Kobnach

*sigh* just got back from cheiropractor. Walking's OK, but I'm to stick with stretches for a bit even after the back feels fine. Tonight it's pouring rain (great for the plants) and while I'm moving a lot better, I'm even sorer than before, so won't make any attempt at walking more than the 3000 steps I've done so far today. And of course yesterday was similar - perhaps 3000 steps, and no strength exercises. She also says that while my balance muscles are fine, my glutes are notably weak. Bridges and lunges for me, oh my. Once I'm fully recovered, of course. But looks like my upcoming challenge may be longer on gentle yoga, weaker on strength training, than I'd been planning. *sigh*

Oops - I've been using 3 lb dumbbells, not 5 lb. And they have been enough. I've lost more strength than I'd realized. Other than that, I've met my goals since my last posting until today. But today my back is unhappy, and I'm recovering from sleep deficit. (Got up after noon; tempted to go back to bed around 6 PM.) Calling it a quasi-sick day.

giving up at 7813 steps, not wanting to be up all night. (If I go out in the cold and walk more, I'll be wide awake.) But did today's strength training at least.

I'm back .... and somewhat off schedule for the challenges. Current regimen: 1) strength training - alternate days, Tuesday off day 1 - 60 second bridge; 30 second plank; 60 second bridge. (done today - at 10:30 PM, but did it) day 2 - 3 sets of lateral raises; 5 lb dumbells + 3 sets of bicep curls, 5 lb dumbbells. 2) walking - I want to get this to 10,000 fitbit steps everyday without fail. I'm at 7891 right now, so I guess I had better put my jacket on. [edit: now 11:10 PM, end 10,390 steps]

Yes, I wondered at that pattern. The algorithm is something like: (1) If no morning appointment [and do not oversleep], walk dog -> 1500-2400 steps; high end on weekends (2) If work day, walk around office a lot. 2000 steps? more? (3) If no evening activity, and workday, walk with coworkers -> something like 2 miles, more if it's Friday (4) If no evening activity, and total looks low, evening walk in neighbourhood -> 2000-2400 steps I play bridge most Tuesday evenings, and often have other activities especially on Wedn and Friday evenings. Morning appointments are randomly assigned, and tend to no more than 2 per week. This should be producing an average nearer 2 good weekdays than 1. Or maybe not. This week I have evening activities Tues, Wedn, Fri, and a morning appointment on Thur - might wind up with Monday as my only good day. And that's only at 8937 steps as I approach bedtime. Maybe that's more typical? Except I think I average less than 2 weekly activities per week (0 last week). Just colour me confused ;-)

Walking tabulations, because I have the data: Week Mon Tues Wedn Thur Fri Sat Sun Total Ave Dates 1 7906 6622 5410 6262 5414 3924 4584 40,122 5731 Sep 15-Sep 21 2 6765 6367 4556 4498 6228 6597 7930 42,941 6134 Sep 22-Sep 28 3 6973 6395 7258 4743 3300 6200 7957 42,826 6118 Sep 29-Oct 05 4 5369 6939 9120 4449 11400 6941 5797 50,015 7145 Oct 06-Oct 12 Started new job 5 7965 4365 4076 14000 5972 5177 4404 45,959 6565 Oct 13-Oct 19 6 7518 9674 7879 10200 6876 5793 6054 53,994 7713 Oct 20-Oct 26 275,857 6568

Hi Folks, My apologies for the total disappearance. I'm actually fine, and doing quite well on most of my missions - except for recording the results. For a while I was on the 3*7 routine - 7 AM, 7000 steps, and 7 veggies ;-) Steps improved farther; I've been over 10K on numerous days. Sleep slipped a little - still before 8 AM on workdays, but sleeping in on weekends. Veggies slipped farther; but except for today (office party celebrating Diwali, where I appear to have eaten something that upset my guts) I'm at at least 3 per day, with more, sometimes much more on good days. For me, this is an improvement. Where I've slipped very badly is core fitness. That's now my top priority for fixing. It appears to be the end of the challenge. I'm going to declare this one "withdrawn". I could total up my walking, which my activity tracker has assiduously recorded, and give myself full marks for it. And of course full marks for the life quest. But the latest entry in my battle log is Oct 9, so it sure looks like withdrawal to me. I'll probably skip the next challenge. I'm completely non-motivated to log and tabulate. Tasks are getting checked off in my HabitRPG lists, so there's still some e-motivation, just no history. And I only have one real mission right now anyway - find a workable time slot, and resume core fitness exercises. This may prove to take place in the office gym; I just need to submit the appropriate forms, to gain access. It has (limited) free weights as well as machines, and I think its dumbbells go down to sizes suitable to my needs. (I have no knowledge of how to use gym machines safely, and am disinclined to learn.)

