#gratitudeNow: No mis-steaks

For lunch today, I grilled myself a ribeye steak. and some zucchini.

They were delicious.  

I've been doing the keto diet for over a year now.  I'm down a little over 50 pounds.  It's not been horribly difficult, but it hasn't been a piece of cake either.  When I go shopping, the supermarket is like 90% stuff-I-don't-eat-anymore, and 10% the good stuff.  Sometimes, I do cheat, and when I do it's generally not a little thing.  (It's amazing how you can't seem to eat just a few french fries.)

But for the most part, I'm not regretting the choice.  Some of the things I do get to eat are fantastically delightful.  

The other day I renewed my gym membership, and started swimming again.  Wow, I sure have lost of lot of fitness!  But, when I went to put my swim suits on, they fit just great.  I'm actively looking to add exercise back to my regimen, too now.

I feel like this past year has taught me a lot.  I'm going to keep sticking with keto for the duration.

#365Gratitude 315:Boundaries

One of the great things about working out, is that part of how I do it helps my mind as well as my body.

Often when I swim, I listen to philosophy lectures.  Today it was an Alan Watts lecture on the wisdom of the ridiculous, a lecture about Chuang-tzu. 

A big point that Watts made has to do with the boundaries we see between ourselves. What he said was "all boundaries are held in common." What that means is that part of how I know who I am, is because I'm not you.   However at the same time, boundaries are where we meet, where we join.

The example that he gave for this was sitting outside at night, looking up at the stars, and feeling how very far away they are. Millions of miles from here, and billions of years ago, that light shone forth that we're only seeing now. 

But that's us, too.   The light that comes from our world shines in a multitude of night skies elsewhere.

In a manner of speaking we are everywhere.  We are everyone. We are everything.  

If you need a little more down to earth example of that, I've got one from this morning. 

When you're swimming laps in a pool, and you've got one of those plastic divider ropes, separating your lane from the one next to you, whose divider is that? Is it yours? Does it belong to the person in the next lane?

Yes.  

#365Gratitude Day 279:Circular Logic

So this morning, as is becoming my habit, I went out for a run, sharing it remotely with my girlfriend Squee, and my bestie, Moliére.  It was a good workout, filled with hills, all sorts of funny puns about kink and computers (subroutines, DOM navigation, master-and-slave-controllers, etc.), too.

On my way back to the cul-de-sac I live in (infinite loop, anyone?), I noticed I was at 3.9 miles for the workout, so I decided to walk the cul-de-sac over and over until I hit the 4 miles I wanted.

It's like a piece of modern art!

I'm happy I did it, but I also notice several things that made me able to do it.

• For one, I'm a bit OCD.  I like round numbers, filled spaces, evenly balanced things.
• It enabled me to stay on the phone just a bit longer with two people I love very much.
• As I make working out more of a habit, a routine, I'm beginning to lean on it and into it.  I need it.
• I feel hope in the small gains.  I only ran one interval today, but felt good about it.  I'm in touch with the truth that progress comes in gradual waves.  I know I'm not some skyrocket, that has to launch, go up without stopping, only to explode.

I'm loving my progress.

#365Gratitude Day 271:Conference Crawl

Actually, it wasn't a crawl at all.

This morning I woke up, remembered that working out is a habit again, and then linked up with my morning walk crew.  I got on the phone (featuring my lovely boycat Yang on the lock screen) with my girlfriend Squee, and my bestie Moliére.

We shared our routine.  We listened to Squee get the Squeelets off to school, listened to Moliére go through and finish his workout and return to his meow-purring room-mate Figaro, and listened to me as I pushed myself to go a little further, and a little faster.  

On the way home I remarked to them both that I was taking the Really Big Hill™ by my house a lot easier today than I did yesterday, and that I really was powering up it, without sounding like a wheezing camel in a cuisinart, or whatever.  

So, after I crested the hill, and was in the last half mile or so back to the house, I actually broke out in a run for a bit.  At one point I was doing a 9:30 mile.  Now, it's not like I did it for 9 minutes, I did it for about 2 minutes.  But, I wanted to do it, and I did it. 

Back when I was first learning to run, I felt this way.  I remember it.  Brother told me what it was even.  It's when you start to progress and want to burst through to the next level.  Tomorrow, I'm going swimming, and while I'm excited to cross-train, I'm just the tiniest bit disappointed.  Because I'm excited to go out again, and see how much more I want to and do actually run.

I feel myself actively "on the grow" again.

I love having Squee and Moliére to share it with.  It's connecting, supporting, and enhancing.  I love them and the way they help me.

#365Gratitude Day 254:Stroke, stroke, slide

Saturday was a mix of familiar stuff and new things. Missy and I were going to the DC Littles Munch.  Beforehand though I wanted to work out, to go swimming at a new pool that opened up near us. 

There was in fact cake. Cake & swimming. Great combo.  

I decidec to do 45 minutes of breast stroke, because it's a really good calorie burn for me, and I knew there would be cake at the munch.  As I swam I debated cutting it short at 30 minutes, but realized my health mattered more than that 15 minutes. ​

To reward myself for my diligence I went on the new pool's absolutely amazing water slide. So fast. So tall. So dizzying. So GREAT. 

It felt good to make my exercise a priority again.  

At the munch, I was almost completely  just a guest there, instead of helping run it. I did stand up during announcements to talk about the Littles Express holiday train ride I'm helping run this year. But that was just a small thing. It felt great to be at the munch while not being in charge of it.  

I'm grateful I can do new things that are informed by old things, and old things in new ways.