Tag: fitness

Tradeoffs and happily uncomfortable chairs

Coming up on six months with my Fitbit Flex, My Fitness Pal combo — and back down to 180 pounds. Down like 30 pounds (my darling wife Deb has lost more than I have, but that’s just fine by me;-)

Fitting old clothes, ‘shopping in my closet’ as Deb puts it – can’t be beat. Sure, there’s a bit of falling off the wagon (I stopped halfway through my 2nd slice of Pizza Hut at Ted Taylor’s farewell party — now that takes willpower in my book!) — can’t remember the last time I ate my beloved French fries, as much nails in my proverbial coffin as cigarettes are for others. Haven’t “forbidden” the bad, just replaced it with good (I really do like Special K cracker chips, for example. And no, I don’t do cottage cheese. Bleh;-)

But everything has tradeoffs. Take sitting, which I do for work. A lot. And is now compared with cigarettes as a killer. Sigh.

If one is blessed enough to lose wait, it doesn’t always go from the places you want it. I really do think it came off my, um, rear end first. So no chair is comfortable for long (well, my LaZBoy, but that’s not a work-conducive chair;-) I even borrowed a fitness ball at work – fun to bounce between keystrokes — but even THAT didn’t prevent a sore hiney after a while. So I’ll be searching for a properly padded new chair.

Don’t get me wrong – I will not go back to Mindless Eating. I log everything I eat, thanks to my lil phone, and will do that even on the fall-off-wagon days.

But now, my rear is saying, in essence, get off your butt! Good message. Maybe I can stand and work. Or work less! (Hah! This weekend I said three little words my wife so rarely hears: “Work can wait!”)

I also have confronted the obvious — thinner does NOT equal fit. Well, fitter sure — but my lower back after last week’s snow shoveling exercise — thank goodness I can walk the neighborhood again — tells me I’ll need to do more than just walk to be in shape. Fortunately, Deb is SO much more full of energy, I have a feeling we’ll be … getting away from the house much more this year. The other struggles of life continue, but we both feel so much better (she also gives huge credit to the Medifast program through BMC BTW;-)

OK, enough rambling. Been far too long since I’ve blogged, just wanted to get back into that again, stop thinking I need momentous stuff to say.

Thanks for reading, and … just let me offer this encouragement – if I can get in better shape, anyone can. I’m not deprived — the flax-4-life chocolate brownies from Natural Grocers are so sinful, and they are on the ‘frequent foods’ tab on My Fitness Pal — it’s just been a joy to realize that a bit more output, more careful, thoughtful input (more protein! fewer carbs!) CAN make a big difference.

YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) — but I hope it doesn’t. It’s a good — no, great thing.

Of the Fitbit, Evernote and turning over new (fall) leaves

I am writing this at work.

(Why care? Let me explain.)

This blog craves attention I don’t give it. By forcing myself to do it at work, even when busy (ask anyone, I’m always busy) — maybe I can be more consistent. Otherwise, why link to it at KTVZ.COM – the place I/we strive to make sure has fresh content as 24/7 as possible?

So the past month has been satisfying on several fronts (except for my wife’s uncertain work situation, but … let’s not go there, just have to keep the faith.)

My employer, News Press & Gazette, was kind enough to provide us a free Fitbit Flex – a wristband-worn activity tracker — AND a tasty incentive to use it — half off our monthly insurance premiums!

I’d been waiting for a “good excuse” to treat my body better, and this fit the bill. Couple it with what my wife and others say is a much better food logger — My Fitness Pal — and the two sync nicely. (Free, too!)

So at least twice a day, I’ve been taking walks through the neighborhood — and it’s been good, in many ways. Time to think, to breathe deep, to wonder why one neighbor always has the water running (?) and to just … take a break.

I’ve also finally dealt with the mindless eating I’ve grown accustomed to — I bought the book “Mindless Eating” a few years back, but as usual, never finished it — attention span of a gnat, dontcha know. But having to (forcing myself to!) stop and enter the food items can slow one down and get one thinking. The database is pretty darn good, and it has a bar code scanner to help track that way (even if my phone doesn’t always do well focus-wise, it’s almost like a video game to get the thing to beep and recognize it;-) The other night, I was proud of myself because rather than just polish off a Shari’s panini sandwich (side of salad not fries! Wow!) — I stopped myself after one half and brought the other half to work for lunch the next day. Seeing it had 800 calories! — don’t even ask about the sodium! — gave me pause, so… half at a time, good deal.

So also, I’ve been trying to force myself to stop working at home and get in the newsroom earlier. Some days more successful than others, just like anything. (I don’t call the work I do “the Vortex” for nothing;-) It was my call — my great bosses have been exceedingly kind about the flexibility today’s “work anywhere” technology allows, but … being IN the newsroom more has its host of benefits. From answering the phone to helping reporters with questions and just being more … useful. (I’ve never been great at office politics, I just hope being here more averts more problems with ‘Babblin’ Barn’s Big Mouth’ than it creates:-)

I was going to promote a favorite new free reading experience on my Nook — Engadget’s weekly magazine, Distro – but alas, they’ve decided to shelve it, just a few weeks after I discovered it. Oh well, I still have Flipboard, another favorite collection of things fun to read (though my HTC One’s Flipboard is still the king of fun reading).

So instead, I’ll give a shoutout to Evernote — a note-taker that has more bells and whistles than I’ll ever use, BUT has the great advantage of syncing to all devices. I use the Windows client on my work and home PCs for a few extra features, but there’s also a Web sign-in version and apps for the phones. So I can keep all my notes in “one place” — the cloud (mostly) — and not lose them.

So it’s fall — a time of shortening days and crisp (ooh boy, that wind in the face) air and … new things. We’re about to launch our new one-hour 10pm Fox news, have had one of our every-few-years Tsunamis of Change in the newsroom, and another Sweeps period is just ahead, in November.

And I’m back to blogging. I hope you find it enjoyable. Anything you’d like me to weigh in on – journalism-wise, government (oy, the Blame Society at its zenith right now!) or how/why we do what we do at NewsChannel 21 — drop me a note, or a comment here. I’m never short of words or shy of using them;-)