Today's Reminder - Eat breakfast

Less than a year ago I was a night person. I hated mornings. I still hate waking up, especially on cold, dark mornings like today's, but I love being awake early and starting my day slowly instead of scrambling to get ready so I'm not late for work.

Dawn Patrol changed me. Waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning to go hiking sounds dumb but it feels great. Have you ever felt the pride of conquering a mountain before sunrise? Do you ever get a few hours of exercise in the great outdoors before going into work? You can't understand why I love it so much until you've tried it out.

Now I regularly wake up early and have plenty of time to enjoy my morning before work. I eat breakfast at home every day; I'm awake and energized when I get into work and am productive immediately. That alone has made me a happier person.

That's why today's reminder is to eat breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day. My other suggestion is to take vitamins. I take a multivitamin and a fish oil capsule with my breakfast. I can't prove they help but I hope they do.

P.S. Thanks Mark for getting to wake up stupid early

Giving Thanks - Family, Friends and Free Things

Thanksgiving is about eating turkey and pretending the Pilgrims and Native Americans lived in peace. I want to take a minute to remind myself what I'm thankful for in my life.

Family

• Gretchen, my love. She makes me laugh. We understand each others needs and work together to reach our personal and shared goals.
• The rest of my family for their unconditional love and, more importantly, their abilities to be goofballs when we're together.
  
• My dogs who keep life interesting at all times.

Friends

• My work friends are my real friends.
• My soccer teammates are awesome.
• Dawn Patrollers make sure I keep living life and having fun (even when that means waking up stupid early to catch the sunrise in the mountains).
• Everyone else from high school, college, etc. I especially enjoy the people who keep in touch over a certain popular social network. I was never good at keeping in touch and writing emails but the internet has made it easier and more fun. It makes my day when I see someone was thinking of me and decided to write something on my "profile page" for everyone else to see.

Free Things

• My health. I want to live a long life and so far I've been blessed with a healthy body that enables me to enjoy my active lifestyle.
• Sunrises and sunsets. Cheesy, right? Just a few years back I wouldn't have thought twice about it. These days I cherish them. They're daily treats that require ones full attention to appreciate. They're my version of "stop and smell the roses". The pinks, reds, oranges and purples in the sky are natures gift and they deserve to be admired.
• Mountains, rivers, lakes and trees. I'm an outdoors man and these things make the landscape worth looking at. I didn't think they were interesting until I moved to Seattle and was blown away by their simple beauty and grandeur. This year I've become more active in protecting our surroundings by joining the WTA and protesting the deforestation in my neighborhood.
  
• A window at work. For the last 3 years I've sat next to a window at work. It's not always nice out and I didn't always have a view but I don't take natural light for granted.

Above all, I love life: it's my religion.

Apologies

It's been a while since I wrote a good post. I have a few half-written posts that I will finish. I hope.