Did some math this morning that kind of shook me. When my daughter coming in November turns 18, I’ll be 62. When I’m 70, she’ll only be 26. If I’m blessed enough to make it to 80, she’ll be 36. 😳 I had my grandpa in my life into my 40s. My dad isn’t even 70 yet. Having a kid this late in life already changes your perspective, but realizing 70 is now less than 30 years away really hit me. That doesn’t feel like a huge amount of time anymore, especially with how fast the last 20 went. And that’s assuming I’m lucky enough to get all of those years. F-N-A!

I made a proper gentleman’s chili for dinner

Before posting on X trying to impress strangers, have you impressed yourself yet? 👀

Lunch at work today: meatballs, carrots, and mashed potatoes. I’ve spent way too much time investigating foods that reheat well.

Thursday night pasta bowl: spaghetti, red bell pepper sauce, green beans, chicken, Italian parsley, and Parmesan cheese on top.

Honing those Italian roots tonight.

I let my priorities get out of whack today. Nothing terrible, but I was late picking up my son from pre-K, which comes with a hearty $15 fine, believe it or not. I was about five minutes late and called to let them know. It was okay. We know the teacher, and another kid kicked my boy in the face yesterday, and I was pretty cool about that, so maybe they owe me one. The cause was me being too polite in a situation I should have walked away from. I spend too much time worrying about being rude to strangers and not enough time protecting my own time. The morning was busy but manageable. An hour on the treadmill, some arms and light shoulders, drop my son at pre-K, get my daughter ready, bring my wife a coffee at work, then get my daughter to school. We were early, so I had 40 minutes to get groceries across the street and make it to pick my son up. I was headed to the register with 30 minutes to spare. It takes about 20 minutes to get to his school, so I was good. Then a man stopped me, pointed at the chicken thighs in my cart, and said, “I’m trying to expand my horizons on cooking. Do you mind telling me how you cook those?” This is maybe one thing I’ve put enough hours into to be an expert on, chicken thigh cooking, so I gave him the quick and dirty version. Then he spoke again. And again. And again. And again. And here I was, with someone who has nowhere to be. I looked him over as he talked. He looked like he hadn’t showered all week, with literal dirt on his clothes. This guy was unloading on me about mitochondria and fasting. He sounded like a guy who just heard his first Joe Rogan podcast. I’m holding my phone in my hand, mentally counting the minutes while I utter words like, “Sure.” This man has imprisoned me. I’m stuck in niceness mode, not even wanting to look at my phone because that could seem rude. Meanwhile, my son is in the back of my mind. Red alert is going off in my head. I finally looked at the time and realized I was F’ed. I said, “Dude, I have to run.” He kept talking. I sprinted to the register, speed-paid for my items, and drove unreasonably fast while trying to dial the school. This wasn’t an end-of-the-world dilemma. My son was fine, the school was fine, and I got there only a few minutes late. Maybe the guy was just lonely and wanted to talk. I’d really like to have the time and energy to be a good person about that, but I’m trying to manage my own health and BS while raising two, soon to be three kids, and trying to be the best husband I can be. I’m not the America of the 1800s. Please don’t send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. I can’t handle it. New firm policy: if you can’t be bothered to take a shower, I can’t take the risk of getting stuck with your problems. I made a country omelette to try and reset the day.

Popular opinion: Chili is hot, wet slop that requires too much prep time and too many extras to make good.

How do you all reference old posts? I see people pulling posts from years back. Is there a trick I’m missing? I was thinking about making bookmark folders to categorize my posts and make them easier to review. 🤷‍♂️

Getting the workout in has been a little tricky lately. I’ve struggled to get more than five hours of sleep for the last few years. For whatever reason, I’ve been getting blessed with 6.5 lately, so I’m taking it and fighting my way through the workouts when I can. Today took three different sessions, but we got it in. Shoulders, squats, and an hour walk.

The good news: I got up early and got 6,000 steps and a lift in. The bad news: my son is sick and out of school. He’s made it 8 out of 9 days so far. Last week my daughter was sick, and she’s made it 12 out of 14 days. I’m not sure why these kids are always sick. I think I missed eight days total from kindergarten through 12th grade. It doesn’t seem like it’s just mine either. Feels like there are a couple kids out every day in my daughter’s class.

The kids lunches this week got a little thrown out of whack. This was not the plan. I wasn’t at my home store, panicked, and just started throwing crap in the cart. Anyway, they got Italian sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls, blueberries, little Ritz crackers with cheese, and a fun-size Hershey’s. My wife’s lunches went to plan. She has baked ziti. I tried one spoonful and it nearly made me give up all my fitness goals, but I shook it off. She’s lucky. Naturally fit Scandinavian who can get away with eating whatever she wants.

The best way to find a smaller contractor, plumber, electrician etc, is to sit in the Home Depot parking lot and write down the names and numbers on the vans.

For those who don’t use a fitness tracker, I’ve found this to be pretty consistent: 20 minutes of walking at a normal pace = roughly 2,000 steps. And it scales pretty well from there. About 60 minutes of normal walking = roughly 6,000 steps.

I’ve decided to cut running from my workouts and go back to walking. Not because walking is superior or because I think running made me gain weight. My results started moving in the wrong direction around the time I started running, and I think it’s because I broke the super-consistent, successful pattern I had for cutting weight. When I was cutting weight last year, I was getting 6,000 steps before 8am. A run doesn’t get me close to that yet. I also noticed more hunger, less water, and more cravings for carbs than protein. Diet is my biggest battle. I’m a good cook and I love to eat, which is not a great combination when I’m trying to cut weight. There’s been plenty of stress and life chaos since May too. But I’ve been over 200 since late July and need to lock in. Back to walking, lifting, and a couple 25-minute HIIT days, with one full rest day. Goal is 185 by Thanksgiving at the latest.