Time to get "Enough Sleep"

And yes, I thought that concept was important enough to rate both capital letters and quotes. "Enough Sleep" for me means, what, 8 hours? We'll start with that. Sunday I'll go to bed at 11pm and get up at 7am, which is a distinct difference from going to bed at 1am and getting up at 7am, then going back to bed at 8am, after I drop the kids off at school.

I don't expect to get 8 hours on Sunday. I expect to flop around until about 1am, then go to sleep. But if I go back to bed on Monday, I'll just be prolonging the cycle. Therefore, I may be a zombie for the next few days. I may not blog regularly next week, which is not any real change, since I'm blogging irregularly now.

I have been a night owl since I was, what, in 10th grade? I will remind my gentle readers that I'm adding this to my regimen not because I think getting up early in the morning is healthy, wealthy, or wise, but because conventional wisdom demands it, and that come January 1, 2011, I can quit doing it if I want to. Well, not really. I still have to drive the kids to school. I've always kind of despised early mornings, but maybe there's some hidden benefit there that I haven't found yet. Frankly, I doubt that, but let's explore it, shall we?

I look good naked!

Well, I do. Not sure if it's because of the water, or what. I seem to have a healthy pale glow, rather than a Mr. Burns-type pallor. Of course, it could be the mirrors and lighting at home. I still look like shit in the Kohl's dressing rooms.

I also used to have some peeling skin on my feet. Not like "lizard boy" amounts, but a little. And that's gone. Whether it's due to hydration or the Aveda foot lotion, I'm not sure, but I like the result. We had some prescription anti-fungal cream leftover from a recent bout with a dermal fungal infection, and with the help of The Google, I found out it was most commonly prescribed for athlete's foot. So I used up the rest of the tube on my feet, and think I've finally kicked the athlete's foot that has plagued me since I was 12. The same stuff turns out to be the basis for hair-restorative Rogaine, but unfortunately there wasn't enough left for me to apply to my receding hairline.

Anyway, I should be in great shape, come sandal season.

One unfortunate side-effect of the hydration is that I have to pee a lot. Like every hour. This would be great, if I were in an office setting and could get paid for peeing. Unfortunately, I'm driving around in my car, and either have to find a convenient rural area or stop at a gas station. Since I have this weird fetish about not using a gas station restroom unless I actually buy something there, I kind of have to pre-plan my stops. "Crap, I have to pee again. What do I need? I got cigarettes last time. More water? Yeah, I can buy a bottle of water." This is starting to run into money...

Me, My Son, and Oblivion

So my son is playing Oblivion, which is a 4-year-old RPG for XBox 360, PC, and PS3. I'm playing it too, after a hiatus of about a year and a half, because we ("we" meaning "I") got a new XBox 360 Elite for Christmas, and he asked me, "Dad, if you get another 360, can I make a character on Oblivion?" And I said "sure", not really expecting that I'd get one any time soon, but I did, so he plays.

So he's going through this one part of the main quest, which involves going into this cave full of fanatical cult members, and pretty much you have to kill them all. Well, I came home tonight at 7:50pm, just to change clothes so I could go meet Haberman in Mankato to pick up his paperwork. And he's in the middle of this cavern, no healing potions, chased by 10 bad guys. And he's super frustrated. And I try to help him out of this impossible situation, and I get his character killed, and he goes to bed still frustrated. I jumped in once already to bail him out, and those results were short-lived.

So work with me, here, the allegory is coming. So I'm like, "Son, you should always be carrying about twice the number of healing potions you think you'll need," and he's like, "Dad, it's not fair. You got to this point and this other point in the quest when you were level 1, and I'm level 11." And I said, "Son, you wouldn't believe the number of hours I've *already* put in on this game, like well over 100." And I got to thinking about the game as an allegory for life, and my current experiment with doing healthy things.

I've tried to tell my son the things to do in the game to be successful, like picking all kinds of plants to make potions, repairing armor after each battle, and so forth. And he keeps ignoring what I tell him, and going on his own way, lah-dee-dah. Because even though he knows I'm better at the game than him, his ego still gets in the way, and he wants to screw around and do things his own way. And I'm thinking, "Wow, this must be how my own father felt when I wanted to buy a car, or make a career choice, or date someone." He's put in all these hours, knows the game better than I do, but still I have to be a dick and ignore his advice, and find out for myself.

Well, if I hadn't done so, I never would have learned anything. I remember Eirik trying to walk for the first time, falling down, crying, frustrated, but he kept at it and eventually pulled it off. I'm not sure that I could've passed him any information that would've been helpful at the time, like "lean forward". When it was important enough for him to walk, he figured it out. And likewise with Oblivion. And the rest of his life. Forget the ego that says "you suck", or "you can't handle this", lean forward, and walk.

But damn, it's hard to sit back, as a father, and let him get his bumps and bruises, either in real life or on video.

Achievement unlocked

I made the appointment for an oral surgeon exam today, then one a week later to get the dreaded wisdom teeth out. The exam is on Feb. 16th, and the actual surgery is on the 23rd. Lori said to make sure and get it done early in the week so that if I have any complications, I can call them up and yell at them. Well, make nonsensical noises while drooling at them. I'd better get good pain meds out of this deal, as I hate dentists and have a low pain tolerance.

