Severine Wins Without Fighting

[Tobbe]

2 hours ago, Severine said:

I am happy with how I've been changing my mindset around activity - instead of thinking about how many calories it burns I've been thinking about building fitness in order to do more fun stuff, thinking about the stress release and mood boost it offers, and just generally doing it for enjoyment and health instead of as a weight loss tool. Has definitely helped me feel more positive about it.

• Note, this is something I have of course heard recommended ten thousand times, and have in the past tried to do or fooled myself into thinking I was doing, but with a secret underlying weight control hope as a motivator for the activity even when I tried to convince myself it was for health. It's completely different to actually have the mindset change happen for real, and I think the necessary antecedent to that is giving up the sense of urgency/panic about weight loss as a necessary goal in order to feel valuable as a person.

 

Yay! This is great! 

 

Can you help me with knowing when you're actually just doing it for the right reasons? Because I know that some things I truly do just for burning calories. But some things I like to believe I'm doing because I truly want to. But how do I know I'm not just convincing myself that I want to do it, and, as you say, I really have a secret underlying weight control hope? Because I feel like I might still have that, but I'm not sure.

[Tobbe]

2 hours ago, Severine said:

L bought some fresh shrimp from a fisherwoman who has a booth down at the Boston Public Market and holy crap, they are amazing. Probably the best shrimp I've ever had? L made a shrimp and spinach pasta and ugggh so good.

 

I've never seen fresh shrimp for sale anywhere  I really would like to try some truly fresh shrimp/prawns! We can only get already boiled shrimp here. The only options we have are "fresh" or frozen. And the "fresh" aren't really fresh. The "fresh" comes in a salty brine, already peeled, and the frozen you can get peeled or unpeeled. All of them are pink in color, because, as I said, they have already been boiled.

[Tobbe]

16 hours ago, Arkania said:

And I think there are people that get addictive very easily and people that don't. And I know you can change.

 

Can you really change? If you have a mind that gets easily addicted. Can you really do anything about that?

 

16 hours ago, Arkania said:

I don't want say, that sugar is an addictive drug (ok, I want to say it.... )

 

I think most evidence points towards sugar being as addictive as any other drug that stimulates the brain!

 

16 hours ago, Arkania said:

Do you know the spoon theory?

 

No, what is it?

 

16 hours ago, Arkania said:

you need to know if there are physical causes and/or "just" mental causes and then fix them.

 

I think, for me, it's "just" mental causes...

 

16 hours ago, Arkania said:

because they have had for too long the habit of not-hearing their body or mental/physical causes which prevents them from doing right.

 

Whenever I say I'm not hungry, even when I haven't eaten for a long time, my wife says "that's only because you haven't listened to your body's signals for so long, you don't even know what they feel like anymore"

 

16 hours ago, Arkania said:

So I don't think that only eating good is the key.

If one could turn off their brain, yes,   then it would.

 

If I could turn off my brain this would be so easy! Isabel Foxen Duke says it's 10% eating right/enough and 90% how we think about food and ourselves

[Arkania]

3 minutes ago, Tobbe said:

 

Can you really change? If you have a mind that gets easily addicted. Can you really do anything about that? 

 

 

No, but you can train your willpower/discipline/whatever to not overdue.

 

Here's the spoon theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoon_theory

https://butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/

 

It's not just for people with (chronic) pain. A lot of my friends, who are struggling with depression, talk in spoons.

[Tobbe]

Thanks for the links. I can definitely see how that relates to my situation, how draining it is to constantly be thinking about food, food choices, weight, fitness, mental health etc... A lot of my spoons are used up for that purpose, leaving very few to do other things I should/want to be doing  

[Severine]

On 10/9/2018 at 2:23 AM, Tobbe said:

Can you help me with knowing when you're actually just doing it for the right reasons? Because I know that some things I truly do just for burning calories. But some things I like to believe I'm doing because I truly want to. But how do I know I'm not just convincing myself that I want to do it, and, as you say, I really have a secret underlying weight control hope? Because I feel like I might still have that, but I'm not sure.

