Finally broke under 210!! Hallelujah! I’m planning to keep the pedal to the metal and stick with the intermittent fasting routine (16/8) until I hit 205. I try not to eat past 5pm or before 9am. Frankly, I sleep a lot better when I don’t eat within a 3-4 of hours of bedtime. So, I may make this a habit beyond hitting my weight loss goals. Intermittent fasting may be an important component to building a better mind body and soul.
Zero ; Quartet ; M: 114 ; C: 77 ; P/U: 50 ; W : 5 mi
Health R.O.S.
- Weight: 209.9
- BMI: 28.4
- Fat %: 21.7
Rewiring & Rebuilding Mind Body and Soul
This morning I was meditating on how my sobriety journey, my quest to rewire my mind and rebuild my body and soul has impacted my life now that I’m nearly four months in.
Starting with my body, I’ve lost just over 20 pounds and am experiencing some notable improvements including:
- My lower back pain is completely resolved
- My right knee pain is completely resolved
- Acne is noticeably clearing up (I mean, sh*t I’m not a teenager anymore!)
- I’m up to 50 proper pushups and crunches
- I have a lower resting pulse of 47 beats per minute
- I hike 4-5 miles 5-7 days a week
From the mind and soul perspectives, there has been significant progress, as well:
- Improved focus
- Increased patience
- I’m completely free of my marijuana monkey, divorced from Mary Jane, done!
- Drinking twice a month vs 5+ nights a week
- Drinking half as much in a sitting
- Sleeping very well and waking rested most days
- Vastly improved memory
- Much more positive attitude and outlook on life
- Nagging memories of embarrassments, failures, etc diminishing rapidly
Bringing in Meaningfulness
When you bring mindfulness into your life and to the things you do, you also discover what I like to call ‘meaningfulness’. Put another way, when you become mindful you tend to focus on more meaningful thoughts and activities. This is very good for your mind body and soul.
For me, that means less or no internet/social media doom scrolling, binge watching, binge drinking, pot smoking, etc and more reading, playing guitar, family time, hiking, and blogging.
I’ve also come to realize that when you approach life with meaningfulness it impacts your capacity for change. While meaningfulness doesn’t guarantee change, it can coax it into giving in, into putting up less resistance.
Change is Hard (Duh)
I believe change can be hard for many people because they derive their life’s meaning from their routine. They embrace and are comfortable with the known and expected. There’s comfort to be found in habits and routines even when they cause pain and suffering.
Drinking beer and smoking pot constantly brought me what I perceived as great comfort. I called it things like ‘relaxation’ and ‘disconnecting from the stress of the day’, but it was comfort I sought. The false comforts of these vices slowly destroyed my body, fogged my mind, and eroded my soul. And, truth be told, there was a time I couldn’t imagine life without them.
Meaningfulness emerged quietly from mindfulness which itself sprouted in earnest from my daily meditation practice. It allowed me to gently disengage from my old routine (waking up groggy and hungover, pounding a pot of coffee, slogging through my day, numbing myself at night) to a new, much more productive and healthy one.
The new routine I’m building starts with a weigh-in, coffee & reading, meditation, yoga, journaling, hike, work, family, bed. Of course, I have to wake up at 5am to get all of this in, but man does it improve everything about the rest of my day!
Until mindfulness led me to meaningfulness, I never perceived alcohol or pot as impediments. Sure, it wasn’t the most productive use of my time, but it was compatible with the lifestyle it created for itself. It had set me up to think sobriety was the impediment. Think about that. It’s crazy! Boy how the tables have turned.
I’m not out of the woods yet, but I think I can finally see the treeline.
Mindfulness gives you time. Time gives you choices. Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom. You don’t have to be swept away by your feeling. You can respond with wisdom and kindness rather than habit and reactivity.
– Henepola Gunaratana
