Day 4: A day outside takes the edge off fish tacos without beer.

This is a picture of a mentor of mine, Dr. Jack Sorg, caring for a patient in our make shift clinic in Haiti a few years ago. My wife and I love this man deeply.

Good day. Too much sun, lots of quality family time. Tons of physical exertion and just playing with kids, strumming ukulele are just some of the many cathartic activities I was able to experience today.

I had to work hard to avoid some of my hardest temptations. I, at one point, ate at my favorite place to get fish tacos (which by the way were exquisite) and had serious concerns if they taste as good without beer... they did.

Lots of opportunities to cheat on the sugar. I had to kind of white knuckle my way through refusing snicker doodles. I had to white knuckle my way through the Chardonnay refusal. But I feel good. A friend of mine asked me today how this whole detox is going. I thought about what, if any changes I've experienced in the last 4 days.

You wouldn't expect much, especially with my slips and failures so far, but one thing I've noticed is that I am sleeping so much better at night. Then my wife pointed out one more change and I'll close with this, I wake up cheerful. It's noticeable to my wife whose interactions with me in the morning is basically me leaving a cup of coffee for her by her nightstand and driving her nuts with leaving lights on in her room at 5 am, but that's significant.

I want to dive into this a little more tomorrow when I blog about some ruminations so far on this half-baked scheme of mine to detox from the things competing for my attention in my day to day routine.