A brief health self-evaluation

Out of curiosity and partially inspired by boredom, I tabulated everything I ate and drank today and calculated my Percent Daily Values:

Calories -- 1630
Calories from fat -- 362
Total fat -- 47g (72%)
Saturated fat -- 12g (60%)
Cholesterol -- 160mg (53%)
Sodium -- 3058mg (127%)
Total carbohydrates -- 222g (74%)
Dietary fiber -- 18g (72%)
Sugars -- 92.5g
Protein -- 79g (158%)

Vitamin A -- 162%
Vitamin C -- 67%
Calcium -- 55%
Iron -- 59%
Folic acid -- 44%
Thiamin -- 34%
Riboflavin -- 8%
Vitamin B6 -- 26%
Potassium -- 46%
Phosphorus -- 5%
Magnesium -- 11%
Zinc -- 2%
Copper -- 8%
Niacin -- 26%
Vitamin E -- 5%
Vitamin D -- 25%

I had 2 servings of fruit, 2 servings of vegetables, 4 servings of grains, 3 servings of dairy, and 3 servings from the meat group. Not completely horrible, I guess.

Man, that tiny amount of soy sauce I had at dinner really raised sodium through the roof (by 38%!) Hmm, seems like I'm super low on zinc and vitamin E, and no vitamin K whatsoever? (Does it go by a different name here?) Well, at least I'm doing better on fiber and protein than I was imagining. And I lift weights, so I could use the extra protein. I also eat less than 2,000 calories a day, so some of these values aren't quite so bad.

Still, could use some help in the vitamins and minerals department. I remember taking Flintstones vitamins as a child, but I'm balking a bit at the thought of taking a multivitamin nowadays just because it seems like I'm not hopelessly deficient in EVERYTHING. And don't really want to overdo it by just taking something blindly. Supposedly, most vitamins will get flushed out fine if you get them in excess, but some don't, like Vitamin A. Maybe I should just take zinc and other specific supplements. EFAs are also supposedly pretty good to take. Well, according to somebody out there, I guess...

How did they figure out these numbers, anyhow?

Does anybody pay attention to what's in their multivitamins? Does anybody compare that to what they actually need?

Things I want to do (in no particular order)

- Finish my needlepoint ("Music by Candlelight")
- Learn how to knit
- Learn Cantonese
- Re-age my wardrobe
- Get weights or resistance bands to work out at home
- Read some classics
- Know more about my religion
- Get back into martial arts
- Revive piano and flute
- Own a nice keyboard (to help with the former)
- Be good at cooking
- Personalize my apartment
- Take more pictures
- Compose music
- Be in tune with my surroundings
- Show people that they are special, unique, and loved
- Be an individual

It's now or never

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

-- "A Dream Deferred", Langston Hughes

Pressing the snooze button of life

Today's topic in church was procrastination. At first I thought, "Yeah, yeah... everybody does it and we all know we shouldn't." I almost zoned out. But then I started listening and thinking about it, and really so many of the worries and sources of stress in my life (and probably anyone else's) stem directly from procrastination.

What are the things I usually beat myself up about? Homework deadlines. Being late for things. Not being prepared for an audition or performance. Not being far enough along on a project. Not sending important emails or making important phone calls. Not keeping in touch with people. Not telling people how much I care about them. If I weren't such a procrastinator, all of those problems would vanish! It's not like I'm not capable of getting all those things done in the time that I have. I just get into this mode where I lack the willpower to make myself do anything.

I have a terrible time getting up in the morning. I'm the type of person who can hit snooze for over an hour and not really notice that time is going by. Funny thing is, if I wouldn't procrastinate going to bed, I'd get enough sleep and wouldn't procrastinate getting up in the morning. But that of course would require that I not procrastinate my work and have to stay up late. Which would mean that I would have to get stuff done earlier in the day, which would probably be easier if I got up on time. Which means that I would need to go to sleep earlier... etc. Endless downward spiral...

Sometimes I wish I could stop and hit the reset button and start with a clean slate. Nothing would be behind schedule, and then I could try to stay on schedule. But how do you get back to that point once you've started down the spiral? The lesson on procrastination is always to just not even do it. But where's the lesson that tells us what to do if we've already started doing it?

How do I stop when everything's already backed up like crazy? If I don't procrastinate one thing, I've gotta procrastinate something else to keep up. It's like getting caught in a pool of quicksand.

How to have a good day

Get enough sleep.
Take your time getting ready for the day's activities.
Do something spontaneous and different before you head out.
Pack a good lunch.
Spend some time outside in beautiful weather.
After a hard day's work, do a little bit of what you most like to do.
Spare a couple of minutes out of your busy day to catch up with people that you like.
Set aside enough time to have a nice, relaxing dinner.
Figure out one big thing that you need to do and get it done really well.
And at the end of the day...
...take a moment to reflect on how great this day has been.

Stop this train

Being the extremely pop-culture-ignorant individual that I am, I had never even heard of John Mayer until Jessie added a music player to her blog. I like pretty much all the stuff she's got on there, but I especially liked one Mayer song, "Stop This Train". Besides having a nifty acoustic guitar accompaniment, the lyrics really speak to how I've been feeling lately.

No, I'm not colorblind
I know the world is black and white
Try to keep an open mind, but
I just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train
I wanna get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

Don't know how else to say it
Don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train
I wanna get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game to find a way to say that life has just begun
Had a talk with my old man
Said "help me understand"
He said "turn sixty-eight
You'll renegotiate
Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
And don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly we'll never stop this train"

Once in a while, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark

Singing, stop this train
I wanna get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
Cause now I see I'll never stop this train

Lately I feel like I've woken up and discovered that life is racing by faster than I can handle. When I think about things like getting a full-time job, moving away from school, getting married, having kids, grandkids... and eventually losing my parents, my siblings, my friends, as we all get old... I'm not ready for any of that; I don't want to be ready for any of that yet. I'm not ready to fight life out on my own.

It seems like there are people who can, at the end of their lives, lie on their deathbeds and say with confidence that they're happy with the lives that they've lived and that they're ready to go. Obviously, I'm not to that point, but it makes me wonder -- what are the things that I want to have done by the time I die? What do I need to be happy? To feel like I've really made the most of my life?

What if I were to die tomorrow? What would I regret never doing, or trying, or saying? If I were to follow the saying "live as though you would die tomorrow", how would I live differently? Would I be kinder? More patient? Would I tell, show my family and friends more often how much I love them? Would I be better about calling, writing emails? About listening? About just being there for others?

I don't know what I want out of life. Or what it wants out of me. I don't know what I want to accomplish, and see, and experience before I'm ready to go. How can I be ready to live out the rest of my life if I don't know what I want to do with it?

Honestly, won't someone stop this train?