Happy New Year Resolution Day!

Here's to one more attempt at sticking to the diet & exercise proclamation—

This year I mean it. What is great about the New Year is we get a fresh start. A time to make ourselves over, though keeping those diet and exercise routines long enough to get results is never easy.

Last year I bypassed all “health” commitments to focus on hitting my publishing deadline, April 1, 2023. Thereafter, the plan was to walk the short, hilly golf course weekly, among other activities. All was going well. I managed to score a few good media interviews, starting on the fiftieth anniversary of the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Picasso heist (the key subject of Chasing Picasso.) This was followed by the official launch and book signing at the wonderful Picasso’s Coffee House on Main Street in St. Charles, MO. A lot of friends, family, and new readers came out to buy books and have them signed. The momentum continued to roll with media requests and an opportunity to do more signings. That was until I broke my ankle ten days later.

In 2021 when I was at the beginning stages of researching my book, I broke my right foot trying to walk off the “tingling” just before it went completely numb and collapsed beneath the weight of my body.  So, breaking my left ankle just after I launched Chasing Picasso was sort of a bookend moment for my first book-author journey.

I played a lot of sports in my lifetime competitively and for recreation. Through countless soccer competitions and numerous rocky roller hockey games, I managed to not break a bone in 56 years. Breaking two bones within 18 months was an unexpected, disappointing surprise. This led to a bone density test and an osteopenia diagnosis.  This means osteoporosis will happen in the future and I need to slow down the process through a lifestyle change. This is why I am joining the bandwagon of millions of Americans who proclaim a commitment to diet and exercise this New Year.

Adding to the high cholesterol medicine, I now have to take a bone pill and a lot of calcium. The diagnosis, and my disdain for swallowing large vitamins, helped fuel my desire to get healthy in 2024. Let’s just hope it is enough to get me over that hump from exercise-hate to habit. I want to lose twenty pounds, preferably in the next two weeks so I can fit into some beach clothes for my late January trip. Of course, I realize that is impossible unless I catch Ebola or something extreme in the next week. Right now, I will settle for just flattening my stomach enough, so I don’t look like I am smuggling the inflated pool donut beneath my golf dress.

Instead of waiting until January 1 to start this, I began to “practice” the routine the day after Christmas. The weather has been wet and cold, and I prefer the warmth of the indoors. I have been walking on the treadmill for 30 minute a day, listening to Who Killed JFK? with Rob Reiner and Soledad O’Brien. Each episode is about the same length as the walk and serves as a needed distraction from the boredom of stationary walking.  

As I write this, I am on Day 3. I am not sure what to make of my progress just yet. I exercised, stretched, and meditated for a total of an hour, followed by a two-hour nap. Yep, getting old is not for pansies.