New Flu, New You.
I started this new year in a new place flying to Seattle of Macklemore lore to visit an old friend and to also make the pilgrimage to the wettest place in the continental US in the Hoh Rainforest of Olympic National Park.
The sub-freezing temperatures, late night hot tub dips, and the recreational marijuana had me leaving the Pacific Northwest with a souvenir, a raging flu.
I don’t get sick. Not like ever. It’s been a long time coming and there have been some life choices that I have been meaning to make, yet the will power was lacking.
There’s nothing like not being able to get out of bed for a week to have time to muster the will to make the necessary changes in lifestyle as I tread deeper into my 30s.
I’m happy to say that I have fully recovered and I’m operating at 99% operational efficiency. I’m now down to 145lbs due to my strict chicken soup diet.
I’ve also been beer free in 2017. Beer-swigging has been my biggest Achilles heel since 18. It’s something I do when I’m bored, or lonely. Isn’t that how alcoholism starts? Boredom? I’ve reached a point where I’d be happier without the beer.
Two weeks in, and I have no craving for beer and have easily transferred my consumption habits to drinking wine and cider in social settings. My waistline has already responded. Body fat is disappearing and I’ve even dropped a pant size down to 29!
The final piece of the puzzle is my affinity (addition) for marijuana. This was a harder nut to crack. Before I left for the West Coast in December, I handed over all of my paraphernalia to a close friend and told him Merry Christmas. I knew that if I returned home to a stash I would be overcome by temptation.
The irony is that a nasty bong rip is what pushed me over the edge into a full-blown flu as I left San Francisco heading back East. Similar to how the smell of tequila for many people, or in my case Chinese rice wine will cause nausea, just the mere thought of that nasty bong water makes my face cringe.
Not to say I will never have a beer or smoke a joint again, but there will have to be more ceremony and meaning involved. Special occasions with special friends will call for special celebrations. Everything in moderation, even moderation as Mark Twain liked to say.
2017 will be a year of willpower overcoming bad habits to live my best life. For everything that I take out of my life, there is room for more beautiful and productive habits to take their place.
