Here Goes Nothing

It's a little before 5 p.m. on a snowy December day in eastern Iowa. My family is in the basement family room. I just awakened from a nap. My last thought before dozing off was, "How best can I put 2020 in the rearview mirror?" 

Most of us had high hopes for this past year. We saw it as a year for gaining clarity and direction. Instead, it turned into a dumpster fire that will likely smolder for years to come. 

I've most missed spending time with my children and their children. Most of my friends have minimized contact with the outside world as they and I are at higher risk for severe illness. My day job takes me into the public schools, and those look radically different than they did a year ago. These are the things over which I have little control.

As far as things I can control, it has become apparent that I need to take steps to balance my life by eating better, exercising more, and setting up an income stream that will allow me more time with family (and will be likely to continue under circumstances resembling the present).

In spite of that, I still see it as a year for gaining clarity and direction. Clarity, I think I have. Direction remains to be seen . . . 

There are several areas I have wished to improve for a number of years. 2020 has shown me that it's time to shit or get off of the pot. So, here are the broad strokes of my plan.

1. When I ate a whole foods, plant based diet, I was in the best health and the best shape of my life. That was about 100 pounds ago. Over the last dozen years or so, I have made brief returns to that way of eating, but I have failed to stick with it. As my grandchildren get older, I find keeping up with them to be more difficult. The activities I used to love--cycling, hiking, skiing, skating--have been abandoned. Doing them at my current bodyweight carries a certainty of injury. I'm tired of being sidelined. I know what works. I'm mad enough at myself for my lack of decisive action that I have decided to take this transition public and get back on the horse of of which I fell about 25 years ago.
2. My biggest obstacles to physical activity, other than my weight, are drastic reductions in my mobility, strength, and endurance. In that order, I plan to regain as much of them as possible at my age (62 at this writing).
3. After 32 years as a teacher, I retired from the profession. My "retirement" lasted six weeks before beginning my current occupation (outside sales to schools). While I have a generous amount of time off (6 weeks a year), it still limits the amount of time I spend with two of my three children and my six grandchildren (they live in the Midwest; I live in Texas). Plus, my life is still ruled by school bells, as it has been for the last 58 years. Teacher retirement, and what little Social Security I'll be able to collect, will not enable me to enjoy the time with my family I desire. Like my diet, I have attempted to create an income source that allows me to work where and when I want. Also like my diet, I haven't stuck to any path toward that for enough time to realize that goal. 
4. Almost five years ago, I took up the ukulele. During my first two years, I made great progress. For the last three years, I've been pretty unfocused with my uke practice, and that progress has stalled. Since I used to be a professional musician (more about that in a subsequent post), I know that directed practice would pay larger dividends. I'm happy to be an amateur musician, and I don't think that I desire to play professionally again, but I want to be the best amateur I can be, and I feel ready to apply myself more rigorously to my uke.

So, this blog will be my journal/accountability record/brain dump for pursuing improvement in those four areas of my life. Mostly, I'm writing this for me. Someday, I hope it will be useful to my family in knowing me better when I am gone. If you are reading this, and you are not family or a friend, I hope you find some use for what gets recorded here.

New Year's Resolutions are stupid. I've never used them, and I don't intend to start now. The closest I come to making them is to sort of set a course for the coming year every year on my birthday. 

Right now, I'm enjoying time with two of my three children and four of my six grandchildren (in spite of CDC guidelines) for the first time in nearly 10 months. Being away from my home and my routine has given me the time and space to reflect upon and better articulate what I want to accomplish going forward.

So, here goes nothing . . .