Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
My Lungs, Chapter 188 and #ResolutionADay
Quickly for the new readers (SKIP TO PARAGRAPH 5 IF YOU DON’T WANT THE BACK STORY) – I have a lung condition called Bronchiectasis. Learn about it here. In short, it’s kinda like Asthma, kinda like a never-ending cold, and kinda shitty. When I eat rich foods, dairy, or enriched white flour, I wheeze, struggle to breathe, cough a lot, my heart hurts, I wake up in the middle of the night gasping for breath, and I have to cancel concerts because I can’t sing.
In late 2018, let’s call it “the holidays” I said screw it (because I’d been feeling and breathing really good) and just started eating, well, everything. By the time New Year’s Day rolled around and I was scooping chips full of cheesy queso dip in my mouth as an appetizer for a big, greasy, double-cheese pizza dinner, I felt like I was dying.
I know better. But I also looooooove junk food, bourbon, beer, cookies, and pizza. But enough was enough.
Back on the #Whole30 and here I am on Day-20 and I feel like a new man. I feel as if I don’t even have bronchiectasis. I’m down about 7 pounds on the scale. I haven’t woken up in the middle of the night gasping for air since New Year’s Day. That’s all it takes. Simple. Just eat right.
PARAGRAPH 5: Really. You skipped ahead? You can’t take 40-seconds to read about my woes? Nope. I’m gonna stay positive. Thanks for reading. Where was I? Right! Why am I telling you this? I’m sharing because I think my refusal to take care of myself and do what I know is right …I think it’s the biggest thing keeping people from being happy. Hence my invention – #ResolutionADay. It’s overwhelming, they say. It’s impossible, they tell me. But, it might be the best thing ever invented by anyone ever anywhere on Earth. Here’s why it’s working. It forces me to review and be creative. It’s not vague like, “write a book,” or “lose 10 pounds.” It’s little, tiny, daily things I change or add to my life (or weekly, or monthly, or however frequently this thing needs to be. Like today’s…
#ResolutionADay Day27 Every-other-day as part of cleaning the kitchen after dinner, put the vacuum on “Bare Floors” setting and do the hardwoods in the kitchen and living room.
Something I’m passionate about is cleaning the kitchen after dinner. I have it in my head that I’m going to make the kitchen so clean it looks like we could welcome company over for a party. It’s just my thing because I feel, when I’m done and everthing is in the dishwasher or hand-washed, dried, and put away, and I mean everything and the countertops are empty of random crap …I can relax better in the evening because I don’t have this dark cloud of a “half finished” job hanging out there. It’s a small thing, but actually a big thing toward being a guy who never leaves things half-finished.
Start something. Finish something. Then move onto the next thing (like reading a book, writing for my clients, watching TV with my kids or watching the Spartans).
But Don? This Blog was about your lungs?
Right. It was and is. For me, being healthy and breathing with clear lungs won’t happen from an up-front New Year’s Resolution of something like, “in 2019 I’m going to stop eating bad foods.” For me, it comes in the form of little, daily improvements. Vacuuming all the hardwoods eliminates dust and the way-too-much dog hair that accumulates. Going on #Whole30 jump starts my healthy-eating and squashes my (our) addiction to sugar. And on and on.
Every day, I make myself a little better and I hope you might join me in #ResolutionADay, too.
Don Kowalewski 
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