It’s been a while since an update. November 2021 to be exact. So how has it been going since then? Well… here’s a update.
Fall is the best time of the year. It’s cool out, not too hot, not too cold. It’s just right. Winter was, at times, brutal. I don’t have any December stats here, and that’s okay. They were probably close to November, but not quite as good. Holidays and what-not. January was also bad, but February was even worse. Now, at some point around that time I started doing indoor bike rides, so my steps are down even though my “active minutes” might have been fine.
Around April things started to drop down due to the return of plantar fasciitis. I saw my doctor for it at the end of April (as it was a daily pain thing that was getting pretty bad). I was advised to “take it a bit easier” so May was pretty light with much less walking. I also started doing some stretches and exercises, which helped a little bit, but not enough.
I eventually got a sleep support device (borrowed from my wonderful sister) and that has helped quite a bit. More than the stretching and exercises. I still get some pain occasionally, but it’s nowhere near as bad, and not even noticeable in the morning.
I’ve also been super-busy with work, so I’m not finding as much free time for walks, but I’m still doing at least one 30 minute walk nearly every day, and I’ll keep it up as long as I can.
Below is an individual look at each month of 2022, from January to June.
All these stats and graphs are provided by a Fitbit Charge 3 that I wear every day. I just grabbed screen shots from the Fitbit web site.
As mentioned last month I’ve started walking more every day in order to get fit, stay healthy, and lose a bit of weight. For November 2021 I got up to 441,795 steps! That is 32,736 more steps than the previous month. I don’t expect that it will increase each month, but October was my first month, and I think I got much better at walking in month two. (I definitely started slow in October.)
The stat known as “Floors” are measured using an altimeter and for November it was 1098. Just 10 more than October. I really don’t take that many flights of “stairs” but I do walk up and down hills, so I think that’s part of it. (On a busy day of working at home I will easily go up and down two sets of stairs multiple times per day. At the office there are… zero stairs.)
Mileage! Yeah, 208.51 miles in November. Which is crazy. That’s up 15.81 miles from October. Again, the slow start in October probably accounts for the lower number. I definitely try to get more distance in on the weekends. Typically Saturday and Sunday morning I try to do an hour long walk in the morning. If I can do an evening walk that really helps, and if not, I at least still get in my minimum goal each day.
How about them calories? 108,967 for November. Only about a thousand more than the previous month which is seems like it should be more, but I guess I had more to burn off the first month. I lost about 10 pounds in October but only about 6 pounds in November. I suppose this makes sense, and I’m fine with it. I still have more pounds I’d like to lose, so I’ll keep trying to get my numbers up there as far as steps per day.
I did some traveling during November and it was difficult to get in the steps I wanted during travel days. I’ve got a few similar things happening in December, so we’ll see how that goes.
All these stats and graphs are provided by a Fitbit Charge 3 that I wear every day. I just grabbed screen shots from the Fitbit web site.
Wow, check it out! Starting slowly and increasing over the month for a total of 409,059 steps in October 2021. That’s quite a “step up” from the numbers of previous months.
Totally floored by this number! We only have stairs at home, there are none at work, but I think a lot of these are from the inclines in the streets I walk. 1,088 floors? I’ll take it! (I’m still not sure exactly happened around October 16th & 17th but since that was a weekend I’m guessing I was pretty damn active those days.)
I’m going the distance. (Though I’m not going for speed.) I walked 192.7 miles in October. That is…insane! But hey, I’ve got more miles to go before I sleep.
Burned at the wire? No, but burned 107,844 calories. I’ve also been burning more calories than I take in each day, so that means weight loss, which is a good thing, because I (like many people) added some “Pandemic Pounds” I wouldn’t mind losing. For the month of October I shed about 10 pounds. I’ve got a bit more to go but it’s a good start. (I’ve also started eating a bit better, including smaller breakfasts and, alas… less burritos.)
This is another one of those “personal posts” so if you were hoping for weird bleeps and bloops or some electronic madness, this isn’t it.
The pandemic was rough on us in many ways. Things got rough for me back in 2019 with an unexpected career change which led to a new position that didn’t fit and then leaving that and finding new things. Back in 2019 Dana and I were going to the gym when we could (she’d go once or twice a week, I’d go… maybe once a week at most.) I was trying to at least walk a bit more each day, and for Christmas in 2019 Dana got me a Fitbit. Oh, back in fall of 2019 I had an injury, nothing major, just an arm thing, and back in the spring of 2019 I did some physical therapy for foot pain I was experiencing. So basically in 2019 I sort of felt like I was falling apart. Age does that to you. I decided near the end of 2019 that I would spend less time at work (I routinely put in 45 to 50 hours) and try to get fit in 2020. The pandemic blew that shit right out of the water.
2020 was a lot of working from home, and working three jobs just to get by. Besides being taxed mentally, I ended up gaining a bunch of weight since I didn’t have a job that was physically active anymore, and I didn’t go places or do things. I just sort of accepted it for most of 2020 and 2021. I didn’t really go out in public or produce events, and then when I finally did an event in 2021 I had a blast. It was great seeing old friends (outdoors) and a friend of mine said he was spending tons of time out in nature, hiking, biking, etc. since it was better than hanging out with people indoors. Somehow that stuck in my mind..
Oh, at the event a friend took a photo of me, and I ended up seeing it online a few days later because they tagged me. I looked at it and said “That’s not me, that’s someone else.” Then I looked… and it was me. Shit, I really had gained a lot more weight that I realized. I also thought back to another friend I saw in July. He mentioned how he had a scare with diabetes and had to change his diet to start eating healthier, and he was doing much better. At the time I said “Well, I’ve been pretty lucky as far as good health is concerned.” And, I had been, but luck can run out, and I finally decided I had to do something.
Now, I really do not like exercise classes, and I don’t really like going to the gym that much. Since I had a Fitbit Dana and I often compared our steps each day, and she almost always got way more than me. I decided I could probably walk more. So I did. Usually I’d be up at 7am, feed the cats, have breakfast, then get ready for my work and maybe even go in a bit early. I started by just doing that, but altering my routine to walk around the block a few times before I headed in to work. I didn’t really feel like “exercise” just doing some walking. After a week of that I started just getting up, having breakfast and then getting right outside to start walking. Then I come home with enough time to get ready for work and still get there by 9am. Holy shit, I exercise in the morning before work. I’ve heard of people doing it, but I never imagined I would. Now, I still have zero interest in getting up early, driving to the gym, working out, showering, then going right to work. That is not for me. I like this walking though.
I started at the tail end of September, and it was still a little warm outside. Even mid-October is a bit warm some days. I hate the heat. Hate it! I don’t mind the cold. We’ll see how this walking stuff goes once the weather gets too warm next year, but for now… This weather is perfect. (And I love winter, so I see no issue there, and I was occasionally doing morning winter walks after snowblowing back in January.)
So now I am walking man. I’m the Milverine of Enderis Park. I’m the Aaron Cometbus of Lenox Heights. All kidding aside, I do remember when we were young (well, me and Aaron and my friends, not me and Milverine) and we would just walk everywhere all the time. Walking is pretty damn easy, and a great place to start. Right now I walk about 5 or 6 miles per day, which is about 12,000 steps. Some days it’s more, and some it’s less. This is the thing I do now, so… cool.
