Health

Escape from the Apple Watch

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.

March 2023 weight loss report: Up 2.2 pounds

Good news: I am still down for the year!

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

Climate change hooray: Sunburn in March

silhouette of plants during golden hour
Photo by Billel Moula on Pexels.com

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.

February 2023 weight loss report: Down 3 pounds

Good news: I lost three pounds!

Not-as-good news: It could have been more.

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

Spring-cleaning for the brain

Yeah, it’s not spring yet, but I feel like my brain could use a good spring cleaning. Lately, I’ve been coming up empty for writing and drawing. Is it the time of year? Is it lack of sleep? Is it some other unpleasant thing in my life, like mismatched socks?

I don’t know.

So consider this post a cry for help.

But also, here’s an amusing cat image:

January 2023 weight loss report: Down 1.1 pounds

I’m now measuring things using the Garmin Index S2 scale. I don’t have a way to convert body fat percentage to actual pounds of fat, but maybe that’s a good thing.

For the month, the news is good and bad.

Good: My weight was down!

Bad: It was down only 1.1 pounds, which is an amount I can easily swing back and forth from in 24 hours. So pretty close to just treading water (or retaining it).

Still, down is better than up. Now that I’ve done the maintenance part for a month, I need to get back to the losing part. I’m not making any predictions to start the year, except that I should be down again at the end of February. We’ll find out in just 28 days!

Stats:

Weight:

January 1, 2023: 164.2 pounds
Current: 163.1 pounds
Year to date: Down 1.1 pounds

January 1: 164.2 pounds
January 31: 163.1 pounds (down 1.1 pounds)

Body fat:

January 1: 23.1%
January 31: 23.3% (up 0.2%)

Historical:

January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

10 Things I Want to Learn

Stolen from Austin Kleon‘s Steal Like an Artist Journal. I mean, I had to.

The idea (and first prompt in the above-mentioned book) is simple: Write down 10 things you want to learn. Here’s the list Kleon came up with in the heady, pre-pandemic days of 2017:

Now, I love lists, so this is my bag. But I haven’t given a lot of thought to 10 things, which may not seem like a lot, but really is, so going off the top of my head, I may not have 10 right away. Here goes my initial attempt.

10 Things I Want to Learn (2023)

  1. Discipline
  2. How to create a song (with vocals) in Garage Band (or other music software)
  3. How to Stretch
  4. How to consistently draw Gum Gum People
  5. Meditation
  6. My camera’s ins and outs (Canon EOS M50)
  7. Unity (the game engine, not the concept)
  8. Blender (3D animation program)
  9. ???
  10. ???

All right, I have a list to start, and I think it’s a decent beginning, but I will need to ponder a bit and come back to round out the list.

December 2022 weight loss report: Up 4.6 pounds

No miracle weight loss at the end of the month. Or year. Or at all!

Yes, December was a bad month. I snacked and snacked and even as I type this around 8 a.m. I can hear the people upstairs banging and thumping around, and I have definitely turned to snacks to help manage the stress their constant noise is causing. But I know I can do better and be more disciplined, so I remain committed to my 150 pound weight loss goal.

The good news is that I am still down a respectable amount for the year, as I started at 182.8 pounds, meaning despite the weight gain this month, I am still down 17.3 pounds for the year, which ain’t nothing.

But at one point I was at 157.3 pounds and was so close to hitting my goal. Sad trombone.

Here’s to (early) 2023 being when I actually hit that goal! Or else. Or else I won’t.

But I will!

Weight:

January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
Current: 165.5 pounds

Year to date: Down 17.3 pounds

December 1: 160.9 pounds
December 31: 165.5 pounds (up 4.6 pounds)

Body fat:

NOTE: The Garmin scale is calculating my body fat differently, or something, because it has it much higher than the Fitbit scale ever did. Oddly, this means for the year to date, my overall body fat is...exactly the same. Garmin also doesn't convert your body fat percentage into weight, so I had to do this myself. As a result and assuming I did the math right (always questionable), I only shed about four pounds of body fat for the entire year, despite dropping 17.3 pounds overall. Did I lose 14 pounds of muscle? Of course not. We'll see how this stat plays out in 2023 with just the Garmin scale being used for weight measurement.