 

Yeah, that's a really good question, and it provoked a lot of thought. I don't necessarily know how to put it into words, except perhaps to say that the difference is a lack of fear or pressure about what will happen if I don't do it. Obviously I am still aware, intellectually, of the benefits of exercise and the pitfalls of not exercising, but when I think about whether or not to take a walk now, I don't feel the pressure of being anxious/afraid of what will happen if I don't do it. Like, if I take a break today because I am tired or whatever, I know I have the same choice again to do it tomorrow, and one big day off is no big deal, so it all feels very manageable and relaxed because I know I like walking and my assumption is that even if I do take some time off, I will want to do it again soon. Before, the thought of taking a break would make me anxious about whether or not that was the start of me slipping into bad habits. Back then my focus was on self-discipline, and so there was the constant fear of relaxing that discipline - that if I was not constantly driving and pushing and grading myself, standards would fall. Turns out that type of situation, where performance is being strictly monitored and assessed, it's hard for me to relax enough to truly enjoy something. So for me this paradigm shift has been a really good thing in two ways: (1) I am doing really well with consistency of exercise, and (2) my overall stress levels are lower from the lack of anxiety around failing.

 

And I have definitely had the experience, many times before, of fooling myself/convincing myself that I really wanted to do it, but in actuality it was just that I wanted to be the kind of person who wanted to. And this feels very different - something new, something I have never experienced before. So part of how I know is just the awareness of that change.

 

On 10/9/2018 at 4:53 AM, Tobbe said:

Whenever I say I'm not hungry, even when I haven't eaten for a long time, my wife says "that's only because you haven't listened to your body's signals for so long, you don't even know what they feel like anymore"

 

I have heard this talked about a lot in nutritionist circles. It is apparently a real phenomenon, though that doesn't necessarily mean it applies to you.

[Severine]

Update! It has been a pretty eventful couple of days. Lots of health/medical doings.

 

Annual gynecology exam on Tuesday, always a riot. Assuming the pap test is normal, I have to go back in two weeks to get my existing IUD replaced with a new one. It's a weird marker of how quickly time flies - I can hardly believe I've had this one for ten years (I have the non-hormonal copper version, which has a longer lifespan than the mirena IUD)

 

So D has been going for massages to help with his back pain, and he really likes the guy, and they were having a promotion, $59 for an hour, so I went for one. His name is Sean and he was really good. He was a bit eccentric (he talked a lot about astrology and at one point he was telling me about how he thinks he was a woman in a past life) but like, whatever, as long as he's good at his job. He said it feels like I've torn the muscles in my right calf (where I have the numbness) a couple of times and then it didn't heal quite right, he said probably because I didn't rest it at the time (highly plausible) and so maybe that's contributing to my leg numbness? Anyway, it was a nice massage.

 

Really positive appointment with my eating disorder specialist. We talked about the improvements I'm seeing, and the next steps for working on stuff. I've talked with her about how I often have difficulty knowing how much food to take when it's mealtime. Like, I've been thinking about serving sizes in terms of calorie restriction for so many years that I've basically lost touch with how to decide on portion sizes using any other yardstick. Like for me, determining portion size has always been a war between the one part of me telling me to take the smallest possible portion, and the opposing side telling me to get as much as I can because of the fear of restriction and scarcity. When I try to just think about how much I want, from a neutral perspective, I end up standing there, indecisive, not knowing how much I even want. Like...I think normal eaters are just better at guessing how much they'll want to eat? For me it's hard. And in a related problem, I have huge anxiety/self-consciousness about going back for seconds. In my family that was always a shameful/gluttonous thing (as in people would comment on it negatively if you did it) so there's all this pressure to make sure you take enough so you don't have to do the walk of shame back to the shepherd's pie dish.

