Well, I was hoping to have interesting items to post by now. Alas, such is not the case.
I spent the weekend not smoking. Read a bit (quite a bit) and contemplated directing my body to the fitness room....................and that's as far as I got.
I am monitoring my weight - secondary to the not smoking. I'm ten pounds up since my last Navy weigh-in and another one looms in April with the physical fitness assessment in May. That means a combinatiion of situps, pushups (which I've NEVER been able to properly perform), and a 1.5 mile walk/run in 17.75 minutes.
I have only a year and a half to go with this nonsense - at one time, personnel over the age of 50 were excluded from the physical testing aspect though still had to conform to height/weight standards. The exclusion was rescinded five years ago but rumor has it that it may be reinstated. I hope that happens while I can benefit. In the meantime, I must get back on the treadmill. I can't understand why I'm so reluctant to follow through when I know that I feel so much better and energetic when I am exercising regularly. What is the problem?
Blog day # Two.........
This AM was interesting. I had an appointment at the Research Center on Chicago's North Side to be screened for a Smoking Cessation Study involving a patch.
In late Fall, Margaret and I had made a pact to quit smoking - together. The first stop smoking date came and went with me having stopped and with Margaret having not. And so, feeling lonely in the attempt, I stopped stopping on my initial attempt. Our second defined stop-date was 01DEC02..............but that date did not work well with Margaret's social plans and, though I had stopped smoking (Yes, AGAIN!) on the assigned date, when I learned that Margaret had not, I promptly resumed my habit in anticipation of the next scheduled stop date. I'm beginning to sound like an idiot, even to me.
The third, and final stop smoking date as far as I was concerned, was the first day of January, 2003. I did stop on that day. Then, I heard an ad on the radio soliciting study subjects for smoking cessation. I thought participating in such a study might support my determination and I could always use the offered $300.00. I had been smoke free since 01/01/03, if you don't count the three puffs I enjoyed when I discovered an extinguished butt in an ashtray.
Well, in the end, I was eliminated from participation. I had to breath into some sort of breathalyzer. Passing score was ten; after two tries, my better was only a four. My breath was too clean. I should have continued the nasty, odorous, filthy and expensive habit just two more weeks! There is another study for which passing that damn breathing test is not a factor - they will call me. Since I was already there, at the Research Center, I enquired about potential weight-loss studies...........my name/number are on file. I guess I'm on my own. Margaret continues to not stop.
Tonight is the first Legal Aspects of Healthcare class night. I think this will be an interesting class..................only 21 credit hours left to satisfy the requirements for a Bachelor in Health Administration. To prepare for tonight's class, I have to read two chapters in the text. I am off to do that now.
Today is my first blog day. It is proving difficult. I had four descriptive paragraphs and tried to check spelling. All but my first sentence disappeared. I hunted around and now that sentence has also vanished.
I will create more tomorrow - this day's offering did not have great content anyway. Maybe utilizing the "save" feature before doing anything else is the way to go.