Body and Mind
I have grown up a lot in the past year. My preferences have changed for how to spend my free time, political and religious views have matured and evolved, and my tolerance for activities as well as traits and actions of others has changed dramatically.
I no longer enjoy going to college house parties. I don't think I ever really cared for them, especially parties where there's more drinking and games than talking to friends, and parties where I don't know most of the people, and no one is interested in making friends who aren't drinking and playing drinking games. However, there were times when I knew most or all of the people, and had fun drinking and playing games, all while spending time with friends. Even this, however, bores me now. I don't enjoy the music that plays at most house parties, I don't like drinking more than one or two, and I think drinking games completely lose their fun after the 4th or 5th time, let alone the 100th. Being around drunk people, especially those who are loud, rude, and sloppy, drives me absolutely insane.
Well, enough negativity. Here are some things I do enjoy:
This year I've begun exercising my mind more than before. I've stopped trying to have fun for the sake of having fun (example: going to parties because 'that's what college students do'), and starting enjoying life through self improvement. I've been reading more (check out my sidebar for what I'm reading; at the time of this post, I'm reading Brisinger), completing sodoku puzzles as brain exercise, and making an attempt to read more content of value when wasting time online. Also on my list is practicing Spanish, and completing the Rosetta Stone: Spanish series.
I've been exercising regularly (5-6 times a week), doing stationary cycling, while it's cold out, as well as crunches. For both of these, I'm up and at the gym by 8:00 am most mornings, and I'm constantly pushing myself to set personal records, by increasing speed, endurance, weight, and count for these exercises. In addition to these regular workouts, I've also been rock climbing at our rock wall 3-5 times a week. I actually got a climbing chalk bag with chalk for my birthday, and money/gift certificate that I used to buy climbing shoes. I wrote a post recently about climbing, but since then I've been making great progress. I owe all of this to the fact that I love doing it. I'm certified to belay, and I've climbed multiple routes to the top of the wall on both sides.
I've been eating better, by eating less, as well as eating healthier. I like to think that for the past few years I've already been eating healthier (although too much), since I eat healthy meats, grill (to remove fat) as much as possible, eat vegetables regularly with meals, and snack on fruit. I've made a very strong effort to stop eating ramen noodles, for two reasons: 1. sodium/msg content and 2. carbs. Now, when eating carbs, I try to make sure they come from whole grain, high fiber foods. I don't count calories, but I do make an effort to eat less, and eat healthier. Just since new years, as a result of diet and exercise, I've lost about 10lbs. I'm not necessarily concerned with weight loss, but I'd like to be able to wear a few old shirts and pairs of pants.
There are a few good resources I've found for helping me achieve these goals. For tracking my progress reading, challenging myself to continue, and getting book recommendations, I've been using GoodReads. For tracking my workouts, finding and challenging myself to new workouts, as well as challenging myself to beat my personal records, I use Fitocracy. For recommendations, tips, advice, and encouragement for fitness and weight loss, reading /r/Fitness and /r/LoseIt are very helpful.
It's no joke that you grow and mature a lot in college, as well as after. I'm changing a lot, but it's pretty cool, because I feel like it would be boring to be the same forever. I only get one go at life.