As customary to me, I would like to start with some stats:
- 66. That is how many days until I turn 30
- 15. That is how many lbs I have gained in the last 6 months
- 11. About number of years since I have really critically thought about theology
- 2. The number of life altering events in the last year.
Like many others who are seeing the sunset of their 20’s, I am going through a phase of adjustment and revisiting aspects of my current life and behavior. I wouldn’t call it a mid-life crisis, but rather rediscovery of my beliefs and self. Much of this is a reaction to physiological changes (hangovers last a really long time and my eating habits were formed when my metabolism was quite a bit faster) and the fact that it has been a really long time since I revisited certain philosophical and theological aspects of my life. Its also about lifestyle, and mapping my lifestyle to where I want to be on an individual level. This blog will be a document of my process to rediscover my thoughts and behaviors regarding my physical and spiritual self.
So what is the goal over the next year and what is the point? You could call it a “new year’s resolution” but I am starting really, and it is an attempt to really improve on my self and find replacement behaviors for aspects of my life that I find less desirable as I age (i.e. unwinding at the end of a day with a run rather than a beer). Really, I am just trying to address multiple aspects of my health: physical, spiritual and mental. As we get older it becomes more important to pay attention to these things, and I would rather improve myself now and create more desirable behaviors than wait until I am even older and negative behaviors are even more entrenched.
Over the next year, I will set multiple goals for myself in fitness, nutrition and spirituality. As I am a research nut, and like to have specific goals that are backed by research and tested models, I am going to just start with overall goals:
Fitness. My goal is to engrain physical activity and fitness in my routine and improve on my performance in the activities I really enjoy: running, cycling and climbing. Improvement will be measured by weight/bmi, performance times, frequency, and how I feel. I will try to link my mapmyrun.com account to the blog help measure my successes and struggles.
Nutrition. My goal is to develop healthy eating habits and healthier default foods during times of stress. Success will be measured by the quality and nutritional value of food consumed, stabilizing of my calorie content, the reduction of certain bad habits (i.e. too much beer), and how I feel after I eat. I will also try to record what I eat in mapmyrun.com (this can be challenging) so I can show progress over time.
Spirituality. This is a tricky one. My goal is to rediscover my views on faith and spirituality. Not sure how to measure the success of this goal other than I gave it serious thought and I feel good with where I am. I will document the exploration process such as books read, if I attended a religious service, and conversations.
What will I be posting? I will try to focus on 3 main topics: fitness, nutrition, and spirituality. There may also be some posts on adventures, races, and other activities that are tied to the key subjects. I will try to segment posts by those topics to allow for easier searching and documentation. It also makes the blog less painful for outside readers (if there are any) so they can just read topics that they are interested in. Content will include links to interesting articles that I am reading about the said topics, summaries of any books I am reading, reflections along the journey, and reactions to events and activities that I participate in. I will try to keep ranting and mindless rambling to a minimum, but hey, this is a blog and not a research paper or piece of great literature. My favorite quote about blogging is that “blogs are not journalism, they are graffiti with punctuation”, so that may be what this becomes. Expression with punctuation.
The minimum posting will be once a week. If I can I will try to post more than once a week, but if not I will document throughout the week and consolidate those notes into a posting.
Full disclosure, this blog is not about what other people really think. I fully intend to treat this blog as a document of my journey through the next year. By posting it publicly, my hope is to create a system of accountability to continue with my goals. I welcome commentary and dialogue, just please keep it civil, especially in regards to religion and politics.
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