Health

It only hurts when I sleep

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:

November 2017 weight loss report: Up 3.5 pounds

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)

October 2017 weight loss report: Up 2.8 pounds (whoops)

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 2017 weight loss report: Down 2.1 pounds

For the month of September:

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)

August 2017 weight loss report: Down 4.0 pounds

For the month of August:

August 1: 159.8 pounds
August 31: 155.8 pounds

Year to date: From 165.9 to 155.8 pounds (down 10.1 pounds)

I stayed consistently below 160 pounds this month, ending the month at my lowest weight, 155.8 pounds. For the month I’ve lost four pounds, proof that running a crazy amount may have some effect on burning fat.

For the year to date I have gone from 165.9 to 155.8 pounds, a total weight loss of 10.1 pounds, putting me within reach of my official goal of 150 pounds and not much further from my unofficial goal of 145 pounds. Looking at my waistline now I think it’s fair to say I still have more than five pounds of fat clinging tenaciously to my mid-section, so 145 is probably the more realistic goal.

I did not switch to an all-donuts diet as I had feared.

Body fat for the first eight months of the year:

January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
August 31: 16.7% (26.1 pounds of fat)

New bike! New injury! (Not a coincidence)

To be fair, the injury is nothing more than some abrasions on my left arm.

It seems I have developed a weird and unwelcome tradition where each summer I find some way to hurt myself. In 2015 I hurt my hip on the first run of vacation. In 2016 I snagged a foot on a tree root and went down hard on a gravel path, with appropriate lacerations and cuts down the right side of my body.

And today I kind of tipped over on my new bike and fell off a ramp into some bramble. I got a long but shallow scratch on my otherwise sexy left calf and about a 10 cm swath of abrasions on my lower left arm. On the plus side, my new gloves kept my hands in pristine condition!

But let me back up a bit.

For awhile I’ve been thinking about getting a bike again–my last was stolen from Tim’s garage by a safety-conscious thief (he took the helmet, too). I rode that one to work and really, it was okay for urban riding but even going over a curb made it feel like the frame would bend like a pretzel. After a suggestion from Jeff, I perused the selection of bikes at MEC and settled on a Ghost Kato, which sounds cool, of nothing else. There was a choice between 26 and 27.5″ tires but it became obvious quickly that 26″ is passe–you know, “Grandpa tires,” while 27.5″ is sexy and happening.

I’ll include a picture of my bike soon but here’s a generic shot for now:

Ghost Kato 27.5"

I picked up a bunch of other things to take advantage of the 10%-off-with-purchase-of-bike deal:

  • stylish black helmet which I look dorky in, anyway
  • fingerless gloves
  • padded undies because I’ve been on bikes without padding for my butt and my butt was very cross with me after
  • water bottle and holder
  • a small kit bag for holding repair doodads (it goes behind and under the seat)

After a few adjustments and a couple loops around the guest parking at the condo, we headed out and up SFU, then rode down two trails. The first was wide but very much a downhill thing. I used the brakes a lot and found out they worked well. I only had one brief moment near the beginning where I hot a patch of loose gravel and felt the tires start to slide, but I maintained control.

Then we moved onto the second trail, which Jeff described as not as steep but more narrow. This seemed like a fair trade-off to me, so we ventured onto Dead Moped.

I almost immediately ran into trouble because although not steep, it was still downhill and very twisty and turny, requiring a degree of coordination that only existed in my imagination. I tried to channel my imagination into reality but the bike was firmly on the side of reality. I muddled along and then got to a point where somehow I was in the lead (I’m still not sure how that happened) and was navigating one of those narrow plank bridges, which are sometimes directly on the ground and other times elevated about a foot or so off of it. They look like this (this is actually taken from Dead Moped):

I went to the handy trailforks.com website, which has several nice photos and videos of the trail. I found one video and managed to grab a blurry still which you may gander at below:

Just past that tree on the left, where the bridge turns to the right…I turned to the left. I didn’t plan it that way, but somehow my combination of speed, balance (and lack thereof), and inexperience combined to where I could not correct quite enough. I very nearly stayed on the bridge, but in the end my balance shifted a little too much to the left and gravity took over. I had a moment to consider if I could put out my left leg to somehow brace myself but this bridge is elevated and my legs are not freakishly long, so I just toppled over onto my side.

A guy came up, seemingly out of nowhere and asked if I was okay. He offered a hand to help me up. I thanked him and said I was okay (except for proving what a noob I am when it comes to two-wheeled transportation). While it may be true that you never forget how to ride a bike, I can verify that it is quite possible to forget how to ride a bike well.

And here’s the damage, nothing a little Polysporin can’t fix:

Pretty minor, especially compared to actually embedding gravel into my hand last summer.

I walked my bike the rest of the way out of the trail (it wasn’t that far), not willing to risk finding another way to separate myself unexpectedly from the bike.

The ride along the rest of the route home (a little under 7 km) went without incident.

Overall, it was actually pretty fun, if terrifying from time to time. I’m flattered that Jeff (who rides these trails with the ease that most people would walk them) thought I could manage it. I later learned that Dead Moped is rated Blue–intermediate difficulty. At this point I’m probably best to stick to whatever color they use for “can barely stay upright on a bicycle.” But I’ll improve.

