The word “scarfing” comes to mind. Not that I would, I’m just saying. Photo by Jonathan Meyer on Pexels.com
Plus, it’s now just seven months till Christmas. Start your shopping early to beat the rush!
I have gone through another day without any snacking, save again for a little bit of cheese in the afternoon, which I have officially declared Not a Snack™ when consumed in modest quantities.
I was also down an impressive 1.5 pounds this morning, but of late, all that’s meant is my weight is guaranteed to go up the next day. Will this happen again when I step on the scale tomorrow morning? We’ll find out soon! In the meantime, I shall dream of cookies, but there they shall remain, in the calorie-free realm of my subconscious.
More things I did not eat today. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
I was snack-free again!
Sort of.
I made a tactical error by having lunch a little too early, which left a vast gulf between lunch and dinner. I had some cheese to tide me over, which as a cheat food is not as bad as a big bag of chocolate or deep-fried bacon rolled in candy bits. So I still consider myself to be on-track.
I will properly pace my meals tomorrow.
Oh, and I was down 0.2 pounds this morning. Admittedly, it’s a large rounding error, but it’s still in the right direction.
Pictured: 10 million calories. Photo by Leigh Patrick on Pexels.com
Today is the first day I vowed to go 100% absolutely, positively, no-questions-asked, no excuses made, snack-free.
How did I do?
I did it!
As of 9:22 p.m. as I type this, I have not had any snacks today. I have not eaten any of the following since getting up this morning:
Cookies
Crackers
Chocolate
Donuts
Potato chips
Tortilla chips
Poker chips
I also did an 8.4 km walk, but did eat some bacon. If I’m up tomorrow in weight, I’ll blame the bacon. I assume it is like lead and adds way more to your body that you would judge from its appearance.
One day down, eight to go! I mean, if I do all eight, I’l keep going, but baby steps and all that.
If I sit on the couch, rest my legs horizontally on the coffee table, then lift my left leg from the foot to the knee, my left leg soars majestically into the air. When I do the same with my right leg, it’s more like a home-built plane that theoretically can fly but mostly bounces along the ground. Which is to say, I can’t raise the right leg as high, it is clearly limited by the movement of the knee, which is not rotating as it might, due to Runner’s Knee1Officially known as Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome.
But in two days I go in for my first-ever physiotherapy appointment where a sports doctor (I am hoping he will be wearing a sweatband on his forehead and be wearing those cool socks all the runners wore in the 70s) will spend half an hour assessing my current condition, make recommendations and perhaps offer guidance on when it is safe to run again. I suspect a foam roller is in my future, and I am hoping I can start running again soon. Three weeks feels a lot longer than three weeks. It feels like my last run was in 1890, with coal-fired plants belching soot into the sky behind me.
Because if I put it out as a public promise, I will totes stick to it. This has nothing to do with me gaining 0.8 pounds overnight. NOTHING.
Also, I am making an exception for Tic Tacs, as they have no calories, they are tiny, and I don’t exactly eat them by the bucketful. And they have adorably cute names, like BIG BERRY ADVENTURE:
* Starting tomorrow, May 23, since I already cheated today as I wrote this
Not my knees. Also, those socks. Photo by SHVETS production on Pexels.com
I went to the doctor today, and he looked at my knees. He poked them, prodded them, all the things you expect a doctor to do. He posed questions to me regarding my running habits. He looked dubiously at the sneakers I wore to the appointment and asked, “Do you run in those?” and I assured him I do not (which reminds me, it’s probably time to look for a new pair of trail runners again).
In the end, he said that, while there was a slight chance that my right knee is suffering from the start of arthritis, it is more likely that I am afflicted with “runner’s knee.” After 5760 km run1Not really a humblebrag, since that’s spread over 14 years, I suppose it’s not entirely unexpected. The main remedy is to rest, stretch and get bionic knees.
Actually, this article says what I really need is RICE:
Rest: Avoid repetitive stress on the knee.
Ice: To reduce pain and swelling, apply an ice pack or a package of frozen peas to the knee for up to 30 minutes at a time and avoid any heat to the knee.
