It’s Monday morning – Monday is my stay-at-home day.  I love that I can address the day in a very leisurely fashion, no need to hurry anywhere.  This morning I indulged in a breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats and bacon…and, that is the inspiration for this post.

I have paid pretty close attention to my diet and exercise programs throughout my life.  My quest has been to live healthily so as to feel good all the time.  That’s not to say I haven’t fallen off the wagon several times a month (sometimes, several times a week).  I have read enough articles, books and doctors’ manuals  however, to know what activities constitute a healthy lifestyle.

A breakfast of Mini-Wheats and bacon is not part of a healthy lifestyle!

I know that eating cereal is like consuming several teaspoons of sugar.  Add in the fact that I was eating a sugared cereal, and my eating error is magnified many times over.   The fact the cereal was whole grain added a trifle bit of wholeness to the mess, but not much.  And, I think we all know that bacon has no redeeming health benefits.  My thought process this morning was it would add protein to the mix.  Yeah, right, but mostly just a lot of fat.

But, WOW, did I enjoy eating this junk this morning!

Which brings me to my new strategy about life that I wanted to share with you.

Now that I am in what I call the last third of my life, I have decided to indulge in a few actions that up till now I considered bad choices for helping me to be healthy.  My thought process – whether an intelligent one or not (RC thinks I am crazy!)  – is yes, I would like to live to a ripe old age (as long as my body and mind hold out); but, when it is time for me to go I don’t want the process to take months because my body won’t give up.  So, to help prevent that from happening, I have decided to indulge in the following not-so-healthy activities as frequently as I want:

• eating cereal for breakfast; and when it is oatmeal adding brown sugar and half and half rather than milk
• visiting the Dairy Queen or Culvers for an ice cream treat
• eating bacon
• exercising only 3 times a week instead of 5
• not working out with weights (I know, I will have no body strength and my balance will be off so I’ll likely fall and break my hip – but, so be it)
• drinking a “real” Coke once in awhile
• eating the croutons on a salad, and using full-fat dressing

All of these activities make me happy – that is the trade-off for the negative effects they may have on my body.  Actually, when I think about it, I have done all of the above and more on occasion, throughout my life – now, I am just choosing not to feel guilty or worry about my mistakes.

I realize this new strategy somewhat contradicts what I touted in one of my early posts regarding taking care of my body…see Taking Care of My Vessel.  I still believe in the points I made there; I’m just loosening up my stance a bit.

For those of you that are still youngsters (in my eyes under 60) disregard this proposed strategy – you should still be exercising and watching what you eat – making wise choices.  You need energy and a healthy body to raise your families and further your careers.

So, for today anyway, this is my new approach to life.  What is marvelous is I can change my mind and behave however I want on any given day.  Retirement and old age is wonderful…I can pretty much do what I want provided it doesn’t harm anyone else.

Anyone want to join me in indulging in some not-so-healthy vices once in awhile?  I’d love to hear what some of your ideas for questionable activities might be (or, maybe you’d like to side with RC and tell me I’m crazy) – feel free to leave comments below.