Not bad, huh?

I think that was a pretty good result for today. And I know what the big kicker was that helped me achieve these goals today – I had a business meeting in New York City this morning. The meeting was right by the World Trade Center so I not only walked around several different mass transit stations, but I was going up and down different staircases and walking around different buildings, down different blocks, etc.

City life – it’ll get you moving!

The combination of writing yesterday’s entry and bitching with my buddy pushed me to a point where I had to do something about the week’s worth of results that I posted yesterday. And I did. Here’s the graphic from FitBit showing the statistics that I achieved yesterday:

Yesterday’s results from my FitBit Ultra.

This is what happens when someone gets annoyed at being forced into the proverbial corner. And this proves that I have the physical ability to generate these types of statistics (which I don’t think was ever in question anyway).

I’d like to suggest that I’ll keep this high level of activity going throughout the week, but I’m more realistic and understand that making such claims will ultimately lead to failure. For example, looking at my schedule for Monday I already know that I’ll be spending 13.5 of my 16 waking hours that day either driving, sitting in meetings, or crunching numbers behind a desk. Could I squeeze in a walk or two around the block while I’m at the office? Of course. Could I take the stairs instead of the elevator? Well, I normally do that already. Could I reasonably get the type of statistics that you see in the image above with the planned schedule that I have to navigate on Monday?

No.

And that’s the difference between reading weight loss and health-related stories on this blog versus reading them on other blogs. I’m realistic. If I was to buy-in to the bullshit that we sell elementary, high school, and college athletes, then I’d be panicking and going crazy right now. You know that line of bullshit that we sell those athletes. It takes different forms, but it mostly sounds like: “The only one stopping you is YOU!” or “If you WANT to do it, then you WILL do it.” or “Do or do not. There is no try.”

Alright, that last quote was from Yoda in Star Wars, but you get the picture.

Sometimes, there are legitimate reasons for you not to be able to get to the gym or walk the suggested 10,000 steps in a day. If you believe the bullshit hype (and, unfortunately, I think that most people do), then you’re going to drive yourself nuts trying to find out how you can fit in those 10,000 with almost no free time in your day and without compromising your professional efficiency.

It’s about balance, folks. It’s not about hysteria and it’s not about believing the motivational crud that we sell to people who don’t have any expansive, real world responsibilities. If you use your free time effectively – when you have it – then you might be able to get a day’s worth of work like what’s noted in the graphic above. Much more importantly, though, is realizing that you may not be able to achieve this goal on a daily basis because of other personal and professional commitments… and that’s okay.

I wanted a FitBit Ultra for two reasons: to track my sleep and to track my activity levels. For a while now I’ve not been sleeping well. I’d say that I began noticing this back towards the end of April 2012; I figured that the FitBit could at least provide some level of tracking to see what was going on with my sleep.

In addition, I’ve gone from being an athletically active guy in high school to an academically and socially active guy in college (i.e. not working out in the gym, but still up and about) to a graduate student with so much free time that he lost 125 pounds (most of which has been gained back) to a guy with a good job which, unfortunately, requires about two hours of driving every day and the majority of my time being spent sitting at a desk staring at a computer. That’s some roller coaster for a body to go through over a 7 – 10 year period!

However, just like I began feeling that something was wrong with my sleep back in April, for some time now I’ve felt extra-sedentary. It’s a weird type of feeling to describe, but the feeling of being extra-sedentary is somewhat unnatural. It’s an interesting feeling in that you have the desire to go out and workout and you understand all of the motivational bullshit that folks like coaches and personal trainers try to sell you. But at the same time, you’re swamped with commitments and requirements that force you to sit behind a desk, in a car, at a meeting, on the phone, etc. for extended periods of time.

And that’s the key to understanding this extra-sedentary mode that some people fall in. There is a tremendous mental weariness and physical drain that comes with being an office worker, a long-term commuter, an active volunteer who does great things for causes at the result of lost free time, etc. If you can understand that drain and creeping innate exhaustion, then you can understand the feeling that I’ve been feeling for some time now.

