Rebirth

The idea of a new year being a chance for resolutions or a new start hasn't been something that I've found myself believing in. However, this past year, I've been feeling more and more like it's time to start doing things a little differently.

I don't want to say that I've been "in a rut" but it definitely feels like it's time to shake things up and see how they settle out.

One of the things I've been thinking about for awhile is a rebirth of this blog. When I registered the domain name and started posting, I had some ideas as to what I wanted it to end up being about but, as with most of the things I start on the internet, I always seem to end up holding back because I know that people in my "real life" (family, friends, employers and such) have seen or may possibly end up finding things I've put up. I still struggle with the issue of keeping my private ideas private and separate from my professional life and I'm sure that I'll always have that struggle. So, I'll take this opportunity to issue a disclaimer that anything here is solely my own opinion. However, there have been things that I've been thinking and would love to put them somewhere. Why not here?

So, as a new start to this blog, here is a list of topics I was planning on working on in my personal life, as well as writing about on my recently retired "motivation" blog:

• eating more healthy / in-season / local food
• cooking at home more
• eating less prepared / fast food
• incorporating more enjoyable physical activity into my life
• finding ways to reduce stress
• worrying less
• meeting new people
• spending more time with family and friends
• keeping in touch with non-local friends
• simplifying and decluttering
• learning new things
• attempting to work on more creative / artistic things
• sharing thoughts and ideas
• starting new hobbies and revisiting old ones
• reading more books
• spending less time in front of TV
• spending less time aimlessly browsing on the internet

The plan, as it stands right now, is to roll the (modified) ideas of that blog into this one and actually share things that I want to share. I'll probably still hold back a little bit, but hopefully be a little more open that I have been in the past.

Death of another motivation blog

A few years ago I started up another blog which was intended to help motivate myself to exercise, eat better and get in better shape. I intended to put stuff out on the internet for everyone to see to make it feel more permanent in an attempt to hold myself accountable for my choices and decisions. However, I was faced with the struggle of wanting to keep my private information and thoughts, well... private.

In the end, I doubt anyone looked at the blog. It was too targeted to my personal workout progress, which was minimal in scope and frequency and posts were few and far between and lacking in content. I stopped being interested in walking the fine line between private and public. I stopped exercising again out of boredom and excuse making and ended up deleting the blog and selectively rolling a few of the posts into my main blog, the one you're reading right now.

Flash forward to the summer of 2014. I had another wave of motivation and started up another version of my old workout blog. It was (again) going to be a place for me to share my struggles and triumphs mostly about eating, exercise and possibly other things related to my challenges with motivation. In what's now feeling like a pattern, I allowed my lack of motivation for personal projects get in the way of doing anything with the blog and decided to pull the plug on that one, also. Today, I moved a few posts from July of 2014 to this site and deleted it.

These are the posts that will now live here:

1. Personal Objective: Drink less soda
2. Product Review: Kirk's Original Coco Castile Bar Soap
3. Impact of music on mood

Product Review: Kirk's Original Coco Castile Bar Soap

Another of my more recent goals is to try to cut down on the amount of potentially toxic chemicals I use in, on and around my body.

One of my first areas to work on are cleaning products. We've been using "natural" types of dishwashing soap for years now and figured why not try out something else instead of my usual bar soap. I've been hearing for years about the antibacterial agents used in typical "antibacterial" soaps potentially helping to allow "superbugs" to grow, as well as causing other potential issues.

Recently in a big box chain store near home I saw Kirk's Original Coco Castile Bar Soap in a 3 pack for $3.28 and decided to give it a try instead of my usual Dial. I've also recently seen it in a co-op food market, also, as well as it being available on Amazon (currently through Marketplace sellers). The big box store's prices seem to be better, as expected.

The ingredients are: "Coconut Soap, Water, Vegetable Glycerin, Coconut Oil, Natural Fragrance" and after trying it out for a few weeks and then picking up a bar of Dial when the three pack ran out, I must say that for me the Kirk's soap makes my skin feel better. My hands and elbows feel less dried out and I feel a little less "broken out" and irritated in spots that I tend to break out on, especially in the summer when I'm outside working in the yard, getting dirty.

The reviews on Amazon are good, but as a few point out the bars seem to not last as long as the more commercially available bar soaps I'm used to. I've just started trying to dry them out before using them and I picked up a soap tray that I mounted high on the back wall of the shower and it seems to be helping the bars last a little longer so far.

Note: This post was moved over on 01/02/2015 from another of my blogs that I shut down.

Personal Objective: Drink less soda

Since I'm a desk jockey working in a corporate building with it's own cafeteria and numerous vending machines, I find myself rarely leaving the building for food or snacks. I'm also not very diligent about preparing food at home and bringing it with me.

These excuses usually mean that I grab one of the lunch specials and a soda in the cafeteria and when thirsty I grab bottles or cans of soda from the vending machine about 20 feet away from my desk in one of our floor's two break rooms, both decked out with soda vending machines.

Another issue I have is that I really don't enjoy drinking plain water. Sometimes I feel like I'm even more thirsty the more water I drink. It's probably in my head, but there's something about a cold Mountain Dew that's more refreshing to me than tap or bottled water.

I also have a tendency to grab a Red Bull or Amp energy drink for a caffeine kick in the morning, especially during the summer when I don't feel like drinking hot coffee.

That said, though, I know I should drink more water and that it's good for me, I just have trouble drinking it.

So, one of my first objectives is to drink less sweetened soft drinks.

I've actually done this before as part of a work sponsored weight loss challenge a few years ago, where I ended up placing 15th out of almost 400 people who entered the challenge. I had lost about 15 pounds by exercising more, eating a little better and cutting out soda, "cold turkey".

It didn't last after the challenge, though, as I ended up slipping back into grabbing sodas and energy drinks and making less time to get to the gym.

For the past couple months I have traded down to 12 ounce cans on occasion instead of 20 ounce bottles 1-2 times a day but now my plan is to limit my soda intake to 12 ounce or less serving sizes, 3 or fewer times per week.

I have a 32 oz BPA free Nalgene bottle that I've been filling in the morning with water and two Twinnings cold brewed iced tea bags. I've found myself more willing to drink water if I put a little bit of flavor in it and I've always liked tea and iced tea, so it's been working out pretty well.

I've also been trying to drink more black coffee instead of energy drinks in the morning. I'll have to post back about how well that's going, but I've already had two small 8.4 ounce cans of Red Bull this week. The other three days I've had black coffee, which, I also prefer to sweetened and lightened coffee.

Note: This post was moved over on 01/02/2015 from another of my blogs that I shut down. Fixed broken Twinings tea link on 10/16/2019.