Tag: Health

A Daily Walk Transformed My Life

Post author By Christopher Pierznik
Post date September 15, 2023
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“I’m not saying going for a walk will solve all your problems, I’m just saying there’s no problem that’s going to be made worse by going for a walk.”
— Ryan Holiday

It seems simple. So simple, in fact, that I was doubtful.

As someone that was reared on basketball practices where you ran until you vomited and exhaustive two-hour weightlifting sessions that left you feeling nearly paralyzed, I couldn’t imagine that something so slow, basic, and, well, pedestrian could have such an impact on my life.

I was wrong.

Tags Happiness, Health, Life, Mental Health, Walking, Weight Loss

Health Life

My Only Goal: Improve Daily

Post author By Christopher Pierznik
Post date February 14, 2023
1 Comment on My Only Goal: Improve Daily

In my moments of quiet reflection, I always ask myself the same few questions.

Am I improving? Are my choices and actions moving me closer to the person I want to be? Have I made progress over the past day/week/month/year?

These are often followed by questions of self-flagellation: Why did I say that? What was I thinking? Why did I make that decision?

Tags Happiness, Health, Life, Mental Health, Self-Improvement, Success

Christmas COVID Fatherhood Health Life Parenting

A Very COVID Christmas

“I ruined Christmas!”

The tears burst from my nine-year-old’s eyes as she blamed herself for the ramifications of a global pandemic that has lasted for three years. All kids go crazy for Christmas, of course, but my daughter is certainly in the highest percentile of Santa fanatics, so having her holiday plans dashed was especially difficult.

Tags Christmas, COVID, Fatherhood, Health, Life, Parenthood

Writing

My Best Writing of 2021

This is the post where I lay out the best things I wrote this year. Maybe, in a year like this when my productivity was lower, it might include everything I wrote. We’ll never know (don’t check).

Tags Books, Children, Don Winslow, Fatherhood, Health, Hip-Hop, John Grisham, Life, LIfe Lessons, Love, Rap, Reading, Ryan Holiday, Time Management, Time Maximization, Weight Loss, Writing, Zack Snyder

Health Life

The Last 20 Pounds are the Hardest

Post author By Christopher Pierznik
Post date September 6, 2021
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“I thought about losing weight once, but I don’t like to lose.”

— Unknown

The Decision

It was not a New Year’s resolution per se. As the ball dropped on the strangest and, in some ways, most difficult year most of us had ever experienced, I didn’t make a grand pronouncement to lose weight. I didn’t write it down or post a status update about it or scream it to everyone I encountered in January. Rather, it was more of a hazy, general goal.

It’s time to get healthy.

Tags Exercise, Health, Life, LIfe Lessons

Career Health Work

No Days Off

The weather on the east coast is very hot and unbearably humid. My daughters like to play in the water and chase lightning bugs. We are in the midst of the summer. The calendar is about to flip to August. It sometimes feels normal.

But it’s not a normal summer. We’re all still living under a cloud of uncertainty and fear as an invisible, silent genocidal killer continues to haunt us.

And I haven’t had a complete day off since March 8th.

Tags Career, COVID-19, Health, Hospital, Time Off, Vacation, Work

Fatherhood Life Writing

I’m Keeping a COVID-19 Journal

Post author By Christopher Pierznik
Post date April 9, 2020
No Comments on I’m Keeping a COVID-19 Journal

I’m not a journaler by nature.

Yes, I have written down my innermost thoughts on occasion, but generally I jot down short quick notes on almost everything that pops into my brain that I then compile to use later for writing that I will publish, either here or in my newsletter.

Yet I felt that living through a time when a viral droplet infection — a silent, invisible killer — raced across the globe and was documented in real time was as good an occasion as any to keep a daily record of my thoughts.

Tags COVID-19, Health, Journal, Life, Writing

Life

A Dream Shattered

It’s after 1 a.m. on a Saturday night/Sunday morning and while I’m ostensibly doing work for a class I’m taking, I can’t stop thinking about a phone call I received today. The bottle of wine I just finished is helping with the deep reflection, just FYI.

Tags Friendship, Health, Life

Life True Story

“I Think I’m Having a Heart Attack”

Post author By Christopher Pierznik
Post date December 12, 2018
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I was sure it was nothing.

Tags Emergency, Health, Life

Children Fatherhood

Our IVF Journey

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

I.

My second time visiting an operating room as an expectant father was different from the first in a variety of ways.

It was in a different hospital in a different city with different doctors.

Most of all, though, it was planned.

The baby was so big that a Cesarean section (C-section) was scheduled on the morning of her due date. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 a.m., my wife was being prepped at 7:30, and she was taken into the OR at 8:30.

At 9:07 a.m., we had a big, healthy baby girl.

For the second time.

When our brand new daughter was first given to us, my wife looked at her and said, “It took so long for you to get here.”

Tags Children, Fatherhood, Health, IVF, Parenthood, Parenting, Pregnancy