Compression: Wrap your knee with an elastic bandage or sleeve to restrict swelling but not too tightly as to cause swelling below the knee.
Elevation: Place a pillow under your knee when sitting or lying down to prevent further swelling. When there is significant swelling, keep the foot elevated above the knee and the knee above the level of the heart.
As of this coming Tuesday, it will be two weeks since my last run. I will probably wait a little longer still, then gradually start running again, first 5K, then 10K, then upping the frequency and hopefully my knees will be cool with it. Or else it’s RICE time.
My doctor also suggested physical therapy, which might include massage and that might be nice, so I’m looking into that, too.
As a bonus, I also have what he says is a baker cyst, which sounds like something you’d see in the world’s worst, most horrifying bakery. While my doctor thought it was no big deal, the causes listed on the Mayo Clinic link above do concern me somewhat:
This can be caused by:
Inflammation of the knee joint, which can occur with various types of arthritis (arthritis would be bad, although in this case, also very sudden)
A knee injury, such as a cartilage tear (anything inside your body tearing is bad, though cartilage can heal)
He said to just treat the knee and the pesky fluid should go away without any direct intervention, such as a judo chop.
Anyway, bodies are dumb. I’ve only had one knee incident before in 14 years of running, so I guess in a way I’m lucky. Maybe I’ll get new and comfier shoes before that next run, something nice and pillowy, like the old colour-bleeding Speedgoats I had way back when.
Once again, my weight loss plan has worked in reverse. Oops.
The first three weeks were bad, a snack-laden mess. On the 9th I did actually lose weight, technically, shedding 0.1 pounds. After that, it was balloon time, with my weight peaking at 167.5 pounds on the 26th. I impressively lost 2.2 pounds over the next four days when the snacks were put aside instead of put into my tummy.
But it still left me two pounds up for the month.
The negatives:
Up two months in a row
I’m now up on the year to date as well
The positives:
This is less than last month’s gain of 2.2 pounds
The snacking purge means actual weight loss may occur
While I’m now up 1.2 pounds on the year, that should at least be pretty easy to erase in the next few weeks
My body fat percentage remained unchanged at 24%, which means I may have actually gained a little muscle weight?
My knees are feeling better. This matters because I didn’t run as much in April because the knees were feeling stiff, so I should be able to run more often in May.
Stats:
Weight:
January 1, 2023: 164.2 pounds
Current: 165.3 pounds
Year to date: Up 1.2 pounds
April 1: 163.3 pounds
April 30: 165.3 pounds (up 2 pounds)
Body fat:
April 1: 24%
April 30: 24 (unchanged)
Historical:January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
Last week, I decided to change up my nightly routine. Instead of climbing into bed with my iPad and checking social media/tech news before going to sleep, I decided to switch to reading a book on my Kindle and then, as of last night, switching to my Kobo Libra instead (I prefer the Libra, as it has page turn buttons and understands that some people are left-handed, but the first book I read was a Kindle exclusive [boo]).
I use my Garmin Forerunner 255 to track my sleep and while it is not going to be 100% accurate, it usually gets pretty close to reflecting how I feel I’ve slept. It gives your sleep a score between 1-100.
Except for one bad night’s sleep (late to bed, stressed, early to rise), my scores have been consistently in the mid 70s to mid 80s, with plenty of REM sleep. During the blue light/iPad phase in the weeks before, my scores would dip into the 30s and 40s and insufficient REM sleep was a common issue.
So yes, it appears removing blue light as I was getting ready to sleep has resulted in better sleep. Science!
It also means I’ve finished reading an entire book this year. Miracle!
On Friday, March 31, 2023 the move streak on my Apple Watch ended at 586 days.
I ended it deliberately.
I not only had a 586-day move streak, I’d also completed my stand and exercise goals for that same 586 days. I admit I flinched a little at ending the streak–I even strapped the watch on my left wrist when I got up on Saturday morning. But after about an hour I took it off, put on my Garmin Forerunner 255 and two days later, I’m still wearing the Garmin.
Why?