 

So M. has suggested that I practice intentionally taking a portion that is too small and then going back for seconds, just to desensitize myself to the bad feelings about going for seconds, to teach myself that it's okay. And then there's less pressure to get it right when choosing the initial serving, and no impulse to overserve myself. So I've been doing that, but man, it's hard because it keeps pushing my buttons, because tiny portion sizes are a thing I did when I was calorie restricting. So like...L makes a nice quiche or a bean stew or something, and I serve myself a very small half-portion, and I immediately feel anxious, remembering the days when that would be all I would allow myself to eat. It has been interesting to observe those reactions and see how strong they are. No wonder, with such fear, I tend to sometimes serve myself too much. I hope M. is right and that, with practice of taking small portions but then going back and adding more as hunger dictates, I'll be able to retrain myself (1) to learn how much I actually need to eat (2) to not feel like there is anything wrong with taking seconds if needed (3) to feel no pressure to underserve myself for restriction, or overserve myself to avoid restriction, but to see portion sizes as a non-scary, practical consideration with no emotional context.

 

The wellness group at my doctor's office last night was pretty good. And my doctor ordered a couple more blood tests to eliminate possible causes of my numbness, and they all came back normal (I don't have Lyme disease, and my B12 levels are normal, and I don't have syphilis (lulz) and my thyroid is in normal range). He also did a neurological assessment on me which he said was very encouraging. So the next step is seeing the specialist neurologist at the beginning of November. 

 

Also I got a flu shot yesterday afternoon and now I'm a bit sniffly but otherwise feel good.

 

I've been hitting my activity, steps, and exercise goals every day, which feels great. Thinking about getting back to some light weight training soon maybe?

[Severine]

Oh speaking of the benefits of exercise, this is something we ended up talking about at wellness group yesterday, and I really liked this video. Science! With drawing.

 

 

[Tobbe]

2 hours ago, Severine said:

Like, if I take a break today because I am tired or whatever, I know I have the same choice again to do it tomorrow, and one big day off is no big deal, so it all feels very manageable and relaxed because I know I like walking and my assumption is that even if I do take some time off, I will want to do it again soon.

 

Thanks. This makes me hopeful. I totally feel like this about walking. And to some extent about running. Walking I will miss doing after just a day or two. And will want to do it again, just because I enjoy it. Running is something I can stop doing for months at a time, but then, all of a sudden, I get that itch again to go for a run  Sometimes several times per week for several weeks in a row.

 

Definitely not there yet with strength training though.

 

2 hours ago, Severine said:

Before, the thought of taking a break would make me anxious about whether or not that was the start of me slipping into bad habits. Back then my focus was on self-discipline, and so there was the constant fear of relaxing that discipline - that if I was not constantly driving and pushing and grading myself, standards would fall.

 

Yeah, this is me and resistance training. 

 

2 hours ago, Severine said:

Turns out that type of situation, where performance is being strictly monitored and assessed, it's hard for me to relax enough to truly enjoy something.

 

Could this be the reason for me as well? I'm not sure. I'm leaning a little bit towards "no, not me". But not sure...

[Tobbe]

1 hour ago, Severine said:

Really positive appointment with my eating disorder specialist. We talked about the improvements I'm seeing, and the next steps for working on stuff. I've talked with her about how I often have difficulty knowing how much food to take when it's mealtime. Like, I've been thinking about serving sizes in terms of calorie restriction for so many years that I've basically lost touch with how to decide on portion sizes using any other yardstick. Like for me, determining portion size has always been a war between the one part of me telling me to take the smallest possible portion, and the opposing side telling me to get as much as I can because of the fear of restriction and scarcity. When I try to just think about how much I want, from a neutral perspective, I end up standing there, indecisive, not knowing how much I even want. Like...I think normal eaters are just better at guessing how much they'll want to eat? For me it's hard. And in a related problem, I have huge anxiety/self-consciousness about going back for seconds. In my family that was always a shameful/gluttonous thing (as in people would comment on it negatively if you did it) so there's all this pressure to make sure you take enough so you don't have to do the walk of shame back to the shepherd's pie dish.

 

My previous ED therapist has this image on her wall

 

 

It's what we call "The Plate Model". It's taught in school as the way you're supposed to eat. It has looked just like that since introduced in the 1970's. She was very focused on this model. This is how you're supposed to know how much to put on your plate, and what to fill it with.

