I went to the site Glass Booth to take their little test as to which political candidate matched my views. Not surprisingly it came up with Ron Paul at 90%. There are other Libertarians I know that say that Paul has some “issues”. I need to look into it and see if I agree with their concerns. Does anybody know why there should be concern?
I started checking how I looked compared to the big party candidates. On the Democrat side I seemed to match best with Bill Richardson, just slightly trailed by Obama and Edwards. On the Republican side I came closest to Fred Thompson and McCain.
This is gonna be a tough one.
I was unfortunately away on business travel when the big Apple Macworld happened last week. I couldn’t watch the keynote live to get all of the juicy new product information, but Mahalo Daily did a wonderful 60 second wrap-up. Sure, I could go and watch the whole thing off of Apple’s Website, but hey - I got enough catching up to do!
I am about to embark on my #1 exercise/diet killer: business travel. Well, all travel kills it for me really, but business travel more so. I think part of the reason is that the schedule is always so hectic. I am a creature of habit and comfort. When my environment or routine changes I get really stressed out and when I’m stressed I seek comfort foods.
Part of it is the social aspect. On these trips I am expected to do a lot of after hours socializing, which invariably involves a meal at a good restaurant and beer. I basically end up feeling very self conscious ordering super healthy food when everybody is splurging on their week “out”.
I think the final nail is habit. I have gotten in the habit of when I leave town, I let loose with the food. That’s become my ritual of dealing with it all.
The good news is that this trip is coming so close to rededicating myself to my health. I recognize the patterns, I know what to watch out for.
===== Update Jan 15 =====
I finally got a little Internet access and thought I’d write an update. Its gone pretty well so far. I ate well flying in. The first day here there was a scheduling mixup though, so I missed my workout AND didn’t eat anything all day until dinner. Dinner was a salad followed by grilled Mahi Mahi with cucumber and artichoke hearts. It had a very heavy sauce though, and I didn’t escape the banana pudding 
Though, it did have fresh bananas in it and I didn’t finish it (other than the bananas).
This morning I made it down to the beautiful fitness center downstairs at the hotel. I had three sensible meals, though I was unable to resist the ‘chocolate decadence’. So, extra treadmill coming!
All and all it has gone well, and I didn’t immediately dive into a double Sonic cheeseburger followed by Weinerschnitzel chili-cheese dogs, so I’m pretty proud of myself. Off to bed. Up early for another workout before starting the next session at 8:00am.
===== Update Jan 18 =====
The trip is over. Well, I’m in the airport waiting for my flight home (free wifi FTW!). I did well overall on the trip. My ‘official’ weigh in is tomorrow, but according to the scale at the hotel I lost 2 pounds during my trip. Not too bad for consuming banana puddings, chocolate ganache and the occasional chocolate chip cookie
Very much looking forward to getting home and back into my usual routine. And sleeping in my own bed!
I’ve decided that the only way that I am going to make progress in my goals for the year is to lock myself into a strict schedule. Oh, and reduce all of the ways that I spend my free time. I think that the biggest reduction is going to come in media consumption, particularly television.
This is actually good timing with the writer’s strike and all. Perhaps the lack of new shows will help ween me from the prime time television teat once and for all. For shows that are any good, they will become available on DVD or for download and can be consumed in smaller morsels as I get the time.
To achieve this, I’m going to follow fewer blogs; watch fewer television shows; play less video games (which has been almost non-existent anyways, so thats not a big stretch); and likely listen to fewer podcasts. Though, the podcasts are pretty much only during commute, work outs, or work around the house, so they don’t need to change much.
So I’m scheduling certain nights to dedicate to feed reading; e-mail correspondence; video game play; television consumption; exercising; and writing. All in all I came up with 19 primary “leisure” activities and squished them in around the mandatory stuff: sleep, work, food, hygiene, etc.
I really just started on Saturday and its worked well so far. I was off schedule for a few activities, but made up for it as the days progressed. This may sound kind of crazy, but I truly believe that if I can get myself in the habit of doing these things in certain quantities and on a regular basis that soon I won’t need a formalized schedule and will just handle everything as it needs to be handled.
At least, that’s what techie side of my brain is telling me.. Nothing else has worked for any length of time so far, so its worth a shot!
