Wrapping up 2019

2019 was a shit-show of a year in many ways. It also had many good points, and high point, but overall it was year of unusual events and a struggle to find my way. But I can't be philosophical, not when there is data to post! Here follows my report card for the year as a whole.

First, fitness and activity. It's a mixed bag, and a constant struggle. Look for the darker green to see the good stuff.  I peaked in August, and have been slipping since. The dark days of November and December were not so great.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Avg Calories Exp	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####
Days >2,000 cal	6	7	7	10	16	14	12	13	10	12	8	8
Avg Daily Steps	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####	####
Days <5 steps="" td="">	5	4	5	3	1	2	4	3	4	1	2	4
Miles Biked	-	-	-	-	-	-	5	9	-	-	-
Miles Walked	26	16	8	17	15	38	28	48	15	12	25	25
Miles Run	-	-	6	3	5	11	6	1	11	-	2	5
Workout Days	13	7	8	6	7	9	12	23				11

Weight is a total disaster, a steady climb. My main tool for fighting weight gain, tracking and consciously monitoring my food (with the intent to limit it), has started to come into play more, so there is hope.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
End Weight (week)	159	160	161	163	163	163	164	164	163	166	166	168
Days Food Tracked	-	10	-	-	-	-	-	16	4	1	7	7

Wellness measures are a mixed bag, things I do and the results they achieve.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
# Min Meditate	439	235	178	81	143	295	215	333	229	223	145	150
# Times Meditate	42	22	20	11	15	23	21	29	21	26	10	11
Migraine Hours	-	-	-	-	20	24	11	27	13	44	14	21
Sleep Hours	7.1	7.3	7.3	6.8	7.0	7.3	7.0	7.4	7.2	7.2	7.5	7.5
Resting Heart Rate	62	63	63	62	61	61	60	59	63	64	62	62

 
I am a champion sleeper, however, and getting better! And look - last January had an insane amount of meditation! I guess that's what I did at my desk during the government shutdown - close my eyes, and breathe - since I wasn't allowed to work at my normal job.

Fun and entertaining things certainly shot up after I retired. Though, as I went into my physical shutdown of the dark days at the end of the year, reading probably substituted for a lot of more active and useful things I could have been doing.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
# Books Read	8	7	4	1	0	12	11	9	3	4	7	10
# Blog Posts	6	8	7	6	3	6	8	7	10	7	6	1
# Trips downtown	--	--	--	--	--	1	5	2	1	4	1	0
# Days Boat	--	--	--	1	2	3	2	7	3	1	1	0

I decided spending was not useful to report here, because the data is so squirrelly. I have funeral and estate expenses mixed in with my money, as well as new bank accounts, etc.. I use almost no cash, and have connected Mint to track all of my electronic transactions, but it isn't "clean". For example, Mint thinks my hardware store is a coffee shop, though I keep correcting them. Wrangling the data into useful categories takes time. And there are such periodic unusual expenses even without a death - home renovations, property taxes, travel. Many expenses don't lend themselves to a monthly budget - like clothes, or electronics, which are lumpy. I am continuing to track my spending and play with it, but trends are not easy to pick out because of lumpiness. Going forward, I think I'm going to track and report my food spending, because that is one area where I think I spend too much and could do a lot better. Maybe also clothes as discretionary? But food should be pretty steady month-to-month, where clothes it would be more about an annual budget... Hmm.

So what have I learned from the exercise of tracking and looking at this data? I had a good summer, and then things fell apart. But not as steep a decline as I thought, and there are things I can do to improve.  I'll keep on tracking some of these things through this year.