Tag Archive for: health

FoodNoms

This is a digital graphic featuring an app icon set against a wavy brown and white abstract background. The app icon is bright orange with the image of a bar chart that transitions into a fork on the right side, symbolizing a focus on food, nutrition, or dining metrics.

Growing up, I was a jock who was secretly a nerd. I played sports year-round and even conned my way into having an independent study gym class my senior year.

That level of physical activity plus a teenage metabolism meant that there would be no consequences for having a three-course cheesecake meal at The Cheesecake Factory with my friends.

Unfortunately, after my athletic career ended and my metabolism changed, my eating habits didn’t, and I gained approximately 50 pounds over the next 15-ish years.

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Zombies, Run

A man in sportswear is crouched down, tying his shoe on a foggy street. Unaware, he is near a zombie and several shadowy figures in the misty background, suggesting a scene from a zombie apocalypse. The setting is eerie with a backdrop of dimly lit trees and a hazy skyline.

You hear stories about people performing heroic feats in life-and-death scenarios: lifting a car off of a child, swimming for miles to get back to shore from a shipwreck, etc. Like most middle-aged guys, some part of my brain assumes that I would be able to do the same. A lifetime of living vicariously through action movies and video games leads me to believe that my body is just waiting to be unleashed for its superhero moment, like a Manchurian Candidate of fitness.

But, historically, I have not had many of those experiences in my life, so there is no need for an alter ego, yet. Even if I did, building a heart-healthy lifestyle around life-or-death adventures does not seem sustainable. Unless you fake it.

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My Morning Routine

An illustrated scene of a serene morning view from a window. The window frames a landscape with lush greenery and distant hills under a soft sunrise sky, in hues of orange, yellow, and blue. On the wooden window sill, there's an open notebook with a pen resting on it and a white cup of coffee, inviting a peaceful moment of reflection or journaling.

I like magic tricks as much as the next person, but I usually find effective magic tricks to be frustrating.

I know there is a trick; some secret, technique, or special tool that lets the magician perform the trick. The trick is effective because I don’t know how it works, and it frustrates me that I can’t figure it out.

Sometime over the past two years, I figured out how to perform a magic trick on myself; and I am frustrated because I don’t know how it works, just that it does.

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Year of Healthy Habits

Last year I had a significant positive change in my physical health. I lost 30 pounds, regulated my sleeping schedule, and improved my body composition.

As a former college athlete and exercise science student, I have always known what I need to do to be healthy. However, I rarely made the right health choices over the past decade and accrued 50 pounds that I didn’t want or need.

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Earth Day 2019 Badge

Nothing like a little gamification to encourage me to get out of the house on Earth Day.

It was a fantastic day outside, and the walk gave me the energy to work some more on an upcoming project, which I am very excited about!

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