Photo from @topgold's photostream.
A FEW DAYS AGO, I shared an audio log about being low on energy. I'm very happy with the results of making that short verbal comment.
For years, I've watched my blogging efforts atrophy and start to fade away. And whenever a week threatened to pass without me making a short blogging update, I'd get a direct message, private audio, or personal e-mail from a long-time reader or listener, offering me an opinion. This time, one of the pieces of feedback came from Caitriona Redmond at Wholesome Ireland who told me how I should change my diet.
The short strategy involves more protein. I need more protein to sustain my energy levels. I need less caffeine.
I should be tanking up with carbohydrates to carry me around the mile loop that I'm trying to walk twice a day around our campus skunkworks.
I bought some very nice organic honey for my morning tea and porridge and that has put a bounce in my step before I get to work. And I'm taking a section out of my daughter's lunch box for a banana treat in the mid-morning interval between a tough lecture routine on our main Limerick campus.
At night, I'm either steaming or mashing potatoes--our two year old son enjoys both with me.
I'm filing this short piece under the category of "journal" with the knowledge that much of my current energy deficit comes from being unable to click off the same amount of road work I used to accomplish in my sleep 20 years ago. Nowadays, I often lack the energy to even plan the journeys.
[Bernie Goldbach is the senior creative multimedia lecturer in the Limerick Institute of Technology, using classrooms on three separate campuses to deliver third level degree programmes.]