Health

June weight loss report: Down 0.9 pounds

Actual weight loss! But wait, there’s more.

I had early success in June, dropping to 168.4 pounds after starting the month at 169, but then started to seesaw through most of the rest of the month. On June 23 I somehow managed to gain 1.7 pounds overnight, ballooning to 171.5 pounds.

However, the next seven days I lost weight every day, save for one, where I maintained. I ended up dropping 3.4 pounds during this week, which is kind of crazy. I didn’t skip meals or anything, I just didn’t snack much and walked about a billion steps.

I also spent several weeks enduring a summer cold (or what I assume was a summer cold), however this did not affect my appetite, though I did refrain from running.

I will maintain the low-impact snacks and walking (and soon, running) and hopefully the downward trend will continue in July as I approach my proper slim ‘n sexy weight. 

Weight:
January 1, 2024: 172.3 pounds  
Current: 168.1 pounds
Year to date: Down 4.2 pounds

June 1: 169.0 pounds
June 30: 168.1 pounds (down 0.9 pounds)

Body fat: 
June 1: 26.0%
June 30: 25.8% (down 0.2%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
June 1: 30.0% 
June 30: 29.9% (down 0.1%)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Brain yoga

Or meditation, as normal people call it. I need to learn me some. I’ll do it in my own way, which means bumbling about until I get it right. It’s the way I learn best!

But I want to do this because I think it will be genuinely helpful, possibly even transformative.

On the other hand, I could just decide it’s dumb, line swimming, or knowing how to ride a unicycle.

Time will tell.

Sick: The investigation

Checking my journal, I first wrote I may be suffering from seasonal allergies last Sunday. After a few days, it became clear that this was more of a cold, not allergies. I am still feeling the effects five days later, mainly in terms of coughing (mostly in the evening and early morning) and tightness in the chest, and some intermittent stuffiness. It could be worse.

But this is also only the third time I’ve been sick since January 2020, a period of four and a half years:

  • April 2022: I caught the big one, Covid-19, after my partner brought it home from the university. I don’t blame him.
  • June 2023: I caught something similar to what I have now, also after my partner presumably brought it home from the university. I still don’t blame him.

This time, my partner is blame-free. Er, I mean, I still don’t blame him, and he hasn’t gotten sick. So now I wonder where I caught this particular virus, since I live a generally hermit-like existence. A summary:

  • I first experienced symptoms on Sunday, June 16
  • I went birding on June 8, about a week before. This feels like too long a gestation period, but I had exposure to strange people. And birds.
  • I rode public transit the same day, June 8, but again, it seems a long gestation period. I don’t remember anyone coughing on me.
  • I went to the grocery store multiple times. A possibility, though I’m never up close and personal with anyone there, and the building itself is very spacious and well-ventilated.
  • I walked around public parks and trails several times. This seems an unlikely source.
  • Maybe it was my partner and he just hasn’t shown any symptoms, so I can blame him!
  • Aliens?

In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter. It just makes me a little paranoid. Mostly, I’m just annoyed because I had just finished my first post-injury 5K run and was looking forward to more exercise this week, not a lot of naps, feeling blah and popping Tylenol. Also, being sick only three times in four and a half years is pretty good. The irony is that of the three times, Covid-19 was actually the mildest. I am not advocating catching Covid-19.

Have I lost my blogging mojo?

Yes, I have.

I am not sure why. Last year I was fairly regularly averaging two posts per day, but this year I’ve sometimes struggled just to get an average of one per day, or to just post at all on some days.

I wonder what has changed, but have no real answers. I don’t think it’s anything like “long covid” or associated brain fog, because it would have kicked in sooner, I think. Or maybe not.

I can explain the lack of a post for yesterday, though: I am experiencing either a nasty seasonal allergy reaction, or have some kind of cold (I lean toward allergies, given the symptoms, time of year and the fact that my partner, who typically brings germs home from the university, remains healthy). I have taken allergy relief pills to help reduce symptoms and as I type this, I feel better than when I first got up. But that only explains yesterday.

Maybe I am seeing the world slightly differently now. The last year has kind of soured me on people in general, and institutions and, well, a lot of things. I seek solace in simple things now. I long to be in places that are quiet, where I can be alone, and not hear the drone of cars, or the chatter of others. I am worn down by the ever-present displays of selfishness and stupidity. It feels like it is all around me.

Whoa, this is deep ‘n depressing. Normally I would end a post like this in a somewhat glib manner, by posting an animated GIF of a cat being silly.

And you know what? That’s exactly what I’m going to do! With one of the classics.

Also, it’s sunny today, which is nice and something of a change for this soggy, damp spring of ours. The weather might be a factor, too.

