Monday, August 29, 2011

August 29th, 2011 - Day 51 of 60

Good grief, did I say something stupid like "things are leveling off" and did I give the impression that the hard part was over with my work?  It is 10:10 P.M. and I am just getting home.  My reward for a hard day's work is stuffing my face with cold watermelon and writing something here in the hope I'll find inspiration by the next sentence. So.... how was your day?

As classes were canceled today due to the hurricane, I took advantage of the relative quiet to finish up a few things I thought important and had nothing but issues.  I will spare everyone the technical mumbo-jumbo, but suffice it to say that I needed to improvise quite a bit today.  I had to drive to our "south campus" to finish some things and found several of the rooms were not cooperating in the way I expected.  After a bit of tap dancing around I finally found a way out of the situation and got things moving.  Then, back on the "main campus" I had one particularly difficult machine which had a hardware failure earlier in the week.  That rectified, I moved on to ensuring the software was up to snuff.  That machine, too, needed some ingenuity.  It was frustrating and time consuming, but it appears to be working.  Then, finally, one lab that was sort of forgotten (not really, but sort of) had to be made ready for classes, so I figured I may as well do it now.  Hours later and some real vamping behind me, it, too, is done.  Now I am exhausted and trying to see how much watermelon I can jam into my body before I burst.

As I was running to and fro (not "seeking whom I may devour") today I noticed my foot was still giving me trouble.  I was walking around in my socks for much of the day.  While that made the blister happy, my feet started to hurt around 8:00 P.M.  Walking around that much on a hard floor can make your feet sore if you are not used to being without shoes that much.  That set my mind awhirl... "Why did I get a blister in the first place?"  As a man, I am not overly concerned with fashion.  Clothes are utilitarian to me: cover nakedness, keep me warm, keep me safe from the environment and occasionally protest those in authority with an appropriate phrase on a t-shirt.  I wear two pair of shoes, mainly, over the course of the year: my boots for cold weather and winter and my Crocs the rest of the year.  I've been wearing this pair of Crocs each day, without fail, since April.   That is FIVE months.  Never a blister, pinch or problem.  They are the most comfortable shoe I've ever worn.  These are not the kind with holes.  They are all black and look a bit less "playful" than most Crocs.  I ordered them from a restaurant supply house in Colorado.  So, what was up?  I guess all the improvising I did today made my brain wake up as I considered my bad fortune with the blister and came up with my solution:  If you recall, I mentioned a few days back my fingers felt stiff and swollen from all the walking and swinging my arms.  It never occurred to me that my feet are sort of like my hands, only on the other end of my body (and I don't do "high fives" with them).  I think they were a tad swollen, too, and that caused the blister.

My day has been long and fruitful, but it was filled with lots of improvisation due to difficulties.  All the trouble was put to rest, but it wasn't easy.  My Reboot has been long and fruitful.  It has been useful and put a few things to rest. With only ten days left I've gone quite far.  It has been wonderful, but it has required a bit of improvising as well.  When you are not used to eating a certain way or making juice frequently or making smoothies frequently, you have to either think outside the box or you have to find a rhythm you can live with for a bit.  Then, once you start noticing how the rest of your life is affected by the Reboot, you need to improvise there as well.  What do you do when invited out to lunch?  What happens when friends come over?  What do you do on a long day trip?  Etc.  When you Reboot you sometimes have to think on your feet (even when they are aching and blistered).  It is so easy to revert to comfortable, old habits.  They fit better than shoes that don't give blisters.  But they are the shoes for another time.  Your new life requires new ways of thinking and new ways of thinking outside of the norm.  Habits make some situations easier as they are easy and familiar.  New habits are needed and that will take time, effort and ingenuity.  Give your Reboot as much time as you can.  It isn't just to lose more weight or to feel better.  It is also to give your mind and body time to adapt to a new way of eating, thinking and living.  You'll also train your mind to think of ingenious and adaptive ways of living in the world, yet live within your Reboot.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to use my new-found ingenuity to figure out why an idiot eats half a watermelon when he comes home from work and makes himself sick.

Progress:
I am 85% through the 60 days.



Weight: 147.9 lbs.











Food: Clementines, bananas, almond butter, cherries, salad, raw cacao goji seed chunks, watermelon (way too much watermelon)

1 comment:

  1. The picture of the bandage over the blister is a nice finishing touch to the piece!

    ReplyDelete