Last year I made a goal of losing 28 pounds in the 28 days of February. I made it to 9 then gave up and went back to the bar and promptly gained it all back. This year though I’m in a perfect position to do several things I’ve been wanting to do but have had too many obligations and distractions. I’m living back at home now to save some money so I can move back to San Francisco in the spring and also so I can get some quality quiet time to program on my day job. As you may have noticed I also quit drinking and losing weight has been a side effect already. I want to make it permanent and to do that I have to get to 180lbs. This 28 days won’t get me there but it’ll get a lot of the ground work in place. So with all the distractions of Los Angeles removed this means is I’ve got enough free cycles to focus on some serious self-improvement. I’m re-booting my 28 pounds in 28 days plan starting tomorrow morning. I’ll do my initial weigh in and get the ball rolling and make daily posts about what I’m doing and how I’m safely going about making it happen and hopefully inspire some others to do the same. It’s winter here so outdoor activity is a no go. I’m a California boy now so me and the cold aren’t exactly on speaking terms. My Dad has a little gym in the basement that hasn’t been used for a while so tomorrow I’ll be getting that back in working order and will be my sanctuary when I’m not doing the other things this month has in store such as…
The 750 word challenge! I’m signed up to take the The 750 Words One Month Challenge which is a simple challenge from 750words.com to write, you guessed it 750 words a day for an entire month. I love to write and have been using Scrivener to capture my daily brain dump that never see’s the light of day but this site seems to be about the same but with stats. 750 words can be a lot but I seem to find myself going over that pretty regularly so I’m hopeful. I found that an early morning writing session while I let my coffee kick in takes about 30-45 minutes at the outside and it clears my head for the days work which also makes me a lot more productive since I don’t have these random story lines interrupting me while I’m trying to write code. So with that said don’t be surprised to see some 750 word blog posts coming down the line. Much like this one!
Another side project I’ll be doing in the evenings is beefing up my photography portfolio and porting all my old Flickr sets to this site. I don’t think I’ll be renewing my Flickr Pro account in the future and I’d like a self-contained archive of my past work that I control. I’m learning the hard lesson about blogs on the decline from seeing my daily traffic numbers in the low double digits but it also reminded me that I never used to do a blog for anyone but myself. It makes me happy to write and post here and if people want to see it, well they can. If they don’t no biggie. This place is mine and I’m going to use it to make me a happier guy.
Also, no more emoticons! I’ve got a very brash sense of humor and a lot of time it doesn’t really translate to text very well unless you know me. I found myself using emoticons a LOT over the past few years just to lighten the mood. They’re a horrible instrument of the lazy communicator and I’ve been trying to wean myself off of them for quite some time. February is a no emoticon zone! I’m hoping that 28 days of habit breaking repetition will do the trick. I unfortunately can’t think of a suitable punishment if I break the rule but if you talk to me on IM and catch me in the act feel free to verbally bitch-slap me.
In summation I’m going to lose at least 28 pounds, write at least 21,000 words, post an indeterminate amount of photos and stop using the dreaded emoticon. All while busting massive ass on my day job and hopefully coming up with some brilliant new ideas along the way. I think in the grand scheme of things it’s going to be a cake walk.
“… reminded me that I never used to do a blog for anyone but myself… This place is mine and I’m going to use it to make me a happier guy.”
This is exactly what the web is missing right now… that level of sincerity. Don’t forget what you wrote right there.
Bravo, JPD.
Have I mentioned lately how much you \m/
The Livestrong Daily Plate is a good web/phone system to track how you are doing.
http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/
You set goals, enter your food intake & exercise and it helps calculate how you are doing so you can stay on target.
I’ve tried those things and they never work for me. I have a few rules that I follow and that’s my optimal strategy. When I was drinking I had shit for will power (and 2000 extra calories a day) but if I stick to my simple plan my chances of success go up drastically. Simply put, scrambled egg whites with some seasoning for breakfast, salad for lunch, cliff bar as a mid afternoon snack, sensible dinner and some 86% chocolate for dessert at night. Don’t eat after 7pm and do at least one hour of light cardio a day. I have one of those Gazelle gadgets from the TV that work really well for indoor cardio. Also whenever possible run up and down the stairs, don’t walk and do push ups and sit-ups whenever the mood strikes me. When I’m not coding the goal is to always be moving. Toss on doing light weights every other day and it’s a simple recipe for sustained weight loss and healthy livin! No tracking of the meals required.
Hear hear! I’m a believer.