Combine that feeling with a lack of sleep and, well, you don’t feel right. So I wanted the FitBit to track some of these items and this is what I found out:

My averages from July 1, 2012 – July 7, 2012

Take a look at those statistics. They’re horrible! Those are my average outcomes for the week of July 1, 2012 – July 7, 2012. If you’re looking at that graphic and wondering what the 33,828 steps taken means, it means that I walk an average of 4,833 steps per day. That’s less than half of what you’re supposed to walk each day! That pie graph shows that 68.7% of my waking hours are spent in a sedentary mode with a scant 3.3% of my time spent in a “very active” mode. That’s terrible!

And then you have the sleep bar graphs. The first bar graph shows how long I slept each day that week. It may be hard to tell from the graph, but the average amount of sleep that I get each night is between 6 hours and 6 hours and 20 minutes. Wondering where that innate feeling of exhaustion comes from? There you go! The last bar graph shows that I wake up a lot when I sleep. I’d estimate that the average amount of times that I wake up is between 25 and 35 times each night. That’s terrible! FitBit provides a more exact tracking of your sleep on a daily basis showing exactly when you woke up and how long you were awake, but I don’t want to bog this post down with a ton of graphics. The point is that I don’t sleep well and these figures prove it.

There are other statistics that I can provide, but they aren’t the focus of this entry. For example, I always knew that I didn’t really eat that much (regardless of how much I weigh). By tracking my calorie intake through FitBit, I was able to confirm that I typically eat between 2,000 and 2,500 calories each day, which is right in line for what a guy of my size should be eating to maintain a decent level of health. I don’t need to track this through FitBit because I get quarterly blood tests and checkups at the doctor and I get it confirmed there, but I’ll track it anyway since it doesn’t take up much of my time.

This all begs the question – now what? Now that I have this information what is it that I plan to do with it? Well, I’m not entirely sure to be honest. I wanted to find some validation for what I thought to be true and I found that validation through the FitBit Ultra. What I need to do now is find a way to begin breaking the sedentary lifestyle. However, that’s a very tough task. For example, I look at my schedule for the coming week and I’m booked solid – in a forced sedentary mode – all day Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. On Saturday, I’m booked at two social events which will take up the bulk of my day. That leaves three days where I can potentially do something to get my activity levels up.

I suppose I could work out on those three days and I’m sure that I’ll do something active even if it’s just walking through the local mall or walking up and down the boardwalk by the beach. Yet, it all feels very disparate to me. In other words, it doesn’t seem like a long-term solution and, frankly, it doesn’t even seem like a short-term stop-gap measure.

In the end, I’m a data wonk (thanks, graduate school) and now I have a source of reasonably reliable data that confirms my prior suspicions. What this provides me is a better understanding of what I need to focus in on in order to improve my health. And those improvements center on two areas: higher activity levels and more restive sleep periods. If I can manage those two improvements, then they should combine with my already low caloric intake should put me in a much better physical condition.

Here are some things that I intend to do differently this time around…

Tracking calories on myFitnessPal

For example, I tracked my calorie intake for a few days last week and I was shocked at the amount of calories I was taking in everyday. Sure, I knew that I was eating too much, but I had no idea that I was taking in that many calories! Without going into the gritty details, it was shocking.

In addition to the mini-experiment I ran last week I decided to track my calories for another reason. I only really lost weight once in the 4 or so years since I gained back the majority of the weight that I lost the first time around. When I dropped a few pounds, it was when I was using a calorie tracking website to track how much food I was eating. If I remember correctly (and I probably don’t), I think I dropped some 20 or so pounds in about a month solely by using that calorie tracking website – there was no working out to compliment the tracking efforts.

So between the mini-experiment last week and my successful use of a calorie tracking website in the past, I decided to sign-up at myFitnessPal.com. Soon, I’ll have a widget on the sidebar of JerseySmarts.com tracking the amount of weight that I’ve lost. I have to get more familiar with their system first and then get myself acclimated to using the tracking website multiple times each day. Be on the lookout for that widget, though!

