily basis as my daughter grows up and expects me, in turn, to keep up, not pant after 5 minutes of running.
On several recent occasions, I have tried to both diet and increase my exercise level, and from some personal experimentation, I’ve learned that I tend to do better with low-carb / keto diets on the food front, and more weight-training oriented exercises on the physical activity front. My body wasn’t built for running, with two major foot surgeries to reinforce the insult. So, I imagine the angle of this first project might take that angle.
I do think that outlining some targets or goals is probably a bad idea, rather I’d like to make the changes and see how it goes for about a month, gauging how I feel, my energy levels, mood, etc. From my experience, I tend to fixate too much on a daily number and less on the big picture. So, while I’ll also keep track of those metrics, I won’t make hitting a weekly goal a requirement.
Moreover, I’d also like to focus on this health project more holistically. It’s not just about weighing the right amount or looking and feeling good in your own skin, for me, it’ll be about getting enough rest, establishing a workable routine, increasing my mood and positive outlook, and creating a sustainable life moving forward. All of these things are interlinked, and I don’t see much use in improving one over the others. I have achieved singular improvement by working on one aspect at a time, but it’s never stuck, which I believe should be my end-goal this time.
As mentioned above, I think I have a better shot at getting the results I want this time, as I have the site to keep me accountable. In that vein, I’ll also probably add the occasional rambling update to some of these daily posts, too. Hopefully, that will serve to ground me, and if I can pull off the updates first thing in the morning, it’ll serve as an energy boost and reaffirmation for the rest of the day. Because I try to adhere to some structure, I’ll make sure to keep these pieces or sections in the same place (e.g. sectioned off at the bottom of the daily posts), so for any readers out there who don’t want to hear my daily complaining they can easily gloss over.
Now that I think about it, whenever I’ve looked for experience reports from others who have done similar things (like try out a diet and write their experience in a daily journal), I have found their struggles helpful. They’ve given me some idea of what to expect, depending on where I am in my progress, so perhaps this little experiment will pay that forward to another person out there as well. The only disconnect I can think of is that these updates will be in separate posts instead of one long news-article style report. I could always compile it at the end as a post-mortem or archive to tie a bow on everything and put it in one place for posterity. Anyway, something to think about as I while away the second half of my annual leave week.
Please, jump over to the “Projects” page and look out for the pre-game post. I intend to outline everything I’ll be doing over there in more detail.