When I was a kid, I remember distinctly laying in my bunkbed that I had to share with my older sister, I think I was about 8 and I thought, wow time is going by, how am I going to remember all of this? Of course me being eight also meant it didn't occur to me to try to write things down, and even if I did I wasn't able to articulate what I was feeling at the time. Now that I am able to articulate, I'm not sure if there's much to write about. When you're a kid, I guess every day is a day of discovery and the idea of a "routine" hasn't settled in yet. Of course by the time I got to highschool and found out lots of things were based on routines, it was kinda depressing. These days though, I actually relish the same routines I used to despise. Its funny how that works. I guess its because these routines are more based on me creating some semblance of stability and structure in what otherwise would be a pretty chaotic life because I'm more or less lazy and irresponsible by default. Its not something I'm proud of but its just who I am.

During college, I drove the family pickup truck. It was a barebones Toyota pickup and although it had air conditioning, it lacked basic stuff like a passenger side mirror. My dad was always getting on my case about not taking care it and getting the oil changed. I was lucky though, Toyota builds some really reliable engines that even if you don't take care of them and forget to change the oil for 5000 miles, the truck will still run. In fact, we had that pickup running up to the 200 thousand mark. The only reason we got rid of it was because the transmission went bad.

Anyway, I'm starting to realize that I don't want to treat myself the same way I've treated that truck. And while I'm young and can bounce back from not taking care of myself some of the time but not all the time. This is where the dreaded routines actually help I guess. We've been heading to the gym on a regular basis because I have a job that requires me to exert zero physical effort and if I wasn't blessed with lightning fast metabolism, I'd be a blob fatter than Jabba the Hut by now. However, inactivity and laziness still affect non-fat people like me. I didn't do a lick of physical activity during my college days and by the time I graduated, I was having all this back pain. It was quite embarrassing to go to the doctor and have them tell you due to such a sedentary life, my back muscles had actually started to atrophy. Basically I was sitting on my ass all day watching TV, playing video games, and surfing the net that I was slowly melting into my recliner. Not a good mental picture.

I started having to view and treat my body like any other machine. One that required maintenance and premium gas. Of course I'll still occasionally indulge in really crappy fast food sometimes, I try to make a conscientious choice about what I do with my body these days. Which basically means I try to eat food that also provide me with some nutrition and also keep myself active. Its hard to remind myself sometimes though, since I am inherently lazy.

It is also a bit daunting to go to the gym since the wife and I signed up to Results, which seems to be quite popular with the gay crowd in DC. Its not daunting because the dudes are gay though, but most of them are super BUFF. I mean, protein shakes, egg whites diets, hardcore ripped muscles. I guess most gyms have their fair share of those guys, but I guess it just feels like there's a disproportionate amount of these guys at my gym. I feel like the scrawny kid all over again that is out of place there. There's also a lot of socializing that well, I could care less of since I'm not that social by nature and I'm not there to make friends. But, I'm trying hard to make it our routine to go there and take care of ourselves. One step in the whole balance of mind, body and soul thing I guess.