Simply sitting down and writing a blog post once a week has proven to be more difficult than I thought. But I am undaunted but the challenge.

Today I want to give you a quick update on what is going on and what the immediate future holds. As every veteran knows, a plan usually falls to shit after the first contact with the enemy. In my case the enemy is time, food and often discipline. In my retirement from the Air Force, I have grown lazy and often listless in my journey toward the future.

This blog is a tool I plan to use to reverse that trend.

In my first post I talked about a transition from suburban Ohio to the wilderness that is New Mexico. Originally, we planned to do so in 2019 but it appears that might be delayed a year for good reason. That does not mean change is not afoot.

We will be unloading our house on or before the original plan of Spring 2019. The goal is to slip into a nice, inexpensive apartment so we can refocus our Ohio mortgage into “the pool fund.” But what about my father-in-law you say. Well, he just crossed 90 and, with the passage of time, can no longer do some of the things necessary to live in that house we have. So the search is on for a elder-accessible apartment for him.

So that is the plan for the housing situation.

Let’s talk health right now. When I weight myself toward the end of last month I topped 270lbs! Yikes! It was the heaviest I have ever been and trust me, it is not from hitting the weights at the gym. And the weight is right where you don’t want it, in the belly. So that also portends all sorts of other health issues, many of which I am also dealing with: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and I’m on the edge of diabetes. Not good!

So what am I doing about this? Remember when I said I was lazy and listless? Before I dive head first into a fad diet or other program, I need to take a long term approach at lifestyle change. I tried the Atkins diet when I was active duty and lost 24 pounds in 4 months. Awesome right?!?! I broke from the diet and almost immediately gained the weight back and then some. So quick fixes are out.

Two things I am putting into play are a morning routine and a simple reduction in my calorie intake.

At least five days a week I will follow this regimen:

1. Alarm at 0515
2. Two 16-ounce glasses of water. It is amazing how much water you lose sleeping. Need to rehydrate to get the mind and body right.
3. 30 minutes exercise. Right now, because Ohio is freaking cold, this is elliptical work in the basement. Once the morning temps rise walking will be alternated in. We’re going light right now cause 270 pounds is a heavy burden on this less than fit body.
4. 15 minutes stretching/yoga. Working out some combinations for this. If anyone has routines that work well and don’t require me to put my feet behind my head, I’m all ears.
5. 10 minutes meditation. Part of my current frustration is a lack of focus. I’m trying some mindfulness exercises to force my restless mind from jumping around and not actually doing something useful.
6. Light breakfast. Coffee and a smoothie or small bowl of cereal or yogurt with berries.
7. While eating breakfast, updating my task/idea lists. I’m currently trying to use Trello for this. I like the application and want to get much more proficient in it’s use.
8. Shower and dress.
9. Out the door at 0740 unless it is the weekend. I’m thinking Sunday will be an off-day for the morning routine but we’ll see and my Saturday start might be delayed. Again, we’ll see what the other inhabitants of the house are willing to stand. On Saturday morning, blogging and remote work will be the priority.

So that’s the plan. I’m doing most of it already but I need to be more focused in hitting all the steps, especially the stretching and yoga.

We’ll see how this works.

“Life is guarded by time…and one of life’s greatest unknowns is how long we have to enjoy It” — Matt Best