January 1: 23% (42.1 pounds of fat)
November 30: 23% (38 pounds of fat--down 4.2 pounds)

On the first day of Fatmas, my true love sent to me…

A bag of nacho tortilla chips. And I ate the whole bag!

I weighed in at 163.8 pounds this morning. That’s almost seven pounds above my low this year and taking me further away from reaching my goal of 150 pounds, which I should have trivially reached by the end of the year. With two weeks to go, I will probably not even break 160.

But I’m going to try, so I am publicly stating this to the entire interweb to hold myself accountable (I already yelled at myself in my diary):

I vow to not purchase or consume any snacks for the rest of 2022, all 16 days of it!

Let’s see what that big mean scale says on December 31st.

Now, I’m off for some cake. KIDDING.

(I don’t have any cake. Not that I would eat it if I did. I’m pretty sure. No, I mean, I am absolutely 100% sure. Yes. RARR NO CAKE. See?)

Look at how thin and svelte this cat is:

A haiku to getting fat

Today, I weighed in at a high-for-the-month weight of 163.2 pounds. This is bad and I feel bad. I vow to do better, even though it’s December and it may seem like a hopeless battle.

I asked ChatGPT to write a haiku about gaining weight. It still managed to put a positive spin on it.

Gaining Weight: A haiku by ChatGPT

Winter has come,
Gone are the days of summer sun.
Now I must eat more.

ChatGPT also seems to have a liberal interpretation of what a haiku is, because that ain’t 5/7/5!

One more time, a haiku about getting fat:

Getting Fat: A haiku by ChatGPT

Layers of fat grow,
Once sleek form now soft and slow.
Winter indulgence.

That’s more like it! It’s also an actual haiku.

Now I’m off to eat nothing. NOTHING. Well, maybe breakfast. But then NOTHING.

Welcome to December 2022 ~or~ Ice to meet you

Because it’s cold out there today. It’s -6C as I type this and the expected high is -1C, which scientists refer to as BRR. At least it isn’t snowing anymore. Or raining, because that would be even more fun with everything covered in crunchy snow right now.

I must venture out at some point to get some foodstuffs, plus I also want to go to the lake to see how viable it might be for running tomorrow. I’m not super hopeful, but you never know!

Also, I was down this morning, woo. Weight-wise, I mean, not in terms of my spirits. I am officially 10.9 pounds from my weight goal of 150. Can I get to 150 pounds in the month that plies people relentlessly with candy, chocolate, eggnog and the horror known as fruitcake? Possibly!

Also, here is a cat in the snow.

November 2022 weight loss report: Up 2.6 pounds

Yeah, this month was bad, there is no other way to put it.

But it could have been worse.

I started the month at 158.7 pounds, a mere 8.7 pounds away from my goal of 150. It was within reach! However, my weight inched back up over 160 and in the final week it persistently stayed just over 160 and I ended the month at 161.3 pounds.

I now need to lose 11.3 pounds to hit my goal. If I intend to do it before the end of 2022 I would need to lose an average of 0.376 pounds per day. When I put it that way, it sounds pretty easy. It also translates to 2.82 pounds per week, which makes it sound a lot harder.

So 0.376 pounds per day it is!

The good news is that I have been running regularly, and it’s quite possible that some of the weight gain may be actual muscle mass. Maybe I’ll get a fancy™ scale that can measure that sort of thing, so I have yet another stat to track1UPDATE: The Garmin scale coincidentally went on scale, so I have ordered it. I like stats. And lists.

Actually, looking over the Fitbit stats, there is also some good news on body fat. It was down slightly from October, from 17.5% to 17.1% and my total body fat over the year declined as a result.

Here’s to a Christmas miracle and actual weight loss resuming in the month of December. Ho ho ho!

Stats:

Weight:

January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds
Current: 161.3 pounds

Year to date: Down 21.5 pounds

November 1: 158.7 pounds
November 30: 161.3 pounds (up 2.6 pounds)

Body fat:

January 1: 23% (42.1 pounds of fat)
November 30: 17.1% (27.6 pounds of fat--down 14.5 pounds)