Northern Wind

This has been an odd day. Not because I did anything odd, per se, but mostly because I did very little at all. I ate, I did a load of dishes, took the trash out. But out of an entire Saturday to myself, that's about as productive as I've been (outside of this blog post). All that nothing left me with a lot of time to think.  Mostly, I thought about my health and well-being. You see, while it might seem surprising for someone who does aikido and judo, I'm just a tad overweight by at least 50 pounds. I know it's not good. I know how bad it is for my health (mental and physical). I want to change, and not just so I can look better. I'm not so much concerned about sporting 6 pack abs as I am avoiding heart disease. Yes, I'd like to be able tuck my shirt into my pants again, but I'd also like to have the energy to keep up with my kids. I've done it all before—twice, in fact—so I know it's possible to eat right, exercise and loose the weight. S...

I brought up the idea of "minimalism" in a recent post as a potential subject of future posts, but after further thought, I realized that I'm ultimately interested a little bit broader of a topic. The best phrase I can think of to describe it (so far) would be "well being." That may encompass a number of things, really: mental health, being organized, physical fitness, food and diet, humanitarianism, minimizing, etc. Again, not that I'm an expert on any of it, just the things I discover as I go. What do these subjects have to do with aikido or judo? Well, as I try to look for ways budo can influence my whole life, not just the practical, "self defense" aspects of it, these are some of the areas it takes me. One web site that I've discovered lately is Zen Habits . While I am by no means an expert on the subject of zen, I have found the posts on this particular useful to a very broad audience, ideas that would benefit anyone. One particular post ...