Hello again

Long time, no post. Sorry about that.

I've been backsliding quite a bit on my plans to walk more often and to eat healthfully. The push to finish the final draft of my dissertation was incredibly stressful. Now that the dissertation is in my committee's hands and my second summer course is humming along, I have some breathing room to reflect on where I've been and where I want to go.

My big realization is not a surprising one: I spend far too much time on the computer, and especially online. This bad habit has, I think, two primary causes: the dissertation and BlogHer.

During the two years I was researching and writing my dissertation, I felt guilty if I wasn't sitting at my desk with my laptop open. Prior to beginning the diss, I spent a lot more time away from the desk.

Last January, I signed on to be a contributing editor for Research & Academia at BlogHer. As part of this position, I track around 200 academic blogs, and my Bloglines account contains a couple hundred more, nearly all of which are blogs I discovered through BlogHer.

I very much enjoy reading all these blogs for BlogHer, but recently the sheer number of feeds sitting unread in my Bloglines account has become overwhelming. And it's too easy to just click from one to the next, not realizing that oops, I've just spent two hours online.

Those are two hours that I should spend interacting more meaningfully with my infant son, taking a walk, getting my bike repaired so I can ride it more when the weather cools down, exercising the dog, cooking flavorful but healthful meals, and hanging out with Mr. Trillwing (who is himself chained to his home computer for his work).

Instead, I click, click, click, click. I nuke a quesadilla or spread a bagel with cream cheese and shove it down my gullet. Click, click, click. (Of course, during all of this time, I'm also baby wrangling, keeping a careful eye on my crawling son and talking occasionally with him about what he's doing. But still, it's not quality time.)

So I'm trying to wean myself from the computer. I'll still be blogging because I value the community of which I feel a part, but I'll be focusing on quality of reading instead of quantity. I'm also learning to knit, and I have a new sewing machine that I promised myself I'd take out of the box once I'm a Ph.D. I have other artsy-craftsy outlets as well that I should revisit.

Instead of declaring any new goals at this point, I'm going to simply try to be conscious of what I'm doing at any given time. Is it healthy for my body, mind, and family? Is it something I really enjoy doing? They're simple questions but important ones.

Tag: obstacles to healthy living