New 30 Day Challenge: 1 Mile, Everyday

So far I've successfully stopped biting my fingernails and refrained from drinking soda for over a month. My next thirty day challenge is going to focus on the positive aspect of forming a new habit. The last two have been trying to STOP DOING something, so this time I'm going to try to DO something.

Ever since I stopped playing high-level competitive hockey, I have told myself that I am going to start doing triathlons. I ran one year of cross country in high school, but since then, I have not gotten into a steady running routine. To help develop this habit that I dearly want to develop, I am going to run at least one mile a day, everyday, for 30 days. This is much less about putting in a lot of miles and more about developing the self-discipline to just get out there and put in some effort. I'm not worried about how long it takes me to run the one mile, I just want to get out there and do it, everyday.

Soda Challenge: Complete!

Yesterday I partook in my first soda in approximately one month and five days. I'm fairly certain that is the longest I have ever gone without drinking pop.

When I brought that cup of ice cold Sprite to my lips, I enjoyed it. However, as I told my girlfriend as she sat across from me in the library, it wasn't mind blowing. I probably could have kept my soda-fast going indefinitely, actually. After the first couple days, when the cravings were admittedly intense, I didn't really think about it.

Like I wrote about at the halfway point of this adventure, I didn't really feel any physical improvements from abstaining from soda. I'm sure part of this was the fact that I wasn't drinking THAT much anyway. I was averaging 5-7 servings of pop a week. Removing it from my diet and replacing it with iced tea, coffee, or water was not necessarily a huge factor. However, I do know that each of those times I drank a substitute instead of a soda, I saved at least 150 calories. That adds up over the course of a month or longer.

So, now that I've successfully gone over a month without drinking soda, what now? I thought about continuing my fast forever, but I don't think I will. I enjoy the taste of the occasional soda-- the keyword being, occasional. I'd like to treat soda as a special treat, not my automatic beverage of choice. To do that, I'm going to continue to avoid ordering soda when I go out to eat and will only buy small quantities at the time. I'd also like to try some of the all-natural sodas that you don't usually see in supermarkets.

I'm glad that I have proven to myself that I can go a month without soda. Now that I've done that, I'm not planning on letting myself fall back into the soda habit.

What I've Been Up To

Some of you who may know me "in real life" might be wondering what I've been up to since graduating from college in May. As most of you probably know, I went to Bowling Green State University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education. Most of you also probably know that the job market in southeast Michigan is crummy (to say the least). If I had been willing to move down South or maybe out West I might have been able to find a job teaching high school social studies, but that was not in the cards for me. I wanted to come home and be near my family, my girlfriend who is still attending Michigan State University, and the coaching opportunity I was presented.

While I was going to BGSU I played for the club hockey team there for three years. One of those years I actually ran the team as the appointed president. Club hockey organizations are student-led and are actually part of a very well organized national association, the ACHA. Our team was made up of a lot of ex-AAA and junior players that for some reason or another ended up choosing life paths other than the highest level of hockey. The level of competition was very good and we had an opportunity to travel over a large swath of the midwest. Anyway, the University of Detroit Mercy put together a brand new club hockey team at the end of last year, with the 2009-2010 season being their inaugural. My brother attends the university and he informed me of this development and the need for a coach.

My game plan since the beginning of college has been to teach high school social studies and coach some level of ice hockey. This was the perfect opportunity for me to get my feet wet in the world of coaching, so I submitted my resume. I didn't have high expectations since I assumed that a brand new hockey team would want somebody with more experience behind the bench. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I was offered the position. So, since about late July I've been coaching the University of Detroit Mercy club hockey team. We've played four games so far and have posted a 1-3 record, frankly nothing for a first year team to be ashamed of.

The best part of this has been the realization that coaching is definitely one of my "flow" activities. When I'm on the ice running a practice my sense of time becomes seriously distorted. Our hour and a half practices seem to fly by. I now know that coaching is always going to be a huge part of my life. I love being on the ice and imparting the knowledge I've gained from 18 years of playing hockey to others. I have a ton to learn about being a good coach, but it's something that I look forward to improving at for a long time to come.

I Want to be Better

I want to be a better teacher. So I teach.

I want to be a better runner. So I run.

I want to be a better coach. So I coach.

I want to be a better writer. So I write.

That's what it boils down to. Do you want to be better at something? Do it. A lot.

It's amazing how often I forget this and how simpler everything becomes when I remember.

My Lack of Fitness Update

You'll notice that I haven't written a fitness update lately. Unfortunately, that means what you probably think it means. I think I have only run two or three times in the past three weeks. Not coincidentally at all, I have started working full-time about three weeks ago. Well, it's not technically full-time since it is just substitute teaching, but I've worked 14 of the last 15 weekdays, so I'm calling it full-time. This is actually eerily similar to how I felt when I was doing my student teaching earlier this year. I would get home from teaching all day and be completely wiped out and the motivation to workout would just never appear.

I realize that working out will increase my energy and that if I could just make myself do it when I'm tired, I would feel better. I'm hoping that as my body acclimates to my new schedule, I'll start doing a better job with the running and working out. When it boils down to it though, there are no "hacks" or "tips" that will fix this problem for me. It's a matter of throwing on my running shoes and cranking out a couple miles, regardless of how crappy I feel.

Either way, I need to figure it out because working full-time is definitely in my future for, oh, about the next 45 years or so. Can't really put my fitness goals and health on standby until then, eh?

The Halfway Point: No Soda for 30 Days

I have completed 15 days of my 30-day challenge to stop drinking soda. I'm happy to report that I have not had any slip-ups during this period. No soda has touched my lips for quite some time. Unfortunately, my improvement in this aspect of my nutrition has not been met by an improvement in my eating habits. In fact, I've eaten more poorly in the past 15 days than I have in a long time. Any physical benefits from not drinking soda has been erased by the other crap I've been putting in my body. However, while I may not feel any different I know that not putting 150 or more completely nutritionally devoid calories in my body everyday is definitely a good thing.

I don't really think my bad eating habits have been caused by not drinking any soda, although that is an interesting idea. Is it possible my body is craving sweet and fatty foods because I haven't been drinking soda? I hope not.

The cravings haven't been too bad, but every once in awhile it hits pretty hard. In those cases, I usually try to find some type of juice or other sweet drink (like lemonade) to take the edge off. I know that isn't that much better than drinking soda, but eventually I will get rid of the cravings all together and be able to only drink things that aren't terrible for me.

So, now that I've reached the halfway point I hope to keep this going. I haven't decided if I will continue past the 30 day point. I will be back with that decision in 15 days :)

www.thesimplerlife.net

I launched a new blog today called thesimplerlife.net. If you are at all interested in personal development and/or simplicity, why don't you check it out?