WAKE UP

Lately I've been fired up.  I've felt awake.  "What are you fired up about Sam?" you might be asking me.... Well the answer isn't that simple.

I spend too much time on my phone.  I spend to much time on Netflix.  Dana can confirm both of these facts.  Before a few weeks ago, my days off consisted primarily of doing laundry, cooking, and watching Netflix.  I'd sit on our couch (which is where I'm sitting right now typing this) and just veg out non-stop;  finish whole seasons of shows (Limitless the TV series, Netflix's Voltron, Penny Dreadfuls etc.) or sometimes re-watch movies I've already seen (The Matrix trilogy for example).  While watching these movies I would play a Marvel game (Contest of Champions) and a Star Wars game (Galaxy of Heroes) along with the normal Facebooking. I wasn't even pay attention to the movies!   

Even while I've been sitting here, I've checked Facebook and Instagram twice, watched Bad Lip Reading NFL 2016 (very funny) and started listening to a podcast about fantasy football.

None of these things are bad in and of themselves.  What I have come to realize is that I have been asleep.  I stay distracted.  Why?  That's what I'm trying to figure out here today.  

Why is it that when there is an infinite amount of information out there for me to learn, hobbies out there for me to tackle, and people out there that need someone to talk to or tell their story to, I am watching 30 Rock for the 3rd time (btw Toofer follows me on Twitter!) I love all of those things.  In fact the joy that I get out of the those games and re-watching Fieval Goes West or Ant Man pales in comparison to the joy I get when I sit down, do the work, and realize that I can be out of debt in 5-6 years.  By a long shot.  

I am beginning to do things differently.  I'm researching.  Historically I'm not a detail oriented person.  I am more excited by the big picture ideals that guide, inspire, promote, and communicate the "why" behind things.  The details are more about the "what".  Why someone does what they do is more interesting that what they actually do.  I can easily listen to someone talk about their passion for accounting and how they love when the data of a system comes together to paint a picture of what is going on.  When they get into explaining what that data looks like, or how they put the puzzle pieces together, that's when they start to lose me.  

SO there are a few things (you will hear more about in future posts, but I'll tease them here), that I have been digging deep into, because I think they might be right for me and that is Crossfit and the Ketogenic diet.  I'm not going to be trying them all at once, I would probably turn into a monster for a few weeks having to transition from basically inactive and somewhat paleo to high intensity, constantly varied, functional movement (kick your ass into shape) type workouts and a diet that consists of high fats, low carbs, and moderate proteins in a hyper regulated fashion.  

I am still more excited about why I am going to do both things, but because I am actually doing the research about what I'll be doing, how I'll be doing it and what kind of results I can expect (details!!) I am even more thrilled to start trying these new things.  

So back to the question at hand.  Why have I been so willingly distracted from the things that I know would  help my financial, physical and marital health??  I have been asleep.  It is becoming easier and easier to distract myself with little things here and there so that I can avoid addressing my real life major issues like debt, fitness, or growth (personally and professionally).  It's self sabotage.

Playing games on my phone and watching tv is the easy way out.  It's lazy, and I'm tired of dedicating hours of my life to them.  It reminds me of that saying, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people".  It's not these apps, movies, tv's shows, fantasy football teams, or podcasts that are causing me to ignore my issues, they are merely the vehicle I am using to ignore them with.  Once again, much like in my last post, It's me!  I'm the one who is choosing a phone app over learning more about healthy eating or connecting with my wife.  I'm over here watching Pokemon when I could be learning Spanish so that I could understand how much crap the kitchen staff at work is talking about me (That's my main motivation behind learning Spanish).

So as of today, I'm waking up.  I think this awakening started with this blog.  I made time to actually pursue something that I know I love doing.  It's time to wake up and get healthy.  I needed to nurture my creative health.  Thank you for reading these posts.  Even if you don't comment or like it on Facebook, know that by reading any of my posts, you've encouraged me to keep on doing this.  You've encouraged me to keep writing, keep pushing, and to put my stupid phone down.

I promise this won't turn into a Crossfit or healthy diet blog; it will probably just be what it's been so far;  me telling you stories (I have considered doing interviews and posting them on here... let me know if you'd be interested in that type of content.)  Thanks for the encouragement.  Thanks for the wake up call.

Time to get to work.  

