There’s some interesting things I want to talk about, but before I do, I feel like I need to spend at least a little bit of time catching up.

I want to make my life better. I hope I made that clear yesterday. It’s not a New Year’s Resolution thing, but I am using the new year as motivation for making positive changes. Maybe it is a New Year’s Resolution thing, but I’m going to insist it isn’t because New Year’s Resolutions statistically fail, whereas making small lifestyle adjustments is how you make lasting change.

Here is a list that is The State of Brian, which will give us a starting point. Before you can change something, you have to know what it is first.

• The scales say I’m 227lbs. Last year, I started off around this weight and lost around 20lbs. Things got crazy, I quit caring about my health or what I look like, and I gained all the weight back.
• My hair is longer than ever. I don’t hate it.
• I haven’t written anything new in a couple months.
• I withdrew from everyone.
• I’ve been playing a lot of video games.
• Doomscrolling. So much doomscrolling.
• I take naps, now. I’ve never been a napper, but now I seem to nap every day.
• I’m not sleeping that well at night. I don’t think it’s because I’m napping, but I do think I’m napping because I’m not sleeping well.

Here are the changes I’m trying to make.

• Melissa and I are both doing a low-carb diet. This is how I lost a ton of weight when I was in my thirties, and again in my mid-forties. It mostly involves means I eat less bread and pasta and certain starches. I can eat pretty much whatever for breakfast, then it’s low carb, simple foods for lunch and dinner.
• I dusted off my Meta Quest 2 and got on the exercise bike this evening. My legs are jelly and I’m drenched with sweat, but it wasn’t bad. This is probably an every-other-day activity until I’m in better shape.
• I weight myself today. I had not been on the scale since May or June last year. I plan on weighing every week.
• When I got to my desk this morning, I made a list of activities to accomplish before bed time. I used to do this all the time, and I’m more productive and more active when I make a list like this. The list today included: blog post, exercise, write for 30 minutes, read for 30 minutes, and one of my work tasks I’ve been putting off.
• I received a Sodastream for Christmas, so I’m making my own bubbly water and dabbling with various flavors left over from when I was making my own Soylent. Ultimately, this is getting me to drink more water.

Am I addressing all of the things I want to change? No, not yet. But I’m setting modest goals and taking actions within my means to address most of the things. If I stick with the diet and exercise, my weight will go down again. When I weigh less, I might sleep easier at night, and not need to nap as much during the day. When I’m less tired, I may have a greater outlook and spend time with friends again.

I don’t think the doomscrolling is going to go away, though, because we still live in the worst timeline. But hey. Maybe getting healthier, writing, and putting more positivity back into the world is how we win.