2018 will be the “Year of the Lung, Brain, and Heart” (for me, anyway). It needs a better name. Maybe “Brain, Breath, Beat?”

I’ll come up with something.

Basically, it’s just another thing to Blog about, but if I do it right, it might help someone else.

Starting with the brain – Step 1 – reduce sugar consumption by a lot as a major first step.

Actually, there’s five steps to fixing my brain (according to this Dr. Masley cat. Here’s the first two he gave me in his FREE video series.

1. Limit toxins (sugars, white bread, and processed meats – guilty)
2. Limit and manage stress – some stress is good (elevates things), but long-term stress does harm. And to manage stress, add (a) daily exercise, (b) laughter, (c) adequate sleep, and (d) meditation, prayer, and calm.

So, I tricked my son into working out with me every day and rekindled Project 44. More on that in a future Blog …but it’s basically 44-minutes of exercise and each exercise is done 44-times.

I’m a hermit a few hours a week.

Nearly every Saturday and Sunday morning, I wake early (by 6:30 a.m. at the latest), take my dog for a half-hour walk, Aeropress myself a cuppa coffee, and then have “me time.”  Typically, that includes burning through my backlogged personal Yahoo! and Gmail, watching YouTube vids I’ve filed into “Watch Later”, writing, listening to Podcasts, and randomly surfing the Internet.

The teens in my house sleep in. My wife sleeps in. I feel productive and healthy. And I try to suppress the feeling that this is actually some sorta mental issue that I’m not sleeping in on the weekend and look forward to two hours all by myself.

Am I the only one?

Like this morning, I was really able to start nailing down my Christmas wish list, started looking at old journals and short stories to begin assembling them into a book, and I read a few stories about my Spartans and about the Thanksgiving parades of the day (oh …my weekend hermit sessions are a paaaaarty).

Mornings are important to me. I’m thankful, on this Thanksgiving day, for peace, quiet, and tranquility on early weekend mornings.

Remember when I used to Blog about nothing, pretending as if thousands of people hung on my every word? If you’re one of the thousands of readers who used to read my Blog, oh, you so remember.

I’m moved to Blog today about two things:

1. I discovered Perry Ellis Travel Luxe Elite Pants
2. Fall Out Boy released a new single and it’s amazeballs (I’m going to personally bring that word into the world of 40-something men).

Pants are pictured top-right and a link to the Fall Out Boy video is below. You’re welcome. Oh, you probably wanna know why I like these pants. OK. Here goes. They cost $20. They look like dress pants. They wear like stretchy workout pants. They’re $20.

Last night I got a call from my Church. It wasn’t a solicitation for money. It was merely a friendly conversation prompted by a few quick, easy questions. It turned into a 25-minute conversation. I don’t know quite how it happened, but I started answering questions, going off on tangents, and I guess sometimes when I start talking about my faith, what it means to me, and how it helps me, well, I can’t stop.

Same thing happens when I start talking about coffee, lawn maintenance, writing, and a few other topics.

This isn’t meant to brag about how great I am, but aren’t we all the same? When we get talking about and sharing our passion, nothing can stop us or shut us up. The woman who called said, “I wasn’t looking forward to making these ten phone calls, and 6 so far were answering machines and voicemails, but you’ve made my night. When are you going to speak at Mass, next.”  Sarcasm? Well, if invited, I would love to.

That’s something else that might be good or bad – I enjoy talking to groups if I can entertain or inspire, or make them laugh.

But the story I tell myself is, Don, you really should shut up. What do you know about anything? You’re not a millionaire. Your marriage ain’t perfect. You’re 15 pounds overweight, showing a clear lack of commitment to perfection. You procrastinate. You sleep-in when you say you’ll get up early. You ate cookies yesterday at  Starbucks, then had a full dinner, and then happily had a piece of apple pie with ice cream. (that goes with my theory that if you eat lots of calories and nobody knows about it, you won’t actually gain weight)

Who are you, Don, to tell anyone, anything?

Who are you, Don, to have a Blog? Get back to being silly, talking about The Bachelor and American Idol, and leave the advice, pro-tips, and life-tips to the experts.

What makes them experts?

Where am I going with this? I’m thinking, it’s about the story I tell myself that dictates what I do? If I tell a story about a wasted year where I gained 15 pounds, didn’t write my book of short stories, and sat too much on the couch from 8:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. watching mindless TV instead of exercising, writing, and finding a “side hustle”, then I’m telling the story of a guy who’s tragic.

But what if I told the story of a guy in his mid-40s who woke up one day and said, “today is the sequel to the first book about a guy who did nothing?” Like, Bridgette Jones …but about a middle-aged father of three who took control and changed his life.

Now …that would be a great story to tell.