Fit Dad: Quitting Time

Let them eat cake! Hell I want to eat some cake and I do. There is a reason that I am almost always attempting a fresh rounds of exercise. I always kid myself and say that next week I will be better then this week. That has not be true on any aspect of my life. Well I actually have gotten better and more frequent with cleaning. I think I'm getting addicted to the fumes so that is starting to border on the extra unhealthy. I am not a certified anything. So in the name of your God and or science please do your own due diligence. BUT based on the many articles and now books that I am ingesting about nutrition along with fitness. The talk of cheat day is coming up more an more.


I agree a cheat day is a good concept. The credit card is also a good concept. Both are design to help ease the pressure temporarily to then give you a chance to take care of it when you can. With credit cards they were intended to be payed off every month. No floating/ revolving balances, that is no longer the case. The cheat day is designed to make it so you have something to work towards almost a reward for eating foods you barely like 6 days a week. Personally I have gone WAY to far with the cheat idea and just went to town on food. I am a member of keeping your plate clean clue on my cheat days. I also have a credit card(s) that I have keep a balance on. Eh, I'm weak.

OR I just need to re-frame the way in which I look at this "cheat day" and as for my credit cards... well that's a bag of issues I just don't want to talk about yet. May be over lunch long as your buying. The reason I feel as though there should be a re-framing of the "cheat day" is because it has been talked about either a reward or a release value because junk food is addictive. You doubt me? What type of sugary food do you eat on a regular basis? Stop eating it as of right now and count how often you get a craving or almost break down and eat it.  Some of you have iron wills or have already started the phase out of crap food. I am in the process of that too.

My breakfast foods are always healthy. Other then every now and then making real bacon. Turkey bacon is.... is healthy and is no the worst thing ever. Real bacon how ever is great. Much like most forms of red fatty meat. My breakfast foods are healthy no cereal anymore unless it has the words granola or no artificial tree bark flavoring added. Lunch and dinner I'll go 50/50 on. Some days a grilled cheese or a Mexican grilled cheese is just easier then tuna with freshly minced veggies. Same with dinner.

If you've read the same type and amount of article as I have. You are wondering snacks what are those like? Well apples, veggies and protein shakes. UNLESS there is a box of Goldfish hanging out. Then its on like donkey kong.  Where my bandwagon really gets derailed and causes the snowball is candy and soda pop.  There is a long standing credit card history of how I would buy what is needed with Soda pop and a candy bar. It was like that almost every where I went if they sold it.

I am only sub-human after all. I have quite smoking, drinking, no drugs, and I'm a faithful husband so all I have as an outlet is soda pop and candy. So I am trying to phase that out. Just kick the habits. I'm pretty sure the day when I decided to cold turkey soda pop I'll be curled up in the fetal position mumbling about babies on the ceiling. It will not be pretty but I'll be healthier for it. Maybe happier in the long run too.

I say all this because even though a cheat day is great in concept just remember its called a "cheat" because you didn't earn it. I cheated my way back up to a slight belly and now I'm trying to work it back off. The amount of sodium, sugar, and other items in junk food gives me the same type of happy feelings nicotine did. Standing outside holding a snickers doesn't look as cool as holding a cigarette either. I'm not endorsing smoking by the way. It was just something that gave me happiness and will be a rant for another day. The ending point to this rant is even though I'm far from perfect I realize that since 90% of fitness is based on what I eat. I just need to quite eating crap food, and eating a lot of it too. The hardest thing to do is just cut it out but anything worth having is hard. So long as I can be a better man starting tomorrow I'm going to cut out 1 piece of crap food. I think it'll be candy. Good bye happy food that makes me sad later.... it's been... *sniff* fun.

-JN

Fear is a Jerk-wad.

Hello and welcome back to my blog and thank you for reading this post. There is a slim chance that you are becoming a regular read much like I am become a regular blogger. So to help build this bond of writer read may be honest? No. Well I'm going to be anyways. I'm afraid. I am afraid of a lot of things. Some of my fears are real and some are cerebral. It is not manly to admit fear or failure. I am willing to admit fear and failure but not defeat. There is a difference.

As a man who is waiting for the birth of his child I have an upcoming life times of fears for him, of him and what I'm going to do to him. I also have a healthy fear and respect for electricity. That is why I'm on day two of installing a remote in to the ceiling fan. I personally think that my dislike/ fear of heights is normal and healthy. So no hot air balloons or sky diving for this guy. There are also a bunch of other little fears that only get more ridiculous. That's right I have stupid fears like send my kids to public school in Florida. I don't live in Florida but still it's a fear that they could end up there.

