What I ate today
Breakfast (10 a.m.)
1 grapefruit
2 servings of lowfat cottage cheese
Calories: 260
Fat: 3 grams
Lunch (12:30 p.m.)
1 Healthy Choice smoked sausage
Calories: 280
Fat: 8.75 grams
Snack (3 p.m.)
3 ounces of roast beef
Calories: 100
Fat: 3 grams
Dinner (6 p.m.)
1 slice of multi grain bread
2 ounces of turkey
2 servings of fat free mayonnaise
2 cups of Campbell’s Chunky grilled chicken and sausage gumbo
Calories: 365
Fat: 7 grams
Snack (9 p.m.)
2 servings of baby carrots
Calories: 70
Fat: 0 grams
Total Calories: 1,075
Total fat: 21.75 grams
Exercise: None. Shep had to cancel today. We will try again Thursday. Meanwhile, regular workout coming tomorrow.
I was talking to a friend today, and we were doing the usual sob stories about how some famous writer is only 30 years old. This makes both of us depressed. See, we want to be writers – real writers, not just local sports writers – and we feel that at 26 years old, we should at least be on the path to brilliance. It seems, though, that we aren’t really on that path. In fact, outside of my 20 high school sports stories per week, neither of us have taken the necessary steps to even have a chance at brilliance. We talk about it a lot, like kids dream of becoming baseball players. But we never really act. And the few times we have, frustration comes long before the greatest story ever told.
So that got me thinking.
Our lives are made up of one very simple concept. Every single thing around me right now, the studio apartment with the 27-inch television and the messy bed and the clothes laying in a pile at its foot. The refrigerator filled with vegetables and the weird stain forming around my bathroom sink. That’s all because of the choices I’ve made.
My existence in this town? I chose it. At least I made the choices that led to me being here. My weight? I chose to eat things that would consequently make me fat. I chose to accept those long term consequences for short term gratification. I chose to do this blog and make myself available to anyone who wanted to know about my life. And in the process, I am choosing to offer myself up as an example and, maybe, as a source of inspiration.
But I made my situation, and I can’t really defend that. Perhaps it takes awhile for a person to figure out that he is a result of his own wants, needs and emotions. Maybe it takes until 18, or 20, or 25. I can’t say for sure when it hit me. Hell, it might have been this morning for all I know. But the simple fact is, none of this was done to me. It was all done by me. The things I value in life, those are my choices too. So are the things I hate.
Article comments
1 - chantal stone
wow Dan, that's brilliant. and consider yourself blessed, most people can go their entire lives without ever having an epiphany like this.
you're well on your way to living YOUR best life possible.
2 - diana hartman
brilliant indeed...you've realized some important things at the ripe old age of 26 (i'm 43, many are young'uns to me) so it's a good bet that you'll get to skip a few steps when others are having a mid-life crisis...a lot of people don't realize their choices (or that they even have them) until much later...
good for you dan!
3 - Dan
I certainly don't consider myself mature or ahead of the curve. I guess certain things teach you lessons. And I guess this was a lesson that was learned from this. Chantal, thanks for your regular posts on this. I like hearing from you. Diana, I hope I skip a midlife crisis, but if I end up in good shape at 45 and have the money for a vette and a 21 year old girlfriend, well, i will probably go for it.
Dan
4 - Mary K. Williams
I agree with Diana - it IS nice to have some enlightenment while you are young enough to take advantage. Not that being in our 40s is a death sentence, not at all.
But if what I wrote sounds a little regretful - the other side of enlightenment, or an epiphany, is what you DO with it. So any realizations I might come to now in my 40's does no good if I don't act on it.
Sounds like you are acting - Good for you Dan!