Things I have done to complete all three activity rings on my Apple Watch:
paced quickly back and forth in the living room
gone for a spontaneous six block walk
walk to the grocery store to buy several non-essential items
jumping jacks without the jumping
running on the spot (this can actually get your heart rate up pretty quickly, just like running where you actually move forward)
hung my arm down at my side (to get a Stand goal during a meeting. It’s a cheat but it totally works and beats suddenly standing up in a meeting and staying like that for a minute while everyone stares at you)
gotten up to use the washroom (also for the Stand goal; this is one of those win-win situations, killing two birds and all that)
reduced the Move goal for the day (when I’ve been sick. Since getting the watch this has worked every time I’ve fallen ill except one day when I was too weak and just laid like a lump and broke my streak)
The reason I’ve done all the above is to maintain a streak, because streaks create a positive feedback loop and you don’t want to break them. Breaking them is where the donut-eating starts. And Apple doesn’t allow for mulligans, so you can’t take a day off due to illness/accident/utter laziness.
It’s worked pretty well so far. I did four of these just today (I am unwell). I prefer hitting the goals all legit-like, though, because it means I’m healthy and stuff.
I did not complain today because I had no one to complain to.
Technically, that’s not true–I could complain to myself, and I kind of did, because I stayed at home to battle the worsening congestion I have been experiencing in my sinuses over the past few months.
In spring 2016 I experienced allergy-like symptoms and my doctor said it was quite possible that I had developed an allergy or two as allergies are neat that way. You can get them later in life because allergies are jerks.
Spring of 2017 saw similar symptoms but in the summer they went away, as one would expect of seasonal allergies.
Then something curious happened. When the weather started to cool and turn damp in the fall, the symptoms came back. Was I suddenly allergic to bare trees and the absence of pollen? I grumbled a bit to myself but kept on keeping on.
In the last month or so it’s gotten worse to the point that:
I sometimes get so clogged up I can’t breathe. This is never good and it sometimes happens in places where I really wouldn’t want it to happen, like on public transit or when sitting in a movie theater.
certain sleep positions will cause the same thing, to the point that I’ve started using Breathe Right strips every night just to force my nose to stay open (they actually help, too).
even when I’m not completely clogged up, I’m usually no less than 50% clogged up. As I type this my left nostril is open but the right is about 95% blocked. This will arbitrarily switch later on*.
the symptoms persist everywhere–at home and at work, in the rain and in the dark, on a train and in a car**.
The ever-persistent state concerns me because if it is an allergy, it suggests I’m allergic to something that’s ever-present, like dust or air or atoms or something. Anyway, I’m going to get tested for allergies soon. In the meantime I’ll just keep moving about rapidly, as it’s one of the few ways I can keep my sinuses reliably open. Gotta go!
Oh, all of which is to say that while I may have complained extensively to myself today about my congestion, I didn’t complain to anyone else–and I’m not complaining now! I’ve assessed the situation, made a plan of action and will be following up, because that’s how winners battle being allergic to atoms.
On to Day 20!
* in the time it took to get to the end of the post, the nostril situation has reversed. It’s all very weird.
** apologies to Dr. Suess
First, the good news: I got through the entire month donut-free. Hooray!
A tiny bit more good news: My body fat percentage went down slightly from 18.5% to 18.3%. Yes, it could be a rounding error (there may be a fat joke in there) but I’ll take it. Especially when you consider…
The not-so-good news: I started the year at 162.3 pounds. Not great, but 160 and below was in sight. Today I am improbably up to 165.3 pounds and that goal seems buried under layers of fat.
Still, I will not be discouraged! I am still running and working out on the elliptical, and I’m probably going to get regular road running shoes so I can run at lunch when the golf course trail is a gross mud pit of doom, which it is now most of the time.
One last bit of sort-of good news: In January 2017 I started at 165.9 pounds. I’m still down from that. Yes, by 0.6 pounds, but still–down, not up. So there’s that.
