First Post of a new life

I haven’t been around much in the last little while, and it is all about the same old story. Been too busy.

Well I am going to be starting with my New Years resolution early and get back on track, life, mind and body.

In the last couple of months I have let my body slip slightly and that I am going to remedy starting now. I will be documenting everything that I do and let you know what the results are like so that you can try it to. I will let you know what works for me and what didn’t work for me, and all of the tools and tricks that I used.

As for mind, it is cluttered, and I am implenting what I learned in GTD to ensure that I can get that clear and start living again.

And again with GTD I hope to be able to live the lifestyle that I want since I will have the time that I used to, to work on the projects that I want.

Weekend Reading - Strengthen that Brain

I was stumbling along this week and came across this great article. It is 10 Ways to Strengthen Your Brain.

Number 2 is my favorite

Pick a random topic and learn something about it

I often find myself getting into a rut where I mostly visit the same websites and read about the same types of things. Music, Sports, Web happenings, World News. Pick something outside of that orbit and set out to learn something about it. Art Deco Design. History of the Cuban Revolution. How your car engine works. Spend just 10-15 minutes a day on a completely new or random learning project.

I have been spending some time lately trying to learn as much as I can about nutrition and what we should be eating. It seems to me that it is more important what you eat, rather than how active you are when it comes to losing weight.

Exercise

I have not a shred of doubt that exercise strengthens the mind. Find some exercise you like and make it a constant part of your week.

Personal Spring Clean-up

Today is the day that I start my personal Spring Cleanup. First on the docket is my financial cleanup. Over the weekend I used Quicken and figured out exactly where I stood and what kind of shape my finances are. From that I noticed that I am spending a lot more money than I should dining and for lunch.

So my goal for June is to take my lunch a minimum of 4 times a week, sometimes a bunch from work eat together on Friday. Instead of eating out I am going to make sure that I eat what is in our freezer. We have a lot of soups and chilli that was made during the winter that is ready to be eaten. When that is all gone I am going to make sure that I make extra for supper the night before and take leftovers.

The bigger part of the spring cleanup is getting fit. I am feeling a lot better than I have in a long time, to the point that I was able to shave the beard and not “look fat”. But I still have a belly, so June is going to be the month that I hit the gym 4-5 times a week, play hockey once a week and run 3 times a week. By going out hard like this I hope to jump start my training and make it second nature going into summer.

I will keep everyone who reads this blog updated every Monday on my stats and what I accomplished over the week. If you haven’t already you can add me to your reader so that you don’t miss a thing.

Happy Victoria Day

Happy Victoria day everyone. I am not sure what it is anymore, I am not a huge royality hound, but potentially having the day off is nice. I say potentially since I have to work, it is all over time but it is still not cool, like I mentioned yesterday work has been slightly nuts. I have many different projects on the go both professionally and personally and my moods have been a little weird.

I spent most of this weekend working, Saturday at home doing some Professional Practice diaries, yesterday I was at the office, and today I am going to do both…..well if it stops raining I will go to the office.

Something that I have started doing to try to keep my nutrition in check is taking some Greens+, in addition to my vitamins. I have found that it has really helped my energy level since I haven’t been going to the gym as much as I would like. It is a little on the expensive side, so I would suggest trying to get the stuff in your diet the old fashioned way whenever possible.

I am not dead

I know that what you were thinking, he got back to the gym and since he didn’t go to the doctor (something that I recommend everyone doing at least once a year, even you) he dropped dead.

Well in reality I have been working, sleeping and have had little time for anything else.  And my health has shown it, I haven’t really gained much, but I have no real energy and my brain is drained.  So today it was sunny and I got some work done and decided to get on the horse and start up the site again.  This site is a great motivator, putting my progress out there is great to help me keep going.

Instead of just starting I changed the site all around so that it will be easier to keep it updated, there are more changes coming but most will not be very noticable.  Let me know what you think by posting a comment.

Status of my Information Diet

Well it has been hard, that is the basic status.  I have deleted all of my news feeds from my Google Homepage, so I am not tempted everytime I open my browser, I unsubscribed from most of my RSS feeds and a lot of different RSS-feeds-email.  I have also limited my daily morning routine to a couple of sites (Dilbert, TSN.ca, etc).

That said I am still visiting Fark and Slashdot.  I tried to cut them cold turkey, then once a day, but now I am visiting a couple of times a day.  This is something that I am going to have to try to curb in the coming weeks.

