JC’s Confessions #20

In the first few seasons of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert did a recurring skit, now a best-selling book, called Midnight Confessions, in which he “confesses” to his audience with the disclaimer that he isn’t sure these things are really sins but that he does “feel bad about them.” While Stephen and his writers are famously funny, I am not, so my JC’s Confessions will be somewhat more serious reflections, but they will be things that I feel bad about. Stephen’s audience always forgives him at the end of the segment; I’m not expecting that – and these aren’t really sins – but comments are always welcome.

JC

I hate exercising.

I can almost hear people saying that I haven’t found the right activity or I will feel better once I’m doing it or it will give me more energy or some other positive thing about exercise that I’ve heard before, but no.

While I do enjoying walking with someone in pleasant surroundings, I do it for the conversation or the setting, not because walking is good for me or inherently pleasurable. I don’t find that I feel accomplished or energized after exercising, just more tired, although that doesn’t translate into sleeping better. I am not a very kinesthetic person. I’m more cerebral and am happiest in quiet, calm places.

There have been long periods of my life where I have made myself exercise nearly every day, so it’s not that I can’t do. I just have never been able to get above the “barely tolerable” feeling about it.

I admit that, since my father’s passing last September, I’ve been less active. I’m a bit out of condition, as I could tell by how difficult it was for me to keep up with everyone else on our recent trip to the UK. I’m not sure how much I could improve through a concerted attempt to exercise more or how much is that, at 61, I can’t expect to be as strong as I was two or three decades ago. I have an appointment with my doctor next week and will ask what she thinks.

Meanwhile, I am back in physical therapy for a recurring health problem. I’m trying to be good about doing my at-home exercises, but that may actually compromise any attempts to try to do even more exercise, as there are limits to how many things I can make myself do, as I confessed here.

I don’t expect, though, that, somehow, I’m going to suddenly find joy in exercise, which, in a culture obsessed with sports and fitness, is something close to a sin.

I will, though, dislike aside, try to do what I must to keep going for as many years as I am able.
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Inspire

Every once in a while, I used to post about my Fitbit Flex. The last post I wrote reported that it seemed to have stopped being able to transmit data. It had and couldn’t be fixed.

I went a number of weeks without having anything to count my steps, until B got me a new Fitbit Inspire.

It is way more complicated than my Flex was. It has the time! And date! And can display steps and calories and other stats that I can’t remember what they are and it has a timer!

And I use very few of these features. I opted not to have an Inspire HR which also does heart rate, because it would be even more features that I would most likely not use.

Given that my skin tends to be sensitive to the rubbery-synthetic bands that come with Fitbits, I ordered some cloth bands from Go Fish on Etsy. Susan has lots of choices for customized bands/holders for all different models of Fitbit, as well as other fitness trackers, and some custom clothing. The bands she makes fasten with snaps, which are more comfortable than knots and more stable than Velcro.

My favorite feature is that she makes bands that you can wear on your wrist or on your ankle. I was interested in trying my Fitbit on my ankle, as I suspected that the number of steps that were registering with a wristband was lower than reality. My suspicion was confirmed; my daily step count suddenly went up 50+%. I assure you that I did not simultaneously take up fitness walking, although there is another factor that could be involved.

Because I used to wear my Fitbit on my dominant side, the programming may have made the device less sensitive. I hadn’t worn it on my other wrist because I always wear my (solar-powered, analogue) watch on that wrist. Of course, now my Fitbit has the time, but I still prefer my watch. Yes, I’m old-school.

I am wearing my Fitbit on my non-dominant ankle during the day and on my wrist at night. I quickly learned that wearing it on my ankle at night was a bad idea, because it tends to shift and flip over and such. The only other tracking I do with my Fitbit is sleep tracking, thus the wearing it at night. I don’t know how accurate the sleep tracking is, but…let’s just say the stats don’t look good.

I’ve also learned that it’s good to wear the ankle band over socks rather than under them. Because I don’t have the heart rate monitor, the back of the tracker doesn’t need to be in contact with my skin, so having my sock between it and my skin isn’t interfering with function in any way.

You can see the time and step count because I pushed the display button before taking the picture and because Susan makes bands with windows. She also makes them without windows. I have a sparkly gold band without a window to wear on my wrist or ankle when I am feeling dressy.

I haven’t felt dressy yet.
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Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2020/01/17/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-17th-2020/

Revenge of the Fitbit – part two

Recently, I wrote about having to stop wearing my Fitbit because I broke out in a rash from the band.

I have been wearing my new (hot pink) stretchy wristband for a few days now and just discovered that I can still feel the Fitbit vibrate when I meet my step goal.

…which also means that this is the first time I have met my step goal this week.

So, yay, me! Making progress!

My arm is still healing from the rash. I am such a delicate flower!

Another record!

I posted last week about a new record for likes.

I am shocked to report that that record, 66 likes, was shattered yesterday, setting a new record of 103 likes!

And, in the odd record-keeping of WordPress, I had only 79 views…

I realize part of that is that I allow full posts by email and in the reader, so some likes come in that don’t register as views.

I had four posts yesterday.

The first was a re-blog of gorgeous flowers from My Food and Flowers. It attracted likes and some new followers from the photo-blog sector, including one who went on to explore and like a lot of posts. Thank you, v4vikey!

