Yesterday was all about the runny nose and sneezing. Last night was much the same, which made for a less than satisfying sleep.
Today, a new development: Coughing! Not much, but more significantly, when I cough, I can feel the congestion in my chest loosen. This is actually good, because it means the virus/bug/hellspawn/alien is moving through my system relatively quickly.
Also, I feel better sitting up and standing than when I’m laying down, so I guess I’ll rest while in the chair and not the bed.
It’s somewhat ironic that I hardly got sick during the pandemic, but seem to be on a once-per-year pace since then (which admittedly is still less than what I experienced before).
Yesterday, my throat was sore and that was both annoying and exhausting. Today the throat feels better, but the bug has moved into my nose, which alternates between runny and sneezy. It’s also in my chest already, so there’s some coughing for good measure. This seems to be faster than usual, so I’m hoping I’m feeling back to normal relatively soon.
Yep, I did indeed have that funny feeling in my throat manifest into a full-on sore throat, and expect it to spread to my sinuses and chest in due time, because it’s never just a sore throat.
I have no idea where I might have caught the virus, because I am pretty anti-people. Maybe I touched something virus-laden, then touched an eyeball or shoved all five fingers into my mouth. Anyway, bleah.
This also means I’ll have to wait to recover to get a flu shot, which scores irony points, if nothing else.
UPDATE, The next morning: Yep, I have a 100% genuine sore throat. I'd like to hope it's just a sore throat, I'll deal with it, recover and move on, but I know the reality is more likely to be:
- Virus moves into sinuses - Virus moves into chest - Virus hits hard for 3–4 days, then lingers for a week or two after
I am resigned to my fate. At least my watch gave me a rest day.
Late this afternoon, my nose and throat began feeling funny in that, “You may be coming down with something!” way, despite not going anywhere or near anyone that would presumably get me sick. Viruses are funny things. I’m hoping this is just a passing whatever, and I’ll be back to being A-OK and healthy tomorrow morning.
If not, I will update and probably post a GIF of a cat sneezing or something.
Yes, technically I lost weight this month, but considering the amount–0.3 pounds–it pretty much means the last two months have seen little movement. Some, but not a lot.
I am now down 6.3 pounds for the year, a rate of less than one pound per month, which is not weight loss so much as weight slippage.
Still, better than going up.
I did a lot of running in September and completed my 10,000+ steps every day, proving exercise is indeed not a great way to lose weight. Not snacking is!
I currently have no stores of snacks, apart from a few Tostitos multigrain chips. Once they are depleted, I will try, again, to go 100% snack-free in October and see what happens. If I still go up or don’t lose weight, I will curl my fist and shake it at the sky, possibly several times.
Stats:
January 1, 2024: 172.3 pounds Current: 166.0 pounds Year to date: Down 6.3 pounds
September 1: 166.3 pounds September 30: 166.0 pounds (down 0.3 pounds)
Body fat: September 1: 24.9% September 30: 24.9% (unchanged)
Skeletal muscle mass: September 1: 29.7% September 30: 29.7% (unchanged)
BMI: September 1: 23.8 September 30: 23.8 (unchanged)
Technically, I am down from a month ago (July 31), when I was 166.9 pounds, but I am not down from the start of this month (August 1) when I was 166.6 pounds. Instead, my devilish weight came and went over the last 31 days before returning this morning.
For August, I dipped below 166.6 five times, the lowest being 166.1 pounds. But alas, I was mostly stalled out for the month.
Was it the crackers? It was probably the crackers.
But my body fat still decreased a little, which is good, and the overall trend is still down, even if it literally slowed to a standstill for August.
I keep saying it, but this time I really will have to cut down on the snacking, I am apparently doing more than I realize. No more tubs of lard! If I snack, it will be a few pods of sugar peas or a couple of strawberries or something. No chips, no crackers, no cookies.
We’ll see how that goes.
Stats:
January 1, 2024: 172.3 pounds Current: 166.6 pounds Year to date: Down 5.7 pounds
August 1: 166.6 pounds August 31: 166.6 pounds (unchanged)
Body fat: August 1: 25.1% August 31: 24.7 (down 0.4%)
Skeletal muscle mass: August 1: 29.7% August 31: 29.8% (up 0.1%)
I was suspicious when my Garmin Forerunner declared a rest day today, as it’s normally a run day. But then I noticed the area around my right knee felt a little…tweaked. The Baker’s cyst (I really hate that word, but at least I don’t have my surname attached to it) never fully went away, but it feels a bit more fulsome right now, so it’s possible I may have aggravated it with all of my recent activity. That will teach me to exercise!
(To be fair, it’s not really hurting or anything, it just twinges a little at certain angles ‘n such.)
I’ll take it easy-ish tomorrow and see how it goes, but I’m still planning on a run on Friday.
One of the reasons I was not perturbed at moving from my Apple Watch to a Garmin Forerunner 255, which is a notably less capable smart watch and with a worse screen (though it works great in bright light, the opposite of the Apple Watch) is that I felt the Apple Watch gamified too many health aspects. I get it, the design is meant to prod and poke you into doing more, ultimately for your own benefit. But eventually it just felt like nagging.
The Garmin watch, by contrast, makes it easy to see your states, and awards you badges when you hit certain milestones, but it’s otherwise pretty quiet, so the gasmification mostly comes from within.
It turns out, I started gamifying my sleep and didn’t really notice it.
Specifically, if you get a sleep score of 75% or above for seven days in a row, you earn the Sleep Streak™ badge. I like earning this because badges, plus it means I’m sleeping well! This trained me to stick closely to my set sleep schedule, which the watch uses to issue relevant reminders before nappy time. It also puts the watch into a kind of sleep mode, where the display no longer lights up when you raise your wrist–you must specifically tap the backlight button.
Yesterday, IU found myself feeling in need of an afternoon nap (probably due to the run the day before) and the watch substracted nap time from my total recommended sleep for the night. This meant I could a) Go to bed at the usual time and get up earlier b) Go to bed an hour later with no penalty or c) find a way to screw this up somehow.
I chose Option C.
I went to bed late, but late enough that, even though I slept in a little past my usual wake-up time, I still didn’t hit the lower-than-usual minimum. My sleep streak ended. I had a sad.
I have resolved to return to a more normal sleeping pattern tonight. I swear! See: #$@!
Woo, I’m down this month. Last week I hit a low of 166.3 pounds, then it started creeping back up and just two days before the last day of the month it took another 0.5 pound jump. Yikes, as they say. But today, the last day of the month, a minor miracle occurred, and I dropped enough to bring me down 2.1 pounds for the month, and down 5.4 pounds for the year. That’s pretty minor weight loss for seven months, really, but as long as it keeps dropping, I’m reasonably happy.
Also good news: My body fat percentage has dropped more than by just a rounding error amount, from 25.9% to 25.2%. I mean, it’s still just a big rounding error, really, but it’s trending the right way.
Overall, then, a good month in the Battle Vs. Fat.
Stats:
Weight: January 1, 2024: 172.3 pounds Current: 166.9 pounds Year to date: Down 5.4 pounds
July 1: 169.0 pounds July 31: 166.9 pounds (down 2.1 pounds)
Body fat: July 1: 25.9% July 31: 25.2% (down 0.7%)
Skeletal muscle mass: July 1: 30.0% July 31: 29.8% (down 0.2%)
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%)
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.
