Dan Gould

Category: Health

  • Change . . . It has to happen

    Like I said yesterday, I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the simple changes that can be made in my personal life that can lead to living healthier and longer.  It’s ironic that we are talking about developing spiritual habits on the weekends with our students and today I am talking about changing some habits in my personal life.  Here are the four areas that I want to change in order to have a healthier, longer life:

    1. Sleeping Habits – I have been bad about not getting enough sleep at night.  I typically go to bed late and get up early averaging about 5.5 hours of sleep.  I am going to try to add 2 hours of sleep each night.  This shouldn’t be too hard, I just need to go to bed and hour early and then allow myself to sleep in an hour later.  That sounds pretty easy but I am sure it will have challenges.  I guess the other option would be to take a nap in the afternoon.  I understand this is an ideal, life doesn’t always happen this way but if I don’t have something to aim for I will miss it every time.
    2. Eating Habits – I haven’t ever really watched my eating habits.  I have been fortunate enough to have a high metabolism, that is unfortunately slowing down with age, so I have pretty much eaten and drank what ever I wanted.  I was the kid in High School that ate a little debbie brownie for breakfast topped off with a glass of coke.  In college I was the guy that went with his roommate to Burger King at midnight to get 99 cent Whoppers.  This will probably be the most challenging.  I have cut caffeine out of my diet once before and it wasn’t that bad, but I came back to it.  I am on day 3 of no caffeine right now and feel like I can kick it again.  I am also going to try to eat healthier.  There are some little changes I can make that will have huge results, so I am optimistic to see what happens.
    3. Exercising Habits – I haven’t been the best here, there can be several days go by without me really having any kind of activity for more than 12 minutes.  My goal here is to add 30 minutes of activity everyday.  This helps bring up your good cholesterol and bring down your bad cholesterol.  Which in affect makes your heart healthier.  This is probably what my body needs the most and will demand probably the most discipline.
    4. Work Habits – I’ll admit it, I am a workaholic, mostly because I love what I do.  There isn’t much time that goes by that I am not thinking about student ministry or the church.  I think it’s just the way I am wired . . . or the way I have programed myself.  However, if I am going to change and create other habits, there are some things that I am sure need to change here also.  I don’t know exactly what that looks like yet, but I am sure after some talks with my wife, (she will be real honest with me) and our student staff, we can come up with a plan and empower others to take on some new aspects of ministry.

    This weekend we talk about accountability and why we need it.  If you’re a reader of the blog feel free to hold me accountable to the things I have just listed.

  • Stress . . . Can’t do a body good!

    Since Jackson has been born, the stress levels have been high for me.  In January I found out that I had high blood pressure.  Some of that I believe to be the high stress of both ministry and the things going on with Jackson, but most of it I have been told is genetics.

    So I said all that to say this, this week I seemed to hit the climax of what my body can take.  On Tuesday my wife had a doctors appointment and found out that she needed to take a test on Wednesday to determine what the next steps were.  I guess that stressed me out a little too much causing me to experience some chest pressure on Tuesday Night.  I had never felt like that before and it really freaked me out . . . enough so that the next day, Wednesday I made and appointment to see the doctor.  However, I never made it to the doctor on Wednesday because of other circumstance that seemed to culminate at 2:00pm yesterday.

    As I was sitting with Stephanie, who was just coming out of anesthesia, I got a phone call saying that Jackson was given to much medicine and was being taken to the ER.  Also at this time Josiah was needing to be picked up from school.  So needless to say, I needed to be in three places at once.  I left my wife there with the nurses and rushed to the hospital to make sure Jackson got the care he needed.  On the way to the ER I made phone calls to get Josiah and Stephanie picked up.  Thank goodness we had some life lines that were able to drop what they were doing to meet our needs.  The good news about yesterday is that Jackson and Stephanie are both ok.  Jackson never seemed to miss a beat and slept most of the 4-5 hours we were at the Children’s Hospital.  So yeah yesterday was stressful and my body felt it.  The pressure was still there and I was fearful that I might have been experiencing the beginning stages of a heart attach.

    I had already canceled may 3:25 appointment on Wednesday and set up an appointment with the doctor for 8:15 am on Thursday, but Wednesday Night, I didn’t know if I should wait that long, so I called the doctors office and talked to the doctor on call.  I explained my symptoms and told him my levels and he encouraged me to get some rest and get it all checked out in the morning.