And maybe wear more padding.

Save

Save

July 2017 weight loss report: Down 2.6 pounds

For the month of July:

July 1: 163.1 pounds
July 30: 160.5 pounds

This continues the downward trend that started in May and has picked up a wee bit of momentum. Three times in the past week I dipped below 160 pounds, once tipping the scale at 158.6 pounds.

For the year to date I have gone from 165.9 to 160.5 pounds, a total weight loss of 5.4 pounds. Not super-dramatic but I am getting close enough to my goal that I no longer despair and feel the urge to give up and switch to an all-donuts diet.

And body fat for the first half of the year:

January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
July 30: 16.6% (26.8 pounds of fat)

Down 2.5%/4.9 pounds of fat. Again, not numbers to make your socks roll up and down but a continued improvement over previous months. Onward and downward, I say!

Now featuring less of me

Today I weighed myself, as I do every day, but today was a little different.

Specifically, I was less than I was yesterday. Even more specifically, I was down exactly two pounds, from 160.6 to 158.6 pounds, marking the first time the entire freaking year I have been below 160 pounds.

I celebrated this achievement by eating an entire chocolate cake.

Okay, I had sushi. And it was yummy.

My official goal of 150 pounds is now in sight. My super-secret goal of 145 pounds is…closer. Still, even going by the stricter goal, it’s only 13.6 pounds away, which seems a lot more doable than when I was pushing 170.

And now, (imaginary) donuts.

June 2017 weight loss report: Down one pound

Here”s this month’s weight loss (?) report:

June 1: 164.4 pounds
June 30: 163.4 pounds

For a weight loss (!) of exactly one pound. Not exactly a staggering amount but still down for the month and continuing the  downward trend started in May.

For the first half of the year I have gone from 165.9 to 163.4 pounds. That’s 2.5 pounds, which is pretty so-so. The good news is most of that has actually happened in the last two months, so the weight loss is accelerating. Yay.

And body fat for the first half of the year:

January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
June 30: 17.2% (28.3 pounds of fat)

Down a not-bad 1.9%/3.4 pounds of fat. No wonder I feel slightly lighter when running.*

* I wish I could actually feel the difference

The first day of summer, 2017: Perfectly cromulent

Today is officially the first day of summer and it defied expectations, given the weather we’ve seen so far this year. Rather than raining brimstone and fire or perhaps just letting loose with another monsoon, the day instead was a bit breezy but pleasant, with clear skies, sun and temperatures hovering just under 20ºC–right around seasonal.

It was kind of weird.

I took advantage by actually going for a walk at lunch. I admit I have a motive other than enjoying the nice weather, and that is a renewed effort to get the rest of the flab off me.

On that note, I make a solemn vow now: No more Goldfish crackers. These are like year-round shortbread for me. They are small and tasty and so it’s easy to eat five or ten or 5,000 of them before you know it.

No more.

Begone, Goldfish! You will be a lightly-salted memory from now on. As soon as I finish this bag, that is.

There’s no need to be wasteful, after all.

But anyway, the first day of summer was pretty nice.

May 2017 weight loss report: Down 2.3 pounds

Before looking back on May’s weight loss/gain/donut catastrophes, let’s first look back on April:

April 1: 166.3 pounds
April 30: 165.2 pounds

A small amount of weight loss. Encouraging, if only slightly so. And now May:

May 1: 166.2 pounds
May 31: 163.9 pounds

Note that only one day into May I had effectively erased the minor but of weight loss for the month of April. However, I managed to actually move in a positive direction for the month as a whole, shedding 2.3 pounds and 2.0 pounds for the year to date.

How about body fat?

January 1: 19.1% (31.7 pounds of fat)
May 31: 17.9% (29.3 pounds of fat)

Body fat is down 1.2%. Not much, but it’s down. If Fitbit’s estimates are even remotely close to accurate it’s kind of grossbuckets to think I’m carrying nearly 30 pounds of fat around with me. No wonder I don’t feel light on my feet these days. 😛

Still, May was a month of progress, so here’s to June seeing the momentum continue as I shed pounds like some efficient pounds-shedding device.

One head cold, two lists

Two lists after the sudden and unwelcome arrival of a head cold four days ago.

List 1:
Things I have missed since getting a head cold

  • two runs
  • one writing group
  • my daily activity goal as per the Apple Watch (four days so far)
  • work (on-site)
  • going outside (two days)

List 2:
Things I have achieved since getting a head cold

  • sneezing
  • runny nose
  • stuffed sinuses (goes great with #2)
  • headache
  • mild fever
  • coughing
  • sore throat
  • sleeplessness (one night, see immediate item above for explanation)
  • conversely, plenty of napping during the day
  • weird dreams
  • possible addiction to NyQuil (not really, but it has probably saved my sleep 3 of 4 nights)
  • work (a little that I could do from home on the fourth day)

This one bugs me because it just seems so random and out of the blue. Friday I was fine, Friday night I was sick. Weekend shot, missed work, behind on everything again, going in when still not 100%, missing runs after finally getting back into a regular routine. Why haven’t we cured the common cold, anyway?