Today's 43rd birthday

[Relaxer]

Here's a few shots. Top two were a month and a half ago. Bottom one was today.

[Boss Man]

Good job man, you can be proud of that, because there's guys half your age that don't look anything close to that, mainly due to sitting on their butts stuffing their gullets with junk food and beer.

Possibly the best present you could get really isn't it, you wake up to that and realise it's a form of self gratification that isn't vain .

[Relaxer]

Thanks Boss. Its based on an hour of exercise each day during the work week, half hour of weights, half hour of hard cardio, and then 2 hours of cardio on Saturday (Sunday is usually a day off). I also bike to and from desk job, though its only ~2 miles each way

I'm pretty good about eating healthy stuff for breakfast (usually granola with fruit) and lunch (salad barvwith grilled chicken). Dinner is usually a can of lo fat soup or a garden burger or something relatively light and lean

After 9:00 pm, when two children are in bed, healthy living goes out the door. Pretty much every night after bedtime, I drink 6-8 ounces of high % bourbon, have around a dozen toots of weed, have between 2-3 dips of chewing tobacco (Kodiak), and have some kind of gorging treat like multiple bowls of Cocoa Pebbles or ice cream or a 4-pack of Reese's Cups

I say this not to brag about vices but to point out that you can still be fit and buff at an older age, with young kids, and keep your vices as long as you are consistent with your workout. all weekday workouts are at lunchtime so it doesnt cut into family time or vice time

[Boss Man]

It may not be a boast, but ditching the vices would still improve your general wellbeing, because those things can have effects that you can't see until it's potentially too late .

[Alinshop]

Happy Birthday, you look great especially at 43 yrs old! I guess your nightly cheat's are well worth 2 hrs of cardio on the weekend

[Relaxer]

Thanks guys, great to hear and I appreciate the positive words.

Man, I definitely struggle with vices. Fortunately I keep them in moderation, and to be honest the booze and the weed don't concern me much. But I've been hooked on the chewing tobacco for so many years. Same ol story as anyone addicted to nicotine: I've tried to quit, gotten through a couple weeks, and then fell back into it due to weakness and just the pure fact that I love it. As for the late-night gorging, that goes in ebbs and flows but I always have some kind of treat at night.

Lately I've managed to make the treat be two of those Muller yogurts with the candy balls that you stir in. It's still crap and full of empty cals, but it's also yogurt and is probably better than usual vat of sugar cereal.

[Boss Man]

I would think the chewing tobacco wouldn't be too hard a problem to bin, because you're consuming it in set periods of the day, not throughout it seems unlike food and also I would expect it to have limited sales outlets unlike food, so if you pitched the remaining stuff out, you'd be able to avoid it by and large, if you had to go to specific place to get it and then stopped doing so.

The other option is if you buy it at a food outlet, use cash to buy food and take the cost of the C T, out of the budgeted finance you take with you to the store. You could tally up a recent receipt for food minus C T cost, then allow a small amount of extra money, like say $5 more in lieu of fluctuating prices week in week out.

You keep the money you would have spent on CT in a jar, then you can spend it once every 1-3 months say and buy personal effects like CD's, or clothes, or presents for other people with it.

You then effectively incentivise the process of canning the C T, to make it seem a more desirable thing to do .