No Pedometer. I used to always wear a pedometer – up until sometime last year. Using my pedometer, I tracked the amount of steps that I took each week and tried to notice trends over time. What trends did I notice? I walked more steps during the weeks where I was attending major events. Big surprise, right?

Keeping track of the number of steps that I take each day and each week was not a part of my big weight loss the first time around and I’m not including this time around either. Plus, the damn pedometers are prone to getting broken, lost, or just plain busted once in a while!

No Out of the Ordinary Scheduling. When I lost all of that weight a few years ago, I was going to the gym at ridiculous times of the day. I’d go first thing in the morning around 8:00am and then maybe go a second time at 5:00pm or 7:00pm – whenever I felt like my day was over. The reason that I was able to keep that type of crazy gym schedule was because I was working part-time at two different jobs and I was still in graduate school. It’s pretty easy to go to the gym twice a day and work yourself to the bone when you don’t have any large, major commitments that you need to attend to on a daily basis!

But, for all of the reasons that I noted yesterday, I don’t have that type of free and loose schedule any more. So no more going to the gym at random times of the day because there’s nothing better to do!

No Swimming. This change in my approach to working out really is a shame. From winter 2004 through summer 2005 I swam at least 5 times each week and for at least an hour each session (most weeks I swam 7 – 10 times each week for at least an hour each session).

But there are some issues you can do something about and others that you can’t and this one I can’t do anything about – there’s no pool at the new gym. No pool = no opportunity to swim each day after each workout.

And that’s really about it in terms of what I’ll change during my second big attempt at losing weight. The way my life is structured these days, I can’t do what I once did and at least I realize that, you know? I can, however, give this attempt a real effort and do what is within my power to make it succeed.

I guess we’ll see what happens!

For example, each week I track the amount of steps that I take via my pedometer and I record the weekly number on my Google Calendar application. I also track which days and what time during the day that I visit the gym. Simple things like this – I think they give you powerful pieces of information to cull through when you’re bored.

Anyway, about a year ago I stopped tracking my daily caloric intake. That probably wasn’t such a good idea so I’ve decided to start tracking that again via FitDay.com. This is the program that I used last year when I was watching what I ate and it’s pretty powerful. Oh, and best of all – it’s completely free.

The other minor modification that I’m making in my health information tracking is when I start my week for logging my weekly steps. In other words, I used to start my week on Monday and stop my tracking at night on Sundays. And there was some reason for doing this as I recall. Something about tracking on these days makes for a better overall weekly count – I really don’t remember. Well, after doing that for a few years I think I’m going to change to a regular week by starting my tracking on Sunday morning and ending on Saturday night. I can’t recall a reasons to track my weekly steps any differently.

By the way, the week before last I set a new record for the amount of steps walked in a week. I broke the previous week’s record of 75,550 by recording 85,472 steps. Not bad at all – especially when you consider that you’re supposed to walk 70,000 steps in a week.

Everyone knows that you’re supposed to walk some 10,000 steps in a day. For those of us who have jobs that require us to sit in one spot in front of a computer all day, that number can be hard to reach. Well, last week I took some 75,550 steps (according to my pedometer). I’ve been recording my steps for the last three or four years (can’t remember exactly), but the most that I’ve ever had in a week before is something like 72,000+ and that generally happens when I go to Nashville and walk around the city. So you can see, this is pretty good progress.

Again, even though I don’t want to make a regular routine out of this, I’m looking forward to getting up early tomorrow to get my workout in before I go to work. Not only are there not that many people at the gym, but I get to do a lot of reading while I’m on the treadmill (look for some more book reviews coming soon). Stay tuned for the latest and the greatest gym stories as they occur…

By the way, speaking of landmark achievements – Mother’s Day marked 14 days in a row that my Mom has gone without smoking. Unbelievable! My brothers and I are so incredibly proud of her. The last time that she didn’t smoke for 14 straight days was before she started smoking as a young girl. Amazing achievement, Mom! Good work!

