The Activity Part of my Report Card

 My activity level through September was down overall from last year, pretty much any way I try to measure it.

June stands out as the least active month, and July and May tied as the most active. In May, I was getting ready to sail to Bermuda and started getting active. I was inactive (as my fitbit measures it) in early June. When I got back from the trip, I was zonked, and spent way too much time on the couch. Early July had me in Maine, hiking lots (some days more than I wanted) and when I got home I kept that up to some extent, getting ready for the Boston boat trip. The August stats reflect the lower activity from a week on the ship at the end of the month, though I did take some long walks in Boston before leaving. September, I started to turn things around on the activity front. 

One of the things about measuring, is looking only at averages can be misleading. That's why I add the high calorie days (>2,000 cal) and the very low step days (<5,000 steps). Back in my working life, I was going to get 5,000 steps just going about my work life, from the car to the office, around the block-sized office building to meetings, across the street to lunch. Now, to get 5,000 daily steps, I do have to work at it a bit. It's pretty much impossible to get there without leaving the property (unless I use the treadmill or the trampoline, neither of which have been appealing lately). Some days, I'd just as soon hang out with the dog in the house and yard.

I've read a few newspaper articles that suggest a strong positive correlation between more steps and longer longevity. There seems to be general agreement that very low average daily steps (<4,000) has near-term bad outcomes (ie, those people die soon) and there is almost a straight line increase in longevity as steps increase, up until about 8,000 a day. Above 8,000 steps a day probably has health benefits, but the relationship to longevity is fuzzy. (A very big note here: everything I've read on the subject from original sources notes correlation, not causation. Many newspaper headlines are sloppily along the lines of "Want to Live Longer? Walk More!". No one has shown that a person working to increase the average number of daily steps will by doing that improve their own longevity. Perhaps as your body winds down to die, you walk less.)  I care less about longevity than my quality of life, and fitness is so very important to that.

My trend on those very inactive days has been in the wrong direction, even giving myself a pass for June and August multiple days on board a fairly small ship with no where to go, and a need to hang on to keep from falling. I decided to aim for zero days of less than 5,000 steps in the month of October. While the dog is very happy to be out ranging in the back yard, he also approves of walks. To get my 5,000, I need two or three times around the smallest block here, with separate trips usually spread out over the day. I have also have a goal of having October average 8,000 daily steps, which means each day of only about 5,000 steps has to be offset with days of 11,000 steps or more. So far so good on both these measures, though 10 pm sometimes has found Bixby and me taking another spin around the neighborhood to hit the target.

I may have noted before that "miles" come from my Garmin running watch. Those miles only come from deliberate walks of at least a mile, not from incidental steps accumulated during the day. Those have trended up, as I go out more often on a trek or a run, sometimes with my girl.

Workout days suffered during my weeks of summer travel, but are trending up. I've noted that I just don't work out well on my own, and I'm regularly working with my long-time personal trainer. I definitely can tell the difference, that I'm getting stronger. I will do a shorter workout on my own, mostly on days I have been otherwise pretty inactive. I know my body feels better when I move. I'll often do squats or balance exercises while waiting for something in the kitchen, or sometimes when watching TV. Those things don't get recorded here, but my body knows and appreciates it.