Experimentation and Discovery

I'm still in transition mode, not sure where I'll end up. But now is the time to try new things, get out there and see what the possibilities are. I'm focusing this summer on getting myself more healthy, and have some mixed results. Without very many external constraints, there are so many possibilities!

Such a pretty bike is motivating!

Most days, I'm going to bed when I'm tired and up when I'm ready. No alarms! I'm still up with daylight, most days. I've discovered this means I'm sleeping more than has been my habit, not drastically, but maybe 20-30 minutes more. (This is based on a very casual look at fitbit data.) I think when I was working, I tended to sleep quite a bit more on weekends than during the week, so I suspect my daily sleep is more consistent, as well. There are a few naps, but not so many. Chalk this up as an overall win, for health and for just generally feeling good. I suspect the lack of daylight will cause my body to want more sleep in the winter, but I'll deal with that if it happens.

I tend to have a binge mentality. When I have an enthusiasm, I'm all in. If I have an absorbing book, I'll spend a couple of days where all I've accomplished is reading. TV binging is both a wonderful and terrifying thing for me. I can sit still for six hours at a time, leaving food and even basic hygiene by the wayside. It's a good thing I have a dog who has needs, or else the spiders would be using me to anchor their webs. I'm enormously enjoying getting out of myself by being in receive-only mode. On this blog is a scroll from Goodreads of the books I've read recently. For TV, I've done some Netflix and Amazon shows, but am currently signed up for the 30-day free trial of Hulu. Haven't decided whether to keep it yet, but I'm chugging steadily through Veronica Mars, which I missed the first time through (3-season cult network TV show from 2004, crowd-funded movie, new 8-show season just done by Hulu). I've found I'll need more than just my old dog to keep me from over-indulging and getting unhealthy on this. Exercise and chore breaks between chapters or episodes are what I need.

My binge mentality has also impacted how I do more active things, especially gardening or home improvement tasks. I get absorbed in a task, and then it's hours later and I am very sore. Often, the immersion is facilitated by listening to a book or podcast, which occupies that part of my mind not needed for the task. Taking lots of time is generally not a problem, but the soreness is. What I've discovered is I need to take breaks. I need to pace myself on the more vigorous tasks. Now, I watch the clock and after two hours, I'll be inside and drinking water and sitting down. If it's an outside task, I'm not likely to resume it until the next morning (this is at least partly driven by the summer heat). My stamina is not what it used to be. I want to build it back up, but it won't come in a day.

I did set out at first too ambitiously on reclaiming my fitness level. I went all in the first few days of June, and collapsed with a three-day migraine after a week. Pacing is key. Now, what I really need is consistency. Building a fitness base requires consistency. Fortuitously, an on-line running club I joined has decided that August will be consistency month. More on this later.

I'm also very concerned about finances. I'm fine for now, and likely for the long term, but there is a roll of the dice associated with this. I've spent some number of hours with budgets and projections, experimenting with how to track and think about money. In the flip side of bingeing, I'm also ok with abstaining from things for at least defined periods of time. So right now, I've decided I have more than enough stuff. I am on a moratorium from buying things. My only spending in July is for consumable supplies, and for services. So far so good. I'm not good with rationing (versus abstaining) so I'm going to have to decide how to re-start spending. Right now, I'm making a list, and I'll try a budget and see how it goes. 

I'm exploring new approaches to my fitness. I've kept my trainer, but cut back to once a week. This is an experiment, to see if I can save money without losing ground. The key is that I have to fill in with workouts on my own. So far, I'm doing fairly well. I stopped running when the heat got brutal, but I've added back more walking, both fast without the dog and slow with him. Last week, I got my bike out of the shed, cleaned it up, and took it into the shop. I picked it up Friday, and rode it the two miles home. It will take a bit to build up to using it more -- just on the little ride home, my seat got sore and I could feel my knees creaking. But we've got a fabulous relatively flat trail right around the corner, and so I'll be out there some.

In a huge leap for me, I signed up for something at the adult ed program at the local community college, starting in September. The leap is not that I'm taking a class, but what it actually is. You would never guess in a million years, because I wouldn't have guessed myself before I sat down with the course catalogue last week. It's Introduction to Tap Dancing (!!!!). I am not a dancer. I am clumsy and uncoordinated. But I love music, and tap doesn't require a partner, and it can be only mildly aerobic while requiring focus and concentration and fine muscle coordination. Or, at least I'm assuming that's the case - I really know absolutely nothing about it. But I'm pretty excited about it.

I'm doing things out of the house, conscious that I need to work at being social. I've been lunching with friends (including going into town to meet friends from work) and spontaneously joined a dinner invitation with some casual acquaintances. I've gone to a few organized events, from group hikes to storytelling in someone's home. I'll probably pick up with a few more of those things. When going into town, I've been metro-ing, which sometimes involves a bus as well. Public transportation has certainly improved, with the benefit of smart phones, earbuds, and real-time arrival info.  I'm investigating further-afield travel opportunities, with friends and with tour companies. And, a bit, on my own as well. Nothing booked yet, but soon.

What is not going well at all is my weight. I'm learning what to cook, how to manage food, but I'm overboard on total food and on sweets. I weigh more now than the day I retired.  I experimented with the very popular trend of "intermittent fasting" - only eating during an 8-hour window, in my case 11 am to 7 pm. Based on a few days, this didn't limit my total calories and didn't seem to yield a lot of other benefits. The one thing I most liked was not worrying about breakfast before getting going for the day. Stopping to eat a bit later (10-11-ish) seems to work ok. Back when I was still working, I tried Noom - the pervasively advertised weight-loss app (their ads throw shade at Weight Watchers) - for a while. Since I don't believe I need any nutrition education, it wasn't for me. But tracking my food probably is a good idea, though I'm not doing it now. It does feel like two big meals and a snack are the right answer, and closing down the eating at night. Night time snacking remains a big problem for me.

So it feels like a nice mix of exploration plus trying to form good habits. Some fun discoveries, more stuff to start relying on and acting on, and perhaps some future posts.