Easy Peasy

Hi Readers!

I am at the Colorado Springs CO airport (COS), considerably in advance of the departure of the airplane that will transport me to the Denver airport (DEN), where I will catch another airplane home to Madison WI (MSN).

I am going to tell you something...it is almost INFINITELY better to enter the airport system at COS than it is to enter it at DEN. COS is a small airport - even smaller than MSN - and I cruised through the TSA PreCheck security portal with minimal hassles, arriving at my gate ridiculously early. There was no line at TSA Pre at all. I don't know if you've ever been to the DEN airport, but it's a colossal and massive s**tstorm of an airport. If you are starting your journey there, the TSA security portal is a chaotic nightmare that overwhelms the mind and exhausts the spirit. By entering the airport system at COS, I get to bypass all of that, which is probably the most taxing and frustrating part of traveling out of DEN. That's not to say DEN is not rife with other annoyances. Even once you are "in" the terminal areas, it's a crowded zoo with miles of concourses that often need to be traversed (by light rail train and/or moving walkway) to get from arrival gate to departure gate. This is unlikely to disrupt my trip today, because my layover in DEN is 3+ hours, theoretically giving me ample time to navigate the labyrinthine airport that is DEN and get where I need to go. But I never like to count my chickens before they hatch. I have learned not to underestimate DEN's ability to royally inconvenience and destabilize me (and the general populace).

That said, I mindfully and intentionally chose to exist in the universe in which all my travels today go smoothly. And that's fully what I expect to have happen. I am surprisingly excited and ready to get back into the complacent normalcy of my home life in Madison.

In other news, my sister Kate scored me a nice "satchel" for Christmas, which I'm using as my "personal item" on these flights today. I also have my usual carry on duffel bag. No checked bag. Deborah and I bought "collective" gifts for my mom and pops AND Kate's family, respectively, comprising gift nut boxes in both instances.

Fin.

Positivity Post

Hi Readers!

According to the free LOSE IT app that I use to track my diet and exercise, I am down just over four pounds since starting my December Wellness Challenge on 12/1. I was 202.2 pounds on 11/30, the day prior to starting the challenge (Time Zero). I was 197.8 pounds as of this morning (12/4). If you want to be a stickler for details and argue that Time Zero was actually my morning weight on 12/1 - and there is some logic to that - then I am only down 3.2 pounds. Still pretty good! I have largely achieved this by exercising away (on the Peloton trainer) more calories than I eat, and practicing intermittent fasting (not eating between about 8 PM in the evening and noon the next day). My goal is to lose 15 pounds before the end of the year, so I am ahead of schedule. That being said, weight loss is not linear and those last five pounds are going to be harder to lose than the first five. That's not even taking into consideration the dietary risks, temptations, and pitfalls of the upcoming Judeo-Christian holidays. While I personally don't celebrate or recognize them (they are not Church of Bike With Joe holidays), much of our family does, and so we join in to honor our loved ones, more so than the mythical deities they pay tribute to via excessive holiday hedonism and sloth.

It's barely 8 AM on Wednesday 12/4 and I have already crushed and conquered a number of my TO DOs. In about 15 minutes, I will see my first marriage and family therapy client of the day, after which I will squeeze in a decent Peloton workout and attend a continuing education webinar (whilst eating my first meal of the day). After lunch/webinar, I will go pick up the groceries I ordered online this morning. The remainder of the afternoon and evening comprises seeing a few more psychotherapy clients, before retiring for some disconnection and self care.

Fin.

Keep Calm and Rock On

Hi Readers!

Happy Hedonism Hangover Day! That's the day after Bad Karma Day (aka, Thanksgiving). Most of you probably ate and drank way more than you had any right to yesterday, and you may be feeling the negative effects of that today. Some people also call it Black Friday, one of the massive corporate money grabs that happens a few times per year, usually around the major holidays observed by the dominant culture (and Black Friday is one of the biggest, tapping into the potent human emotions of guilt, shame, and anxiety to get you to buy things ahead of the upcoming major holidays of Christmas and Hanukah - typically things you don't need or that you will give away to others under the rubric of "promoting Peace on Earth" - a Peace which, oddly, never seems to arrive...).

I'll be the first to admit that I am not beneath taking a slice of that proverbial promotional pie. As many of you know, this blog is free for all to access and enjoy. But we have to financially underwrite it somehow, and we do so using the mechanism called affiliate marketing - whereby a few subtle-but-strategically-placed keyword links, when clicked upon, take you to a site (usually Amazon) where you can purchase something, from which a very tiny percentage of the purchase price goes to us (at no cost to you)!

I thought I'd use today's post to list and share a handful of THINGS that I have found mission critical for living my best life, in hopes that they help you live your best life too. All of these things are things that I can fully endorse, having used them firsthand myself.

A Mood Lamp. Sometimes called a Happy Lamp, these are lamps that give off an intense blue light that simulates daylight, triggering the pineal gland in your brain to dump neurotransmitters and hormones into your brain and bloodstream that "trick" your mind and body into believing it is summertime, even if it's not. As such, people (including me) use these to ameliorate Seasonal Affective Disorder, a common mental health issue in northern latitudes, often comprising symptoms of low mood, low energy, anhedonia, sadness/emptiness, irritability, loss of focus/concentration/memory, and more. If you've experienced it, you know. These lamps can also be used to artificially increase your brain's perception of the duration of daylight each day. Turned on in the early morning or early evening during the winter months, when it is dark outside, again tricks your brain into believing the availability of daylight is longer than it actually is, simulating summertime. I use my mood lamp every day. It sits on my desk and I have it on while I am seeing my marriage and family therapy clients. Be warned, if you use it too late at night, it can disrupt your diurnal rhythm, something akin to jet lag.

The 4 Agreements (book). Shared with me by a mental health counselor I was seeing years ago, this book has proven a resilient, relevant, and extraordinarily pragmatic spiritual guide. I don't have much more to say about it, other than its tenets (the four actual Agreements) collectively cover the management of a significant number of the hassles and BS nonsense life throws at you.

How Not to Die (book). While The 4 Agreements is a great reference guide for improving mental and spiritual wellness, How Not to Die (by Dr. Michael Greger) is a must have screed for improving your physical (and to some extent also mental) health. The good doctor does extensive research on the peer reviewed scientific literature on the role of nutrition in human health. He shares a lot of this info FOR FREE on his website nutritionfacts.org. But he has also compiled all the best bits into this great book, How Not to Die.

I'm gonna pause it there for today, mainly because I have to pee, but also because I have to get a-crackin' on today's action packed agenda: a Peloton workout (to burn off a fraction of the calories I consumed yesterday), practicing rock-n-roll songs (ahead of GUPPY EFFECT duo band practice on Sunday), booking airplane flights for my parents (so they can visit my sister in Colorado for Christmas), and possibly making my infamous vegan curry, if time permits.

I wish you all a wonderful day and I hope that you have a fulfilling and enjoyable weekend. Try to fast from social and mainstream media if you can. I know you can't, but try...you will really notice the improvement in your Zen if you do.

Fin.