Mehh

Well, this week I learned an important lesson: Assume something will come up so don't leave a significant portion of your miles until the end of the week. This of course won't work for everyone because of rigid schedules, but right now that doesn't apply to me since I pretty much make my schedule with my internship and classes.

So I got 1.25 miles in on Tuesday and 2.5 miles in on Thursday and then I was planning on running the other 2.5 miles on Saturday. So Saturday rolls around and I take my sweet wife on a date, which took up most of our day, which was fine since I was going to just run in the evening. But then one of my long time friends and his wife invited us over for dinner! As we wanted to see them and we also wanted to give our daughter a chance to play with their kids, we accepted. Unfortunately, it was late enough in the evening that I had to skip my run!!!

Lesson learned. Plan for contingencies.

My sugar free-ness is still going well. It's crazy how your body seemingly flushes out all the sugar and you don't crave it as much. I will say, however, that I was pretty tempted to have the root beer float offered me at our friends' house. But honestly, it wasn't that hard to say no. I've noticed that since I've given up sugar, I've had more control over other parts of my life. I'm less impulsive, I have more energy, I have a better schedule. I'm not saying sugar is the root of all evil, but I think if you give up nearly any type of stimulant your body's used to, you gain more self-mastery. Perhaps that's why Gandhi decided his path to happiness was to deny himself all pleasures. I think he was a bit overboard, especially considering he wouldn't even make love to his wife, but I do believe he was on to something.

What do you guys think? Can some of life's greatest pleasures easily turn into vices and adversely affect our happiness?