My local Wal-Mart has a small grocery section where I can buy extremely inexpensive canned and boxed goods as well as some cold items like cheese for sandwiches and grated cheese for pasta. Despite the lower prices, the quality is as good as much of the other food stock available out there – in fact, I’d put Wal-Mart’s canned corn up against any of the major canned brands. It’s really good!

Then Wal-Mart has the clothing section. Losing 85 pounds over the last few months has allowed me to shift away from only being able to shop at the Casual Male XL stores and back into mainstream stores like Old Navy, GAP, and the outlet stores. But Wal-Mart beats all of these places in terms of pricing. I can spend $35 – $50 buying a pair of jeans at Old Navy or I can spend $15 to get a similar pair of jeans at Wal-Mart. Again, the quality is not in question (although the belt loops on every single one of my Old Navy jeans have snapped at one point or another). Wal-Mart sells a few brands of jeans including the Wrangler brand, which has undergone a transformation since the last time I wore their jeans more than a decade ago.

I purchased a new leather belt at Wal-Mart the other day. It cost me about $14. The same belt at an online retailer cost between $30 and $44 without including shipping. How can you not buy the damn belt at Wal-Mart for those prices?!

My local Wal-Mart has a large seasonal/holiday section and a decent sized household/homewares area, too. In the last year I’ve purchased pillowcases, cleaning detergent, luxury washcloths, a pedometer, DVDs, books, magazines, a bar stool, and even a car battery from Wal-Mart. Those who know me know that I’ve always been a critical shopper and that I go to great lengths to be sure that I’m getting the best quality item at the best possible price. Every single item that I named above (and countless others) are all for sale at Wal-Mart at prices that beat the competition.

Yes, I know that some people have a problem with the corporate structure at Wal-Mart and they claim that it destroys local businesses while others have a problem with their non-union workforce. I understand those concerns and, in some areas, I may agree with the issues raised by malcontents. On the other hand, Wal-Mart has been a corporate leader in the environmentally-friendly movement to the surprise of many. Plus, they bring jobs to populations (geographic and physical) that may not otherwise be employed. This is to be commended.

All of this being said, there are times when I walk into the Wal-Mart, retrieve certain items for purchase, and see that there are 2 cashiers on duty each with 15 people in line. At that point, I always put down my items and leave the store. Good prices on good quality items does not give a store the right to make their customers wait in obscenely long and unnecessary lines. Big box places like Wal-Mart and Home Depot have grown too dependent on the self-checkout lines, which I’ve blogged about in this space before.

To reiterate my first point above, I hate to sound like a cheerleader for any major corporation, but I’m a fan of shopping at Wal-Mart…for now. I feel obliged to add “for now” to that sentence because I used to be a fan of shopping at Circuit City until their prices skyrocketed. Same goes for Toys R Us and GAP. But for now, I find myself shopping at Wal-Mart for more and more items.

Well, being a schmuck, I had to buy the $25 pedometer as opposed to the $10 one. I don’t really know what the difference is between the two, but that didn’t matter at the time. So I started wearing the pedometer and it was cool to see how many steps you take in a day or how many steps you take when you’re just walking around the mall (by the way – you take a LOT of steps walking around the mall!). I also wore it to the gym so I could see how many steps I took during a typical session on the treadmill. All of this was very interesting.

But the stupid pedometer had a habit of flopping open all the time so I was constantly locking it back into place. That wasn’t really annoying, but it was aggravating to have to do that all of the time. Also, it was a pain in the ass to always have to remember to put the thing on when I was just walking around my apartment or lounging.

Anyway, I got out of my car in Newark today and as I was walking towards the building I was going to, I felt down to the pedometer and the fucking thing wasn’t there! The shell of it was there (that is, the piece that locks it into place), but the actual pedometer was gone. I figured that it was in my car since it has a habit of popping off in the car. Nope.

I lost the damn thing. That’s $25 that I pretty much just threw into the street somewhere. Fucking fantastic. The moral of the story here, kiddies, is to not buy expensive trinkets if they are too small to keep an eye on and especially if you’re going to attach them in a manner that allows them to easily be lost.

Stupid pedometer…