Anyway, cat:

May 2024 weight loss report: Up 0.3 pounds

So close! Three days ago I was still under, but the pattern this month was clear: Every time I lost or gained weight, the near-exact opposite would happen, though the first half of the month the trend was going up slightly, and the latter half the trend was moving back down (I was under three times this month, all three times coming at least three weeks in).

The swings were also generally larger than normal, too. One day, I dropped 0.9 pounds, then gained back the exact amount 24 hours later. I have no good explanation for this.

So while the news is technically not good, the trend is moving in the right direction, and I am boldly predicting actual weight loss for June.

Slightly wacky fact: I’m ending this month exactly as I ended April, at 168.9 pounds, so in a sense my weight didn’t change at all! (It also made it easier to put together this month’s stats.)

Stats (note: I am dropping Body water, it’s not particularly relevant, as it fluctuates within a fairly small range):

Weight:
January 1, 2024: 172.3 pounds  
Current: 168.9 pounds
Year to date: Down 3.4 pounds

May 1: 168.6 pounds
May 31: 168.9 pounds (up 0.3 pounds)

Body fat: 
May 1: 25.9%
May 31: 25.6% (down 0.3%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
May 1: 30.0% 
May 31: 30.0% (unchanged)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

The scales of…weight

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

Last night, the Garmin scale flashed a battery symbol in its display, a sure sign that the batteries were needing to be replaced soon. Very soon, as it turns out, as the scale promptly died right after. I did not have the four required AAA batteries needed to revive it. But popping out the old batteries and popping them back in revived the scale one last time. I stepped on, and it insisted I had gained over five pounds overnight.

I did not gain five pounds overnight.

I will get new batteries today and convince my OCD that it’s OK to have a one-day gap in my weight this one week.

And yes, in the olden days this wouldn’t be an issue, because back then scales didn’t need batteries. Such is modern life.

My watch is stalking me

My Garmin Forerunner 255 on my weirdly skinny wrist

One of the features of my Garmin Forerunner 255 is a daily summary that pops up just after 9 p.m. to tell me what kind of day I’ve had and to pass on a little sage advice on health/sleep/exercise before I bed down for the night. It always starts with a summary, like:

  • Active Day: This seems to be the best. It means I wasn’t a sloth and got some good exercise and generally stayed out of trouble.
  • Easy Day: As expected, this pops up when I don’t meet my step goal and am generally slothful and sitting on my butt. The blurb is never too judgy, but it will suggest I get some “light exercise” or something because it knows I’ve done nothing.
  • Demanding Day: This is likely to pop up when I do a lot of walking (20-30,000+ steps), exercise and have not gotten a good sleep from the night before, which means my body battery will be quite low (I think it bottoms out at 5/100, which has happened a few times). It basically tells me GO TO BED AND SLEEP WELL.
  • Stressful Day: Even if I otherwise have a well-balanced day, with a good mix of activity and exercise, this will still pop up if the watch feels my stress level has been too high. I suspect it is doing a simple correlation between heart rate and activity, so if my heart rate jumps up, but I’m not doing exercise, it’s probably stress. Maybe it’s more nuanced than that. I could probably look this up, but for the moment I’m pretending the rest of the internet doesn’t exist.

Stressful Day is when I most feel the watch is stalking me, because it has been uncannily accurate in this particular assessment. In fact, it’s been so accurate that at the start of a SE1Stressful Event, I will stop and think, “My watch is going to chide me for this later” and start thinking about kittens instead, to reduce the stress/anxiety/existential despair.

So even though my watch is stalking me, it’s helping me be more relaxed, fit and shinier. And that can’t be stressing me out.

April 2024 weight loss report: Up 1.5 pounds

Yes, I know. After multiple months of my weight going down and everything being lovely and on-track, how did I go up in April?

I’m not entirely sure! I had one anomalous weight gain. On April 7th my weight jumped 1.9 pounds for no obvious reason and for the rest of the month, I struggled to shake off this sudden bulk. By the end of the month, I managed to do so, but not enough to keep the weight loss trend down. So it is up, temporarily.

The good news is, I think the last week of the month I was able to get back into a steadier cadence of weight loss, so I shouldn’t go back up again in May. We’ll see.

I am still down 3.4 pounds for the year, so that’s a good thing.

I remain donut-free.

Weight:
January 1, 2024: 172.3 pounds  
Current: 168.9 pounds
Year to date: Down 3.4 pounds

April 1: 168.4 pounds
April 30: 168.9 pounds (up 1.5 pounds)

Body fat: 
April 1: 25.6%
April 30: 25.9% (up 0.3%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
April 1: 29.8% 
April 30: 30.0% (up 0.2%)

Body water:
April 1: 54.3% 
April 30: 54.1% (down 0.2%)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Knee-deep update

One of the nice things about having a blog is it remembers things that I don’t, freeing my brain up to store vast amounts of random trivia, which makes me a hit at parties.

