Where Has Ryan Been?

If you haven’t noticed, I have been AWOL the last few months. I asked if I should write an explanation. One loyal reader, Ken Dix, said:

Yes, Ryan, we loyal readers demand an explanation on why you disappeared this summer. I started eating junk food while waiting for the next Health Blog post!

So here is my story.

Starting in May, Stephanie and I began regular chiropractic care. Three visits a week. At first, we handled the visits just fine, in the sense that they weren’t cutting into our schedule too much. But after a couple weeks, we found the pace too grueling for us.

We loved the chiropractic care. The tension in my back went away and hasn’t come back. The back pain Stephanie was experiencing went away as well. But the amount of time it took (we were driving 25 minutes one way) was simply too onerous.

So after nearly two months, we quit. That was near the end of June.

At the same time, I had really picked up the pace on writing posts for my copywriting and marketing blog. I write advertising copy for a living, so keeping a copywriting blog helps to establish my credibility in the field. There is a direct and measurable impact on my business.

As you can imagine, writing two blogs, plus writing hundreds of pages of sales copy in addition to that, is difficult. Naturally, I began to post less on The Health Blog as my business grew.

Starting June 26, I took a full-time paid position. A client of mine who was happy with my work asked me to work full-time for him. I agreed to a 30-day trial. This further prevented me from posting on The Health Blog.

After the 30 days was up, I had clear confirmation that being employed isn’t for me. After more than a year of freelance work from home, I could not give up my flexibility and the extra time I have to spend with my family.

While I was working in July, I maintained my client workload. Some nights I’d come home from eight or nine hours in the office, then put in an extra five or six hours at home, climbing into bed at midnight or later. Talk about exhausting!

When I quit my full-time gig, I had to play catch-up. So August became a time for me to transition back into my freelance work and catch up on things I had neglected.

Now it’s September and I’m feeling like I have a better handle on things. Plus, the holidays are approaching fast, which provides a natural opportunity to write about health. (Here comes the attack of the Halloween candy!)

So that’s my story.

It was a combination of things that kept me from writing about health. Not that I wasn’t thinking about it. Stephanie and I both did a no-sugar diet in early summer, which was good. I’ve done one twice now, and I’m beginning to think of them as no-sugar fasts rather than a way of life. It seems easier and more realistic to give up sugar for a time than to give it up for good.

I’ll share one last thing. Early this summer, my brother Jared mentioned a verse that says, “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” (Matt. 15:11)

And so for a few months now, I’ve been thinking about what I say more than what I eat. It is a good thing to meditate on.

Anyway, thank you for reading. And thanks to Sarah Parker and Kelly Stuart who “kept things going” in my absence. If it hadn’t been for their posts this summer, The Health Blog would have been a real ghost town.