Tag Archives: lifestyle

In preparation

How much time do we spend in preparation for something that is coming up? A simple example is a meal, and all the prep work that needs to be done before the meal is made. There is also tidy up time before guests arrive, reading to do before a meeting, personal grooming, and travel time. It occurred to me that we spend a lot of time preparing for events, and in some cases we spend more time in preparation than we do at the actual event we prepared for.

Two thoughts come to mind. First, we ought to find joy in preparation. Cooking is an excellent example of this, it’s not just the consuming of the final product but the joy of getting all the ingredients cut and cooked that we can savour. Can a fun event start for us as we shower and shave, and get ourselves ready? If we are going to spend so much of our lives in preparation for something upcoming, how can we find more joy in this time?

The second thought is about daily exercise. When we aren’t athletes training for, preparing for, an upcoming event, how do we perceive such activity? Exercise is really just preparation for a better tomorrow. It is the accumulation of a healthy lifestyle that pays dividends in the future. It is the preparation for a future life that is more active and vibrant than a sedentary life would promise.

We spend a lot of time in preparation for something else, this preparation time is an opportunity to find joy, to feel accomplishment, and not just a chore to get through on the way to something else. Cooking prep isn’t work, it’s putting love into the food you make for people you care about. Workouts are work, and if done right they are hard, but you can find joy in pushing yourself to new goals, and feel the endorphins a good workout can bring. Life is not about preparation for other things, life is found in the preparation.

24 years ago

On the 26th of August 1997 I proposed to my wife. Today we celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. If I were to pick something as my best life decision my proposal to Ann would be it. I remember when we started dating, I was talking to my mom on the phone and told her, “I think I met the girl I’m going to mary, she just doesn’t know it yet.” And while I try to be the best husband I can be, my wife is giving and caring in a way I always aspire to be.

I am blessed, and I hope the next 24 years bring as much or more joy to me, to us, that we have had in the last quarter century. We live in an amazing country with fantastic opportunities for us and our kids. We have two amazing kids that are delightful to watch grow up, and who have grown into fantastic young women. We have great jobs that we love, and a beautiful home. And we have great friends that we both enjoy being around.

Today I don’t just celebrate my anniversary, I celebrate the wonderful lives my wife and I have built together.

Interval Training

The Humbling Lesson

Any regular reader of Daily Ink would know that I’ve been on a health kick since January 2019. After 2-and-a-half years I thought I was in good shape. Well, I just got home from my second morning of playing water polo at Sasamat lake and I realize that I need to reconsider my training regimen. It was humbling playing with players who were mostly between 6 and 20 years older than me and feeling so exhausted so quickly.

The Lesson

My philosophy of 20 minutes of cardio 5-7 times a week has been great. It has proved ‘enough’ insomuch as when I’ve gone on a long hike or bike ride or even a long jog, I’ve been able to keep going as if I trained much more. However water polo and similar games (like basketball) are a different beast. The sprints become anaerobic, the starts and stops are erratic, and the simple cardio I do did nothing to prepare me for a couple days of playing water polo. I was exhausted through the entirety of both practices and now I’m sore in places I forgot I had. 🤣

The Wisdom of Age

A decade ago I would have solved this by trying to add another few workouts in each week. I would have done that for a few weeks, got busy, then fallen off of the training. However, I think I can maintain my current workouts but put some interval training into them. I can go on the bike or treadmill for a few minutes of warmup then do 1 or 2 minute intervals of fast and slow paces, followed by a cooldown. Basically just change what I’m doing rather than how long I’m doing it. And… and this is the important thing, I don’t have to go all-out! I’m just diversifying my fitness level and capabilities.

Lifestyle Health

The focus of my fitness has not been to bulk up. I’m not training for an event. I’m trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The lesson I received over the last couple days is that I could adjust my workouts a bit and be more versatile in my overall fitness. I don’t have to go crazy and change things up a lot, I don’t have to put myself in jeopardy of injury by changing my workouts significantly, I can improve my ability to do things like join a Masters team and play water polo, or join a pickup game of basketball, with a much greater chance of doing so injury free.

It’s my goal that I can be like Gabor, one of the guys on the the Calgary team we trained with. Gabor is 74, healthy, and sharp. I can tell in the short time I met him that he is healthy in body, mind, and spirit. I want my current lifestyle to allow me to get in and play water polo with guys my current age when I’m his age. It starts with a commitment to work out regularly, and it seems that it should include a bit of interval training along the way!

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Practicing the power play

Ross and I getting a few seconds rest during the scrimmage.

Morning stretch

I’ve never been someone who stretches as much as I should. With all the challenges I’ve had with my back, this has been less than ideal. Recently I’ve started going back to a physiotherapist because my lower back has been aching in a way that I know IMS, intramuscular stimulation, will help. The physiotherapist gave me a set of stretches to do for my hips and hamstrings, and I’ve done them religiously ever since.

The one thing that helped me do these is music. I have a playlist called Enya Stretch and it’s 10 minutes long. I listen to ‘My! My! Time Flies!’ twice, once for each leg, then ‘Only Time’. A former student asked if my stretches looked like this:

https://twitter.com/laefk/status/1555598193622077442?s=21&t=byE0vfyJOu-PZgA2dsNwiA
They look nothing like that, but I find it funny that the song from that commercial is the same ‘Only Time’ from Enya that I listen to when doing some of my stretches. That said, my splits look more like an equilateral triangle than a straight line.

Still, the point isn’t to become Jean-Claude Van Damme flexible, it’s to reduce the ache I feel when I stiffen up, and to reduce the future pain I know that’s in store for me unless I improve my flexibility.

