Relax - Pace yourselves - It's going to be ok.

Motivation:

"You never really lose, until you quit trying."
~unknown

Diary:

Greetings and salutations readers.
First and foremost, kudos to my new subscribers. Hopefully you will be intrigued, amused, or at least somewhat mildly entertained. I see that while I was "gone" I doubled the number of subscribers and received hits from Mexico and Europe! Wonderful.

As indicated in the last post, I was out of the loop last weekend - serving at a Unity in Christ men's retreat. On Sunday, during our worship/closing services, I was so tired that I couldn't keep my eyes open, however there was still tear-down and cleanup work to do after this service was over. I was so spiritually renewed (cliche?) that my physical weakness didn't seem so bad.

This week was very stressful, however. I knew that it would be stressful, because of the loss of the weekend I would be behind at work, on my 'projects' and research for "The Renaissance Man Project" (which, from this day forward, will be simply known as "TRMP", becuase typing out "The Renaissance Man Project" is just too much, plus, Renaissance is so easy to mispell. Although, TRMP sounds like "tramp" which isn't good. Ok, for now, TRMP must be pronounced "trump", not as in Donald, but as in the high suit in a card game. The Renaissance Man "trumps" the average man. That works ok for now.

I digress, back to the stress. Here is a little snippet:

• on Tuesday, I took my car to get a $16 oil change. 8 hours later, I got my vehicle back after a $2000 head-gasket surgery.
• the last two weeks, I have been limping along without my PDA, which for me is a life changing event. I ordered a new battery online, and after many many calls, found that the company LOST THE ORDER! So, I ordered another one from a competing company, and then got a call from the first company indicating that they were sorry and wanted to send me the battery. They would give me a 50% discount, because of the trouble. So, now I have TWO batteries, and have to figure out how to send the other one back. The whole thing was a cluge, and I am still a little bitter and hostile about the whole thing.
• now I DO have a battery and my PDA is working, but it lost ALL of it's memory. So when I synched it, it got all the old crap on it that I had already organized. It is disorganized and will take a while to get back to the condition I had it in before it died. I will apply my apps (I have a portable Bible, Avantgo reader, Freemind, looking for a good RSS reader, etc) I WILL back it up after it is ready to go.
  
• Speaking of backup - I got an external 500gb hard drive from Best Buy - good deal on a WesternDigital MyBook, plus I had about $130 worth of gift cards that I had to use or they would expire. So I bought it as an early goal reward... even though I haven't reached all my goals yet. This is also a business need, as I have to start backing up things for home, home business, and work. This is a step forward to being able to get other goal items.
• It seems that every letter I get is asking me to do something. My homeoners association, my mortgage company, my insurance company, etc. In their letters, they didn't just say "pay this bill by xx date", instead it said, you need to call us to get some kind of information.... I don't have time, and isn't it your job to get in touch with me, or give me the information I need for you to do your business???? Go away, you gnats..
• I bought something on Thursday night from a store that was the wrong item. When I called to return it, the lady stated "Once it is out of the store, we cannot accept returns." WHAT! Isn't this the 2000's? When did stores start having 'absolute no return' policies? I had to drive all the way BACK to the store, get my hostility on, and lay some smack-down all over the place. I just wanted them to know that this is NOT acceptable and I would not be purchasing from or recommending to their store. Before I could get jiggy, one of the employees recognized the problem and was over the top apologetic. "Oh, sir, we will take care of this. It is obvious that WE made the mistake, and will solve this problem for you. Let me see what I can do." - stop - breathe - boy, do I feel like a real ass.... He was very calm and polite and defused the situation, but also defused me. I just took a step outside myself and realized how carried away I got from a simple issue. I need to relax....
  

Lets talk about RELAXATION!!!! Great topic to dive into after a stressful week.


Notes:

#Diet#

One of thing things that was stressful over the last few weeks was regarding measuring my food intake. I am supposed to have 2 cups of lettuce in my salad. What the heck is that? I was having some stress, until I used one of my favorite tools, Google, too find the answer. I found a site that helped me. McCormick has a Food Equivalences chart that is helpful, but still didn't answer my original question.
Using the Dole website, I finally found the answer. Although, I know I could make a salad cheaper and healthier, I purchase packaged salads - remember the theme is stress reduction - and they are 12 oz per package. Dole indicates that 3oz of salad is about 1 to 1 1/2 cups. If I need to ensure that I have 2 cups of lettuce, then I will use 1/2 of a package. This ensures that I have somewhere from 2 - 3 cups of lettuce. That is 'good enough' for me.

The other stress, when you are as obese as I, is that your own body and mind are trying to keep you fat! Need more proof that fat is trying to kill you? Here are a few posts I found this week:

• Obesity, illness speed testosterone decline
• Belly fat may drive inflammatory processes associated with disease
• Wok Carefully: CSPI Takes a (Second) Look at Chinese Restaurant Food
  

Within a 2 mile radius of my house, I can count at least 5 Chinese restaurants and an additional 2 places claiming to be Chinese Super buffets. Personally, I love Chinese food and if I could, I would eat egg roles all day long while bathing in sweet and sour sauce. Ok, so that's a slight exaggeration, but this is not. - from the "dumb little man" blog.