My planned post yesterday was about the ever-popular subject of exercise, featuring adventures with Wii Fit.

Then, there were two spur-of-the-moment posts on my re-vamping of my blog theme, one on the new header and one on the menu.  Posts about blogging always seem to attract attention – among bloggers.  Go figure!

Part of the success of the post-likes in a single day is the time of day when the posts appear. All four posts appeared in the morning in my time zone, so it gave more hours for my readers to find them the same day.

Thanks to all my readers and “likers” – especially those of my followers who visit on a regular basis. I really do appreciate your visits, comments, and likes here at Top of JC’s Mind!

Wishing you all a great weekend,
Joanne

Revenge of the Wii Fit

Once upon a time, not all that long ago, I was being pretty diligent about healthy diet and exercise. Before E and L’s wedding in Nov. ’12, I even lost a few pounds.

Then, a multigenerational melange of personal and family health issues appeared, entailing a combination of worry, lost sleep, shuttling back and forth to appointments, rushed meals, and general lack of routine. My diet and exercise habits suffered – a lot. I gained about ten pounds.

Over the last several months, I’ve been making an effort to move more, keeping track of steps using the Fitbit I inherited from E. I’ve been making a concerted effort to eat more healthfully without putting my body into starvation mode. I started doing a plank exercise most days.

And, when B was away on business last week, I dusted off the Wii Fit balance board and fired it up.

Although it wasn’t quite that simple…

First, I put fresh batteries in the Wii remote. Then, I had to replace the batteries in the balance board. I opened the compartment to find that not only had the batteries leaked but they had also deposited crusty white stuff onto the contacts. I had to contact tech support, aka B, for recommendations on a safe way to clean them.

Finally, I got everything working and slipped the disc into the console. Our entire family of Miis (our on-screen avatars) was asleep. I woke mine up and was greeted by the news that it had been 1249 days since I had last visited.

Ouch.

I gamely started out with a fitness test, which involves weight and body mass index. I had gained just enough weight to cross into the overweight category and my Mii suddenly got chubby, which was sad and a bit discouraging, but I didn’t let it stop me.

I chose a range of exercises from the different categories, with a mix of core and upper body strength, flexibility, and aerobics, and found that my conditioning was actually still fairly good. Errands, lugging groceries and parcels, and work around the house have kept me stronger than I had thought.

I have been going back to the Wii for exercise most days since I fired it up and am happy to report that I have already gotten my BMI back into the normal range. Granted, part of that is tied to one of my medical conditions that can cause bloating. I am in a better phase with that right now, but I am hoping to lose a few pounds so that, even when it is acting up, I keep my BMI in the normal range.

Wish me luck!

A (Fitbit) walk to the farmers’ market

I wrote recently about my newly acquired Fitbit. I have decided to stick with my low, but attainable, goal; I’d rather make my goal and overachieve than always be struggling to make a high goal and feeling badly when I couldn’t do it most days.

I am getting most of my daily steps in by walking while I telephone my mother in the morning and by taking a walk in the evening with B.

Today, my morning call was short and my evening walk may not happen because I have a poetry meeting, so I decided to walk to the farmers’ market this morning. I wanted to buy some apricots and lettuce. I grabbed a cloth bag and a little purse with just my essentials, as my pocketbook is too heavy to lug around on walks.

As often happens at the farmers’ market, I bought more than I intended to. There weren’t any apricots, but there were lovely prune plums and some early apples, which I knew that T, who will be home for the coming week between her internship and new semester, would enjoy. And I didn’t want to run short of carrots and maybe a fresh tomato would be a good addition to the salad I am planning for dinner tonight. Oh, and look at that lovely selection of summer squashes, picked nice and small the way I like them!

The next thing I knew, I had a hefty amount in my bag to carry home. About halfway there, my Fitbit vibrated to let me know I had reached 5,000 steps. I had to shift my bag from arm to arm as I walked, relying more on my left side as my right arm has been weakened by some orthopedic problems.

When I got home, I weighed my bag and found it was eight pounds.

I want brownie points for the extra calories I burned carrying it home!

(And I will resist the urge to indulge in any actual brownies.)

Fitbit – getting started

When I was visiting my daughter E in Honolulu, her workplace started a new fitness program and gave them all new Fitbits. E already had a Fitbit Flex, which she offered to me and I gratefully accepted.

I waited to set it up until I had gotten through the jet lag and backlog of stuff I needed to deal with, so I’ve only been using it for a week and a half. Given that I haven’t been diligent about exercise for months and months, I decided to start with a modest step count, 5,000/day, only half of the default value of 10,000 steps.

In order to make my goal, I went back to walking while I talked with my mother on the phone every weekday morning. Coupled with evening walks with B and running errands, I have been making my step count, including one especially active day when I made it to 10,649!

Today has the potential to be the first day I don’t make my 5,000 step goal. I seem to have pulled a muscle in my thigh, genuflecting at church this morning. I went for a short walk with B, trying to stretch it out, but it just seemed to hurt more, so I came home and iced it.

I’ll have to see what becomes of my goal today and this week. I don’t want to make my leg heal more slowly by pushing too much.

Leave it to me to have a liturgical injury…

Evening update:  I did manage to get 5,000 steps in, albeit more slowly and over a greater time span. I’ll have to see how sore my leg is tomorrow to ascertain if I can make my goal or need to declare a rest day.