Recovery and Renewal

A lot things have been going on the past few weeks and days. Later today (though I had hoped this morning) I'll be picking up my keys to my new place in Chapel Hill. I'll move carloads day by day, and then this weekend, with the help of my brother, do some of the heavy loading.

Logistically, I extremely loathe moving. I think the two ways I've done it have different pros and cons: 1) When I moved to Baltimore in a large box truck I had to take everything at once. This meant making sure I TOOK everything and had SPACE for everything. 2) Most of my college moves were done with a minivan in multiple trips. The travel distance is closer, so you have to get everything in one shot. The downside is that it takes several trips, and you still leave wondering if you've gotten everything.

My recovery is still progressing. It's slower than I had hoped, but I'm not stressing. I've gotten used to taking prolonged breaks during the summer. In the past it was for injury, so now I can do it on my own terms. I've kept up my aerobic fitness with swimming. This week, the Cary Y closed down the bubble to transition to an outdoor pool, so we're swimming in the unheated "Oasis pool." This is a brisk SIXTY-SIX DEGREES. I felt ballsy and swam without a wetsuit. Two years ago it would've been torture at 74. But either I'm not as lean, or I've gotten used to colder temperatures; either way I didn't think it was so bad. I may even consider going again on Friday.

After Umstead, I'm making a lot of other changes. I had been planning to revamp my diet. After some years of being WAY to restrictive, I purposefully tried to be looser. I think it helped me reach my calorie requirements, but the nutritional value curtailed. I didn't really have a plan on how to restructure it all, but I've gotten some positive encouragement and ideas from an amazing individual. It will primarily involve getting rid of a lot of the processed foods. And right now it's heading towards vegetarianism, but I'm not ruling out veganism. That will be hard; I use milk and cottage cheese almost everyday. And also, I'm trying to be practical in my elimination: I'm not throwing out everything, just once it's gone, it's gone. I don't know; this is heading into new territory. But I think of it as a challenge, which makes it exciting.

I talked about inspiration last time, so I want to leave off with some songs/quotes that I feel have embodied my mindset:

"Love Hate" by Disciple
"Mother Father" by Dave Matthews Band
"Take Me Away" by Lifehouse

"Be not simply good; be good for something"
"God himself culminates in the present moment and will never be more divine in the lapse of the
ages." - Both by Henry David Thoreau