I am down another 10lbs since I last posted (5 lbs per week.) I met my first goal for 2007, to lose 40lbs. That only took 3 months, so I am on good pace. The clinic assistant that I met with Friday indicated that I am on a good pace to continue this 2 more times. He thinks I can lose another 90 lbs before the year is over, and I agreed.


My current stats and goal list - as always - on the sidebar.


#Exercise#

Good progress - I have stayed committed to working out 30 minutes every day at work. I am going to start walking for the 5K - starting next Saturday.

I am meeting with on of my 5K running partners on May 12th to do a trial run and go over our game plan. I am looking forward to this event. Remember the big run is in Northfield, MN on September 29th! Time to get started.

I am finding that exercising daily is a HUGE stress relief for me. It gives me a chance to break from my desk, which is starting to become a wasteland of undone things. It also let's my mind go for a while, during the elliptical or stair climbing routine. As my legs and body run, I can just think about random stuff - knowing fully that I can't do anything about these thoughts at the moment, because I am physically incapacitated.


#Fine Art#

I have one week remaining to finish up the "What I believe" essay for St. Olaf. I have a lot of ideas rattling around my head, but pen and paper have not yet been married. I will block off some time to do this, maybe Sunday. I will post it on this blog.

I am really excited about music this week, and am playing in worship service again on Sunday. I am also slated to play next week, I believe. Easter for sure.

#Geek#

I have been pretty busy at work, so not much geek stuff has happened at home. Things will start to pick up later this week. I am going to start (finally) my studying for A+ Certification, as well as TRMP, and going to start Podcasting.

I have decided, in the spirit of "relaxation", to not be so exact about my reward/goal list. Not that I am giving up on this idea, but looking at my wish list, I decided that I didn't really need all of this 'stuff'. What I really need to do is reduce my debt and live more peacefully. So I am just keeping things on my list that I really think will be things that I will enjoy and use often, instead of every cool thing I have ever wanted.

Also, I am going to keep the other requirements fluid. As long as I stay on the right track, I am qualified to reward myself for goals that I achieve. Some may take longer than others, and that is ok.

#Money#

I am all set to start my debt reduction. I have decided that as soon as this season of 24 is over (the day after) I will cancel my digital cable to save about $80 a month that I will use for other bill payments. I don't watch TV enough, as a single guy, and I am planning on going to / listening to Twins baseball games during the summer, so my TV watching may go down. I will still have basic cable ($8 a month) and my Internet access is through cable, but this is also a business expense, so there are justifications there.

The thing that I learned about saving money or paying off debt is this: Choose a small goal, and start saving that first. For example, if you want to save $2 a day (by not getting the gourmet coffee, or something) - do this first in the morning, and do something physical to remind yourself. For example, actually put $2 in a piggy bank or write down in your pocketmod for that day that you paid yourself $2. Set up a savings account, if you don't have one - then make the $2 transfer to this account every day. It may seem silly at first, but after 3 months, you will have saved $180 dollars.

Personally, I started this concept in February of 2004, when I found out about INGDirect. I setup an account and saved $2 a day. (Although now I do it in 15 day increments - $30 on the 15th, and another $30 on the 30th.) Today I have over $2,000 in this account, which seems like a small amount, but it is a good start for an emergency fund.

This same concept can be used to pay down debt, just take it in small chunks.

The Minneapolis StarTribune had an interesting article about Debt Relief that I am learning some things from.

#Personal#

hmmm... I think these topic labels will change in a few weeks. On a personal note, I feel behind in my cleaning and feel pretty bored with my meal choices and the ability to stay 'on top' of things.

on a positive note, I am excited about the concepts that I am working on to get more organized and set goals. I found a couple new sites, if you are interested in setting goals and keeping track of stuff, like me.

• Joes Goals
• Simple Todo Lists

Note that I haven't tried either of these sites, but they look cool, and I would enjoy your comments or feedback on these tools.

On a personal note, I am also excited about the pending release of the next version of Command and Conquer. The hours that Jman and I spent online battling each other and our enemies - well we could have actually done something productive with our lives, and saved my sister much frustration. I hope Mary is ready for the new version......

#Trips and Dates#

Kurt L informed me that we will start 5K training in April. The first trial run is "The Tortoise and Hare" race is set for Thursday, July 26th, at 7PM. I think it either begins and/or ends at the Eau Claire YMCA. I told Kurt that I will dress up like a Tortoise, and he can be the Hare.

Time will be recorded for this race, so we can compare it with the September 29th run. Not that this actually matters to anyone, but I am a geek, so tracking things seems to come along with it.

#Work#

Relaxation at work - interesting concept... I have been reading, and have a stack of information that needs to be read, regarding organizing my work day. They have all basically come from the same source - Zen Habits.

• Are your days crazy?
• The Art of Doing nothing
• How not to Multi-Task
  

These three articles were very good for me to review this week. I need to get beyond understanding and start doing. Maybe I will have a chance to do this in the coming weeks.



COMMENT! Let me give you a subject, and leave a comment below to answer. Question: How do you wind down after a stressful day or week?

more later,

Chazz