The Denial Twist

What did you eat today?

As someone who is going to be an advocate of a healthy lifestyle for (hopefully) my entire career, I can't help but be wary of my own hypocritical diet. I think people consider weight management as an important aspect of health, but rather an appropriate diet is a more accurate approach to the intake part of a healthy lifestyle. I have no problem with weight management, so therefore I ignore the need for an appropriate diet. Wrong. So wrong. I plan to start to change that. Losing weight is an incomplete focus for people. Change your long term habits.

By the time I die, I will have eaten 50 tons of food. 50 tons. Well, that's average. I bet I'll be around 51. That consumes a really significant area of my life, my health, my time, and my money. I wonder what a ton of food costs, how much time it takes me to shop for it/eat it, and how sick I'd get if I ate the wrong ton of food.

I like having a mountain of information in my head on nutrition. I approach it pretty objectively. I decipher real, true information, and then let logical questions/concerns shape my approach to it.

I think a lot of people don't deal with this mountain of information well. I think people get bogged down with various issues in nutrition, and just figure, 'if everything causes cancer or is fattening, why bother?' I also think people take certain pieces of information, and run with it without asking those 'logical' questions or concerns. A friend of mine is a nutrition nut, but sometimes forgets to ask those common sense questions. As a result, this friend cut out several parts of his diet, and got really sick as a result. If all you live on is baked potatoes, your head is going to become one.

I don't really have a lesson or anything here. I feel fairly strongly about nutrition and it's role in regards to general health, and I also see the paradox that my own approach to eating creates. 'That's called a paradox' (- J. Nicholson). It's time I start listening to my own good advice.

'So I ran to the devil
He was waiting'

No Standard Solution

A girl I went to high school with died today this morning. I didn't know her, but I know my brother was a friend of hers. She died from injuries in a house fire. No fire alarm. What a shame.

Sometimes I just go toodling on with my days or weeks, and sort of forget the scope of life (or death). And sometimes I forget on purpose.

Umm, what can I write after that, that won't sound awkward? The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was pretty good imo. There.

I played tennis with Landon today, and I didn't lose! I definitely didn't win though, and I'm thinking that's my worst racquet sport. After working out/ exercising maybe 10 times from Jun-Dec 08, I've easily eclipsed that in the last two weeks. I was really hoping to see a better response from my body. Working hard doesn't really tax me, I don't get really sore, and I feel about the same as I did in November. Except I can probably run circles around the November me.

The rest of the week is solidly booked and I'll need to follow a pretty tight schedule to get anything extra done. We're on the road this week for soccer, and we really need a result. As for soccer, I like my team more and more each practice, and I have probably half the names down.

Well. Hump day, right?

Oh right. One last thing. Two truths, one lie. Which one is a lie?

1. I beat most people at arm wrestling.
2. My biggest fear in life is unacceptance.
3. My pokerstars account currently has more money in it than my bank account (I already paid rent).

'You must be a girl with shoes like that'

Lollipop

What a day. It was so nice here today that my buddy kicked his flight outta town in the ass just to hang around.

Not much is going on these days, but I've been keeping busy with whatever I can. I worked out with Blake this morning, and went to the gym with Jeff this afternoon. Later I'm heading out to see Benjamin Button with Jen. Not a bad day.

This week, other than work and housesitting, I have a few things planned. I'm working out tomorrow and Wednesday, and maybe Friday. Hopefully I'll get out hiking with my dad on Thursday. He has this hiking group that goes for massive hikes in weird places. Cooool.

On the topic of wilderness, my bro signed me up for Mantracker. Who wants to go get chased by guys on horseback for 36 hours? Obviously we do. It's a stretch that we'd be considered, but oh man. I can't even imagine.

Oh yeah. We won our first game on Saturday night. Well, not our first game. My first game. It's like the 14th game of the year or something. I played really poorly. Even for my standards, I made lots of errors. But I guess it wasn't too bad, because I was on defense, and no one scored off an error of mine. It was amazing to be out there with the guys. I really miss the comradeship of a competitive team. And the guys are good.

Ok so nerd-moment for Mike. I got my hands on a pedometer. And I'm really excited to have one more stats tracker in my life. I don't even care that it just counts my steps. I like numbers and stats, and I'll take them any which way. Maybe I'll post a step count if I exceed 20 or 30k steps or something.

'How could you be so dr. evil?'

Comfortable

Wooo. Awesome week.