 

In 2016 an updated version was released by our "National Food Administration". The updated version was really just the addition of a second model, for use by more sedentary people. So now we have two Plate Models...

 

This is the new official image

 

 

Where the left is how you're supposed to compose your plate if you're "normally active", and the right if you're more sedentary.

 

Maybe these can help you decide how much to put on your plate?

 

Personally, what I dislike about the Plate Model is the lack of fat sources. Fat is needed for nutrient absorption, and for keeping full. But that's my personal gripe with it. The ED therapist swore by it, so I guess it must have worked well with her clients... To me it's just too dry (since there is no sauce/gravy, which is where I'd like to get my fats from).

 

 

And about second servings... For me it's kind of the other way around. The normal way for people to eat here is to take seconds I think. In my wife's family they always go for seconds, and thirds. But they are also all overweight (or even obese).  In my own family it's mostly my dad that has gone for seconds (often saying "I know I shouldn't, but it was just so good...). But the thing in my family is that I've always been taught that I need to finish what's on my plate. I was forced to sit at the table until I've cleared the plate. Mom would clear the table after everyone was done eating, and I'd sit there trying to force the food down (this was mostly a problem with food I didn't like. It had nothing to do with hunger/fullness). 

 

Going for seconds, even though maybe we shouldn't is so common here that we even have a special word for it with no proper translation to English. (The word is "okynnesäta".) The closest translation is "Eating even though you're full, just because you can, or just because it's tasty". Another, shorter translation might be "Eating out of gluttony". It's a word my dad would often use when going for second servings. But since it's so common, no one will look down on you for it. At gatherings it's almost impolite not to go for seconds. The host can even ask "Don't you like my cooking?!"

[Tobbe]

2 hours ago, Severine said:

Oh speaking of the benefits of exercise, this is something we ended up talking about at wellness group yesterday, and I really liked this video. Science! With drawing.

 

Thanks for the video. Added it to my "watch later" list. Will probably not get to it until tomorrow though.

[Severine]

32 minutes ago, Tobbe said:

Where the left is how you're supposed to compose your plate if you're "normally active", and the right if you're more sedentary.

 

Maybe these can help you decide how much to put on your plate?

 

A nutritionist I once saw used a version of the plate model like you posted, with the guidelines for fats being that you could have sauce/butter/olive oil or whatever other fat you wanted on two out of the three sections of the plate. Perhaps that modified version suits you better?

 

As for me, sadly the plate format doesn't help because it deals with how to have a balanced meal, i.e. it deals with the proportions of protein to starch to freggies. I'm actually pretty good about knowing how to balance a meal, even if I don't always employ that knowledge. My problem is guessing the amount of food that I am hungry for. So, like, the plate tells you 50% freggies and 20% protein and 30% starch or whatever...but my issue is...percentage of WHAT? Do I feel hungry for a large plate? Or just something smaller? It's often hard for me to assess my hunger level from a neutral point of view because I am so used to trying to deny and ignore and suppress hunger to avoid eating.

 

32 minutes ago, Tobbe said:

And about second servings... For me it's kind of the other way around. The normal way for people to eat here is to take seconds I think. In my wife's family they always go for seconds, and thirds. But they are also all overweight (or even obese).  In my own family it's mostly my dad that has gone for seconds (often saying "I know I shouldn't, but it was just so good...). But the thing in my family is that I've always been taught that I need to finish what's on my plate. I was forced to sit at the table until I've cleared the plate. Mom would clear the table after everyone was done eating, and I'd sit there trying to force the food down (this was mostly a problem with food I didn't like. It had nothing to do with hunger/fullness). 

 

Going for seconds, even though maybe we shouldn't is so common here that we even have a special word for it with no proper translation to English. (The word is "okynnesäta".) The closest translation is "Eating even though you're full, just because you can, or just because it's tasty". Another, shorter translation might be "Eating out of gluttony". It's a word my dad would often use when going for second servings. But since it's so common, no one will look down on you for it. At gatherings it's almost impolite not to go for seconds. The host can even ask "Don't you like my cooking?!"

