digitalBush

Photo courtesy of bfurnace

Health reasons made me remove beverages other than water from my diet.  The financials of that decision have solidified it's place in my lifestyle.  Water is basically free and yet most people are content paying money to replace it.  We used to drink a couple of twelve packs of coke (you northerners may call it "soda",  "pop" or something similar). I'd also order sweet tea or coke with my lunches and dinners when we went out.

Right now I eat lunch out of the office 3 times a week and we eat dinner out 2 nights a week.  I'd say on average that restaurant drinks cost $1.50 a whack.  By drinking water, I'm saving $7.50 per week on my own.  That's $390 per year!  I'd say a 12-pack of drinks runs about $3.50 each, so there is another $364 eliminated from our expenses this year.  All together, I'm saving $754 each year just by drinking water.  Think about that next time your server asks you what you'd like to drink with your meal.

I just finished reading this book, and I just wanted to share a few thoughts.  Lately I've been on a mission to define myself.  I think a lot of people just go through life doing what they think they are supposed to do while never stopping to think about what it is they are doing.  I refuse to be a lemming. 

For a software developer, The 4-Hour Workweek is impossible.  It is impossible because software development takes a lot of time.  If you really like coding, then you are going to spend your time doing that.  That's not a bad thing, and that fact certainly shouldn't stop someone from reading this book.  There are a lot of things to take from the book about minimalist living, organization, and time management.

What I took from this book is an awareness of what I'm doing with my time.  Life is too short to go through the motions doing things you don't enjoy doing.  A lot of unpleasant things are unnecessary or can be delegated to others.   By doing some self-evaluation, I realize that there are things I do just for the sake of taking up time.  There is a lot of noise that can be avoided in life.  For example: I know that there is no point in checking my email so frequently, yet I do it anyway.  I think I can better focus the use of my time just from taking an information detox. 

So, software developer or not, I recommend that you read this book.  Maybe it will motivate you to pursue the things that make you happy.   Life is too short to waste on trivial and unimportant things.

I started off July at 276 pounds and immediately shot up for the month.  I don't recall anything out of the ordinary at the beginning of the month to cause the jump. I suspect that my body was just leveling off from the sharp weight decline that happened in June.  The blue line is the moving average, and that is a better indicator of my weight through the month.

I'm starting August at 275 lbs, which is nowhere near my goal for the month.  I'm a little disappointed, because I felt like I did good for my diet and exercise overall.  Despite what the scale says, I have noticed some changes in my body that are encouraging.  I noticed that I'm in size 40 pants instead of 44 and I'm in XL shirts instead of XXL.  Also, I'm down 3 notches on my belt, one of which happened in July. 

Things are definitely changing, but they just aren't changing fast enough for my likes.  At least the graph is showing a downward trend.  When August ends, I want to be down to 270 lbs.  I don't want the 270's to be as stubborn as the 280's.  I have a lot of ground to make up if I'm going to reach my goals for the year.