86 wheat and sugar

So, since I mentioned dietary plans and willpower in my first post, I thought I'd write about Dana's and my new diet.  As you could guess from the title of this post, we are avoiding gluten and sugar.  I wrote a lot about my dietary history on the juice fast blog, but I'll summarize here.

I basically ate whatever I wanted to for the majority of my life.  I just about always had frozen pizzas and corn dogs in my freezer at my house.  I never read labels and, generally, didn't care about what was in my food.  I ate because I liked eating, and earned the belly that I have.  When I got married to Dana, all that changed.  She cared about nutrition, and cared about me.  So I started to eat better, and I started to cook more.  It was fun; I loved it.  Did I still eat the occasional corn dog?  Yes.

Well fast forward to 2015 - we find out from Dana's Naturopath that by eating gluten she is raising the amount of antibodies in her system and it's messing with her already messed up thyroid.  So Dana goes off of gluten, and I don't because my thyroid is just fine (I think, it feels fine I guess... What's a thyroid supposed to feel like?)

If any of you have had one member of your family (in my case half of our family) go gluten free, you know that it makes it a bit difficult to cook or go out to eat, especially if you love making waffles (or waffling other things... More on that in another post) and pies.  Oh how I miss pies. (see below) So here we are almost a year later, and I've decided to join Dana in the GF lifestyle.  Burgers with lettuce wraps, weird tasting baked goods, and quinoa for days!  I am going off of gluten out of curiosity and to make it easier for us at the grocery store.  Sugar is a different story.

pumpkin pie with cream cheese 

Pie Day 2016

 Peach Strawberry Pie  

Dana read a book on how sugar is basically the devil.  There's a lot of really interesting science that I don't remember but it's basically the cause of most headaches, most diabetes, a lot of skin irritations, global compression (which really messes with your blood vessels), inflammation and plaque build up in your arteries, and many many more crazy issues.  We're avoiding sugar in foods, candy, desserts; basically anything that is fun.  We agreed that the occasional adult beverage is ok, which is great news.

SIDENOTE: I do understand that eating gluten and sugar in a "normal" amount is not necessarily unhealthy, however I believe that the standard "normal" American diet probably involves more gluten and sugar than your body is supposed to get.  So I guess for me this is a lesson in being mindful of what I put in my body.

The little cynic in me says something along the lines of "Oh GREAT! No gluten, no sugar, what's next? No caffeine?  Bye bye coffee.  No red meat?  No meat of any color?  Fast forward 2 years and you'll be living in a forrest gnawing on sticks because that's the only thing you'll allow yourself to eat.."  However my inner cynic is a real buzz kill, and I know that ultimately I'll wind up healthier for cutting back on sugar and gluten.

 One of the reasons why it's hard to go off gluten is the convenience.  We are just having to find alternative "edible plates".  A lot of food with gluten in them are what I consider to be edible plates.

Zucca e Porcini from D'Attilio in Naples, 

Pizza:  Most of you are not really there for the crust!  You want to eat the toppings!  Here, we'll put yummy toppings on a plate you can eat!

Quiche: a giant omelette inside an edible plate

Burgers:  You really want all the yummy beef and whatever other awesome cheesy delicious toppings that are in middle.  We'll put it in-between 2 edible plates so that your fingers don't have to get dirty when you're shoving food into your mouth hole.

Burritos/tacos/quesadillas:  who wants to eat just a bowl of meat, cheese, rice, salsa, onions, avocado etc.  Let's throw all that into an edible plate, roll it up, throw it in some aluminum foil and hand it to you out of a truck!

So far it's been over a week and I'm not feeling super different, I have had the occasional gluten, but for the most part I've been good and we've cooked some really great meals!  We had breakfast tacos using portobello mushrooms as the taco shell, mini-meatloaves, and stuffed mini sweet peppers. That's just to name a few. When facing a change like this, I typically like to jump on tracking improvements weighing myself daily, before and after pictures and what not, however, this time, I'm just not super motivated to.  I am paying more attention to how my body feels, Do I have more energy?  Am I happier?  How's my skin look? I know that I'm going to shed a few pounds, but the real point is that Dana and I will be going through this together.  We're going to learn, cook, and dine together more intentionally, and get healthier while doing it.  Wish us luck.

If you have any recipes, ideas, questions, comments don't hesitate to leave them below, on facebook, or text me if you have my number.  Have a lovely week.

Stay Tuned:  Next up- Garry Potter: The Pup Who Lived