Intro and background:
Hi everyone. This is the start of another one of my essays on how I've managed long-term alcohol, tobacco, and drug abstinence. This is so important to long term abstinence or moderation, I can?t emphasize it enough.
One of the first things to realize, is that your mind or your thoughts, feelings, and awareness are generated by your physical brain. I began the thread on brain waves to address one method of gaining control over what the brain sends our bodies. Your brain IS a part of your physical body. What you think and feel at any one given time, are in part a product of how physically well-adapted your brain/body system is. The healthier you are, the better you feel. The better you feel, the less reason you have to medicate via alcohol or other things. So here goes.
Being an engineer, and having hobbies such as auto mechanics and electronics, I always was attracted to high performance cars and powerful electronic gadgets. I spent a lot of time and money on those things, always striving to get the highest performance from them. Even the computer I?m writing this on has been modified for a higher-level performance. So bear with me, as these interests color my perspective.
For all the time and money I spent on getting my cars and gadgets to a high level of performance, I spent little or nothing on the one machine that is the most important of all, my own physical body. My heavy use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs was akin to me taking one of my cars, and dumping in bad gas, throwing dirt in the air cleaner, and putting sand in the oil pan. Why did I care more about an automobiles performance more than I did my own physical body? It didn?t make sense.
I had been plagued with terrible back problems, debilitating colds, flu, and digestive problems for ages. I knew that maybe my drinking was partly due to these problems in some small way, but last December I was hit with a bout of bronchitis that quickly turned into pneumonia. The doctor wanted to put me in a hospital, but I talked him out of it, saying I would take care of myself. After two weeks of gasping for air, while sucking on inhalers, coughing, barely able to walk, I finally recovered. I realized that my drinking and other habits were not a small part, but a large part of my problems.
So I approached it from a new perspective. My body is like a physical machine, which will respond to careful, thoughtful, and persistent maintenance and performance improving practices. I would think nothing of spending thousands of dollars to improve my cars and gadgets, but spending hundreds on my own body? The choice although simple, only took decades of suffering to arrive at.
Being an engineering manager at work, well versed in the methods and tools of project management, I applied what I already knew to a new project. The goal was well defined in my own mind. I wanted to be in the best physical condition ever in my life. The project timeline is two years. I?m now into it 9 months, and there remains much to do.
Next post. Defining my Goals.
Hi everyone. This is the start of another one of my essays on how I've managed long-term alcohol, tobacco, and drug abstinence. This is so important to long term abstinence or moderation, I can?t emphasize it enough.
One of the first things to realize, is that your mind or your thoughts, feelings, and awareness are generated by your physical brain. I began the thread on brain waves to address one method of gaining control over what the brain sends our bodies. Your brain IS a part of your physical body. What you think and feel at any one given time, are in part a product of how physically well-adapted your brain/body system is. The healthier you are, the better you feel. The better you feel, the less reason you have to medicate via alcohol or other things. So here goes.
Being an engineer, and having hobbies such as auto mechanics and electronics, I always was attracted to high performance cars and powerful electronic gadgets. I spent a lot of time and money on those things, always striving to get the highest performance from them. Even the computer I?m writing this on has been modified for a higher-level performance. So bear with me, as these interests color my perspective.
For all the time and money I spent on getting my cars and gadgets to a high level of performance, I spent little or nothing on the one machine that is the most important of all, my own physical body. My heavy use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs was akin to me taking one of my cars, and dumping in bad gas, throwing dirt in the air cleaner, and putting sand in the oil pan. Why did I care more about an automobiles performance more than I did my own physical body? It didn?t make sense.
I had been plagued with terrible back problems, debilitating colds, flu, and digestive problems for ages. I knew that maybe my drinking was partly due to these problems in some small way, but last December I was hit with a bout of bronchitis that quickly turned into pneumonia. The doctor wanted to put me in a hospital, but I talked him out of it, saying I would take care of myself. After two weeks of gasping for air, while sucking on inhalers, coughing, barely able to walk, I finally recovered. I realized that my drinking and other habits were not a small part, but a large part of my problems.
So I approached it from a new perspective. My body is like a physical machine, which will respond to careful, thoughtful, and persistent maintenance and performance improving practices. I would think nothing of spending thousands of dollars to improve my cars and gadgets, but spending hundreds on my own body? The choice although simple, only took decades of suffering to arrive at.
Being an engineering manager at work, well versed in the methods and tools of project management, I applied what I already knew to a new project. The goal was well defined in my own mind. I wanted to be in the best physical condition ever in my life. The project timeline is two years. I?m now into it 9 months, and there remains much to do.
Next post. Defining my Goals.
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