Activity

I've slowed down some over the years, for a variety of reasons. I'm busy looking at the history, remembering why I was as active or inactive as I was, and wishing my current numbers were up.

This trend from 2015 to now shows how I was steadily more active in 2015 (when I started running), slowed down in 2016, trained hard in early 2017 for my hiking vacation in Italy, and then declined steadily to the low point of last December, when my knee was operated on. There was a gyration about a year ago, as my back went out in stressful March 2018, and then I determinedly got up and moving and invited a friend to come walk with me in April. But I was distressed at how hard and painful it was to move that much (what had been normal just a year ago). The summer was ok, but when fall came around, and my knee was hurting, I just allowed myself to sink into my chair. Since the operation, I've been up and moving, and as the weather gets better (and if I can ever untangle myself from work) I feel like I can keep this up. I'm hoping for running again soon, at least a little bit.

The calorie history tells a similar story, except 2015 does not stand out as being a good year for activity, in contrast to the step history. On this graph, it shows a build to the hiking vacation in early 2017, and last year does not look so bad overall, except for the dip at the end. I think the difference must reflect time at the gym and doing things like gardening, that don't add steps but take effort. (I show the data differently, with the stairsteps being the average burn for the calendar month.) It shows my recent up-tick, but puts it in a perspective that says I should strive for more. I will!

The sun is shining, it's above freezing, and I'm sitting here blogging about how (in)active I am.

With a motto this year of "MOVE" I should probably be doing something more active, but I want to get a handle on how much I've slowed down. I got my first steps-and-activity tracking device back in 2010, but I had to switch out to new technology and the trends don't show cleanly across time. To be clear - I'm not at all sure any device is accurately counting calories or steps, but I don't care. The trend is what matters, and as I stick to one device its trend from day to day is at least consistent. And for the years shown here, it hasn't been the same device, but at least the same company with its own algorithms.

Dog is restless, I can get a few steps in before the sun sets.

Moving

(New but cheap) dress and leggings and short boots.

My pants don't fit!  I mentioned that before, but it's really a thing. I told everyone at work I made a resolution to wear more dresses (HA!). I had to break my no-spending vow to buy some clothes - I went on the internet, scored big with sales, but NONE OF THEM FIT ME! I've grown more than I realized, and it's not my swollen knee. I returned them, and tried again at another site in a bigger (gasp) size. Due here Thursday. Till then, dresses or yoga pants. It's cold out, so I'm experimenting with leggings and boots.

It's driving me nuts not to know what's happening on the scale. I'm focusing on how I feel and how things fit. I'm moving a lot more than the past few months. I'm able to get out of the building at lunch and walk on the generally deserted mall. I've given myself a pass on walking the dog at night when it's dark, cold, and/or precipitating. (I have a large fenced yard for his basic hygiene.) "Move" to me means to keep moving as much as possible in every possible way (including chores such as bill-paying) but it also means literally, My fitbit tracks how many hours I get at least 250 steps in an hour, and I've been doing much better during this shutdown. The pace of work is totally different - few meetings, phone calls, or emails - but each is complex and multi-faceted as we move into uncharted territory for the government. But I have to be much more self-disciplined on how to spend my time because there are few immediate deadlines and always other considerations. So I walk more in the building, and it helps me think.

I know that exercise is not the way to lose weight, and yet it's key to losing weight. I'm trying hard to feel what I eat, feel what I'm hungry for, and go all in on mindfulness. I am tracking what I eat - daily - but not in any cumbersome tracking system, just mentally tallying it a few times a day, and always in the context of whether it's satisfying and if I need or want something else. So no vows of what not to eat, but thoughtful decisions in the moment. All in my ideal. And without daily feedback on whether the approach is having an effect on the number on the scale, I have to get feedback from how I feel.

I think exercise will be helpful in getting my pants back on. I'm thinking toning, building muscle, not weightloss. So MOVE remains my motto.

What's the Motto with You?

(Sorry, die-hard Lion King fan here)

Happy New Year, all!

I've become something of a fan of Gretchen Rubin, who is all about making life better, not in grand, huge ways, but in a myriad of small ways that add up over time. She has a podcast, social media presence, and several books. I'm looking forward to her forthcoming book, Outer Order, Inner Calm.

On this week's podcast, she and her co-host, her sister, revealed their mottoes for 2019. They have been doing the one-word motto, or theme, on top of or instead of New Year's resolutions. Playing along as I drove into work yesterday, I settled on mine for 2019:  MOVE. 

A quick search turns up variants: Move on, Move up, Move it, On the move. Images range from arrows to trucks, all dynamic in some way. Having tested this as a thought for a day, I've adopted it for sure.

I fear I could settle into my chair with books and ipads and look up hours later with nothing done. "Move" to me is the anthesis of this. It's both broader and more specific than "Just do it" or "get things done". We'll see how having a motto works, but I anticipate thinking every morning, "what Move am I going to make today?" as a good way to start.

More later, but time to get moving.