And the official fat tidings:
January 1: 162.3 pounds January 31: 165.3 pounds (+3 pounds)
Year to date: From 162.3 to 165.3 pounds (up 3 pounds)
And the body fat:
January 1: 18.5% (30.2 pounds of fat)
January 31: 18.3% (30.4 pounds of fat)
We went to the Canada Games Pool twice on the weekend, around 5 p.m. on Saturday and today (Sunday) around 1 p.m.
Saturday it was pretty quiet, most likely because it was around dinner time and people go out to party on Saturday night, not exercise.
Today was the opposite. The pool was packed. The swirl pool looked like one of those rocks that has a thousand sea lions on it. The other pools were bustling. Every treadmill, elliptical and all but two exercise bikes were in use. I had to wait my turn (though only a minute or so) to use an elliptical. I chalk this up to the earlier time of day, it being Sunday (“I must now work off my sins”) and the fact that it was not merely raining, it was a downpour, making any outdoor activities doomed to extreme sogginess.
I also really noticed for the first time that most people walk on the treadmills. I did see one guy actually running and felt a little bad for him, as (I have recounted before) running on treadmills feels alien and wrong. This isn’t a huge observation, I’m just not sure why I never really noticed before. And a surprising (?) number of people leave their stuff in the lockers without actually locking them (the key costs a quarter). Maybe the only thing they leave in the lockers are smelly clothes. I’d be a bit nervous if I had anything more valuable than some stinky socks in there, though. There’s nothing to stop someone from pretending a locker is theirs, plundering anything of value, then sliding over to the next one, providing a “whoops, haha, that wasn’t my locker” shrug to anyone who might glance their way.
Then again, most of the guys in the change room are in various stages of undress and eye contact, while not frowned upon per se, rarely happens because guys get nervous around other guys, especially when in various stages of undress. For both right and wrong reasons.
Anyway, I had a nice workout. The new training shoes work well and look spiffy, so I’m stylin’ while I’m sweatin’.
Following the challenge from the book A Complaint Free World, I have begun a quest to go 21 consecutive days in a row without complaining to another person. As these are modern days, I’m also including complaining on social media.
Today I have managed the trick, largely due to two things:
I have always been sensitive to what I say, how it might be perceived and how it could (potentially) be used against me. I am a long-time advocate of less is more and only giving as much information as you need to (for example, in an interview)
I worked on the service desk today, so I spent little time interacting with co-workers, which is a prime vector for complaining. Airing complaints to people you’re trying to help generally doesn’t go over well. The most I did today was observe that it was busy and that we did not have enough people and the latter is a statement of reality, not a complaint. We are officially short-staffed by one and also had someone out sick today. I believe, based on volume of requests, that we would need additional people brought in to provide what I would consider an adequate level of support. Again, it’s not a complaint, just my sizing up of the current situation.
Tomorrow I will be working alongside others and the urge and opportunity to complain will be much greater. I may have to channel my inner monk to get through successfully.
But for now, it feels kind of nice to not be seething after a very busy day. I am not happy, but I am also not stressed out. I am focused on making things work for me while doing the best I can with the resources I have.
Today I strolled a bit around Central Park in Burnaby, taking advantage of the somewhat rare dry conditions. It was cold (relatively speaking–we don’t get frostbite warnings here) but was clear and otherwise pleasant.
The two ponds were partly frozen and the seagulls were shuffling in a way that struck me as funny. Birds probably don’t like falling on their faces any more than humans do.
You can’t see them shuffling here, but I present seagulls walking on water all the same:
On frozen pond, starring seagull and ducks.
It looks kind of chilly because it was. But sun! Blue sky! Wondrous and amazing!
Sun and shade on ice.
Some things never change, though. The squirrels remain as chunky as ever, given the generous food donations made by good-hearted passersby. NOTE: squirrels can feed themselves, you don’t need to help them. Really! Several people were feeding them today and they are kind of cute when they’re scampering (or waddling) around–until you get close to them and realize they kind of look like rats with bushy tails. Check out the thighs on this one. He could be checking into Weight Watchers tomorrow as part of his New Year resolutions.
