Unintended Consequences

So I am currently in a bit of an obsessive health kick. At this moment I am in 5 different health challenges trying to whip myself into shape. I try to get others to join me so they can encourage me to keep going—so there’s someone watching me, so to speak. Well, we’re only 2 days into a step challenge that I started with some friends. Not as many joined as I hoped, but still there’s a group. Well, last night I wanted to kick off this challenge with a bang so I went 3 miles on the treadmill after having a fairly slow day at work. I took a picture of the treadmill display and then one of my sweaty face. I then posted those to social media—again for people to subliminally encourage me. Well, tonight I got a text from my wife’s little sister that is in this group challenge.




Apparently, my efforts to keep myself on track are helping others. This meant a lot to me. I don't really know how to put it words, but just perhaps I may help others along the way. As much as I'm in this for my own personal benefit, if I can 'inspire' others along the way, nothing would make me happier. Thanks Leslie!

Happy New Year 2018!

It's hard to believe that it has been a year and a half since I started this Blog Journal. I had grand intentions of writing just whenever I felt like I had something to say. I've thought about writing many many times, and just never did apparently. Well, I decided to make it a goal of this year to write at least once a week--or at least average it out to that. So, I'm hoping that by Dec. 31, 2018 this Journal of mine will have more than 50 posts.

Since I'm already on the topic of New Year's Goals, I guess I should share the rest of what I came up with today. The first is a modification of a goal I had for 2017. My goal for 2017 was to take more than 3,000,000 steps during the year. That comes out to a little more than 8,000 steps per day. The American Heart Association says we should try to get 10,000 steps per day. So I thought 8,000 would be a good start. Well, I'm happy to announce that I did--well at least most likely. According to my FitBit, I took just over 2,500,000 steps during the year, with 10 weeks of blank data (my first FitBit died, and it took some time to replace it). So, if I figure 500,000 steps shy of my goal, with 10 weeks of missing data, I would have needed an average of 50,000 steps per week, or about 7,000 per day. This is much less than what I averaged the rest of the year, so statistically, I made it! Now, since I accomplished my goal of 3,000,000 steps last year, I'm upping my goal to 3,500,000 steps this year. This comes out to about 9500 steps per day.

My next goal for the year is to win/complete every health challenge I participate in during the year. I'll provide a little back story to that one another day.

Last year I had the wish of losing 20 during the course of the year. Well, that didn't happen. Why? Because it was a wish. Besides, I have no idea what I weighed at the beginning of the year, so there was no way to measure it. This year, my goal is to weigh less than 180 lbs on New Years Eve Day 2018.

The next goal is also health related, but may be a little more difficult to achieve, since I don't know the underlying factors. The goal is to get my 'cholesterol' closer to normal. I put cholesterol there to encompass the wide variety of related issues. Currently, my triglycerides are off the charts; my good cholesterol is low, and my bad cholesterol is high. So, without knowing the inherent reasons behind those numbers, I'm going to try to regulate them better.

The last goal I wrote today was to end 2017 without any credit card debt. Now, we do a pretty good job of keeping our debt under control, but I'd like to take it to the next step. We currently let our cards accrue debt throughout the year, and then when we get our income tax return, we pay them off. I'd like to end the year without any debt, so that our tax return can be put toward something else.

So, on that note, I am going to bed now. Good Night, and wish me luck!