Since we're not on the verge of being acquaintances can I be honest again? Yes, good.  Even though I am scared of so many of things I still do them. I'm having a child and as a real man I'm taking responsibility and will never let him see fear. Children are like bears in that aspect, never let them see fear and you can't hide from them. The ceiling fan will be installed and I may end up with a funny story of how I got electrocuted. Just like when I tried to fix the drier and light fixture in my wife's closet. (See why my fear of electricity is healthy? Every time I try to work with it, it bites me. It bites my electrically.)  I may not bungee jump but I'll still grit my teeth and take part in some activities high in the sky so they don't get this fear.

Fear can be a good thing. It can save your life, keep you safe and it can also deny you success and happiness.  I bring this up because the world crashed in 2008 and since then people have become afraid to invest. Millions of people got burned by the collapse and since then have been rationalizing and licking their wounds. Once bitten twice shy right? 

Well as an investment grade Realtor I have to say that that fear has helped people loss thousands of dollars of unrealized equity. It is also means there are more empty homes, a couple isn't closer to retirement, and that a different family might not be renting their dream house. When it comes to buy a home to live in or invest all fears are valid no matter how rational or fake. The issue really becomes which of those fears should stop you from living life and helping your family and another family.

On my first rental property it was a daily fear filled experience between what if they don't except the offer and worse yet what if they do? Then financing, rehab, and renting it out? Oh my having to deal with people. I didn't let those fear slow me down or stop me. My rent is a very nice lady who was loosing the house she had been living in for 25 years, right down the street. She still qualified on every aspect of my rental criteria and she end up being able to stay in her community near where she raised her kids and friends she has made for 35 years. 

I showed this house to 4 other investors who passed on it. They all had different reasons. Their fears boiled down to What if it doesn't appraise and I can't get financing? It appraised for more then I thought and a bank lent on it. What if I can't get a renter? I got a renter. It took longer then expected since there was no heat in the house and Houston was going through a freeze. What if I can't sell it? Since I didn't buy it from the original owner I must assume other have owned this house and that others will own it after me.

Investing for me is like the remote for the ceiling fan, using sleeper sofas and raising a child. They are scary and things can go wrong. I can either let that fear control me or I can just move forward and see what will end up killing me. Also it's not true what does not kill me does not always make me stronger. At times it just makes me wiser.

-JN

Generation X You're on Deck!

In the year 2008 the world crashed and changed forever. That is just my opinion but one that I have heard echoed around many hallowed halls. The world also changed and expanded beyond belief in and around the year 2000 with the tech boom. Thomas L.  Friedman who wrote "The World is Flat" goes into much better detail no the how and why then I ever could. So feel free to check that book out. I am also reading about how to be  a better interview for jobs. Some how my personality gets lost in translation.  Oh well. An interesting point on the job front and the world we live in today is that there are roughly 4 generations at work and in business.

The Echo Generation, Generation X, Baby Boomers and a few of the Greatest Generation. All very different people. All very different and have different ideas on how, what and where things should be heading. The generation that is getting the shortest end of the control stick is Generation X. Of the generations it is smaller then both the Boom generation and the Echo generation. Generation X is not nearly as important of influential as the greatest generation.

On a regular basis I talk (Or commonly argue or loudly debate depending on your perspective) with a member of Generation X. There is trend when I talk with people from Gen X. They are straddling the world in which things worked and the modern world.  They are old enough to remember how things "should" be or "Should" work. They are very well read and an intelligent bunch but well... their ideas and principles are out of date.

They are also able to understand the technology of today and are easy to adapt to it. I'm not saying that their opinions matter less or the the echo generation is more important. I am just repeating to my angst ridden flannel wearing predecessor that you where right. You're misunderstood and have been passed over. You are sandwiched between to larger generations. The me generation and they're even more self involved oblivious offspring. (I am included in that, and feeling included is important.)

This is the time for the Generation X congress though. We are on our third Boomer president. Congress has to have some members for the Dock Martin maniacs. This is their chance to break free, DO something and Do something different. Since the world crashed in 2008 I have heard a lot of "should" and "shouldn't s". "if only", "It worked in the70s or 80s etc", "Or back in the...". I think Gen X has a chance as a generation and as a group that could have a very small window at power to say, "Should don't matter. This is the reality and this is what we are going to do".

There has been a lack of leadership in Government since the 1990s. If Generation X is willing to carry the burden of leadership not just say it's not their fault and things should be different. Then the Angst Generation will be the generation of change and progression. If not then... get ready to yell out Echoooooo.

-JN