    So there I was today, feeling better than yesterday, but still wanting some answers.  The doctor came in and listened to everything, gave me a EKG, chest x-ray, and blood work.  Everything came back normal.  Even my blood pressure today was the lowest it has been in 6 months.  I am still waiting on the Blood Work and think it should be good since it was good just a couple of months ago and I have been eating better.   However, this doesn’t mean I am out of the gray.  He said that by the test everything seemed to be ok.  But with my family history I should watch it.  He thinks that stress is the cause of the problems and pain that I was experiencing.  He also said, and I wish I would have had him put in writing, that I need a vacation!  Lucky for me, Stephanie and I are going to Cali Sunday for 5 days.  It couldn’t have come at a better time.

    Since this morning I have been thinking about the changes that I need to make in order to live a longer and healthier life. After all, my wife and kids deserve to have me around as long as they can.  And I believe some of the best parts of life are ahead of me not behind me!  I will post later what the plans are and how I believe they will help me live with less stress.

  • It’s Official . . . our house is on the Market!

    We just met with the Realtor today to put our house on the market.  We are selling so we can move closer to a Children’s Hospital since Jackson likes to visit the Hospital so often.  Our last experience was enough for us to say that’s enough.  Knowing that this is a temporary situation, meaning that Jackson should grow out of his seizures, we are looking to move closer to the church and the new Children’s Hospital less than 5 minutes away.  At first we were skeptical, now we are starting to get excited about the new adventure and believe God is at work in this.  My wife shared a great post about this here!

    Apartment life will be much different than what we expected.  Our first thought was that the apartments would be small, crowded, and if we were lucky, they may have a pool.  We have been home owners for almost 8 years.  So we are use to larger rooms and privacy, plus our neighborhood has a two nice parks and a pool.  Needless to say our expectations were low.  However, we were wrong.  The place we are looking at has pretty much everything we want minus 2 bed rooms, a second living area, and a partial bathroom.  But we gain the use of an indoor basketball court, racquetball court, theater room, workout facility with a children’s play room, heated pool and hot tub, gas grills throughout the facility, and a business meeting room.

    It will be different, but we believe that by moving closer, we will be able to provide the care that Jackson needs.  If it means giving up a house to have a healthy child, I’ll take the healthy child any day!  Please join with us as we pray for our house to sell and begin to transition to this new adventure!

  • We have a room . . .and a Soccer Star

    Thanks for all the calls, visits, email, and post!  It is so nice to know that we have friends that care so deeply for us.  Today has been long.  We didn’t get an actual room until 5:30pm.  This afternoon was ruff.  I don’t think Jackson got the care he needed.  I won’t go into detail but it was bad!  Once we got into the new room the whole experience changed!!!  Praise Jesus!  We had better care, and Jackson’s fever finally broke, like it had before we got put in the ER holding room!  He is sleeping now.  Please continue to pray for him and us.  The night time always seems to bring the worst out in him.

    On the other hand.  Today was Josiah’s first soccer practice (second team practice).  He did so awesome, and we could have a soccer star on our hands!!!  Yeah I know what you thinking, every dad says that about their son!  Maybe your right, but he is really good!

    Afterward we went to Taco Bell just the two of us.  It was a nice way to be with Joe.  He has seen so much this last year with his brother, and i didn’t want what happened today to ruin the excitement he has had all week to go to soccer practice.  After-all he already had to miss Saturdays practice due to Croup.

    Here are some pics of Josiah from this evening!!!

  • Day 6 – Drank Pepsi

    I know, I am a slacker. I totally didn’t have a desire today to not drink pepsi. Went to get fast food through a window and just couldn’t compel myself to ask for milk in the drive thru. Then hooked up with the family at chick-fil-a for a piece of cheese cake and yet again got a small soda. Why is it so addicting?

  • Day 5 -No Pepsi

    Well, It hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would. The good news is I haven’t had the pulsating headaches that I normally get when I haven’t had my morning soda. However, I must admit that I have had two glasses of SODA at lunch on Sunday and Tuesday. I think this thing will be kicked easier than I thought.

    By the way, Sunday night we went to our new favorite Restaurant, Texas Roadhouse!! YUM, YUM!!!!! When the waitress took our drink order, she looked at me very weird when I said I wanted milk. When she brought it to the table she told me she had never had an adult order a glass of milk for a drink before. I thought that was strange! But honestly, it did make me feel like I was a health buff. FYI, a glass of milk and a steak go together very well!!!

  • Day 1 – No Pepsi

    Well I have almost made it 24 hours with out a glass . . . not even a sip of Pepsi today. It has been challenging, especially since my wife drank soda for dinner right in front of me. But today, milk has replaced my former drink of choice, SODA. I started the habit back in elementary school. Somethings just seem to taste better with soda. I am hoping to find that out to be a lie.

    The good news, no headache today. I am sure it will come tomorrow when I am teaching. (That will be fun) I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes, pray for me!!!!!!