Chinese New Year--Year of the Rat

It is a tradition around Chinese New Year to give out red envelopes--usually with money inside of them--well, this past Thursday, I received a beige envelope--not with money inside--but, with a letter of intent. The letter consisted of my current employer's non-intent to renew my contract when it ends in July. To their credit, they did give me this much notice and didn't outright let me go before the break, but I can't say that it was pleasing nor a surprise to be honest. They should have never hired me for a position that I was not qualified for. I never pad my resume, so they knew what they were getting, I, on the other hand, feel a bit blindsided. At any rate, I still appreciate that they gave me a chance. I was undecided about going for another year in a position that was above my skill level anyway. My employer merely made the decision for me. Sticking with DDPY, you have to live 90%--nothing I can do about whether or not the employer likes me or what I do, I'm only responsible for my work ethic which they can say nothing negative about--and be truthful. Upward and onward I suppose, but I'm totally undecided about which direction this entails. It might be time to wrap up international travel and head back home.

So, on the DDPY front, I continue to be excellent in the workouts having gone maybe 17 or 18 days in a row as I'm typing. The diet is still more miss than hit. I have three weeks off for this Chinese New Year, so I'm going to try my hardest to get things in line while I'm away from distractions--here's the plan:

Two DDPY sessions per day.
No sugar.
No beer.
No fast food--hard to type that one.

Can't expect to do this beyond the three weeks, so I'm happy just to take the one session today, but if I can do this for three weeks, who knows what kind of amazing results I can get. 

2020--New Year...New Me?...maybe?

I just realized that I haven't posted a blog entry since before Halloween '19...and not you see by the clock on the wall that it's suddenly 2020. I guess the first update is that I did finish my DDPaDay workouts fairly strongly and have continued to work right along. It's been a solid four months.  Keep in mind--as mentioned in my earlier entries--looks to the contrary, there have been years--literal YEARS--where I was practically Mr. No Days Off, but nothing has really ever come of it. I hold food squarely accountable.

DDPY seems to be different. Nothing succeeds like success and although I'm far from the finish line, I can see myself getting stronger and my clothes are fitting better. I was always pretty flexible for a fat guy, but I'm even more flexible now. So, I imagine if I can do these things while still eating like a guy on his first day out of prison/last day before he goes back then what better results will I see when I start watching the diet?

So for January 2020--a mere 27 days before my 46th birthday as I'm typing this--I'm taking responsibility--if not outright control--over my diet. The journal--which I loathe to keep--will be hanging around my neck like an albatross. The way DDP suggests food accountability is to journal everything and if you eat something bad you write it in ALL CAPS. You also write it and therefore own it before you eat or drink it. It's like before you format a computer drive you must say out loud--I AM ERASING THIS AND I"M NOT GETTING IT BACK--for me I must say and write I AM CHOOSING TO EAT A DONUT RAT?HER THAN IMPROVE MYSELF.

So what's this diet going to look like. Well, for this month I'm just eliminating sweets--food and beverage--beer, fast food and other snacks. I'll try this up until my birthday. The next step would be to  get rid of the dairy or gluten. Final step would be to get rid of what remained--either dairy or gluten. I'll be doing it slowly and measuring each step to see if the reward is greater than the sacrifice.

Although I've managed to stick with exercise programs long term and even read through the Bible last year, I've never really given myself a real chance with a diet. I've never gone three consecutive months and I want to see what would happen. I'll also be continuing the DDPY exercise program, on which I'm somewhere between beginner and intermediate at the moment.