Making Excercise a Habit
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Tuesday 5/3
TDEE: 3,610 cals
Steps: 21,786
Active Minutes: 99
Did finish our mowing list by 5:30 pm, but didn't seem like that easy a day.0 -
Wednesday 5/4
TDEE: 3,614 cals
Steps: 20,424
Active Minutes: 132
After seven and a half weeks, first flush of Spring growth is about done with no significant rains to sustain it. Numbers are showing it.
Managed to deeply bruise my calf muscle yesterday. Did my guy a favor and picked up his full bag of grass and put it on the foot tray of my rider to take back to the truck to dump. As I awkwardly mounted the rider and fell into the seat, I caught the parking brake lever on the back of my calf, with foot wedge on grass bag. My full weight hammered that lever into the muscle. Limped through the rest of the day. When I got home and had been sitting for an hour or so, tried to get up... YOUCH! Managed to work out the locked up muscle by walking around on tiptoe. Same deal every time I sat for more than a few minutes and all night long every time I had to hit the head. Good news is that it does un-lock after a few minutes.0 -
Thursday 5/5
TDEE: 4,094 cals
Steps 26,356
Active Minutes: 184
Made it through the day with no issues. Vitamin I during the day, alcohol (internal) and ice (external) during evening helps. Still locking up some last night but not as bad.0 -
Friday 5/6
TDEE: 3,770 cals
Steps: 22,690
Active Minutes: 156
No issues from calf muscle, even overnight. Glad that's over.
Mowing list completed for week. Odd jobs today (mulch and gravel). Shoveling a ton or two (literally) of gravel is good for the abs.0 -
Saturday 5/7
TDEE: 4,030 cals
Steps: 23,984
Active Minutes: 246
Only one ton of gravel and 9 cuyds of mulch. Also mowed 4 yards that hadn't made it on the list during week. Back at shop by 1:30 pm (no lunch) and then mowed it's four acres. Home for lunch at 3:30 pm.
Upcoming week looks like chances of rain everyday. In addition to normal mowing, step two and three of our fertilizer plan goes down (broad-leaf and grub control) and Spring shrub trimming starts. Going to be super busy next two or three weeks.0 -
Sunday 5/8
TDEE: 3,268 cals
Steps: 15,629
Active Minutes: 176
Rest day.
String trimmed my drive hedge. Quarter mile, from ground to as high as I could with a string trimmer held comfortably between waist and shoulders. Gives it a curved look but then trees overhang drive on one side anyway. Drive looks kinda like a Hobbit tunnel.
Mowed my own place.
Seeded that patch of dirt I shoveled over the rotting stump in my Mom's front yard, watered the seed in and then stacked the patch so the mowers (from our crew 2) would stay off it for the next few weeks.
Used a spade to overturn a small kitchen garden along my garage concrete apron for the wife. Been neglected for a few years while she worked on her masters in education.0 -
Monday 5/9
TDEE: 3,735 cals
Steps: 24,547
Active Minutes: 179
Little bit of rain resulted in an hour long lunch. However we were able to get all the yards on the list except one. Clear day today.0 -
Tuesday 5/10
TDEE: 4,167 cals
Steps: 26,846
Active Minutes: 187
Beautiful day yesterday. Mowing is back on schedule but looking at rain again today.
NSV: Had a client ask me yesterday if I was OK. He had noticed how much weight I had dropped. Told him I was fine and had been trying to lose through healthy eating and exercise.1 -
Thursday 5/12
TDEE: 3,761 cals
Steps: 22,038
Active Minutes: 154
Two hour late start but beautiful day. (So glad I'm not stuck in a laboratory anymore.) Finished my mowing list by 7:15 pm.
Side Note: After trimming my country drive Sunday, the poison ivy rashes are starting to itch. Mainly around elbows. (And I washed off after finishing too! With soap!!) Just small spots here and there, but... [grrr]
Not scratching is tough.0 -
Friday 5/13
TDEE: 4,344 cals
Steps: 30,224
Active Minutes: 307
Spring shrub trimming has started. [groan] Where is my Aleve?
