Ignorant Historian

It’s now been two weeks since I started the Game On! Diet.

(Sidenote: I hate that it’s called a “diet”…especially since we’re not using the diet portion.)

And it’s been an interesting two weeks at that.

One of the first things I noticed was how much depriving myself of my usual self-indulgences increased my pleasure.  I love ice cream and Diet Dr Pepper, but it having it daily regularly doesn’t make me enjoy it more.  It made me enjoy it less…it wasn’t a treat anymore.

Day 1 of Game On! (see, I didn’t use the D-word!) I had an evening snack of Cinnamon Life with skim milk.  And it was heavenly.  While I was eating it, I was completely in the moment, enjoying every bite and sip from the bowl.

Day 2, I had part of a plain bagel with a little cream cheese that was out of this world.  My usual Panera bagel, the Cinnamon Crunch, wouldn’t have been that good.

Day 3, I had some canned pears that were quite scrumptious.

And by Day 4, I was enjoying every bite of my unsweetened applesauce.

By week 2, I was back in the pool.  While I have to fight through the first few laps, I love to swim.  Something about the rhythm of it (stroke, stroke, breathe, stroke, stroke, breathe)  and the way that the water turns all sounds into background noises.  In the pool I’m alone with my thoughts, without distraction.  Exercise without sweat, without strain.  In cleansing waters.

So why haven’t I been doing it more often?

I’ve greatly appreciated this opportunity to enjoy the little things.  I don’t want to forget that.

Photo by ƒernando

Dad and me, 1983

I won’t tell anyone you’re a young 50 today if you don’t. ;)

This has been an interesting week (and we’re only halfway through).

Monday evening as I was leaving my first time back at the pool in way too long, I checked my phone and saw I read this text from my roommate:

major issues…hot water heater overflowed & it’s leaking into hall

My response?

i’ll be home soon…running back into the pool to shower.

Priorities, right?  It wasn’t like I could go to work the next day without having showered in 2 days and with chlorine still in my hair.  I’m sure I’d be pretty rank.

Upon hearing the *drip* *drip* coming from upstairs, my roommate went upstairs to discover that the water heater overflowed.

[Sidenote: Why do we call it a *hot* water heater?  It's really heating cold water to make it hot water, right?]

She heard the drip upstairs because the water heater is in the ATTIC.

Whose idea was THAT?  ”Well, we don’t want to use this closet as it’s a good place to put coats.  I know, let’s put the 40-gallon tank of water in the attic!  That way, if something happens, it can do a lot of damage.”

By the time it was caught, the water had leaked through the attic “floor” (okay, just plywood), parts of the hallway ceiling and a bit into my ceiling and wall, too.  It had been leaking for a while, apparently.  A 3′ x 6′ section of hallway carpet was thoroughly soaked.  We filled up 8 towels worth of water before a friend came over with a carpet cleaner, which sucked up another gallon of water…and then it took another 36 hours of a fan on it to dry.

Thankfully, my roommate was paying attention, because the damage could have been much worse.

We thought we finally had it under control (even after we turned the water back on), when I see another drip from the ceiling.  What we thought was controlled apparently wasn’t…my roommate had to get up every 2 hours during the night in order to empty out the water (with a small juice glass and a couple of large bowls).

I, like a clueless new father, slept through the night, not even waking as she pulled down the attic ladder each time near my bedroom door.

I wasn’t entirely unhelpful, as I worked from home while the plumbers installed the new water heater so that she could go in to work to finish preparing for the first day of school.

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, we had a new water heater and could turn the water back on.  I tell you, it’s so weird to go without water when you’re used to it.  Made me thankful that I’m blessed to have clean water and indoor plumbing.

I’d be lying if this didn’t remind me a bit of my apartment fire 3 years ago this week.  I think it was using the same towels to mop up the water and throwing them in the same dryer (my current roommate bought the washer/dryer from a former roommate who is also her former roommate…yeah, we get around).

Though this was obviously a pain (and not a fun cost to incur to my still-new-to-homeownership roomie), it could have been much worse.  I’m glad that it happened when it did, and not a day later, the night before school starts.  What a nightmare that would have been!

(There are a couple of these that I don’t think look like me. So I’m taking my dad’s word for it, especially since I don’t actually remember anything in these photos.)

Which do you think I should have chosen?

December 16, 2005

Here is a selection of user names MSN offered when the ones I entered were unavailable:

Gyrate_thrower

tilled_agate

InstalledChain

WarpedOhio3

WoodyHyperion3

Varyingpage

ComplicitEight

caustative_star

haywirebeatle3

BlaringSpark

JeweledFawn9

Loverly_Hornet

draughtjoker6

unbated_mussel

PremedZebra3

Plucky_ronnica

Any of those sound like me? If you interested, apparently they are available.

Ever since I heard about the Game On! Diet on Twitter, I knew that I’d have to play.  Anyone who knows me in real life (and has had the pleasure of playing a game with me) knows I’m a wee bit competitive.

So what better way to establish good health and life habits in a competitive way than to play a game?

So, my roommate and I are each captaining a team (there’s 9 of us total)in this 4-week game.  There has been a little trash talk going on…that’s just who we are.

You can follow the link above if you want to know more about how the Game On! Diet works (we’ve customized it a little bit–particularly the food portion), but basically you get points for food choices, water, exercise, sleep, and replacing a bad habit with a good one.

It’s exactly the motivation I need to make these changes…and not just for the 4 weeks.

So all I’ve got to say is: Game On.

My team is totally winning.

Photo by ohnoitscoco

Traveling before leads to housework now