One of the most difficult things in life is to reflect critically upon one’s self and identify those areas of your life that are not so pleasant and need to be changed. I’ve been trying since the beginning of the year to do this and it has brought on some very interesting findings.

The most recent revelation happened this past weekend–I came to the full realization of how much chaos I not only allow into my life but I create in my own life due to my actions (or lack thereof). What’s worse is I also came to the full realization of how my own life is not in a little bubble separated from the rest of the world and when I create chaos in my own life, it creates chaos in others’ lives, which creates chaos in even more people’s lives, and so on. The old ripple-effect.

Basically, my own disorganization and lack of planning not only screws up things for myself but for others as well… in ways that I haven’t always seen. My family, friends, colleagues, and clients have all suffered because of this in one way or another. Again, not an easy thing to accept or swallow but necessary, nonetheless.

I have dedicated this week to making some drastic changes in my own life to mitigate this and begin the journey to self-improvement in this very necessary area. I know that many different aspects of my life will change for the better when I can work through this and it won’t be easy. I feel very blessed to have an amazing spouse in my life to support me in this endeavor and I know she will hold my feet to the fire in following-through. I am going to minimize her responsibility in this as this is my problem and she has enough to worry about without holding my hand through this but I know she’s there if I need her.

First, and foremost, I need to get back into the habit of using my GSD organizational methodology. I haven’t utilized my GSD notebook in over a month (which is bad) and will be making my list for the day and week after I finish this post.

Secondly, I will be making drastic changes to how I approach work. I have always held a, “I can do this at such-and-such time” approach when I am fully capable of doing it at the prescribed time. Having ADD, I must instill strict structure into my life or else I fall back into bad habits which I developed throughout my entire life. I must force myself to stick to this schedule, as well, and avoid the pitfalls of procrastination. Procrastination begets more procrastination which begets chaos. Just because I think I will have time later/whenever to do a task, doesn’t mean that something unexpected will not come up (as it often does) and throw an even bigger wrench into the mix. I’ve been there time and time again.

Finally, I have to allow myself time for me. From experience, if I do not allow myself time for hobbies and such, I end up feeling burned out and like I do nothing but work with massive stress on a constant basis. For me, when this happens in my life, I tend to shut down and my motivation to do anything goes right out the window. Then everything falls behind–housework, homework, work projects, etc.

Plan on seeing updates on this blog as I go through this. It’s going to be an interesting journey.

So last night, while working late, I stepped away from my computer to get a drink only to return to a scrambled screen and my caps-lock and scroll-lock lights blinking. A hard reboot later and that was it… the system wouldn’t boot. I ran fsck and let it run for several hours to no avail.

So I was relegated to booting from my LiveCD of Ubuntu 9.10, hooking up my external drive, saving what data I could, and reloading.

Turns out that the reload was just what my little laptop needed. It’s been so long since it has performed as it does now. I had forgotten about the merits of a full scrub and reload with regard to system performance. Course, when I used to do it I was running windows and almost had to do it out of necessity every 6-7 months. I ran this laptop on Ubuntu and about six full upgrades to it for about 3.5 years before it began to degrade in performance. Not going to complain about that one bit!

Any of you who have yet to try Ubuntu Linux, I urge you to go to their website at http://www.ubuntu.com and download a copy for free. You can boot directly off of the CD and run it without even touching the rest of your system and check it out for yourself. If you don’t like it, just reboot and remove the CD from your drive and you are back in the land of Windows, once again (though I’m uncertain why anyone would want that). If, however, you do like it, you can either do a full replacement install or you can install Ubuntu along side your Windows installation and dual-boot, selecting which OS you want to use at startup.

Go ahead, give it a try. Linux may surprise you!

So I’ve neglected my blog for quite some time now. I know I should be doing it but life just gets a little too crazy sometimes. I’ve decided to do this 365 day challenge thing… one photo per day for the entire year to chronicle my life in a unique way.  Sounded fun and it gives me an excuse to update my blog often.

So look forward to more posts and my 365 day challenge photos…

Official weigh-in for the week: 227lbs

That is all. More geek stuff later.

Just a quick update as I don’t have a lot of time…

Weight last wednesday: 234.5lbs

Exercise completed in the last week: HA! I am ashamed…

Diet? I was better than I have been, food wise… in fact many days I found myself very short on calories at the end, which never happens for me. I splurged a couple of times, once on a burger and once on Taco Bell but was good the rest of the time. Lots of soups and low-fat homemade foods.

Progress: Tomorrow is my official weigh-in day but as of today I am down to 228lbs. Not bad for a week.

