Last night my wife and I met up with some friends for a great dinner and conversation. I love those times when you laugh so much your face hurts! It was the first time I’ve had a great steak in quite a while also. I mention the steak because my wife and I have been working hard on getting in shape for our upcoming trip to Cozumel in late November. We love SCUBA diving so we’re hoping that by getting in shape, we’ll not only look better, but won’t be so wiped out after a long day of diving. Oh, and I used to eat a lot of Ribeye’s with tons of fat on them…
Here’s my shameless plug (no affiliate links), but it’s really working! My wife and I are following the fitness tips found in the Vacation Body Blueprint, which is a free eBook you can get that outlines a basic routine for reducing body fat. We joined the gym on October 2nd and have been going 5 days a week since. It was slow going at first, but on October 13th I downloaded the eBook. At that point I weighed 183 lbs and was at about 24% body fat. As of this morning, I weigh 177 lbs and 20% body fat. I use a scale and a digital caliper to calculate body fat but I’m still not sure how accurate it is. But I can tell you, my pants are fitting better! The biggest key to loosing body fat, diet. Period. You need, on average, a calorie deficiency. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “you can’t out exercise a bad diet.” If interested in my workout, I can post that in another post (let me know of you guys are interested in my workout and diet), or you can follow the link and get the Vacation Body Blueprint.
OK, back to laughter…
Rule #62: Never take yourself too seriously
I love laughter so much. It really is like spiritual crack for the soul. Early in my recovery from alcoholism, I spent as many hours as possible with fellow addicts and alcoholics also trying to get well. We laughed a lot! Most importantly, I learned how to laugh at myself. Like how I used to drink 1/2 a large bottle of citrus flavored Listerine a night while living in a sober house. Yes, Listerine. I mean what do you expect, I was an alcoholic living in a house which didn’t allow alcohol… citrus flavored Listerine at 21.6% alcohol is the next obvious choice right? I often joke that it gave me horrific heart burn, but my breath sure smelled great! Later on in treatment I discovered from the doctors I was lucky I didn’t go into kidney failure. I laugh about it now, and many of the other self-destructive things I’ve done to myself.
I was so desperate for relief from my haunting past, I would take notes of things that gave me temporary relief from my self-pity and remorseful thinking. I mean really simple things, like, “yesterday I went out to eat dinner with a bunch of friends, we laughed a lot and I felt much better.” Next time I started feeling lonely and depressed, whether I felt like doing anything about it or not, I would get out my list and repeat one of the things I had written down.
Laughter is so powerful, that when laughing, nothing else in the world matters. I think I always knew this, but during times of heavy emotional stress, laughter can be extremely healing; if only for a temporary distraction. Sure, when you’re knee-deep in crap it can be hard to find something to laugh about, but try anyway. OH, and it helps to have friends that make you laugh. Too much laughing at yourself alone may be a little disturbing.
Two bananas are laying on their backs next to each other on a river bank enjoying a peaceful afternoon. Next thing you know, one of the bananas notices a log floating down the river. As the log get’s closer, the banana realizes there’s a turd sitting right there on top of the log as it floats by. He casually points it out to the other banana and says, “huh, you believe that shit?”
This is Hilarious! Whenever I want a good laugh I just cue this up!
Got a quick joke? Leave one in the comments!! (and try to be at least PG-13 please)
photo credit: ehpien
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Laughter *is* spiritual crack. Good reminder to do more of that each day. (Easy personally because my 5-year-old son is on the “up” side of recovering from H1N1 that turned into pneumonia. Yesterday was scary. Today is sunny — and funny. He and I have been laughing at one another, VeggieTales, and a hundred other little things. I am so thankful he avoided the hospital {or worse} and feels like laughing!)
emily-sarah,
What a God wink, I was JUST looking in my feed reader at your latest post about birthday candles. Wow, I’m so glad your son is OK. Pneumonia can be really scary. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I plug the site all the time from mine. Great blog here and it’s true, it is sometimes the simple ways that give us the best results. Good for you and your wife. LadyJ
Thanks LadyJ!
Hi Jared,
Laughter is truly the best medicine and nothing is better than when you laugh so much, you sides ache.
Laughter is awesome! If I can laugh at it – I can get through it. When I find I am stressed out by something – I try to find something funny about it 0r at least realize that years from now I will be laughing about it. The “”What was I THINKING” kind of laugh. Only going to show when you know better – you do better. Ranting with my friends is just plain fun – no harm intended but at the same time releases alot of pent up frustration – it makes whatever “it” is seem so much smaller and easier to manage.
I love that, “when you know better – you do better” Great stuff.