“I’ll gladly trade you a perky twitch of my tail for anything I can eat. NOM NOM FEED ME.”
The reason I can get so close for pictures like this is the squirrels have shed their customary wariness of humans, having grown accustomed to people approaching them with armfuls of fudge instead. Or maybe not fudge, maybe nuts or whatever the people have in their pockets that is both edible and something they’re willing to give up to these fur-covered blubber balls.
Anyway, it was a nice walk and I didn’t slip or fall. Hooray.
The good (?) news is the flow of fat has slowed in December, which is somewhat surprising given the regular indulgences this month and the usual lack of exercise that goes along with the consumption of things that go to the waist.
I was up again, though, from 161 pounds to 162.1 pounds. The bad news is I started and ended the month above 160 pounds. Bleah.
For the year to date I am still down overall, but not by much. 165.9 on January 1 and 162.1 on December 31 is a total weight loss of a mere 3.8 pounds.
December 1: 161 pounds December 31: 162.1 pounds
Year to date: From 165.9 to 162.1 pounds (down 3.8 pounds)
And the body fat:
January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
December 31: 18.4% (29.9 pounds of fat)
Still down for the year, but only a little. I am now 12.1 pounds shy of my official goal of 150 pounds. There be work to do.
And I promise to do that work next year. Which is in two and a half hours. Yikes.
I exercised for over three hours yesterday, which is a lot for me. First there was the usual weekend stuff:
10K run at Burnaby Lake
8K walk to and from above-mentioned lake
About an hour and a half later Jeff and I went for a bike ride at Colony Farm that inadvertently included a decent amount of uphill cycling (Colony Farm itself is entirely flat). This worked out thusly:
13K cycling, average speed 12 km/h
All told, I burnt oodles of calories and was confident that I would sleep soundly that night. Indeed, by about 9 p.m. I could barely stay awake sitting in ye olde computer chair and so I went to bed early.
And spent the first half of the night having a weird un-sleep where I kept waking up, felt weird and bad, would get up to pee and would feel even more weird and bad, with almost flu-like symptoms. By early morning it all seemed to settle down and a Tums plucked from the bathroom cabinet went unconsumed by the bedside.
Still, it was a strange experience. I fully expected to conk out almost immediately after all the exercise but the opposite happened.
Also, my butt is slightly sore today and I wore my special biking undies, too. Also also I kept getting the high and low gears mixed up because it’s been that long since the last bike ride. I managed to get them right for our one big unplanned ascent, though. I still hget nervous bombing downhill. I do not have a need for speed.
Today, after all that exercise yesterday, I suggested we go to the Canada Games Pool. So we did–and I spent half an hour on the elliptical. And then I forgot to turn off the activity on my watch, so it thinks I was on the elliptical for an hour. Haha, no. I haven’t gone quite that mad yet.
The bonus activity-recording did capture half an hour of intense ping pong after the elliptical, though. Jeff won 2-1 and all the games were close. At one point the ping pong ball ended up in my shorts. I had no idea this was even possible and mused over the seeming impossibility of it while I fished the ball out of my shorts. I had to do this because it actually got lodged in the mesh fabric of the shorts.
We finished up at the whirlpool, which actually felt kind of nice after all the pseudo-running and not pseudo ping-ponging. I still get nervous about dunking the watch but it always comes out fine. Just before leaving the whirlpool, an old guy showed up wearing massive earphones. He also had a tablet (possibly a Surface) that was playing videos or something. He set it by the edge of the whirlpool so he could rock out while he soaked. I’m not sure I’d risk that much technology so close to a swimming pool, a whirlpool and a lot of wandering and very wet people. But who am I to judge?
I hope I sleep better tonight. I’m not going to bed early.
Also, here’s an official stock image of the Canada Games Pool showing the upper fitness area where I do elliptical training and then forget to stop tracking the activity on my watch:
The good news is I’m still down overall for the year.
