December 30, 2022

From Gerald R. Lucas

Health Matters

I’m at that place again. I’m wearing the largest pants in my wardrobe and they’re tight. How does this always happen? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question, partly. It happens because I’ve been eating like shit; the perplexing part is why I’ve been eating like shit. I suspect it has something to do with the job stress, and that is not likely to change this coming spring. However, I have to do something, and I’m not buying larger clothes.

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My usual regimen, the “slow-carb” diet—should be fine for taking off the excess weight (probably about 20 pounds), though I’m thinking about trying an intermittent fasting app on my watch. There are many available, so I’ll have to decide on one. I’d like one that designs a good approach and then just tells me when it’s OK to eat. I figure this combined with the slow-carb diet should be effective. That said, intermittent fasting has not worked for me in the past, but that could have been user error. And while I certainly drank less in 2022, my aim is to do even better in 2023. I think I can do better than my original 100 days of abstinence—maybe 150 or 200 to begin. 200 days would be July 20th. Maybe my goal should be my 54th birthday. God.

I also need to do body exercises regularly. When I did these before Henry was born, my body was slim and muscular. The photo on the right is me bringing Henry home from the hospital on October 28, 2015. While I probably will never look like that again, I really should be doing some exercises in addition to running to ward off the effects of aging. God.

The dread of the spring semester is already creeping into my consciousness like the killer in a horror movie. Next week I will design my classes, and my design philosophy is minimalism. The powers-that-be have shown that they do not care about my well-being, so I have to lighten my load in any way that I can. That’s enough of that for now.

We returned from a short trip to Callaway Gardens yesterday. As usual, we were there for the Fantasy in Lights. I’m not much into that, but I did enjoy the gardens the next day with Autumn and Henry. Thanks to Cheryl for the short getaway.

I think I’ll celebrate the 2022/2023 transition with a bottle of bourbon. Cheers. 🥃