Goals for the upcoming week: Exercise, continue eating healthier meals

New Updates soon!

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After being sick yesterday, for the umpteen millionth time this year, it has been made abundantly clear to me that some lifestyle change is in order. I feel that this will improve many different aspects of my life and, let’s face it, these changes are long overdue.

I’m not a horribly unhealthy person. Yes, I am overweight. No, I don’t eat right. No, I don’t exercise. My blood pressure is good and my cholesterol levels are good, as well (huzzah for a couple positives!). Here’s the deal, though… my family is RAMPANT with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, hypertension, etc. etc. etc. I’m currently 30 years old (going on 31 this year). I don’t want to be sick all of the time. I don’t want to be tired all of the time. I want to be able to irritate my wife and kids long into my 90s (or even 100s). To do all of this, some long overdue lifestyle changes are in order… not tomorrow, not next week, NOW.

Here’s the initial plan:

1. Change My Diet

This is, first and foremost, where I need the most help. I love fried stuff. I love sweets. I love salty, fatty, gut-bomb-that-wipes-you-out sort of food… and that’s not good. I’ve done Weight Watcher’s before and lost 43lbs doing it. Food was great, too. Then I got lazy and gained it all back… plus about 4lbs. I am back to only being able to wear about 1/3 of my pants and about 1/2 of my shirts. Not fun–and those of you who have been there, it feels great to put on a pair of pants and all of a sudden not have them fit anymore because your arse is too big.

Today, at the office, is weekly meeting day. That means doughnuts. Specifically, maple bars. Talk about weakness… put a maple bar and an apple in front of me and I don’t care if the maple bar is laced with cyanide, I’ll take the maple bar any day. That stops now.

Today’s breakfast? 1 Banana, 1 serviing each of sugar snap peas, broccoli, and baby carrots, and a Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt. Off to a good start.

2. Change My Activity Level

I work a desk job so daily activity is fairly minimal for me. Sure I get up and walk around the office regularly but that’s about as far as it goes. No exercise… anytime… at all. Not good.

I’m not a huge exercise person so I have to find activities that I enjoy or else I burn out. Gyms are great if I have someone to work out with… otherwise I won’t go. So what do I have at home and in my own accesible set of resources that I can use to get some exercise? I love to rollerblade–LOVE to. Where are my rollerblades? Packed in a bin in the garage. How long have they been in that bin? For at least 4 years… if not longer.

Time to break them out and use ‘em. It’s warmer out now so it’s not like I have an excuse NOT to use them. So 3 days per week, 30-45 minutes of cardio on rollerblades. Starting today (my tendency was to say tomorrow but that’s no good).

3. Change My Sleep Habits

Ever since I can recall, I have been a 4-5 hours per night sleeper (less than that when I was in college). I am coming to the realization that I can no longer sustain such habits and it can’t be good for my health. After talking to a friend and fitness nazi about it, he suggested adding 30 minutes every couple of days to my sleep regimin. In doing it this way, I will be more able to reprogram my biological clock and have better results. I like sleep so that’s a go.

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So there you have it… that’s where I’m at and that’s the plan. I’ll use this blog as a way to keep myself motivated and to document the process. I’ll even provide weekly weigh-ins so folks can see how I’m doing. I didn’t weigh myself this AM so I can’t post an accurate weight but will do so tomorrow (since morning is a better time to weight one’s self). I’m right around 235-240lbs and 6′0″ tall–I would love to see myself at around 185-190lbs again.

Wish me luck!

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I figured I’d share my regular web comic reads with all three of you.

1. Penny Arcade

Always fun, often irreverent, this is by far the best web comic in the video/ccg/tabletop gaming world. Gabe and Tycho have been doing this gig for a long time now and their humor always cuts to the core of a true geek. Highly, highly recommended.

2. XKCD

This is a geeky comic for the ubergeek out there. You’ll find everything from math to physics to programming in XKCD. Through simple stick figures is communicated a world of geeky goodness that is sure to make you smile. Oh, and don’t forget to hover over the comic images on the website–you will always find witty comments in the alt-tags for each comic.

3. Dork Tower

Dork Tower is more for the RPG enthusiast than anything but always a fun read. The characters are loveable and entertaining and the writing is so incredibly true to geek life! A fairly new comic for me to follow but a good one, nonetheless.

4. Indexed

Everything from political humor to social commentary to simple daily observations are found in Indexed. While the subject matter isn’t all that geeky by nature, the simple fact that the entire comic is done with Venn diagrams and line graphs makes this a surefire geek hit while appealing to the masses as well. Look for books of these comics in local books stores, too!