Not literally but for all intents and purposes, may as well have.  Years, yes, years ago this blog was started to document a journey towards health both physical, mental and financially (see what I did there, it’s a joke).  Anyway, nearly 3 years later I can say I’m worse off now than I was then.  My journey never happened.  I got in the way.  Old habits got in the way.  Doing it for the wrong reasons got in the way.  Not doing it right got in the way.  The list is long of why it didn’t happen.

Right now, at this moment I am suffering from some pretty gnarly back pain.  Probably the worst in over a year.  Just sitting straight is a task.  What brought me to this?  Well, I did.  What causes low back by and large?  Bad health.  Stress, anxiety, poor diet, obesity.  Lets see, check, check, check and…. check.

Stress is going to happen.  Anxiety is going to happen.  The things that I can and will control are my physical health.  I can choose what I put into my mouth.  I have lots of friends that go out of their way to live to eat (not fat friends but friends that loooove them some food).  I want to eat to live.  I want to put food into my body to sustain myself.  Sure, I love sweets and fast food.  I can have those but I have to treat them as just that; treats.

I can choose to exercise regularly.  I’ve recently switched back to my old gym in Griffin because working out at lunch time was AWESOME for like 2 months and then, it sucked.   I’m an evening worker outer.  Not in the morning, not at lunch.  The evening.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired

That sums it up, basically.  Right now I’m nowhere near where I want to be in life, personally that is.  I have the best wife and companion anyone could hope to have.  I have two insanely awesome, cute and crazy children that.  I have a job that I enjoy and well, just having a job these days is awesome.  We grow old.  Children grow up.  Careers change.  None of this lasts forever.  The point is that I want to control my destiny as much as possible.  Right now, it’s controlling me.  Fear, anxiety, anger and uncertainty is not a healthy way to face each day.

To get to where I want to be I have to make drastic yet entirely practical changes.  The first one that comes to mind is soft drinks.  I have to have to have to stop consuming them or at least cut back about 90%.

So, first on the list is just that.  Coke Zero, I love thee.  You are not right for me though.  I will see you in passing at the store or at a restaurant.  Know that I do enjoy your company and consuming you.  Know also that doing so is detriment to both of us.  We can, perhaps, see one another on a limited basis.  Farewell for now Coke Zero.  Farewell.

OK, my back is KILLING me so I’m not about to hit the gym and fight bears.  I have a list of nifty back strengthening exercises to do.  So first things first.  Gotta get my back healthy.  My feet have been hurting for months but guess what?  I’m overweight.  NO wonder they hurt! Duh?!

Other things that will follow:

• Prepping lunches for the week
• Prepping healthy snacks
• Prepping clothes
• Keeping the house clean and organized
• More…

I’m putting my sore foot down!

Yes, I’m a scienthusiast.

I guess it could be hyphenated  sci-enthusiast?  Maybe scien-thusiast?  Either way, I looked around Google briefly and it’s possible I thought of this before billions of other people?  Maybe it’s some horrible word that I shouldn’t use?  Nah, it’s great!  It describes me quite fittingly, I think.

So there, it’s my word.  It’s OK, you can borrow it.  I expect royalties though!

What to do with it?  Well, I think the world needs more enthusiasm for science.  Not to solve every lurking problem in our lives but to better understand how the world around us works.  Some mysteries shall remain so.  There are some exceedingly complex things in the Universe that aren’t really practical for everyone to know.  Unless it’s your job to know them, that is.

So, perhaps one of my goals in life is to help spread the word of science; Turn people on to how it all works, at a fundamental level.  It always goes back to a quote from Carl Sagan.  Roughly, we live in a world filled with technology.  So few people understand how it all works.  You don’t have to be a scientist to understand.  You simply have to open your mind to it.  When people learn how things actually work, it’s usually one of those “wow…” moments.

In saying that, remember, we can’t let go of reason for madness.  There was a time when people who studied the heavens feared retribution.  Good people were arrested, exiled or even killed for observing something knowable versus believing in something we couldn’t know.  It might seem insane to think that could happen again, but remember as a species, we’re very young.  There are a lot of good and honest people out there that speak for science.

Science is interesting because it changes based on observation.  In that sense, our view of the world has evolved, as our methods and tools have evolved.  The next few decades should prove to be very exciting in the realm of understanding.  How the forefathers of great thinkers should like to be alive today to have a glimpse at what we know.  How the great thinkers of our future might look back and realize how primitive our thinking was.  Each new generation stands on the shoulders of giants from the previous.

Life; space; time; the Cosmos; all encompassing and all waiting to be discovered and understood.  We are, in a way, how the Universe understands itself.

We, as the human race, must keep it going.  If we’re not to be scientists, we should at least be enthusiastic about science.

Enter: The Scienthusiast.