Thur Oct 9 bed 11:46; up at 7:07; net 7:21 Exhausted at work to the point of being very slow moving. At 4 PM I was considering climbing under my desk and taking a nap there. So I went home, and slept from approx. 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM. Then I fed the dog, went back to bed, and slept until 8:55 PM. Call it 4 hours. I don't think I'm sick, though getting this exhausted would be a good way to get sick. I've just been burning the candle at both ends. With unfamiliar people, I'd have stayed at the office till at least 5:30, and worked on something mindless. With this group, I figured I'd instead make sure I would be functional tomorrow. Only 4093 steps as of 8:57 PM; I missed the evening office walk. I could go walking now, but I think the better part of valour is to go back to bed as soon as I'm rehydrated - got up because my throat was dried out.

The new/old job is going wonderfully. I'm still getting home short of energy, and mostly into gaming. And I'm still having trouble getting enough sleep. But - almost 9000 steps yesterday (which would be 50% over quota), and approx. 6 servings of fruit and veg, mostly courtesy of the cafeteria, which provided me with vegetable soup and salad for lunch (4 servings there). Once I get my energy back, I'll hopefully do better about core exercises. And while I haven't been enjoying it (!), I've been getting up at approx. 7 AM, 1 hr earlier than my challenge goal requires. (I can't seem to get to work for 10 when I get up at 8. Slow morning person, plus want to be sure I have time to give the dog a nice long walk.) So 2/3 aint bad, especially when I'm also meeting the non-challenge eating goal, and have knocked my life quest out of the park. I've never gone back to an old job before, and the experience is very nice. The technical details are coming back almost instantly; what I've lost are things like internal URLs and processes. (I think I've got the bug tracking system re-internalized now, after participating in a bug scrub yesterday.) I'm 2 or 3 days behind on everyone's threads, but haven't forgotten you. Don't be surprised to get slightly out of date comments some time this weekend.

Wedn Oct 8 bed at 11:55 PM; up at 7:01; net 7:06 6 veggies - vegetable soup (2), salad (2), tomatoes (with pasta), OJ 8599 steps as of 7:47 PM

Woohoo! Good for you!

In another bit of good news/bad news, the tea in the break rooms isn't normal tea bags, it's in some kind of individual plastic containers designed for individual servings of coffee, and made with the same machine. There is decent tea in the cafeteria, but they close after lunch. Net result - I had orange juice rather than herb tea yesterday afternoon. Managed 3 fruits/veggies for the day, all during the work day. I've packed 3 boxes of tea bags (2 herb, one green) to take to the office today. I'm considering adding an electric kettle as well. Fortunately I have storage space - we have traditional cubes, not one of those "modern" setups with next to no storage. Talking of office setups, they cheerfully gave me a Macbook and two monitors. Apple's fixed the issue of needing an expensive adaptor to run more than one external monitor, at least for this model of laptop, by the simple device of having 2 connectors. My only complaint - and it's not a real complaint - is that Apple doesn't do docking stations, so if I pick up my laptop, I have to individually disconnect and reconnect monitors and keyboard. (Perhaps I should have gone with the wireless external keyboard ;-)) That (plus figuring I had no energy) dissuaded me from taking it home last night, and testing their remote connectivity. Now I'm wishing it hadn't - I have energy this morning, and would like to work on enrolling for benefits, which needs to be done from within the office's virtual network, i.e. I can't do it without that laptop. (Their connectivity solution won't run on linux, or on a windows box as outdated as the only one I have. ;-)) I guess I should use that spare energy to walk the dog ;-)

Started the job yesterday. Proceeded to slip on everything else, except for getting up early. Not feeling particularly guilty or worried - would have got my full set of steps by going walking with my new/old coworkers, who have a habit of walking together in the late afternoon, except I was in an impromptu meeting with my boss' boss. That won't happen every day - lunch with the gang (who walked to a local eatery) and the regular afternoon walk will. So will climbing a lot of stairs - they couldn't find a desk for me on the same floor as my team, so I expect to be up and down those stairs a lot, and I'm promising myself not to take the elevator unless I'm carrying something that would be a problem on the stairs. And if my car hadn't been complaining, I'd have been home an hour earlier, and probably less groggy. Instead, I went home via the oil change place, where I had to sit around for considerable time, putting the finishing touches on my state of wiped-out-ness. (Fortunately the car was just informing me that my oil was really low, thanks to being overdue for an oil change.) I got home too wiped out to imagine cooking, or even eating much, grabbed a yoghurt, and sat down to play WoW. IIRC, I eventually recovered to the point of toasting a bagel, but that was all the dinner I wanted. With the inevitable herb tea. Not caught up on most of your threads, or my tabulations. This *will* happen; just not sure when ;-)