Ostensibly, it was to allow the Garmin to monitor my vitals all day, so I could get more accurate results and better health-related recommendations. But as that first Apple Watch-free day went by, and I realized the streak was really over (Apple doesn’t support anything like a missed-day feature to get you back on track if you miss one) I came to the realization that, in a way, the Apple Watch was controlling me.
I was letting it do this, of course. I constantly glanced at it to check the outside temperature. Why? I don’t know. I apparently have a weird need to always know the temperature (it’s really only important when I’m about to go out on a run and want to know how to dress). I was also in the thrall of those fitness rings (I had the ring complication on my watch face), repeatedly checking it, making sure I stood every hour, making sure I got all 30 exercise minutes, even if it meant hopping on the treadmill in the middle of the evening after a lazy day, or going for a walk to burn enough calories to get my move goal.
And you may be thinking this is good. I’m being gently pushed to do healthy things!
But it started to become obsessive. And after I deliberately called the whole thing off, it struck me how rigid the Apple Watch is when it comes to physical health. You MUST exercise every day. You MUST burn x number of calories (move), or you lose your streak. Again, you might think this is fine (doginburninghouse.jpg), but compare this to the Garmin watch, which has a morning report feature. It analyzes your current condition, looks at your previous workouts, and sometimes it recommends…a rest day! It’s a much more nuanced approach. It’s a better approach. Apple’s gamification left me feeling put off. The Garmin watch gives me all the stats, but leaves me free to judge (or not) myself.
I miss the bright AMOLED display of the Apple Watch. It’s a terrific piece of tech and a great convenience for saving you from pulling out your phone just to check a notification. But for general fitness, I feel better having moved away from it. For now, at least.
Plus, the Garmin watch still lets me check the outdoor temperature.
Bad news: I gained 2.2 pounds instead of losing the 1.5 pounds I wanted to.
Mediocre news: This means I didn’t fully undo the weight loss of February, just…most of it.
March has been a tough month and I dealt with it mostly through comfort food, which is wrong and bad, but perhaps understandable.
My goal for April is to keep running regularly, and to get below 160 pounds, the same goal I had for March. The difference is I now have to lose 3.7 pounds to achieve it, nearly a pound per week. It is possible, but it’s going to take a lot of discipline.
I may take up meditation.
Let’s see where I’m at in 30 days!
Stats:
Weight:
January 1, 2023: 164.2 pounds
Current: 163.7 pounds
Year to date: Down 0.5 pounds
March 1: 161.5 pounds
March 31: 163.7 pounds (up 2.2 pounds)
Body fat:
March 1: 23.5%
March 31: 24.1% (up 0.6%)
Historical:January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
Today, Nic and I went birding at Reifel Bird Sanctuary and Boundary Bay (I’ll have a separate post on the outing soon™) and the weather was unusually nice (it got up to 17C in New Westminster, breaking the old record by two degrees). It was lovely and sunny and even though I wore pants and a jacket, I managed to get a mild sunburn on the one part of me that was exposed–the back of my neck. The last time I got a sunburn in March was never, so hooray for climate change!
Still, I’d rather get burned a little now and be reminded to wear sunblock on future sunny days before it gets summer-like, and the potential burn is much more intense. I just didn’t expect that reminder to happen while it was still officially winter.
Still, I’m not going to complain too much. February is a short month, so a few less days to sweat off the weight. I did some snacking, but mostly offset it with exercise. There’s snow on the ground as I type this, but I’ve been using the treadmill.
March will see the return of Daylight Saving Time, the start of spring and hopefully milder weather (you know, no snow, which would be nice). My goal for the month is extremely modest:
Get below 160 pounds and stay there.
As of today, I have 1.6 pounds to go. If I lose weight at this month’s pace, I should hit my goal in the next few weeks.
We will see.
Stats:
Weight:
January 1, 2023: 164.2 pounds
Current: 161.6 pounds
Year to date: Down 2.6 pounds
February 1: 164.6 pounds
February 28: 161.6 pounds (down 3 pounds)
Body fat:
February 1: 23.3%
February 28: 23.4% (up 0.1%)
Historical:January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
