New Health Program
Tomorrow morning I am "officially" starting my new health regimen. Now, technically speaking, I've been "sneaking up on it" for some time, adopting piecemeal various components. But tomorrow is my scheduled "kickoff"—no cheating, no backsliding, no exceptions, whole-hog looking only forward from here on out. I'm trying to lose (a lot of) weight, improve my stamina and energy levels, improve my appearance, and learn some fun skills. My body is the instrument God gave me for carrying out my calling; I have not taken good care of it for years, so I have been working up this past year toward turning things around. Anyway, here's what it looks like:
Diet
Low in fat and calories, high in fiber, protein and water. Breakfast is 400 calories and under 14g of fat; lunch is under 550 calories and under 18g fat; dinner is 650 calories and 22g fat. There are also one or two snacks during the day/evening, totalling no more than 200 calories and 6g fat. That's a total of 1800 calories and 60g of fat per day. Breakfast is mostly meal-replacement products (e.g. SlimFast), since early morning is my most productive work time and I hate wasting it on food—especially since I don't really enjoy traditional breakfast fare. Lunch during weekdays is often a mix between more high-protein meal replacement stuff and low-fat sandwiches ala SubWay. Weekend lunches and dinner all week long draws alternatingly from home-cooked meals and "healthy" prepackaged convenience foods, depending on my and my family's schedule. Snacks are mostly popcorn and low-fat frozen desserts. Finally, I am taking a multivitamin at bedtime (for good reason), and one alli (over-the-counter orlistat) with almost every meal.
Exercise
I do three sets of pushups the moment I get out of bed, to boost metabalism and build arm, chest and back muscles. At the end of the afternoon, between work and family time I walk 30 or more minutes—in Frick Park or in my neighborhood (Edgewood, PA) when the weather is nice for it, and on a treadmill at a small local fitness club on other days. By the way, I have mastered the art of reading while walking, so this is also a time for me to do either devotional reading of the Word or (occasionally) professional development reading. Bedtime I do between 15 and 45 minutes of Taiji Quan (a.k.a. Tai Chi Chuan). All this is seven days per week. Also, I am now taking Taiji classes on Monday and Thursday nights, after the kids are in bed. I plan on going down to just one class per week in August, when I will be adding in one or two classes per week of Kendo. (Eventually, I hope to spnd time in the next five years studying Taiji, Kendo and Tae Kwon Do; in particular I am fascinated with the different approaches each martial art takes with regard to the sword.)
Sleep
Tuesday through Sunday my alarm goes off at 6 a.m. Monday night through Saturday night, another alarm (on my phone/pda) reminds me to go to bed at 10 p.m., although I often ignore it. Sunday night / Monday morning is stay up late / sleep in late time. I try to read for half an hour every night, rotating through serially the Word, reading various non-fiction books for professional development, and reading an occasional novel just for fun.
Work
There's a lot of variation right now. Once school begins in September, my teaching schedule will force some changes as well as more overall rigidity, but for now here's what I (mostly) am doing. Tuesdays I work in the office in the church; it's our senior pastor's day off, and a time for me to catch up on email, touch base with folks on the phone, check in on my denomination's listserv for priests, tackle long-term writing projects, etc. Wednesday through Friday I work in my home office up on the third floor of our house; these days are dedicated to sermon development, spiritual growth campaign work, outreach projects, and other long-term tasks. Also, Wednesday nights are frequently church meeting nights, and I have various pastoral duties that have me out and about town in unpredictable ways Tuesday through Thursday. (Fridays are protected time for in-office work, unless there's an emergency in someone's life.) Saturday is family time, although Saturday night I will often retire to my home office for a bit of sermon prep—what some call "internalizing", and others might call "practicing", although it's not necessarily either. Sundays I preach; on those days I don't preach (not many this summer) I make room for a little extra prayer and devotional reading. When I finish preaching and socializing, I rejoin my family at home for lunch, then go up to my office to upload sermons to websites and then to do some reading towards a future sermon. I also use this time to decompress, play guitar, daydream, and so on. (By the way, I am also spending about 15 minutes per day in structured guitar practice.) Monday is a total blow-off day. It's the "second" day of my weekend, since Sunday doesn't count as a day off. I sleep in, play trains with my two-year old, go to the pool, emotionally unwind and mentally return to neutral stillness in preparation for the week that is about to start (on Tuesday).
I'm thinking of adding even more structure to the work week. It'd be nice to say "Thursdays are for pastoral visits", for instance, but from my experience the life of an outreach coordinator / assistant to the pastor has too many tiny moving parts (controlled by other people) to make that work.
So why am I sharing this? In part to get it down in writing for my own benefit. In part because I know I was often curious as a theological school student to know how ordained men spent their time. Hope I didn't bore you too much.