Friday Morning Light Roast. No coffee review here, just a check-in and a couple updates/thoughts.
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I’m off-cycle with the blog, but there’s good reason. I arrived Hawaii yesterday after a pretty turbulent 10 days of move-prep. It was busy and somewhat painful. But I made it, the family made it, and the dogs and cats made it. As with my previous move from VA to CA, in this move I experienced what I will describe as the moving checklist paradox: as you check things off your to-do list, the list somehow grows rather than shrinks. My final 24 hours before leaving were scramble to get everything done before leaving. I like the excitement of re-locating, but the act of moving itself is generally not like-able, and potentially stressful. It was a good opportunity to practice Stoicism.
Wednesday was a full day prepping the house, the pets, and my luggage until 1am, then put my head down for two hours. Woke at 3am to make sure I was up and the pets were crated and ready for their pickup at 330.
I locked my (former) house in Seaside CA at 5 am on Thursday and drove off. A quick stop at the property management office to drop the keys in the door slot, a Starbucks drive-through, and then off to the airport. A six hour flight from San Jose to Hawaii during which I mostly dozed, and then Allie picked me up on the curb outside baggage claims. We drove to Whole Foods, had lunch at the food bar, then to our new home. It’s a rental property, and we’re on a six month lease, with the option to extend. Two hours after we arrived, a van arrived and dropped off Pig, Bear (our dogs), and our three cats. Pig & Bear were excited to get our of their crates, but mostly excited to get some water. They were very thirsty. (Note: we paid a contract company to move our animals for us. They picked them from my CA house, and delivered them to our HI house about 14 hours later. It’s expensive, but takes much of that nightmare task off my plate. )
Now we are here, it’s quite a relief. The new house is nice, and much bigger than our other place. There’s a fenced in front yard for the dogs, and a nice side yard lawn that Finley can run around on. It’s much greener than CA. The house is mostly empty right now, and will be for the next month or so until our main shipment of stuff arrives. We have an air mattress, some ground-pads, and the basic necessities in the meantime.
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For about a month now I’ve been pretty adherent to a 16-hour intermittent fasting (IF) regimen. I do the 16:8 method, which means that for 16 out of in a 24 hours, you don’t take in any calories. I do cheat a little with one cup of black coffee when I wake up, but black coffee as negligible calories. And I’m not fanatical about it….I’ll hop off the wagon every so often for a social breakfast or something similar, but these are rare exceptions.
It’s only been a month, and its not my first time doing it, but I have a few initial observations.
First: If you stay busy in the mornings, lunchtime comes fast. It’s most difficult if you’re sitting around doing nothing. That’s when the idea of eating creeps to the front of your mind, and then you have to actively fend it off.
Second: It gets easier with time. The first 7-10 days are a little tough, because physiologically and psychologically you are accustomed to eating in the mornings. For me the re-establishment of eating habits and routines takes about 1-2 weeks, and then it is the new normal.
Third: Once you get past this initial break-in period, your energy level throughout the morning and day is either unaffected or increased. About a week ago I deviated from the regimen to have a group breakfast with my old running club, and I felt noticeably sluggish through the late morning and afternoon.
Fourth: You go from the typical three-meals-a-day, to two. This is a 33% decrease in time dedicated to prepping and eating, so it free’s up some time in the day. After you wake up, your focus is on the day ahead, instead of “what’s for breakfast?”
There’s plenty of literature out there, scientific and otherwise, on the benefits of IF. The elevator pitch version is that it puts your body into a fat-burning state daily, moderates insulin sensitivity, and in general gives your digestive tract a “break” so that its not constantly churning food through your system. There is also a mental side of it as well… there’s a little self-discipline (but not too much) involved, which is always a good thing. Lastly, it teaches your body and mind that they are not as food and calorie dependent as many people think they are. I enjoy food as much as the next guy, but it’s good to feel like you’re not a slave to it.
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Unsolicited, un-sponsored, and probably un-read product plug of the week: The Passion Planner. I’m not a super-organized person, and prior to mid-2016 I had never been able to stick with a planner/checklist/time management tool for more than a few weeks or months at a time. A co-worker turned me onto the Passion-planner, which I have used for over a year and a half now. It’s the right level of detail for daily planning, but also has plenty of ‘white-space’ for jotting down random notes and keeping track of to-do lists, fleeting ideas, phone #’s, etc etc. I just got my 2019 edition in the mail a week ago, and it was a life-saver this past week.
Don’t be turned away by the ‘this planner will fix your entire life’ messaging on the website. Despite being peppered with kinda-hokey-but-sometimes-interesting inspirational quotes throughout, they don’t detract or take away from the planner’s utility.
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If anyone was anxiously awaiting my 2018 Year-in-review (which I doubt anyone was)… I apologize for my failure to deliver. I do plan on still finishing it though. The last two weeks have, like I have said, been hectic and I haven’t set aside enough time for writing. I will do it. I don’t want to miss two years in a row.
I’ll try to get back on the Sunday morning schedule this weekend.
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