All my pint glasses are in the dishwasher, so I'm drinking water out of a German beer mug and trying to figure out how many ounces are in .51 liters. OK, the conversion calculator says I need to drink 1.9 L, which seems like an awful lot, but there we are.

Jason Frazier is good-naturedly bugging me to quit smoking (he recently quit, and I think just wants company being miserable), and I told him "soon". I think the next thing I'm going to work on, though, is "getting enough sleep", meaning 8 hours, I suppose. That means bedtime at 11pm on weeknights. Weekends will be a little trickier, since nobody knows when the kids will come in the bedroom and poke me in the eye.

Still flossing, haven't backslid yet. I like the added discipline of having to report back to my mystery readers.

How healthy do I feel? 6
How happy am I? 6
Weight today as 146 lbs.

Oops

OK, so shortly after promising to update every day, I miss 4 days. I'm a work in progress, people. Still doing the hydrating, and today was my 4th day of flossing. This has extended by 3 minutes my current bathroom routine:

1. Rinse mouth with 50/50 hydrogen peroxide and water solution.
2. Brush teeth.
3. Removal of callouses with ped-egg 1x week.
   
4. Facial cleanser (we were using Olay, but we replenished our favorite from Merle Norman).
5. Facial scrub 2x week.
6. Shave 3x week, in shower, using Coochie shave cream from Pure Romance (great stuff!)
7. Wash body with either Caress soap or their new body wash.
8. Shampoo and condition with Pantene.
9. Merle Norman toner on face to help moisturizer work better.
10. Olay moisturizer.
11. Olay anti-aging skin rejeuvenator & wrinkle cream.
12. Aveda foot lotion on feet, immediately covered by socks.
13. Style hair 3x week, or throw in ponytail 4x week.
14. I had been plucking my eyebrows, too, but I think I'll go in for a wax.

So for cosmetic health, I'm all over it; it's the actual health I have problems with.
How healthy do I feel: 5
How happy am I: 5
Empty weight today was 147

Huffpost bloggers do the sleep challenge

Arianna Huffington and Cindi Leive have started trying to get enough sleep as a New Year's resolution. Since this is on my "to do" list also, I thought it was interesting to read their comments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/sleep-challenge-2010-the_b_414404.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cindi-leive/sleep-challenge-2010-thre_b_415033.html

They talk about still being on the phone with their editors at 10:30 at night, while needing to get up 7 hours later. I do not miss being the boss.

In unrelated news, Lori and I got a little tipsy last night and ordered the Slap Chop. Actually, we didn't want the slap chop, we wanted the Graty that came with it, and we got 2 sets of 2 for $19.95 (plus $7.95 shipping). We already have a chopper from Pampered Chef which looks like the exact same thing, except better quality. And we mostly wanted Graty because of this running joke with Betsy Ruppert and our kids. But it does look like a super-cool cheese grater. And we can re-gift the other stuff.

Anyway, it took probably 15 minutes to place the order, never talking to a human being, but to one of those damned voice-recognition programs. After placing the initial order and taking "normal" shipping (3 to 4 weeks) instead of "expedited" shipping (5 to 8 business days for an additional $5.95), I then got pitched several other products, including Shamwow. If I had a live operator, I would've asked how Vince was healing up after his unfortunate hooker incident, (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0327092sham1.html), but as all I had was a computer on the other end, all I could do was answer "NO" in a loud, robotic voice. I couldn't hang up--I was terrified to hang up. Here was Lori's credit card number, and God alone knew what the machine would do if you disconnected before the program was complete. By hanging up now, you agree to accept delivery of 10,000 Slap Chop machines, with complimentary Gratys.

Anyway, I look forward to getting Graty, and I just might send the other one to Betsy.

How healthy I feel: 6
How happy I feel: 5

I was 145 lbs. (empty) yesterday.

I went shopping with Lori today, got home after picking up Frija, and remembered, "Damnit, I have 2 more pints of water to drink!" So I chugged those down before supper. It's getting to the point now where I reach for water first thing in the morning... Maybe I'll start flossing tomorrow to up the ante a little bit. I can't write about water for the next 51 weeks.

No pop, and how I'm not going to be John's triathalon partner

I haven't had any soda in a week. Has it been a week? Well, since I started this, anyway. I usually have about 3 cans a week, one for each time I'm out working. Since I'm required to drink 64 oz. of water a day, though, I'm usually so busy with the water that it doesn't occur to me to want a soda. So you soda junkies might try the water trick, I guess. If I weren't required to drink it, I might be complaining about how water is boring, but it's really not bad at all. It's not anything. It's water.

John H. asked me on fb if I wanted to start training to be his triathalon partner. Not just "no", but "hell no". I hated running even when my lungs were pink and healthy. And those athletes look awful. Not as disgustingly skinny as marathon runners, but they're getting there. I'm already over-skinny. I heard marathon runners are often forced to poop themselves while they run. Wow, and I thought I was an attention whore. No thanks, I'll be in the bar.