I did remember that I hurt my knee about one year ago and was able to go back to April/May 2023 and find fun stats I’d forgotten:

  • It was the same knee, the right knee, which is now the wrong knee. For some reason, I thought I’d hurt the left knee last year. This is sort of good news, because it means the left knee has remained healthy.
  • The right knee is not hurt as much compared to last year. I know this because I did a coffee table test with my legs last year when I could not raise the right leg from the knee at all and right (ho ho) now, I can raise both equally, even though the bumpity-bump of the right knee is still there.
  • I started stretching exercises before I resumed running. I should probably start that again.
  • I didn’t run for 25 days. When I did, I ran a 5K at the lake, then walked the rest of the way.

As of today, it’s been 17 days since I ran. I think I’m ready to run again? I don’t think I’ll run today, but maybe I’ll go for a run and jog a little? So many questions. I’ll start by doing some stretching exercises and report back.

Thorn in my side: Running edition (2024)

Here it is Friday. Run day! Except I am not running, just like I didn’t on Monday and Wednesday, which are also run days.

Stupid knee.

What I have been pondering since the new and unwelcome arrival of Baker’s cyst #2 last Friday, is this: What happened?

Last April, when Baker’s cyst #1 arrived, I chalked it up to overdoing it–I was running regularly, and doing 10K runs. I wasn’t stretching back then, so I figured I just pushed a bit too hard. This time, I have been running far more intermittently, for various reasons, and have only been doing 5K runs (as I wanted to get a more regular routine in place before moving back to 10K). The internet, which, as we know, never lies or contains false information, tells me that there are two main causes of Baker’s cysts in adults:

  • Arthritis
  • A tear in the knee cartilage

Last year I assumed it was the cartilage. Now I’m not so sure. Also, the actual cyst1This is one of those words that always makes my skin crawl. Maybe I’l refer to the cyst as a bumpity-bump instead. has decreased significantly in size in the past week, so it looks like healing is underway. That’s good! But when I apply pressure to the knee in some specific ways, like if I kneel on it (fine), then try to stand (not fine), the low-level pain reminds me that this is more than just a bumpity-bump2Much better. Is it arthritis? How do I tell? How long do I wait before I try running again? Would it hurt a lot if I tried running today? (I’m not going to try today, it’s already 12:02 p.m. as I type this, and I am going out, but will be walking, not jogging).

The answer to all these questions is: I don’t know. I’ll just have to wait and see. Part of me does want to get out and run RIGHT NOW, but I know it would be unwise, and I am not yet ready to commit to The Unwise Path. I have a little patience.

For now.

Meanwhile, here’s a photo of public fish art I took a few days ago:

Funkytown

I think I am in a funk. Why do I think this? A list, because, as always, I like lists:

  • I have been blogging a lot less lately, sometimes skipping multiple days
  • I have been playing PWS1PowerWash Simulator, my go-to de-stress game, to the point where I have worn out its pixels
  • I have the urge to draw, but do not draw
  • I have the urge to write, but do not write
  • My sleep quality has taken a dive in the last week or so
  • I had a few days with an unsourced headache just because (it’s gone now)
  • I haven’t been running in 11 days, sometimes for legit reasons, sometimes because I just didn’t want to go (note that I always feel better after running. The only time this doesn’t happen is if something goes horribly wrong on the run, like I have a close encounter with a tree root or something).

I think the cure is to just make myself do things, and I’ll naturally pull out of the funk. Why is the funk happening?

As always, it’s complicated. There are things happening. I think I am experiencing a certain sense of hopelessness in getting things–even small things2I like the word “things”–to change for the better. I don’t have much faith in people anymore. I guess that’s a big one. I don’t know that it will ever change.

But I muddle on.

Let’s see if I have a run update as my next post!

I had a Cadbury creme egg

I view the Cadbury creme egg as a decadent indulgence that is now forbidden, because each one would require two full 10K circuits around Burnaby Lake to burn off the calories they contain.

However, I spied a 3-pack in the store post-Easter at a discounted price I could not resist.

I had one.

It was…OK! Not particularly decadent. The surprising part is the calories per egg is only 150. I think this comes down mainly to the eggs being smaller than in days of yore. They are 40 grams each today. A cursory search of the internet suggests they may have shrunk by 7-11% in recent years. Part of it may also be that *I* was smaller when I used to eat these semi-regularly, so the eggs may have seemed bigger back then in comparison.

In any case, I’m sated now and still losing weight. Win-win!