Wellness, Part Trois (and Packers and Station Eleven, too)

 It's been four full months since my previous post here, and also of weight loss maintenance.

Even through the holidays, I have been below my second goal weight of 170 pounds, and during an especially active period during which I biked 40 miles in one September trip and completed a 50-miler the next month, I dropped down to 165 pounds, a full 50 under where I started on June 5th.

I'm confident enough in my routines and habits that I ended my Noom subscription in November, and around a week ago, I stopped logging my meals in the Lose It app, too. Weight is still being tracked daily just to ensure I am on target, though imagine there will be a time when that'll be done weekly or even not at all. I've remained stable all through the past several days

Google's year-end update of activity was enlightening and encouraging:

Though the brisk pace of my walks at just over 4 miles per hour did not change since the time I transitioned from using a Fitbit to a TicWatch running Google's WearOS mid-October, it appears that's sometimes tracked as running rather than walking. Icy roads and paths have made keeping up my lunchtime routine and longer weekend hikes daunting, but I've done it, and fortunately had bruises rather than breaks from four bad slips and spills this month. 

On the topic of bruising: last night's Packers loss to the 49ers, in a season when they were again the 1st seeded NFC team but this time had the most promising roster of players in years, will smart for a long time. Noah was devastated. Laying next to him in his bed for a long time, comforting and processing through it with him, helped me, too.

I'll miss seeing the players who made up this year's Green Bay team play together. Like I have for the past half-dozen years, I've gotten to know them well through all the human interest pieces on their website, and many interviews other places. Instead of a shot at another Championship and then the thrill of a long-anticipated trip to the Super Bowl, they clear out their lockers this coming week.

It was difficult to settle into sleep and then stay asleep last night, but I woke up at peace this morning, rising almost three hours later than I would usually get up, going through my morning routines, then shoveling the few inches of snow blanketing the drive, our monthly Wine Club tasting followed by lunch at Cooper's Hawk. In exactly a month from today, if all goes as hoped and planned, I'll spend my first night on Anna Maria Island for the first time in a few years, joining Melanie and her parents there for my extended Mid-Winter Break in the Florida sun. 

Life moves on. Life is good.

And, sometimes, even often as of late, life can be tough. 

Station Eleven has been a favorite since my first read of it at our Cobmoosa Shores beach rental cottage several years ago, an eerie place to do so with its post-pandemic setting around Lake Michigan. Watching the television adaptation in our present situation was even more affecting.

Its presentation of events as block-lettered time before, during, and after an apocalyptic flu brought home the fact that we're now approaching Year Two of our own virus-altered world. Most such stories feature widespread and near-complete death of the world's human population. COVID-19 hasn't been as devastating, but in addition to the many people gone from our lives, we're continuously grieving other sorts of losses. There's uncertainty when some of the missing pieces will return, when what a grade school friend and fellow teacher recently named as "chronic low grade trauma and stress" will finally abate. In the meantime - we mask when around others in public spaces, adapt school activities to minimize potential exposure and spread, and find all the ways we can to stay connected with and care for one another. 

Wellness, Part Deux

 On June 5th, the day the last very different and very challenging school year officially concluded, a post entitled "Wellness" was made, without the usual link on Facebook. In it, I wondered if it would be read by anyone. If the Blogger metrics are accurate, four people did.

At that time, I weighed 215.6 pounds. My goal was to trim down to 185 pounds, and - based on my responses to a number of questions - the Noom app I'd just started using then projected that to happen by November.

"It's going to happen."

Well, it did happen, but not on the predicted timeframe. 

It happened on July 31st.

Many factors played into that success, several of them the type of happenstance that some would call karma, and others might see as "God messages." I'll detail them later, but I believe those strokes of fortune and positive factors were the result of awareness honed by intention. A big part of it was what we all know and most struggle to practice: eating well, eating less, and being consistently physically active.

I set a new goal, and shared it with family and a few close friends: 170 pounds. It would put me near the midpoint of the healthy BMI range, and it also seemed clever to "lose 45 pounds during my 45th year."

It took awhile. There were ups and downs.

This morning, September 23rd, the scale recognized the hours, days, weeks, and months of work.

That's still not to the midpoint of my "Normal" BMI range, but I feel outstanding and am satisfied with my appearance for the first time in a very long time. Physical activity is more exhilarating than exhausting, food is fuel rather than consumed in a fog.

One of the many new habits I've adopted is a midday walk in the time between my morning and afternoon classes, strolling on Buck Creek Trail the past few weeks for one or two briskly paced miles. Yesterday was a chilly one, the first of the season... which astronomically began yesterday, too.

Over recent years, I've gained a new appreciation of Fall. Having my birthday fall on the longest solar day of the year, the first day of Summer, it's been the one for which I have had an affinity and love all my life. As has been told to our kids many times now, when they bemoan the end of summer vacation and the start of a new school year, we would not appreciate those warmer, carefree days nearly as much if every day were like that.

It occurred to me on that walk yesterday that, at 45 years old, if I am fortunate to live to see 90, I am just now beginning the Fall season of my life, too. 

A week ago, a Miracle Morning (yes, another change) reading of Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project included a quote from Samuel Johnson that I in turn shared on Facebook:

"There is, indeed, something inexpressibly pleasing in the annual renovation of the world, and the new display of the treasures of nature."

She quotes him often, and many have resonated, so should add some of his collected works to my mounting to-read list. 

I can express what's pleasing, though. It's in the contrast of the verdant times with dry, cool days that we get a sense of life, and some measure of comfort in the eventual passing of ours, as it's simply the way of things. I accept its joys alongside its limits. Don Cupitt's Above Us Only Sky was my first read after Hal Elrod's The Miracle Morning; Solar Living as articulated by Cupitt is my choice from here forward.

In my usual rambling way, what I really mean to get to here is: I Am Well, and Doing Good.

Wellness

My friend Matt has been posting his Fitbit-tracked weight loss progress with Noom for awhile now.

I've been inspired to give it a shot.

My weight yesterday was 215 pounds. For a person of my height, that ain't great, and while I generally feel well and have energy for most of my daily tasks, there are other recreational activities I'd like to enjoy with more regularity and intensity.

My goal weight is 185 pounds - still not what it should be, according to BMI measures, but to hell with that for now. 30 pounds is ambitious, but given how much time I have available to make progress towards goals in the summertime, I am going for it. After answering a battery of questions, Noom targets that goal for November. It's going to happen.

I don't plan to post daily progress as Matt does, or Before and After body shots. Appearance isn't my main goal, here. 

My wife Melanie has been kicking ass for about a year now, too, with daily moderate intensity workouts and moving us towards healthier meals. She's an inspiration; I want to be well for her and for our kids. 

I usually post links to these blog posts on social media, but won't be doing that now. If you happen upon this one, cheer me on the next time we connect.