That concludes the good news.
The not-so-good-news is I did not reverse October’s trend of gaining rather than shedding weight. Instead my went went up again, a hefty 3.5 pounds. Yikes.
This was due to two things:
an increase in snacking
a decrease in exercise (specifically running but also walks)
The increase in snacking was bad. It’s obvious I can only manage it when I exercise enough to make up for it, so when I don’t the weight gain is immediate and significant. This depresses me a little. I must again resist snacks. December is probably the worst month of the year to give up snacking but I’m going to give it a try before ending in an orgy of short bread and Ferraro Rocher.
The decrease in exercise was not due to a sudden transformation into a lazy, sloth-like thing, but rather because of the change of season. I don’t mind running in the rain and the cold (though I can honestly say I would never miss running in the rain), but I haven’t really done it in the last few years and want to get better gear for it. To a certain extent this is just an excuse but I’ve made some movement here.
There are a few issues right now when it comes to exercise.
For lunch walks, it’s pretty difficult to do when it rains. Yes, I have a Goretex jacket, but my jeans will still get soaked. I could bring a second pair of jeans to work for these walks, but it’s a bit of a pain to shuttle pants back and forth between work and school. Still, it’s a possibility.
For running, it’s now dark right after work, so I can only run at lunch. If it’s raining lightly and not close to freezing, I’m good with the gear I have now, though I want a second pair of running shoes so I can just leave one pair at work. The problem starts when it gets colder–I need better running pants than what I have now, plus a better jacket, one that can better resist precipitation (my current running jacket is more of a windbreaker). One final issue is when it rains hard, the trail around the gold course turns into a lake/river combo that is supremely unpleasant for running. It’s also a bit dangerous because when most of the run is done in giant puddles of water, you can never really be sure what you’re stepping into.
I plan on addressing the gear situation soon and the no-snacking begins tomorrow.
My plan for December is modest–to get below 160 pounds again and stay there. If I can do more, that would be spiffy, but my goal right now is to just reverse the weight gain and get back on the no-donut track.
And now, the grim tidings regarding my waistline through the month of November.
Stats:
November 1: 157.6 pounds November 30: 161.1 pounds
Year to date: From 165.9 to 161.1 pounds (down 4.8 pounds. In October I was down 7.9 pounds and in September I was down 11.4 pounds)
And the body fat:
January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
November 30: 17.3% (27.9 pounds of fat)
Well, oops. The month started well but the last week or so my noon walks dried up as the weather turned soggy, I missed some runs and I found chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins.
In the end I picked up a hefty 2.8 pounds on the month, going from 155.2 to 158 pounds.
But I’m back on a regular run schedule and the muffins have been banned, so I’m reasonably confident the weight will start dropping consistently again.
Stats:
October 1: 155.2 pounds October 31: 158 pounds
Year to date: From 165.9 to 158 pounds (down 7.9 pounds. Last month I was down 11.4 pounds)
And the body fat:
January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
October 31: 16.4% (26 pounds of fat–up two fatty pounds)
September 1: 156.6 pounds September 30: 154.5 pounds
Year to date: From 165.9 to 154.5 pounds (down 11.4 pounds)
I shed another 2.1 pounds in September, despite taking a week off running due to a minor muscle pull and generally running less in terms of distance. On the other hand, I resumed lunch hour walks, which is where I ironically pulled aforementioned muscle.
Like August, I ended the month with my lowest weight at 154.5 pounds, putting me only 4.5 pounds from my official target and less than 10 pounds away from my unofficial target of 145.
It feels like things are staying on track. I’ve even allowed myself one donut per week at our work meetings. This seems to be enough to tide me over, so I never actually buy any on my own.
I’m not sure how accurate my Fitbit scale is but I’m a decent bit leaner ‘n meaner compared to the start of the year when eggnog was still available and being consumed.
Body fat for the first nine months of the year:
January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
September 30: 15.5% (24 pounds of fat)
