I opted for a nice relaxing bath instead of a walk/run after work, and dinner ran late, so it was past 9 o’clock before I could do any exercise. I debated going for a walk in the dark, but in the end I just didn’t feel up to it. Instead, I hit ye olde treadmill and did a 30 minute workout. I was a bit slow, but this was in line with how I felt. I was not really feeling it in any respect today and will be glad when the day is done.
The previous stats are from my August 20th workout.
Pace: 9:28/km (9:19 km/h)
Time: 30:05 (30:03)
Distance: 3.17 km (3.22 km)
Calories burned: 300 (293)
BPM: 139 (140)
Today, I just didn’t care, so I cheated…a bit. I had some crackers. I had a Clif Bar. But I did a half hour workout on the treadmill, so it wasn’t all just indulgence. I paid for my sins in sweat.
I was down this morning by 0.3 pounds. This meant I did not end the month at a total weight loss for the year to date, but I am closer than I’ve been in a long time.
A few stats from my two-week snack-free experiment:
I lost exactly two pounds if you go from Day 1 to Day 14, from 174.1 to 172.1 pounds.
If you track from my highest to lowest weights during the same period I lost 3.7 pounds.
If you do the same for the month, I lost 5.2 pounds.
The bottom line is the last two weeks have kept me on a steady downward track with my weight and I’m lower in weight now than I have been in many months. It would be foolish to not continue, so starting tomorrow, I’ll begin tracking September’s 30 days and see how it goes.
This may mean I have to skip a birthday cake on my birthday. Maybe I’ll have a brownie instead and work it off on a run.
If you look at my high and low weight in August, there is a spread of 5.2 pounds, from a high of 176.5 to a low of 171.3. I ended the month this morning at 172.1, exactly two pounds lighter than when I started. This is a smaller drop than the previous month (2.6 pounds) but it does reflect a two week period in the second half of the month when I started going snack-free.
If you look at the snack-free period, my weight went from 175.8 to 172.1, a more impressive difference of 3.7 pounds.
For one day this month–August 29 when I hit that low of 171.3 pounds–Fitbit declared my weight as normal instead of overweight. Today, sitting at exactly 25 for BMI, I am once again officially in the tubby category. Alas. But if I behave, I could have my next normal day as soon as tomorrow, which would be a spiffy way to start the month. (I am aware there is controversy over using BMI as an indicator for weight/body fat.)
If I had ended the month on that 171.3 pound weight I would have seen my first loss for the year. Instead I am still up, though it is now a more modest increase of 0.3 pounds (as of last month it was 3 pounds).
Body fat has gone down for the month, which suggests I am actually starting to lose the tire.
The no snacking policy will continue!
Stats:
August 1: 174.1 pounds August 31: 172.1 pounds (down 2 pounds)
Year to date: From 171.8 to 172.1 pounds (up 0.3 pounds)
And the body fat:
August 1: 23.1% (40.3 pounds of fat) August 31: 22.6% (38.9 pounds of fat) down 0.4 pounds)
It was bound to happen and today my weight went up instead of down, by 1.1 pounds to 172.4 pounds. Alas. I blame water and etc.
Snacking was absent today except for a few small pieces of cheese (not the seemingly massive calorie-rich slab I had last week) and while I didn’t do one of my exercise walk/runs, I still got out for a nearly 4 km walk to burn a few.
Tomorrow morning I assess how well I’ve done with two weeks of snacking, evaluate and then make a plan for September.
Today was a day of no snacking at all. I’m not actually sure how I managed it without getting hungry. I guess I spaced the meals optimally.
I also hit a milestone this morning on the weigh-in: I dropped to 171.3 pounds, which puts me below where I was at the start of the year. As of today, at least, I have actually, officially lost weight in 2020. Fitbit also decreed that I am no longer overweight, instead I am normal. This just means my BMI dipped below 25 (to 24.9 to be exact), which is the somewhat arbitrary line where one shifts from not fat to fat.
The reality is I am still rather pudgy, but now just over 20 pounds short of my goal. That may still seem like a lot, but given the results I’ve seen in the past 12 days vs. the rest of the year to date, it seems entirely achievable.
There is a small chance I could dip below 170 pounds before the month is over, but it’s also just as likely I could gain water weight or swallow lead ingots encased in chocolate or something, and see an increase instead. I’m hoping for the former, but braced for the latter (don’t worry, I don’t have any chocolate-covered lead ingots handy).