Inspirations for this experiment

A friend of mine called me the other day and asked, "why exactly are you doing this?"

As I mentioned on Facebook, one of the inspirations for this blog was the movie "Julie & Julia", where a fledgling writer and wanna-be chef re-creates each recipe from a Julia Childs cookbook in a year.

Another thing that got me thinking was the nature of addiction, and procrastination. I've quit cigarettes a million times, cold turkey, getting the crankiness, muscle aches, all kinds of stuff. Then I read "Easyway to Quit Smoking" by Allen Carr, and accidentally quit before I finished the book. No withdrawal, no aches, no nothing. Carr maintains, and I agree, that there is no such thing as nicotine addiction, really. You don't get the cold sweats and start vomiting, like with heroin, and any physical symptoms are purely psychosomatic. Carr knows what he's talking about--he smoked for 30 years, and now runs a chain of quit-smoking clinics in Europe with a 99% success rate. Carr maintains that the addiction is all in your head, and that the worst part of breaking the addiction is debating with yourself--"I can quit tomorrow, cigarettes are not that expensive, etc."

Is procrastination an addiction, or should it be dealt with in the same way? Think of all the things we tell ourselves. "I can do it tomorrow," "I need x to do y", and so on. What addiction and procrastination have in common is that we'd like to put off unpleasant things in order to do more fun (or normalized) things. For me, sucking smoke into my lungs is normal. For most people, it's abhorrent.

So my thought for the blog was this: What if we just drop the ego, skip the mental debate, and just do what's good for us? What's hard about that, and why do we never do it? Those damned little voices in our head, promising us salvation, but leading us deeper into the mire--those are what's hard.

Still drinking the water. I was 148 lbs. yesterday.

How healthy I feel (1 being superman and 10 being a zombie): 6

How happy I am (same scale): 6

I'll add another regimen in the next few days. I'm thinking.... flossing.

2 days of hydrating done

...and I'm not really noticing any difference except more frequent pee breaks. Well, I'll keep up with it for the year and see what happens.

A facebook friend called me today, and said that he was unable to comment on my blog without giving tons of information to one of several companies (Google being one of them). My fb friends can feel free to just leave messages on my wall, rather than having to sign up or register...

I'm going to do my best to post to this blog every day, though granted that won't always happen. Because I can't spend the next 2 weeks talking about hydration and how I don't notice the difference, I thought I'd toss out a few ideas for self-experimentation in the upcoming year.

Some of the things I'm going to try in the next 12 months:
* Quit smoking
* Get a physical, including prostate check
* Get my cholesterol checked (I think this is B.S., but who am I to go against conventional wisdom?
* Get my wisdom teeth yanked, root planing on teeth, cleaning, and maybe whitening strips.
* Exercise 3x per week, maybe join Tai Chi.
* Get a facial peel--Sasha swears it will take 10 years off your face.
* Other ideas suggested by readers. Coffee enemas? Vegetarian diet? Green tea instead of coffee?

Day 2: Drinking water

I said I was going to ease myself into this regimen. I've already tried to do various healthful things, but have failed to stick with them; hopefully the added scrutiny of my (so-far nonexistent) readers will keep me going. I decided to start with hydrating. I've got some minor skin issues (dry skin, wrinkles) that I hope this will help with.

A quick search on hydrating gave me the answer that everyone's hydration needs are different, and recommended consumption varied between 1.5 liters and 3 liters a day, depending on body needs and how much liquid is taken in as food. Thanks a lot! I decided to go with the CW of "8 glasses (of 8 oz) per day".

As a beer drinker, I know that a pint glass holds 16 oz, so I'll drink 4 of those per day.

Weight: 145 lbs
How healthy do I feel? 6 (making a healthy decision makes me feel healthier)
How happy am I? 5 (glad to be writing again)

Day One: Baseline

My name is Pete. I live in Minnesota. I'm married with 2 kids. I'm 40 years old. I smoke. I tend toward depression, and self-medicate with alcohol. I don't take drugs, aside from marijuana once or twice a year. I don't get enough sleep, and I rarely drink water. I eat mainly to keep from passing out--I don't really enjoy it. I haven't had a physical in 10 years or more. My wisdom teeth need to come out before I can get needed dental work done, and I haven't been real eager to get them yanked. I'm overdue for my eye exam. I work out 0-2 times a week, mostly squats and lunges so I can have a nice butt.

Height 5'10", weight 145.
How healthy do I feel 1-10? 7 (not very)
How happy am I 1-10? 6

What if everyone else's advice was right?

All my life, I've heard conventional wisdom and ignored it. "Drink 8 glasses of water per day", "eat a balanced meal", "2 glassses of wine a day is good for you", "get enough sleep", and so on. So what would happen if I suddenly started taking this advice, all of it?

I've decided to start a year-long experiment where I start out with the easy things to do, and gradually work my way upward, so at the end of the year, I'm doing all of them. Will I feel any different? Will I be happier? Let's find out.