Breaking Fast
A new day begins
Last night, I was in bed shortly before 9pm and the white noise app was on by 9. I was out quickly! According to Apple Health, I was asleep at 9:06pm! I never fall asleep that quickly. Well, I suppose I can't say that anymore! When my white noise app stopped around 5am, I started to wake up slightly. And then I slowly woke for the next 20 or so minutes. My official wake up was at 5:25am, again, according to Apple Health.
This was a huge improvement on how I began my morning. My goal is to eventually get up at 5am. Considering I have been getting up around 6:30am every morning lately, 5:25am is close enough for today! Now why would I want to get up so early?! My morning time with God is quite important. Regardless of when I wake, I start my day with Him. Since I have been oversleeping lately, that means I've had to cut other things out of my morning and move them to other parts of the day. Or some days, when cutting something out isn't an option, I have to rush through things. By getting up so early, I'm able to get through all that I like to do and not feel the pressure of time.
Vitamin G
I have been feeling less inspired this week. I'm okay with that. It simply means my soul is resting and pondering all that God is teaching me in this season. It also means I am being more purposeful in what sort of encouragement I am putting out in universe. That is always a good thing. I should never carelessly say anything. I'm certainly not always right. And not everything I have ever said lines up with the Bible.
I'm not sure yet if I'll put this out there, but I was inspired by this morning passage from the book of James. James 2:1-5 reads,
"Brothers and sisters, don’t show partiality in your faith in Jesus Christ. If a person with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your church, and a poor person in filthy clothing also comes in, and you pay special attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my feet” haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil intent? Listen, my brothers and sisters. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?"
I should respect everyone equally regardless of their background, where they come from, or what their beliefs are. Whether or not they can do anything for me, everyone deserves the same respect from my heart. I certainly wouldn't want anyone to treat me any differently based on any of those things.
Although I wrote that and gave it some thought and prayer, I did not end up posting that today. As always, that is okay! Perhaps it will get posted someday. And perhaps the wording will be slightly different. Once I feel inspired to release something like this as "Vitamin G," it all comes together.
Lunch
I tried a new meatless protein option again today. This time, I tried something called Seitan (pronounced SAY-TAN, or SAY-TAWN...and not Satan...hehehe or even saw-teen as one Disney character in "Wreck-It Ralph" called himself). It is essentially a gluten protein derived from wheat. Very high in protein! But may not be great for those with a gluten allergy. But if you only have a soy allergy, this is a great option! It kind of reminded me of beef the way it was prepared this time. I looked it up and it sounds really easy to make at home. Just like most plant-based meat alternatives, I'd be able to prepare it to resemble just about any animal meat from beef to chicken.
I did not have a specific meal designed for this Seitan. So I ended up deciding to use it for salads. And it went really well with the salad I prepared today. I used arugula, carrots, red onion, seitan, a "hard boiled" (I use a pressure cooker) egg, garlic croutons and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. It was incredibly delicious. I'm definitely going to be making a few more of these salads over the coming days. Salads are a great choice for my lunch. They are quick, easy, and quite delicious. I hadn't really been a huge fan of salads until last year. I suppose we can chalk this one up as part of my health journey!
Productive Day
Unlike yesterday, today has been a very productive day! I believe that part of the reason is how I woke up. Having the early morning rise and being able to get through all of the morning routines I prefer was key to starting this day off well. And since I wasn't feeling rushed, my overall attitude was so much better today than most days.
I managed to knock out a major task with work already today. In my daily update meeting this afternoon, I'll be able to proudly say I have moved this task into "UAT," or user acceptance testing. The testing will be in a few weeks. But the fact I was able to get to this status on that task today is a nice little achievement. Especially after how I was feeling yesterday.
And another thing, I'm only half way through my day at this point. I already feel like this afternoon will be just as productive. I've lined up some tasks I'd like to tackle after my lunch break. And that will give me more to update in this afternoon's meeting. Woohoo!!!
Inspiration
Besides having a productive work day, I'm feeling so much more inspired today. Before going to bed last night, I was scrolling social media. On Instagram, I found a post that I believe God placed in my path using the "algorithm" that gave me some insight into what might have happened to me yesterday. It simply stated, "Creative people need time to sit around and do nothing." WOW! I'm a creative person! And yesterday, it felt like I was sitting doing nothing! Sure, I was actually doing stuff. But what if all I really needed to do yesterday was sit and do nothing?! Instead of pushing through it, perhaps I needed to just do nothing at all.