I almost decided to do a run today, but by the time I got to the river trail, I changed my mind. But then as I walked the trail I changed my mind again and ended up with a compromise. I walked past the end of the river trail so I would have at least a clear 2 km stretch before hitting the exit to North Road. Then I started to run, and kept running until I exited the trail.
I only have one full km segment of full-on running that was tracked, but in that one km I averaged a pace of 5:26/km, which kind of shocked me, because that’s a really good pace.
The heel held up fine, though it is, as it has been, a bit sore, especially if I have ironically stayed off it for awhile.
Because of the longer stretch of running, my total average pace was down to 7:43/km. BPM was up a bit, but to be expected with the extra running. Oddly I didn’t feel overly exerted. Maybe these daily walks are actually making me more fit. Who knew! I might also have been helped by the temperature, as it was 21ºC–not exactly frigid, but also not exactly hot, either.
Stats:
Walk 4Average pace: 7:43/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 8.07 km
Time: 1:02:19
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 21ºC
Humidity: 42%
Wind: light
BPM: 130
Weight: 171.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 30.96 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8
I didn’t get a good night’s sleep on Wednesday night and was still feeling some effects of this today, so my overall energy level was down a bit. Stat-wise I was still pretty close to yesterday, though. BPM was down a bit (good), pace was up a bit )less good, but still fine).
On a more positive note, I still ran a bunch of the way and did it in my new trail running shoes that showed up way earlier than expected. I was thinking I’d get them by the middle of next week, but they came today. Thank you, MEC and Canada Post!
They are the Brooks Caldera 4 and they are the lightest, springiest pair of Brooks I’ve worn. I had the laces tied too tight, but that’s easy to adjust. The cushioning and support are great, though, and I’m already looking forward to running in them again.
Stats:
Walk 3Average pace: 8:03/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 7.62 km
Time: 1:00:24
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25ºC
Humidity: 48%
Wind: light
BPM: 125
Weight: 172.5 pounds
Total distance to date: 22.89 km
Devices: Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 8
And yes, I do mean this specific scene, with the Yakety Sax music. I’m not sure what made me think of this again, but it still delights me as much as it did back in 2012.
There was a tiny smattering of Goldfish crackers left, so I ate them and another temptation is no longer within easy reach. The only other snack I had today was a small banana. That’s pretty good, I’d say.
To my surprise, I was down this morning, all the way to 172.7 pounds–my lowest since February and less than a pound off where I was on January 1st (171.8). This is encouraging.
I will not celebrate by stuffing my face with candy.
You see the phrase “As long as people wear masks and don’t lick one another” in an article in The Atlantic.
I was looking through some photos today and found some from November 2019 and it felt like looking back on a different world. Not just a different time, but a different place. I don’t know how much we will return to “normal” when the pandemic ends–especially as the world is also grappling with protests over racial and class equality, climate change and its accompanying litany of freak extreme weather (California on fire, multiple storms hitting the east coast simultaneously) and probably an alien invasion if things stay on track–but we will never be the same after this, I think. The memories will linger and carry into the next generation.
On the other hand, some argue, with some validity, that the average person has a memory comparable to the lifespan of a fruit fly, so maybe things will just go right back to how they were before and lessons will not be learned, or learned minimally as we slowly careen toward our next awaiting global disaster.
I want to say we won’t forget, in part because it’s going to linger around for probably at least another year or so in some form, that we are a good ways off from being able to put it behind us.
In the meantime, The Keg is running an ad that shows one of its restaurants bursting with activity, every table packed, people everywhere. I thought this was an odd thing to show with a virus rampaging across the world, but when I saw the ad again I noticed a small disclaimer at the bottom of the screen just as the ad started: Filmed before COVID-19. Now I’m really wondering why they ran the ad when they knew it was showing something that basically doesn’t match reality. Lazy, I guess. It’s an old ad and a new, more accurate one would just be depressing–a half-filled restaurant with all the staff wearing masks.
I won’t be eating in a restaurant until we have a vaccine, some kind of on-demand testing everywhere or benevolent aliens (maybe they won’t invade) make the virus magically disappear, like a certain sociopath south of the border mused it would. And though Tenet is now playing in theaters, there’s no way in hell I’m going to risk watching it in one. I can wait four months and watch it virus-free on a 60″ TV.
This concludes another kind of depressing post about the pandemic. Maybe in a year I’ll look back on this post and shudder over how bad things were then and how great they are now.
