March was a long, busy month for me. Between work, social activities and activity commitments, my free time became minimal and life became strained for me. As such, I felt like I needed to make April a reactionary month for myself and take some time for myself and my health.
This idea stems from the poor self-management from March and the 5K I am running on April 24. I was involved in organizing and/or executing at least four events, including but not limited to SMartCamp, NxNYC, New York Brick Artists at the First Robotics Competition and Twestival. Two of these events were full weekends and two were single evenings, but each took time to organize and even running the event can be stressful to me to a degree. I am the type of person who can’t enjoy a party I organize for at least an hour or two because I always want things going right. All of this can be very draining.
When I am running to meetings for these events, I don’t eat right, either. Since I’m commuting and running around to and fro, I need to stop and eat as I go. Unfortunately, when eating as I am on the move, I (like most) don’t necessarily choose the most healthy of choices in my culinary decisions. Although I do tend to avoid most fast food, even pizza and local delis can add up to too many poor meals.
The food choices combined with the stress and time constraints did me in by the end of March, and so I’m looking to change things in April in four areas. Social, dietary, exercise and work.
The social aspect of change is easier to make because I have less that I am planning this month. With the exception of the Arts, Culture and Technology Meetup, I am not involved in organizing any events this month. With only one event that I am committed to at the end of the month, I plan to sit out many of the constant events that occur around New York City and would rather take the time to reconnect with people. Fewer, smaller, more intimate gatherings rather than the full blown networking events and drinking assemblages that dot the landscape fo the social media scene.
The dietary changes may be hard initially, but I hope I acclimate quickly. I plan to cut out all beverages that aren’t water, to save on the empty calories contained within. I may occasionally put a little Crystal Light powder in the water for flavor, but no soda, alcoholic or other types of beverages. I also plan to cut out all complex carbohydrates that the body doesn’t break down easily and stores as fat and to limit my caloric intake. I plan to go with simpler foods like chicken, fish and vegetables. Coincidentally enough, I saw a Fresh Direct delivery in my building lobby, a service previously unavailable here. I inquired about it to the delivery guy and he said today was the first day, so it’ll make it simpler to get and make healthy meals.
With my heightened schedule, I was unable to exercise as much as I would have liked. I have been doing Couch to 5K for the last 6 weeks and my stamina for running has greatly increased, but my other exercise regiment has falled off. I want to bring my routine back up to where it was, attending more kung-fu classes and returning to the workout programs that I was doing before my schedule became so hectic.
The final changes are to my work. In addition to picking up my game for my current clients, I am in talks to take on some other projects once I am caught up on the client work that I fell behind on. I hope to be completed with it all this week so that I can initiate new client work. I also have some personal projects on queue that I didn’t get to complete and some that I want to initiate. Some work on Live Tweets, a new website or two, some Lego projects, and an art project I recently envisioned after Twestival.
These changes will take a lot of work initially, but I think it’s all for the better. I hope to come out of April healthier, less fatigued and happier. All the changes may take work initially but I look forward to the results. Unlike the Bronx Zoo 5k, I’m not asking others to do any of this with me, but if anyone wants to join me on getting healthier in April, let me know you’re joining me. It’s always nice to have support. And if you aren’t, let me know if you’d like to go out for sushi and reconnect in a less hectic atmosphere.