These past few years, I've been truly trying to find out who "Greg" really is. After moving to Florida, I explored several state parks and a lot of other random parks in my area so that I could experience a different kind of Florida from what I was used to. I had always gone to the touristy sort of places when I vacationed here. So, in 2022, I explored what else Florida had. Then in 2023, I decided to spend a lot of time with existing friends and meeting new friends at Orlando's theme parks. All the while, finding out who I am and how I fit into my world. Here now in 2024, I am starting off my spending some time in retrospective and introspective meditation to see what worked, what didn't work, and how I feel about it all.
Will this be the year that "Greg" truly comes to life!?! I expect the answer to be a resounding yes. Sure, time will tell. But I am pretty confident in who I am now. In the past, I struggled with this. And I imagine I'll continue to struggle. But the struggle is evolving from one of "who am I" to more of "how can I help this situation?" My world really isn't about "me." But it is surely about what can "Greg" do to make his world better.
Meetings
I'm going on a slight tangent for a moment. I don't mind meetings so long as the meetings have a clear agenda, the host stays on agenda, and the meeting isn't for the sake of having a meeting. I have found that most meetings in my career have not followed those simple constraints. I'll admit that even some of the meetings I've scheduled didn't have a clear agenda, strayed off topic, and a few might not have even been necessary in the first place. So I'm just as guilty as the next person when it comes to meaningless meetings.
That said, if a meeting does have a clear agenda, I really have a hard time when participants stray off topic and a sort of sub-meeting within the meeting forms. When that happens, the host should remind everyone to stay on topic and perhaps suggest that this "sub-meeting" be taken "offline" or a new meeting scheduled to address the topic for anyone who needs to be a part of the discussion. When you are having a team meeting and something like this happens, and if only a few team members out of several even need to participate, what essentially occurs is wasted productivity for the majority.
I was at one time the CIO of a company during my career. The only position higher than that is the CEO. I rarely called for meetings. I would often do one on one's to have discussions with specific people. Only when absolutely necessary for the entire team to participate would I call an official meeting. Also, when I do schedule a meeting, I'll write in a clear agenda for the meeting. That way, everyone either knows what will be discussed, or in some cases, can call off the meeting because they have the answers for what the meeting was being called for. As the old saying goes, "That meeting should have been an email!"
I don't often rant about business related topics. But today, this very thing happened. It was pretty clear what the meeting was for. However, twice, someone took the conversation out of scope for the meeting. Both times, those conversation should have been their own meetings with just the few people who needed to be a part of the conversation. As a result of these 2 tangents, the meeting ran 15 minutes over and we weren't able to get through all of the items on the agenda...LOL I wasn't even able to get to my updates...ugh!!! There is a meeting scheduled coming up where the main topic of discussion is how these other meetings are going and how we might improve them. I may bring this up in that meeting!
Breaking Bad (Fast)
For my fast this year, I went with 3 three things. Last year I only fasted TV. This year I am doing TV once more, not eating seafood, and not indulging in candy. Each have their purpose for fasting. But that is a lot to give up all at once and for 3 weeks. Candy has been a little difficult to give up. I still see it sitting there calling my name. I've thought about storing it away. But keeping it out is a good reminder of why I'm fasting. Seafood is actually the harder of the 2 food items for me to fast. I really miss it. I mean, I REALLY miss it. Although I'm enjoying the exploration of other protein sources of plant-based meat alternatives, not much can replace seafood. I'm looking into a watermelon based "tuna" alternative. I'm hoping it works if I try it...hehehe
Which brings us back to TV. I haven't missed it one bit. In fact, at the end of the 21 days, I plan to significantly reduce how much TV I consume. I'll also look at what sort of TV programming I'm consuming. With the decrease in amount, I might as well make sure what I do consume is worth consuming! As this was what I fasted last year, and with the fact it hasn't been much of a disruption in my lifestyle this time, I decided I would temporarily break its fast to watch an episode each of 2 shows I'm actively watching now. The episodes first aired today and so I am watching them tonight. I've already completed all of the prayer and Bible study time for the day. All that is left was my music time and then bed. After tonight, I'll go back to fasting TV until the completion of the 21 days.
Writing
I still have one more day left this week. But I'm really excited that I have been writing every day in this journal. That has gotten me in the rhythm of writing again. It has been almost a year since I stopped writing consistently. I won't go into why I stopped writing on a regular basis. But this week has been a great sign that I'm back!
I think the most important project I'll be working on this year is my first book. It is currently named "Vitamin G" after my style of inspirational and positive social media posts. In the end, that will likely just be part of the subtitle as there already exists a book by that name.
I may explore a few other book ideas I have. I may or may not get more than one book finished this year. So I plan on putting most of my efforts into the Vitamin G book. But the other ideas include a photo book, art book, and poetry book. Or perhaps a mix of those together. We shall see!
Closing
Wow, I wrote a lot today. And I have more to say! But I had better bring this to a close. It has been a great day. I don't always say that. I'm glad I can say that today. And now it's time for bed.