Tues Oct 7 bed at 10:52 up at 7:02; net 8:10 - but groggy in am anyway ;-) 3 veg, all at work. (Still coming home wiped out and not so hungry. Have rediscovered the office's habit of delivering free dinners 4 nights a week, some of which are salads. Didn't stay for the free dinner yesterday; had leftovers from lunch. But I was there late enough, after walking with the gang. No strength/core exercises (boo). But I walked more than my quota. 6939 steps, 3 miles

Mon Oct 6 bed at 12:28; up at 6:05; net 5:37 salad that was worth at least 2 veg, plus OJ short on steps and didn't do exercises. First day of work. Came home and fell into WoW. 5257 steps at 10:31. 5369 steps.

Sun Oct 5 bed at 12:19, up at 9:32, net 9:13 I'm oversleeping somewhat intentionally, having decided that being extremely well rested may be more useful for starting the job than being on an AM schedule, particularly given that once I get past day 1 (HR), I'll be dealing with people who know me, and had no problem with a lateish (10 AM to 10:30 AM) start in the past. Still want to stabiulize at an 8 AM or 7:30 AM wakeup, but being tired in the morning and heading straight for a tea source is precisely what they would expect of me ;-) 3 vegs - 2 * roots/squash, mashed together, plus one * mix of OJ and carrot juice carrot juice is made of fail - even disguised with OJ, I really don't like it. Won't buy that again. 7957 steps failed to do strength exercises. lack of will power/habit. Aargh!

I've been cheerfully avoiding tabulating my efforts so far this challenge ;-) Week 1 Sep 15-21 --------------- steps verstegehen bridge etc dumbbells step-ups up by 8? net sick or similar? Mon Sep 15 7906 2/5 60/40/60 7:41 5:54 Tues Sep 16 6622 3*15/15/15 7:48 7:45 Wedn Sep 17 5410 7:14 7:27 yes, strength exemption Thur Sep 18 6262 7:40 6:42 draggy, dubious strength exemption Fri Sep 19 5414 2*6 7:44 7:30 IBS? Sat Sep 20 3924 1*6 7:41 7:08 yes! - exempted all from sep 17 Sun Sep 21 4584 2*6 8:47 7:42 sick Total 40,122 --2-- 6 non-sick total 14,528 --2-- 2 average 5,731 2/7 6/7 non-sick avg 7,264 1 1 This is a complete success, ignoring the many sick days.

Sat Oct 4 bed at 12:58, up at 9:11 60 sec bridge 60 sec plank (!) 60 sec bridge partial glass OJ full glass carrot juice risotto with spinach from package various other food counting as 2 fruit/veggies 6188 steps as of 10:13 PM 6200 steps

*hugs* Wishing you lots of strength and serenity - and wishing your mother an event free, optimal surgery, and *no more heart attacks*

One giant virtual hug for you. Or two or three. As you say, this, too, will pass. *another virtual hug*

Fri Oct 3 Bed at 11:40 PM; up at 8:49; net 9:09 and still groggy enough I first thought it was 6:49 when I got up more sleep during the day 3300 steps

Thur Oct 2 Bed at 12:14; up at 7:36; net 7:22 1 green tea (ginger) 2 toaster waffles ...didn't record much of anything, but at least 3 veggies, and inadequate exercise (both types).... 4743 steps

Wedn Oct 1 bed 12:25; up at 7:57; net 7:32 1 green tea (ginger) 2 toaster waffles 1 OJ 1 avocado ritz crackers stew with rice and some (few) veg, mostly carrots etc 3 ghirardelli squares 60 sec bridge 40 sec plank 60 sec bridge 2 * 6 low step ups at 7:21 PM, 4253 steps at 11:32 PM 7258 steps 7258 steps

At least I managed 3 veggies so far today. One being a nice beet and arugula (sp?) salad, with goat cheese.

I went with job #2 - the prior manager. Amusingly, a company #4 has now come out of the woodwork as well. More correctly, they responded today to my attempts to contact them from a week or three ago. Too bad I can't try them all out. ;-)