I sometimes like to run experiments in real time on social media. Some are to get reactions to single posts. Sometimes I play the long game.
Three years ago this month I wrote a column about a habit I had established a year earlier. Taking a cue from former UGA football standout turned ESPN star announcer David Pollack, I had decided to commit to his 30-day “Every Day Counts” challenge. While at the gym for the first time in… too long, I committed to doing 30 minutes of exercise a day for 30 consecutive days.
A year later, I hadn’t missed a day. Now four years later, the streak is still intact. This includes the Covid shutdown, my own case of Covid, a surgery, and countless numbers of “routine” sinus infections. Daily exercise is now a firmly established habit and priority.
One of the bargains I made with myself when realizing I was actually committing to this journey was that – as a lover of good food in both quantity and quality – if I wanted to continue to eat well then exercise had to be part of the deal. While my weight has had its ups and downs over the past four years, I’m down a net of about 45 pounds.
Still, there are ebbs and flows. At times the exercise intensity has diminished, and the good food habits constantly battle the urge for burgers and fried foods.
While my last few physicals have been quite positive, one checkup showed my cholesterol had crept up to the borderline level. Having had one especially bad reading almost 20 years ago which was corrected with a specific diet, I decided that the first few months of this year should be used for a tune up with specific focus on what I was eating.
Starting mid-January, the rules were fairly simple. I found a few articles to refresh my memory of “foods that lower cholesterol”, and built a diet incorporating as many of them as possible into my weekly menu. Fried foods were almost completely eliminated. Red meat was as well.
Losing weight…
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