I woke up this morning feeling ill from a cold that I likely picked up from traveling this past week and thought to myself, ‘what are my plans for the day?’ For those who really know me, know that I’m not the most patient ‘sick’ person as I tend to get bored easily when I’m in bed recovering from illnesses. I tend to look out the window a lot just like a kid on a rainy day… what to do with myself; I can’t go outside and play; I’m not feeling well enough to work; I can’t do this… I can’t do that. Wo is me.

For whatever reason, I had an impression this morning that since I can’t do this and I can’t do that, I would pull an old journal and read on what I have written. My thoughts turned to pulling this journal that I bought myself a few years back. Fall of 2017 was a dark time in my life. I was going thru a deep depression and I knew that I needed to do things in my life in order to get better. For the first time in my life I met with a talk therapist that led me to meeting with my primary care physician to get on depression medicine, which let me to meeting with a psychiatrist who finally was able to help me and diagnosed me with having Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). Prior to going thru this trial in my life, I personally thought ‘shrinks’ or ‘talk therapists’ were a waste of time and I was the type of person who believed that ‘depression’ was all in your head; that you could ‘think’ yourself out of being down and not depressed. Yes, I was ‘one of those type of people’ who would criticize those who said they were depressed and were on meds, meeting with talk therapists, etc. etc.

It was a long time before I really felt I was actually getting better from being deeply depressed. I would say it was 2 plus years of counseling, doctor visits, and such. I’m much better now. Still on medicine, still following up with medical professionals, and still working on things daily, weekly and monthly to keep myself sane and mentally healthy. So, why am I even sharing this on my blog? Well, I felt impressed to share with the world of what led me to this little journal book that I found at World Market in 2017 and started reading and writing in it since then. I have loved the quotes and the reminders of things that are out there for us to combat the mental challenges that we will face if we don’t manage the digital distractions in our lives.

This morning, reading some of the content in the little journal, made me ask myself ‘What am I to do today to digitally detox?’ which led me to think. Why not a weekly challenge. And why not include eliminating ‘sugar’ from my life for a week! You see… I have a couple of issues (which many can relate to) I see screens when I close my eyes… I sometimes freak out when I don’t have cellphone reception… When I’m on Facebook or Instagram, I sometimes keep hitting refresh! Also, I LOVE eating Ice cream and candy! What do digital distractions have to do with sugar? Well, you see, one is a mental craving and the other is a physical craving.

I believe in ‘detoxes’ and my challenge and goal for this week is just that. To detox from certain digital and physical cravings. So, here’s what I’m going to go without this week:

• No Social Media, Not too hard for me, as I’ve had notifications turned off for years now
• No Digital News, turning Apple News and Stocks is going to be a challenge
• No TV or Movies, this is going to be tough as my wife and I love watching a movie almost every night!
• No Video Games including my favorite phone game ‘Fishdom’
• No Candy, including mints and swedish fish (I used to tell myself that this was ‘fish‘ and not candy!)
• No Chocolates, including sugar free dark chocolate
• No Candied Nuts, I’m including this as I can see myself saying, it’s a nut, not sugar!
• No Ice Cream, man alive, this one is going to be most difficult as I mentioned before I LOVE ice cream!

For those who read this and follow, please comment and wish me luck as it’s going to be a challenging week! And, if you feel impressed to join me, please do as it’s always easier to complete goals with those beside you working toward the same. : )

I’ve been thinking of traveling to the Pacific Northwest for a few weeks now and even mapped out a plan of where I wanted to go and decided this last weekend that I would change my initial plan to travel the entire northwest to just a weekend getaway to Jackson Hole. Unbeknownst to me, Jackson Hole was sold out for the weekend! I didn’t realize this until I had already booked my AirBnB in Victor, ID which is just 20 minutes from the resort. What was I to do? Well, on Friday night, as I was contemplating where to go, I decided I would get up super early and drive the 3 hours from where I was in Idaho to Big Sky, MT! And from there I would decide where and what to do next. Needless to say, at the moment I’m writing early Monday morning from Sandpoint, ID which is just 30 minutes from Schweitzer Mountain which is where I plan to ski today. From here… who knows where I’ll go… I’m only about 6 hours from The Summit at Snoqualmie and then from there a couple hours to Crystal Mountain. I might as well at least get a couple more resorts checked off my bucket list! As it stands, I’m just taking it day by day… little did my lovely wife know I wasn’t kidding when I said to her before I left… ‘I’ll be back in as little as 3 days, and as long as 10!’ Ha ha! She’s such a good sport to support her husband who likes to go on a ‘walk about’ every now and then.

I had a fun time in Bozeman, Saturday afternoon thru the evening. Ate some southern fried chicken at Roost then walked down main street after checking in at Jason’s Place to check out the arts and culture of Bozeman. I had to grab a slice at Tarantinos Pizza then had my vacation ice-cream at Sweet Peaks! Added to my ‘bucket list’ to come back and stay at the historic ‘The Bozeman’ hotel and catch a show at the famous ‘Rialto’ theatre. And a special ‘Thank You’ to the late Sage Lindsay (not sure who you are) for reminding me that ‘It’s a good day for a good day!’