I got myself onto a soccer team after an old friend invited me out to a practice. The coach of the team was looking for guys, and wanted to sign me. After starting the year off with a decent amount of exercise, I thought I was in semi-decent shape. Nope. I ran with the fellas on thursday, and I was beat.

My first game is tonight. Umm, there aren't many games left in the season, but that's fine by me. I won't start obviously, but I'll be excited just to get out there and be competitive.

Other than that, I've been keeping active with Blake, and my housesitting is going per normal. Nothing overly exciting.

Oh yeah. I'm getting back into finding new music. I went about 6 months without getting too much new stuff, but I'm back on the bandwagon. As usual my tastes are taking me everywhere. I'm really into The Stills and Lil Wayne right now. What else is good right now?

I have work scheduled for the rest of the month, so I'm happy about that. Other than that, it'll be soccer, housesitting, and working out with Blake lots.

Thanks for reading.

'You do you'

Fly Or Die

Back in town.

I blinked, and the last 4 days flew by.

Saturday I went downtown to see Randy Bachman with my mom. It was really awesome. The venue was perfect for his type of performance. My mom and I had a really good time. My dad was too sick to go, which kind of sucked. After the show I went home to the party I was co-hosting. It was a pretty quiet showing, but we did manage to finish both 50L kegs that we got. I wasn't around in the morning to hear the stories, but I was pretty messed, and I was in good shape in comparison to some. Of all the parties I've hosted, there were more randoms at this one than ever before. Everyone was pretty cool though, which was both surprising and refreshing. We partied hard.

Sunday morning I got up to Whistler with Jen. It was actually cheaper to drive up than it was to take the bus. Which was totally clutch. We wanted to be mobile when we were there anyway. So we got up and I met my new nephew, Lochlun. Sweet kid.

Monday/today we didn't get up to much in Whistler. We stayed with Jody's (Lochlun's mom) parents, and spent most of our down time with Loch. Three people in the house were really sick with some bug from the hospital, so I got out to the village with Jen and Jody. We spent nothing, and did nothing, but it was a blast. The village is too amazing. Then we took care of the sickies, and snuggled Loch. That was a recurring theme.

We came home this afternoon. Not much to say about that.

Now I'm housesitting for Trellis (co-worker of my mom) for a few weeks. She has three cats, and I'm probably going to go crazy. There's a computer, a decent amount of food, and the cats won't let me be bored. So it won't be that bad.

I have my first C.C. shift of the year tomorrow. Thank god.

So yeah. I'm happy to be home. Happy to have spent some quality with my nephew. I'm sort of re-defining what uncle means. I wasn't cognizant of uncles until I was probably 10. So I have to get that image of 'uncle' out of my head. Kind of weird.

'And we'll all float on...'

Young Lust

Umm, good second half to my week.

I've actually been fairly busy since All The Go Inbetweens. I've been hanging out with friends, I have work organized, and I've worked out a few times.

I'm really busy for the next few days as well. I have people to meet, exercise to do, homework to do, and a house to prepare for Saturday. We don't do the keg thing very often, but we are this Saturday. Feel free to come by. Just kidding.

It felt unreal to get to work out and exercise in the last few days. I hadn't run since November, and it was nice to get back. I only ran a few miles, but regardless. Lifting weights was also really refreshing. I got a trial at a gym in town, and Jen and I went a few times in the last few days. I plan to try to keep up the exercise. A nice thing is that my boss is really dedicated to fitness, and I'm always exposed to it.

I'm waiting on a book in the mail on weight training. As soon as it comes I'll get on completing my weight training ICE (instructor competency evaluation). It will be so amazing to work in the fitness industry. I can't wait to get there.

'She's a real god of lies'

New Born

I'm an uncle!

At around 11pm last night my brother and his fiancée gave birth to their first child: Lochlan Sam Johannes Warren. Johannes is my Opa's name, but I'm not sure if Sam is the name of someone in Jody's family. I'm guessing so. Anyway, congratulations bro. And congratulations Jody.

It feels pretty cool to have been part of the process, or rather, been close to the phone while the process was going on. He was 8lbs., 3oz. at birth.

I'm probably heading up to Whistler this weekend at some point. My parents are heading up today, and I'll probably head up Sunday.

'Growing like the new born'

All The Go Inbetweens

I'm in that familiar funk.

I'm not spending money. I'm not making money. I'm not working. I'm rarely leaving my house. I'm rarely leaving my room. It's been like that for almost 10 days! 10 days. Why do I get like this?

I get to a point where I have a pit in my throat that groans "do something, accomplish something".