 

Interesting. In my family, my sister and I were watched to make sure we weren't eating too much but my brother was always pushed to clean his plate and make sure he was eating enough. Differing standards - girls were pressured to avoid becoming fat, boy was pressured to eat more to become strong and manly.

 

Anyway, even the translation of the Swedish word shows some hint of the social stigma I am talking about when I talk about my historical reluctance to take seconds, even if in Sweden it's not necessarily meant as a bad thing. I never wanted to  be seen as gluttonous or greedy so even if I were hungry as a kid, I would not go back for more, but just sit quietly and remain hungry. And then later sneak food secretly if I could manage it. I think that is part of why I started eating larger portions - if you take it at the beginning, there is less shame, although even then people are watching and judging.

 

Obviously I do not want to be going back for seconds when already full. But if I am legitimately still hungry, I don't want to feel ashamed to go back. Because for me, shame around food is one of the biggest triggers for bingeing. When I was a kid I was a very normal weight, no issues. It was only over time that disordered eating habits developed and messed things up. In my mind, the goal is freedom to eat in relation to the body's signals without feeling proud or ashamed about how much you ate. 

 

You @Tobbe have said once or twice that the act of having to restrain yourself not to eat too many tempting foods at a gathering or event sometimes triggers a binge later when you're home alone. To use that example, my long term goal is to get to a point where I can be at an event, enjoy a reasonable amount of cake or snacks or whatever treat, in relation to how much I can enjoy and not feel too full or sick, and then leave the event feeling satisfied and happy, with no feeling of having to exert willpower that will backfire on me later when I'm alone. My specialist says that a lot of the drive to eat too many sweets/treats is the feeling that they're restricted and not usually available, and that if you give yourself permission (both physical and mental/emotional permission) to eat them without guilt, you find you actually want much less of it.

[Tobbe]

1 hour ago, Severine said:

As for me, sadly the plate format doesn't help because it deals with how to have a balanced meal, i.e. it deals with the proportions of protein to starch to freggies. I'm actually pretty good about knowing how to balance a meal, even if I don't always employ that knowledge. My problem is guessing the amount of food that I am hungry for. So, like, the plate tells you 50% freggies and 20% protein and 30% starch or whatever...but my issue is...percentage of WHAT?

 

The first image I posted, the "realistic" plate actually shows you how much to eat. You're supposed to eat three (to four) egg sized potatoes, a (one) piece of chicken, and salad. Seriously that is what they say you should eat for dinner. You're also supposed to eat five or six times per day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack). For the snacks there are more options, with a larger variance in kcals. So that's how you regulate what to eat to account for more/less hunger...

[Tobbe]

1 hour ago, Severine said:

You @Tobbe have said once or twice that the act of having to restrain yourself not to eat too many tempting foods at a gathering or event sometimes triggers a binge later when you're home alone.

 

Yes, totally! Or if there are two such happenings on one day I might be strong enough to eat like a normal person during the first event, but then I have no willpower left what so ever to restrain myself for the second one...

 

1 hour ago, Severine said:

To use that example, my long term goal is to get to a point where I can be at an event, enjoy a reasonable amount of cake or snacks or whatever treat, in relation to how much I can enjoy and not feel too full or sick, and then leave the event feeling satisfied and happy, with no feeling of having to exert willpower that will backfire on me later when I'm alone. 

 

Yes! That would be nice, wouldn't it?  

[Severine]

1 hour ago, Tobbe said:

The first image I posted, the "realistic" plate actually shows you how much to eat. You're supposed to eat three (to four) egg sized potatoes, a (one) piece of chicken, and salad. Seriously that is what they say you should eat for dinner. You're also supposed to eat five or six times per day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack). For the snacks there are more options, with a larger variance in kcals. So that's how you regulate what to eat to account for more/less hunger...