Having a 10 minute playlist really helps. Without it, I’d either rush the stretches, or skip them. Knowing that this is only 10 minutes long makes me realize that I can find the time. The transitions in the songs become queues to let me know that I need to hold a stretch longer and push me to eke a bit more of a stretch out in the last few seconds. And the process feels more like meditation than stretching… which is great because I’ve never really enjoyed stretching.

I finally have a morning stretch routine that I’m sticking to, and I’m sure that future me will be very thankful for the time I’m putting in now to care for my back. Just 10 minutes a day, but hopefully years of flexibility and agility ahead.

Roughing it

Roughing it means something totally different as you get older. I used to camp on the ground, in a tent. Then we started bringing an inflatable bed. Now we are renting a trailer that will be dropped off at the campsite for us… this is the third time we are doing this, and it’s as rough as we might get for a while.

I’ve been camping, years ago, where we had to carry everything in and out, and pump water through a filter in streams and add a couple drops of iodine to purify it so we can drink it. Then with kids we used to bring a foldable kitchen sink with us to make meal prep easier in drive-in campsites. Now we don’t camp anywhere that doesn’t have taps nearby and washrooms with showers.

Maybe some day I’ll do a big trip where I really rough it again, but for now, roughing it includes a fair bit of luxury, and I’m happy to enjoy the comforts… I’m still going to a campground and not a hotel so in my books, I’m still roughing it.

Routine woes

It’s the last day of school for teachers, and although I will be in next week I’ve already started to alter my early morning schedule. No workout this morning and the latest I’ve written for this blog on a school day since I started writing daily in the summer of 2019.

This is a bit of a wake up call for me. My pattern for workouts and meditation start to fall apart in the summer when I break my work routine. I don’t want that to happen (again) this summer so I’m going to need to build in a regular routine that works. I used to think routines were boring, now I realize they help me get stuff done.

One routine I broke this year is archery. I haven’t shot arrows in a couple months. I haven’t been upset about it, I let it go because everything felt overwhelming and I decided writing, fitness, and meditation were more important. I hope to build archery back into my summer routine… I just need to figure out what that routine will look like.

I’ve got one more week to figure it out.

Over tired

I crashed and burned when I got home yesterday. Just felt wiped out. Slept for a couple hours on the couch and now it’s after midnight and I can’t sleep.

Two more school days, then another week to clean up and prep for next year. Then my holidays begin. Until then, I need to keep a better pattern of sleep.

I’ve done a lot to take care of myself the last few years and sleep needs to be the next thing I figure out. I used to live easily on 5-6 hours sleep but I need more now, and I’m not getting it. I need to figure out a sleep pattern that is healthy and works for me. And that should start with me not looking at my screen so late… and on that note, it’s time to get some shut-eye!

In debt we trust

If there is one thing you can bank on, it’s that people will spend more than they have. Most people live beyond their means. Maybe they have a savings account, and maybe that savings account is growing… But then a purchase is made: a bigger house, a new car, a renovation, a medical expense, a car repair, a new furnace, a high definition TV, a fabulous new outfit, a vacation… and then the savings account diminishes, and it’s time to go (further) into debt.

I received this add from my bank yesterday:

What’s the message? Today is a great day to meet your shopping goals! Translation: Purchase on borrowed money, and take your time paying it back. Buy, buy, buy, by borrowing, borrowing, borrowing, sending you deeper and deeper into debt. It’s easy, so go ahead and spend money you don’t have.

The thing about this advertisement is that it’s not selling you any one product, it’s selling you a lifestyle where you can live in greater debt. It’s selling you ‘affordable’ interest. It’s selling you a pattern of lifetime debt. Buy now, pay later, and keep paying.

That savings account you once used to build, now grows only immediately after a salary cheque… then each month instalment payments on debt, added to monthly expenditures, eats away any hope of savings. But don’t worry, you’ll find away to almost pay for the next big purchase. Almost. And your bank will lend you just a little more to pay it off. And then you can set your own pace to pay it off. The slower you go, the more you pay, the less you have to accumulate savings… The more you go into debt after that next big purchase.

Welcome to the endless cycle of debt.

An extra day

This past weekend was a 3-day weekend, and it was wonderful to get the extra day off. I feel like I had a holiday. It’s amazing the difference between a two-day and a three-day weekend. If I were ever to start a company, I think I’d institute a 4-day work week.

I’m looking forward to work today. I feel well rested. I have thought about some goals I really want to get to. I finished an audio book that I had about 10 hours to listen to at the start of the weekend.

How different would life be if the work week was just 4 days long? Would people be more productive either at work or at home? Would happiness be greater or would people fall into a similar pattern of happiness that we have now? What would a world with 4 day weeks do to the overall creativity expressed by people?

I’d love to see an entire country try this out. I think the first thing you’d notice is positive immigration… I know I’d like to live there!

50 is the new 30

When I was a kid, I’d watch TV and the grandmother in her 60’s would be hobbling with a cane, and grandad wore a hat that only old people wear.

When I was 25, I moved to Vancouver. At the time my dad was 46 or 47 and I used to call him ‘my old man’.

Today my brother-in-law turned 50. He and my sister have always been the young, hip family, and now he has joined us ‘old folks’ in their 50’s. But they are still young at heart… and so are we! Although my hairline might disagree, and I’m now needing glasses to look at my phone and read the already-too-large font, I have a hard time seeing myself as old.

50 is the new 30. Does this sound cliche? Yes. Do I care? No.

My in-laws are celebrating their 60th anniversary in a few days. My wife and I celebrated our 23rd yesterday. As we look at old photos and reminisce, I don’t look back and think the best years have happened already. Life may be short, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fill the time we have left with new adventures, joy, and activities that keep us feeling young.

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Update for those of you that watched Three’s Company growing up: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMR66HGfT/