This place is not new to me at all. It's just weird being back.

I'm going to get out tomorrow. I think I'll clean my room, and leave my house for a few days. I'm stumped for work (at least this week), so that's not really an option. There are a few things I can do, so I really want to get out and do them.

So much for a blog entry. It's like this:
I did nothing.
I'm doing nothing.
I will be doing very little.

Fuck.

'Somehow it can't get worse'

Sheep

Oh Saturday.

I had a really good one. Better than last saturday even.

I went out behind Doumont with Landon, JC and Court and went quadding all day. I had never been. It was cold, wet, and the terrain was either snow or mud. Add a couple quads and you have a recipe for a bitter, miserable time. Or not. We had a blast. I haven't thrown that many snowballs in a really long time.

I was the only guy who had never driven a quad, and for that matter I've never driven any open air vehicle other than a mountain bike. So I had no idea. As I got on the quad, I felt like I was being truly scutinized. I'm thinking, if I stall the quad here, my manhood is going to be called into question. Which wasn't far fetched, as we were talking about that exact thing only moments before I got on. I got lucky. Clutch, shift, throttle, go. I went.

Last night was another typical night with the guys. We got together at Court's and made a really good dinner and hung out over (too many?) drinks. While typical, it didn't take away from how fun it was. I bowled 212 on the wii. That's my brag. 212. I'm only bragging about this because 212 is at least 100% higher than my average score. I'm normally just terrible.

Other than that, not much is new. My brother and his fiancee are due for their firstborn on January 2nd, and it's now 9 days late. How normal is that? I was a week late. I'm getting a little antsy about it, and I'm sure Iain is too.

I've been on a Pink Floyd kick for a few weeks now. It's all I'm listening to right now. I can't really explain it. I always play 'Sheep' and 'Sorrow' first.

'The grass was greener'

Being Here

I miss school. It's the start of the spring semester and I remember all the good things I enjoyed about the 2nd half of the school year. It's tough to forget the harder times as well - so I'm not that melancholy.

I got my week sort of figured out. No Calgary - yet. Maybe in a few weeks. No Whistler - yet. Maybe next week. And no work this week at either job. I have time on my hands that I hadn't counted on. I was counting on something I guess.

So I'm going to try and make something out of my week. Tomorrow.

I'm reading fight club, planning fitness regimes, and studying up on weight training. I'm revisiting GTA San Andreas and butter tarts, and finding strange joy in keeping my house clean. I've got my material life back from JC's jeep, and music has never sounded so good. I guess you could call it a good week.

'This train don't stop there anymore'

Snowed Under

Stop snowing already! Nah, I don't really care much, but I'd prefer it to be dry.

Wow yesterday I crammed a week's worth of fun into a night. It was ridiculous. I had dinner with my folks, watched team Canada win in a shootout, went to a poker night, went to a dinner party with friends, went bowling with other friends, and went downtown with even more friends. Maybe I should have also resolved to drink less this year!

My week is pretty hazy this week. I could be found in Whistler becoming an uncle, or in Calgary as an employee. Or I might be unemployed, if my boss bails for Calgary without me. I also have another work opportunity at a gym this week. It's going to be all over the place. Really good time to be without my phone. I left my phone charger - and my entire material life basically - in a backpack at a friend's place.

I'm really excited for the new year. I had a pretty crazy December, with visitors staying at my house pretty much straight time. It was also almost a continuous party all month. I drank too much, and just wasn't very healthy in general. I mean, I don't ever gain weight or anything, and I think that might convince me that I can drink/eat more. Oh well, here's to a healthier year.

'What if this whole crusade's a charade?'

Erase/Replace

Ok I think I've decided on some new years resolutions.

1. Exercise more. This is more vague than last year's 'run a marathon' but much more realistic. I miss exercising, and I need to surround myself with fit people again.

2. Less screen time. This is really important to me. I need to cut back on the time I spend in front of my xbox and computer.

3. Save some money. Rather than 'buy a car' or 'buy something nice', I need to work on saving a little bit of money. I have the spending bit down. Let's shoot for 5 figures in savings by this time next year.

4. Develop a more consistent lifestyle. This ranges from diet to employment to many general habits. I want to eat healthy consistently, find long term employment, and play for a soccer team. Last year I didn't really have any idea where or what I'd be doing a month later.

I'm happy with those four. Or rather, I think that's enough. These all represent opportunities for change, and I get pretty excited to set new year-long goals. Maybe I should set longer, broader goals, but year to year is good enough for me right now.

'Run rabbit run'