Yeah I just don't find that particularly useful. I appreciate the help of course! But you're addressing a different kind of problem than what I have. I don't lack information, I lack insight. I know what a normal portion is in the sense of recommended portions, like in the photo. I am good at memorizing external rules, haha! What I am bad at is accurately assessing my own hunger. And I'm trying to move away from external rules to decide what to eat, and switch to eating more based on natural cues like hunger. 

 

Plus, although I understand that national health agencies need to set guidelines, they can be misleading because individual situations vary widely based on size, age, gender, activity level, etc. For some people that recommended amount of food might be too much, for some too little. And for all of us, we eat less on some days and more on others based on activity and other factors.

 

Essentially I think external rules can be useful as guidelines, but we have to adjust for our own needs, because too much reliance on outside rules can lead to problems. So the part I am learning is how to adjust to my own needs, to listen to my body.

[Tobbe]

1 hour ago, Severine said:

And for all of us, we eat less on some days and more on others based on activity and other factors.

 

Interesting that you bring this up! I just read about someone mini-ranting against all the #mealprep on Instagram. "How can you prepare a box for lunch tomorrow now? How can you know now, how hungry you're going to be tomorrow, or even worse, four days from now?"

 

1 hour ago, Severine said:

Essentially I think external rules can be useful as guidelines, but we have to adjust for our own needs, because too much reliance on outside rules can lead to problems. So the part I am learning is how to adjust to my own needs, to listen to my body.

 

Yeah, I wish I could just listen to my body and trust it to tell me how much and what to eat. What the body really needed.

[Tobbe]

4 hours ago, Tobbe said:

Going for seconds, even though maybe we shouldn't is so common here that we even have a special word for it with no proper translation to English. (The word is "okynnesäta".) The closest translation is "Eating even though you're full, just because you can, or just because it's tasty". Another, shorter translation might be "Eating out of gluttony".

 

On a less serious note...   When looking for English translations of "okynnesäta" I found this quote

 

 

This is me. Too many times! But I don't hate myself right there and then. I hate myself the day after. And by then it's too late to do anything about...

[Severine]

17 hours ago, Tobbe said:

Yeah, I wish I could just listen to my body and trust it to tell me how much and what to eat. What the body really needed.

 

I would love an LCD display on my arm where my body sent me direct messages. Like, I'm hanging out and it's getting closed to lunch time, and there's a little beep. "Please input 110 grams of grilled chicken, a roasted red pepper, and a cup of rice with pine nuts mixed in!"

 

That'd be great.

 

[Tobbe]

We'll get there, but not yet for a few year  

[Severine]

My new Fitbit arrived! I really like the Charge 3. It's a lot like the Charge 2, but also obviously next generation -- it's lighter, sleeker, more stylish, more comfortable, with a better interface, a full touch screen and a better side button. This one is also swim-proof which the old one was not. And the smart watch type features are better - I can see my calendar alerts and read text messages and stuff. And I haven't had it long enough to say for sure, but I think it is more accurate with step counts? I've noticed it doesn't seem to register false steps when I'm doing certain chores that involve a lot of hand movement, for example. So far, thumbs up.

 

Edited to add: I remembered that @TimovieMan asked for a report about how I like the Charge 3. It's now a few days after this initial assessment and I still love it!

 

Currently a bit sad because I was supposed to be going to a concert tomorrow, but it's not happening because of a rift with the friend I was supposed to go with - the same friend I mentioned last week. There's really not much else to say about it - it is what it is, and I accept it. I can't help be a little sad, both because of the trouble with the friendship and because I was looking forward to the concert. But I'm trying to use it as an opportunity to practice peaceful acceptance of things I don't like but can't change.

 

The weather has been absolutely wretched the past week (almost constant rain, cold one day, hot and humid the next) and it's made it less appealing to go out for evening walks, so I didn't make my full step goal last night - only got to 7,500. But overall have been doing decently well with movement. With food I have good days and bad days but I'm getting better at seeing the patterns behind things. And although I still experience shame and panic when I feel like I'm failing, I think it's becoming less intense? Like I'm able to see it a little from the outside, and gain some understanding, instead of being so wrapped up in the feeling that I can't make useful observations about how I feel.

