Spring Cleaning!

Winters are pretty much crap in Vancouver. Not really that wintery, pretty much just colder, wetter and a darker shade of grey. But as a benefit, they crappy days just happen to be shorter! Anyway, if you're like me, it takes that extra cup of coffee and that extra few on the weekend to get through the season here. But alas, the sun has making an appearance again (although it's been snowing in April wtf?) and the days are becoming milder and longer, the cherry blossoms are out you start to remember why Vancouver is such a great place to live. At this point, instead of taking the opportunity to relax a bit and undo the bad caused by caffeine and alcohol abuse, I usually decide to ramp it up in anticipation of spending most of the summer drunk! Well, this year I must say I definitely feel the need to do the opposite, and I'm dragging Nicole down with me.

It's just for a month to see if there's a difference. But the rules are:
1. No Alcohol: Basically if I drink, I drink more. I've often mentioned that I can drink as long as I'm awake, which I'm pretty sure isn't good. My liver hates me and I'm just not that nice a guy when I'm on the sauce so it's out.

2. No processed caffeine (No Energy Drinks, No Coffee). Green tea, Guarana ok.

There's a few others but overall it's just a reduction of the bad and an increase of the good.

You'll be happy to know that on the 5th and 6th day I relapsed. Shit's hard son! I basically don't have a life outside of boozing, and even coffee for that matter. My only offense right now is my bike and the fact Nicole is also now in the same boat.

Here's some of the steps being taken:

1. Greens+ Daily Detox: Used it the past with some degree of success.

2. Bike: I commute to work by bicycle which is good stuff. I intend to ramp up the fitness with rides like the one Nicole and I did this weekend which took us 25K+ out to Poco. Basically if you were to draw circle around my apartment at a 25K radius, there's a whole whack of good stuff to take in so I'll be getting on that! Now if I can just convince Nicole the coming back part is just as easy...



3. Eating Less Meat: Already started this. If anything, I probably don't see or feel the difference today, but there is a definite environmental factor that I'm sure is good for some kind of good karma, so why not.

4. Taking my Vitamins: Debatable if there is any real benefit but whatever, even if they work as a placebo I'm happy I guess.

5. Sleep: Hopefully all of the above will get me back into some kind of regular sleeping pattern. Generally I don't get more than a few hours of solid sleep which has been the case for so long that I can barely remember what it's like to wake up feeling refreshed and energized. It leaves me feeling somewhere around 80% most days and I know I could be performing better at work and physically, as far as fitness goes, with more sleep.

Anyway, that's it. See you in a month!