2014 Goal 3

My 3rd goal of 2014 is to eat better.  I have a few different ideas about this, but the most important of these is to get more nutrients that I usually consume.  Let me preface this by saying that I'm clearly not an expert on healthy eating or on weight loss as I have struggles with both throughout my life.  My intentions with this goal are to become healthier than I was in 2013 by giving my body more good things that it needs and eliminating a few of the bad habits I have developed over the past decade.

The first part of this is to eat more fish than is usually in my diet.  I like fish, if prepared a certain way and I need to eat more.  I'm hoping that by eating more fish I will also eat less beef and pork.  I can't help it, I need to eat meat for it to feel like a meal.  But I'm trying to focus my eating to poultry and fish as they both are healthier and contain less of the bad things that are hurting my cholesterol.  

The second part of this is to take my vitamins more regularly.  It's not a huge step but I can't seem to remember to take them each day.  I have been tying to take a multivitamin daily for years with little regularity and in 2013 I started taking fish oil a few time a week (when I remembered).  With this goal I have started taking Spirulina tablets twice a day.  I have read a few articles that talked about the benefits of Spirulina and it seems like a smart thing to do.  

Basically, Spirulina is a natural multivitamin.  I read some bogus advertisement that was raving about the benefits of taking taking Spirulina daily as part of a shake made with vegetables to give you that extra boost.  But they were charging almost 100 dollars a month for the ingredients and I cannot afford that.  So I did a little research of my own and concluded that I could get a lot of the same benefits by just taking the supplements with green tea and vegetable juice.  So I'm currently taking 800 mg of Spirulina with 6 oz of green tea and 4 oz of blueberry and pomegranate juice.  It may not be as effective as the 100 dollar vegetable mix advertised but I feel confident that I'm getting most of the benefits for about 20% of the cost.

I have only been doing this for about 5 days now and I already feel better.  I'm not sure if it is a placebo effect at this point, but I'll keep you posted as many of the articles promised a great boost of energy after 2 weeks on Spirulina.  Cheers!

Happy New Year!!

Is January 8th to late to write a New Year's Resolution?  I don't think so, but it is in my characteristic 'Chuck' style to do something a little late.  My wife always says that people shouldn't wait until a new year to improve themselves.  While I see the logic in that, I sometimes need a little push to get change going.  It seems to me that a new year is a great time to start over as I can put all the mistakes of 2013 behind me and begin to focus on 2014.  I guess this view may also come from the fact that I'm a teacher.  I'm constantly starting over; each year, each semester, every quarter and 7 times a day as each new class begins.

So here are a few of my goals for 2014.

1) To write more, and post more things, on my blog here at Lord of Assets.

2) To draw more.

3) To eat more healthy foods.

4) To exercise more.

Now my many years in bureaucracy have taught me that goals are meaningless until they are specific and measurable.  To help with goal 1, I'm going to dedicate a post to each goal and spend more time being specific about how I plan to meet each goal and how I plan to measure my progress.  For that, you are going to have to wait for my next post.  Until then, have a great day.  Cheers!