The problem is that I am not sure what to do with the time that I am freeing up.  I am not really busy at the day job, and most of my online stuff that has to get done can’t be done at work.  So I am left with some free time and nothing to do with it, and therefore end up going to Fark and visiting some of the articles linked there.  I should take it as a good sign that I am not rushed any more and the free time is a result of me cutting back on the intake of information. 

Starting after the Easter Weekend, I am going to go another step farther though.

1. I am going to make a list of go-to sites, but only visit them in the mornings or early afternoon. (coffee breaks)
2. I am only going to check my work email twice a day.  Once in the morning around 11am, this will give people time to reply to the emails that I sent the previous day. and again at 3pm, this will enable me to catch the majority of the emails sent in the run of a day.
3. Only check my personal email once every couple of days, and my business email once a day.  If someone needs to get ahold of me I have my cell.
4. Turn off my cell for a 24 hour period every week.  I still have voicemail so it shouldn’t be a big deal.  I will still have it on me so I am not worried about losing it.  I just think that everyone has to disappear every once in a while.  There is no need to be too connected.

I think that these few steps should save me another 30 to 60 minutes a day.  With this new time I am going to figure out how to learn French and maybe learn to play the harmonica.

5 Reasons why a Low Info Diet is AWESOME

I have recently been trying out the "Low Information Diet", we are bombarded with so much stuff it is hard to get almost anything done.

I have found that there are a lot of great things that come as a result of a low info diet.  I am getting a lot more done at work and at home, but I must admit that it is very hard.  News and information is addictive.

• Less wasted time - You spend a lot less time reading, watching and listening to CRAP.  Most of the "news" out there is crap.
• Most News is Wrong Anyway - The news today is so sensationaized that you never really know when something important.  Everytime there is going to be a bit of rain or snow there is a weather warning.  It is WINTER for **** sakes.
• If it is important, your friends/co-workers will tell you - You might be worried that you are not getting the latest news, but no fear, if something important is happening, or happened, others will be sure to let you know.  There is no point in paying attention to "breaking" news for hours, or get the 30 min summary that has been checked out the next day.
• Be Less Anxious - News is so sensational (see above) that everything is a disaster.  It is hard not to be affected by this.  Most of the time there is nothing that you can do about it, and the only affect is an emotional one.
• The News is Old - Have you ever noticed that depending on the season that the same stories are on the wires, told like they are breaking.  IE Razor blades in apple at Halloween

So give it a try and let me know how you like it.  You should be sure to start out easy, you may think that there is nothing to NOT paying attention, but if you spend hours of your day doing it, you will find it hard at first since all of the time that you used to spend watching CNN, you now have to do other things.

Also don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter and you will get a FREE ebook.  Go here and fill out the form, you will automatically be sent the book.  It is a great resource

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Discussing Your Finances

Have you ever noticed that people cringe when you bring up money?  Do you feel that you are really not sure what you are supposed to do?  What do you think when someone tells you that they just bought an RRSP?

Money is the last taboo

I have been thinking about some of this stuff lately, and noticed that when I bring it up with some people that they cringe.  It seems to me that money is really one of the last socially awkward converstation topics.  Sex, not really a problem.  People will talk openly about sex and relationships which is huge.

However that said I think that money is one of the most important things that people should be thinking about, and not becuase I am some capitalist pig.  It is because it is one of those things that is so simple, but the industry makes look so complex.  You know how it is, you go to the bank and they try to sell you this and that, they are salesmen and therefore you don’t really feel like you can trust them.  All of this makes it seem hard, when it really isn’t.

Money/Finance Blog

I am going to start to mingle the odd money/finance post into this site to try to point people in the right direction.  Since I am in my mid-20’s that is really what I know, and my ideas and comments will probably apply to those in the same age range the most.  I will try to point you to other blogs, and tools that you can use to assess where you are and ways to set goals so that you know where you want to be.

KISS (Keep it Simple STUPID <- Engineers Moto)

And most of all I will try to make it as simple as I can, because money is a tool, and people should learn to use it as such.

Day 3 - Basketball

Weight: 252 lbs  <- I think, forgot to check in the morning

Moving Ave: n/a

I got to play some basketball today, but still no gym. The basketball was pretty good, a very good run.

In the afternoon I got to go cart racing and that was a blast.  My arms are still burning.

More Rambling

• First Post of a new life
• Weekend Reading - Strengthen that Brain
• Personal Spring Clean-up
• Happy Victoria Day
• I am not dead
• Status of my Information Diet
• 5 Reasons why a Low Info Diet is AWESOME
• Sign up for the HoserLife Newsletter
• Discussing Your Finances
• Day 3 - Basketball