[Tobbe]

7 hours ago, Severine said:

My new Fitbit arrived! I really like the Charge 3.

 

I'm glad you like it! New toys are fun!  I can't wait for their next generation smart watch! They're getting some good competition from the new Android Wear OS smartwatches with the new Qualcomm 3100 chip, especially on the battery time front [1], which I feel was always one of the USPs of the Fitbit watches. So they really need to innovate on that front to stay relevant!

 

7 hours ago, Severine said:

And I haven't had it long enough to say for sure, but I think it is more accurate with step counts?

 

The biggest problem I've seen with the stepcounter in my watch is that it doesn't register at all when pushing something like a stroller, shopping cart or sometimes just even carrying something with that hand/arm that I'm wearing the watch on.

 

8 hours ago, Severine said:

Currently a bit sad because I was supposed to be going to a concert tomorrow, but it's not happening because of a rift with the friend I was supposed to go with - the same friend I mentioned last week.

 

The one that just kept on talking about herself? Yeah, that's too bad  But some people you just drift away from... At least I hope you hadn't already purchased tickets.

 

8 hours ago, Severine said:

so I didn't make my full step goal last night - only got to 7,500.

 

General health wise it's the first steps that makes the biggest difference. The more you walk, the less of an impact the actual step count has on your health. 7500 is not bad! It's actually better than the vast majority of people [2] 

 

The article that I found the above info in also has this "table"

 

Quote

• Less than 5,000 steps = "sedentary”
• 5,000–7,499 steps = "low active” (typical daily activity with no workout)
• 7,500–9,999 steps = "somewhat active” (likely includes exercise or work-related walking)
• 10,000 steps or more = "active”
• More than 12,500 steps = "highly active”

 

Don't know what to do with that data, just had never seen it quantified like that before

 

[1] https://www.tomsguide.com/us/snapdragon-wear-3100-smartwatches-features,news-28019.html

[2] https://www.vitalchoice.com/article/why-is-10-000-steps-a-fitness-goal

[Severine]

5 hours ago, Tobbe said:

I can't wait for their next generation smart watch! They're getting some good competition from the new Android Wear OS smartwatches with the new Qualcomm 3100 chip, especially on the battery time front [1], which I feel was always one of the USPs of the Fitbit watches. So they really need to innovate on that front to stay relevant!

 

You definitely sound like someone comfortable with business language! This sounds like an analysis in a gadget magazine 

 

Quote

The biggest problem I've seen with the stepcounter in my watch is that it doesn't register at all when pushing something like a stroller, shopping cart or sometimes just even carrying something with that hand/arm that I'm wearing the watch on.

 

Interesting. I've checked that, and mine does register steps in those situations. I always assumed it was the vibration of my foot hitting the ground that it counted, and not, for example, my arm swinging. Which is good because I usually don't swing my arms when I walk to a noticeable extent.

 

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The one that just kept on talking about herself? Yeah, that's too bad  But some people you just drift away from... At least I hope you hadn't already purchased tickets.

 

Actually, this is the other friend I mentioned, the one that caused me to not attend an event because I was nervous about seeing him. It's sad that I have two friendships not doing well so I have to clarify! The person I'm talking about this time used to be one of my best friends, but things have been rocky for a while. I posted about him in old challenges and there's no need to rehash it - suffice it to say, he was always very unreliable, but since he was struggling with some troubles of his own (depression, etc.) I kept giving him more and more chances because I figured it wasn't his fault.

 

And then a couple months ago, he drove drunk and got arrested. I got a call at 5AM one Saturday morning to come bail him out of jail. I was obviously very upset and disappointed with him, but I went and bailed him out, and we let him stay at our house, loaned him money to pay the fines, and drove him to and from work so he wouldn't get fired since he lost his licence, and generally tried to help him through the crisis. But the entire experience was awful, because the way he dealt with his shame was to be grumpy and try to pretend it wasn't happening, so we were walking on eggshells the entire time he was here, and it made me angry that he was so selfish he was thinking only about his own feelings and not about the impact he was having on anyone else, even the people helping him. When I talked to him about it to tell him it needed to change, again he was ashamed and said he felt bad for it, but then his response was to start avoiding me, and he has been avoiding me ever since and now he's not talking to me at all.

