Changes Required

I’m into my second month here in Texas.

This morning it was announced that Joe Biden accumulated enough Electoral College votes to win the 2020 Presidential election. Everybody is cheering. Or, at least everybody on the Blue side of the aisle is cheering. Now, we have to wait and see if the Electoral College process will follow the popular vote. There is a chance it could be sabotaged, but if that were to occur, it would, in all likelihood, mean the end to the United States of America as we know it today.

Back to me.

I’ve been goofing off, big time. I’ve been spending hours here on my laptop wasting precious time. Changes need to be made in my life. After all, I’m in the sunset years of my life. I’m not healthy. I’m overweight, technically obese. I have CKD (chronic kidney disease). I have high blood pressure. I need to lose weight. I need to get more exercise. Yes, I have neuropathy and my feet hurt. Yes, I have arthritic knees and ankles making it difficult to walk. Yes, I eat all the wrong things. But I need to get more exercise or my next address will be a plot at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.

The Plan:

Get to a gym and get more exercise. Twenty to twenty-five minutes on a bike with heart rate at least 115 bpm. Then weights for an additional twenty minutes. Do that at least four days a week and I should be on my way to better health.

Add good food to my diet. Start cooking more food. Reduce amount of packaged food. Significantly reduce the amount of bad food in my diet. Yummy stuff is okay in moderation. Severe moderation is needed right now.

Spend less bad time on the computer. Look at the news and then move on. Work on my stories. At least 1,500 words a day should be sufficient. More is okay, if the creative juice flow warrants such an adjustment to time spent writing. Limit YouTube videos to no more than two hours a day. Less is better.

Get back to reading. I’ve been buying books like mad. I need to be spending more time reading them. Less time on the computer should avail more time reading.

Get out more. Yes, it hurts to walk, but I need to get out. Of course, with COVID-19 going wild it’s not a good idea to be out around other people. That is no reason to go to a park and walk as much as I can tolerate. After all, there’s a park with walking trails across the street. There are 118 acres of parkland in Plano and more within 20 miles.

That looks like a good plan. Now, all I have to do is implement it. After all, the choice is to have a long and fruitful time in my final years here on Planet Earth or not. The choice is mine.