Grandpa/Ocean Voyager

Originally uploaded by secretagentarthur.
This portrait my brother took of my late grandfather a few years ago is better than anything I could write about Remembrance day. Instead I’m checking in with how the first 11 days of flossing, blogging and exercising have gone.

Flossing daily is pretty painless. This change in habit will probably stick: as I’m heading to bed I just remind myself that I can’t get into bed until I’ve flossed. It’s not that different from taking off my socks before getting into bed. Strange that it took me nearly until age 32 to realize this, but I’ll take it.

The daily blog posting is more tedious. I just don’t have that much to write about that I’m willing to put online and/or that fits with the general subject matter focus here. So after November I’ll likely go back to weeklyish blog posts, or find another topic/focus for a different blog, or just stop blogging all together. It’s not like there’s a lack of bloggy reading material online, so I don’t feel that compelled to add to the information glut. But this navel gazing/whining just adds to the problem, so I’ll endeavour to find more compelling subject matter for the next 19 days.

Exercising almost daily is somewhere in the middle of the hassle scale between flossing and blogging. This week (Wednesday, Friday and today) walking has been the default exercise choice despite climbing plans Wednesday and swimming plans today. I’m okay with that. Walking more (as a matter of habit) is another goal of mine and I haven’t been feeling slothful.

Swimming lost out to sleeping in this morning, and based on stuff I’ve read about sleep the sleep may have done me more good. Tomorrow I’ll need to get up earlier in order to work out with more intensity since I’ve got an appointment at 9 am at Granville Island Florists. If sleep again proves to be more compelling my goal is to fit in some Pilates or Dance Dance Revolution later in the day.

Why does it seem more logical to turn over a new leaf at the start of a year, or month, or week, than at the beginning of a season or a lunar cycle? I’d rather be guided by natural cycles, but the truth is that I’m more driven by numbers. It’s easier to start something at 1 or 0 or Sunday or Monday, not on the 21st or 22nd or whenever the new moon falls, even if the 1s or 0s are fully arbitrary. And why is today Wednesday, anyway? When was the first day with a day of the week assigned to it, and who decided when that day would be, anyway? And have all Sundays/Dimanches/Domingos/Nichiyoubis/etc. always been aligned across countries and timezones and if not when did they get synched up?

Wikipedia has answers to some of these questions, of course, but I digress. It is now November, and the oneness of today and various other things have pushed me to work on developing better habits. I’ve heard from various sources that it takes twenty-one days to create a new habit, but I like Steve Pavlina’s idea of the thirty-day trial.

This is why NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) fished me in like the easily suggestible person I am. Thus, the first 30-day trial: I’ve committed to posting here daily for the month of November. I’ll try not to get too boring.

I went to the dentist today for the first time in over two years and my soft gums were remarked upon, as I anticipated. Once upon a time I was in the habit of flossing daily, but that once upon a time lasted less than a fortnight and now I only do it weekly or so. On top of risking my (cavity and filling-free, and very expensive thanks to three years of braces) teeth falling out of my head, the link between gum disease and heart disease means I need to get my act together. So for the next 30 days I will also floss every evening. I brushed and flossed right after dinner tonight. Look at that, I’m already getting boring (boringer, I hear some of you saying).

Once of the inconveniences of flossing is that the retainer wire cemented behind my front 6 lower teeth means I need to thread the floss through a gap in the teeth, and the hygienist said if I must I can just floss the molars since that’s where gum disease usually starts. But that’s a cop out. December 1st I’ll reevaluate, but I’m sure by then the hassle won’t bug me anymore.

Finally, but most importantly, I’m recommitting to exercise and nutrition. Monday is Chrissy and my last scheduled personal training session with T’ai, as she’s headed on vacation. We’re both signed up for a two-week mini-boot camp from November 20-December 1. Between now and then I will exercise every day if I haven’t had a reasonable workout on each of the previous five six days (edited for math: the goal is to have at most one rest day per week). Which means my next possible day off is Sunday.

On the nutrition front, starting next Monday (using the ISO standard of which day starts the week and because we’re going to a baby shower on Sunday) I’m either cutting out wheat, sugar and non-whey dairy for 12 days, or (a more drastic superset of that) doing the Wild Rose Detox for 12 days. That will take me to just before the beginning of the mini boot camp, and will make recommitting to the principles of sports nutrition, as explained by T’ai, that much easier. I’m also hoping it will make me less phlegmy. But I’ll leave that for another day because now I need 29 more days of material and phlegm is at least a day’s worth.

I’m not convinced enough that it makes sense to do a 30-day trial on one more goal, because staying up later than is sensible is a very strong habit, but I will also attempt to get to bed by 10 pm every night. And with that, good night.