 

So yeah, that's why I'm not going tonight. Sadly I did already buy my ticket but it was $40 which is not tooo bad to lose. 

 

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General health wise it's the first steps that makes the biggest difference. The more you walk, the less of an impact the actual step count has on your health. 7500 is not bad! It's actually better than the vast majority of people [2] 

 

The article that I found the above info in also has this "table"

 

Don't know what to do with that data, just had never seen it quantified like that before

 

This was interesting. I'd never seen it quantified like that before either. I'll take it with a grain of salt, because personally I always think of very active people as people who do more than just walking - people who run, or bike, or hike, or lift weights, etc. It does reinforce the importance of my daily 10K steps goal, though.

 

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[1] https://www.tomsguide.com/us/snapdragon-wear-3100-smartwatches-features,news-28019.html

[2] https://www.vitalchoice.com/article/why-is-10-000-steps-a-fitness-goal

 

I love that you write a forum post with supporting footnotes  

[Tobbe]

4 hours ago, Severine said:

But the entire experience was awful, because the way he dealt with his shame was to be grumpy and try to pretend it wasn't happening, so we were walking on eggshells the entire time he was here, and it made me angry that he was so selfish he was thinking only about his own feelings and not about the impact he was having on anyone else, even the people helping him. When I talked to him about it to tell him it needed to change, again he was ashamed and said he felt bad for it, but then his response was to start avoiding me, and he has been avoiding me ever since and now he's not talking to me at all.

 

You have such a big heart! What a great thing to do, both to bail him out obviously, but even more so letting him stay at your place! Really sorry you got treated that way as a "thanks" for helping out! Sucks!  

 

4 hours ago, Severine said:

I love that you write a forum post with supporting footnotes

 

Yeah, well  I hate random "facts" when they aren't backed up anything. Now, I can't really vouch for how good these sources are, but at least it's something.

[Severine]

This morning I went walking and apple picking with my awesome friend K and his girlfriend, who I also know and like. It was fun! A reminder of what I miss about farming. My friend K is actually a former coworker of mine from a farm where we worked together (actually technically I was his supervisor, so we didn't become friends until we both left that place) and he has also left farming, so we often reflect on our mutual reasons for leaving, and also we often share nostalgic moments when we miss it. It's nice to have someone who understands both the good and the bad parts of the industry. 

 

At the orchard it's against the rules to climb the trees, so some of the best apples are up high where nobody can reach them. So K asked if he could climb on my shoulders to reach them and it worked out awesome - he weighs maybe 130 pounds or less, so I am strong enough to very easily carry his weight, and he's got good balance and agility so he was able to reach all the good apples. We definitely got some strange looks from other people (I think people aren't so used to seeing a guy on a woman's shoulders?) but whatever. Joke's on them, because we got all the best apples.

 

Anyway, so very active morning - got over 10,000 steps before 2pm. Fun fact: the Charge 3 shows a sweet disco ball animation when you reach 10K steps    And then I had to come home and do my accounting homework, which was due tonight. I finished it about an hour ago and submitted it, woo!

 

6 hours ago, Tobbe said:

Really sorry you got treated that way as a "thanks" for helping out! Sucks!  

 

Yeah, it sucks but in his defense I have to say he doesn't do it on purpose or out of malice. He's got really horrible coping mechanisms and isn't good with emotions, so when things get hard he hides from them. It sucks to be on the receiving end but I do take some comfort knowing that any hurt is accidental, not intentional. Obviously I still don't want to be treated that way but it changes the way I see it, a little. Basically instead of being so angry, I just hope he is able to get help and figure stuff out.

[Severine]

One of the funniest things about today: below is the map from the apple picking place - check out the line directly under the map picture.

 

"If you are lost, confused, or frustrated, please ask someone on a segway for assistance"

 

We decided this was funniest if interpreted to be general life advice and not just orchard-specific