Full day of trimming today.0 -
Saturday 5/14
TDEE: 3,645 cals
Steps: 20,595
Active Minutes: 71
First full day shrub trimming was not near as bad as I was expecting. New guy on my crew was big help and used new (to me this year) bagging system on 60 inch rider to mulch and cleanup trimmings after blowing them out of landscaping beds. BIG difference over 48 inch walk-behind.0 -
Sunday 5/15
Left my FitBit on the charger all day [grr]
Pretty normal Sunday. So averaged the last five Sunday's numbers to fill this hole in my data.
TDEE: 3,249 cals (5 Sunday avg)
Steps: 13,794 (5 Sunday avg)
Active Minutes: 146 (5 Sunday avg)0 -
Monday 5/16
Rain out. Did some maintenance work at the shop. Mainly sharpening shrub trimmers. Numbers showing it.
TDEE: 2,680 cals
Steps: 6,061
Active Minutes: 9
Still ate like I was burning 4,000 cals. Over budget last two days. Time to rein it in and get back on the program. (Easier said than done. Looking at another rainy morning. Maybe some odd jobs this afternoon will save me. [crossing fingers])0 -
I try to get my family involved, whether working out in the living room doing Zumba, or walking a few miles. I try my best to go something outside of my walking at work! Getting others involved!
I actually do this while I'm cleaning house - my wife is a slob, and I'm an OCD neat-freak, so I engage my 2-year-old to help me with the dusting and tidying. I hadn't considered including him in my workouts - what a neat idea! One of these days I'll take him jogging with me, but the at-home exercising hadn't occurred to me. Nice work!0 -
Tuesday 5/17
Another rain out. Again, numbers show it. Again, eating like there is no tomorrow. [sigh] Over my TDEE more than a 1,000 cals (total) for the last three days.
TDEE: 2,590 cals
Steps: 6,830
Active Minutes: 25
On the other hand, its been 12 hour days, six days a week for the last 9 weeks. Sometimes the body knows what's good for it. A couple of days off the wagon may be just what I needed to recharge the batteries.
On the plus side, the only thing left on my maintenance list is replacing a leaking power-steering hose on my work truck, and that is going to be hairy (a 2001 Chevy 2500 HD with hydro-boost). I'll leave that for another rainy day (probably next week as its looking like chances of rain every day).0 -
Wednesday 5/18
TDEE: 3,726 cals
Steps: 24,377
Active Minutes: 118
Boss hired a couple of college kids for the next two week and a third that will work the whole summer. That puts four on my crew (including myself). Good for catching up after two days of rain. Bad for me making up for three days of being off my calorie budget.0 -
Thursday 5/19
TDEE: 3,288 cals
Steps: 15,684
Active Minutes: 40
And that's what I was afraid of. College kids can't ride the mowers, so I ended up spending the entire day riding around yards. I've gotten better numbers on my rest days just puttering around the house.
To top it off, I was also over budget on calories another 900 plus. [grr] Best I can hope for come check-in day is no a gain week.
Silver lining is that we are now only half a day behind on the mowing list after two rain out days. We should catch up today and be ready for more shrub trimming on Saturday. [weakly cheers] ya-hoo.0 -
Friday 5/20
TDEE: 3,491 cals
Steps: 18,267
Active Minutes: 60
Numbers are better but still not where I'd like them. Two rain days didn't help. College kids not being able to ride the mowers didn't help. Binge eating at home three... four... OK, [sigh], FIVE days in a row didn't help (at least I kept it in check last night by leaving 200 cals on the plate).
More rain in the forecast for next week. Guess I'll need to blow the dust off the old treadmill.0 -
Saturday 5/21
TDEE: 3,893 cals
Steps: 24,536
Active Minutes: 168
Much better numbers. Four hours of mowing (catches mowing list up despite two rain outs) followed by three hours of shrub trimming.
Today I'll be mowing my own place and then a run out to the shop to take care of some maintenance items that popped up yesterday (amazing how fast that maintenance list grows!).
30 to 40% chance of showers every day next week. Chances increasing as the week progresses.
While I can't out run a bad diet (lol) I didn't retire from a cushy lab job, sitting in a desk chair or lab stool eight hours a day, to sit on a mower seat twelve hours a day. I've chosen to be more active in the latter half of my life, so new rule. Any less than active day (rain out or college kid influence) will include an hour or two on the treadmill. Nothing fancy, just walking while watching TV. Daily goal - 20K Steps six days out of seven. Sunday will still be my 'Rest Day'.1 -
Sunday 5/22
TDEE: 3,055 cals
Steps: 12,694
Active Minutes: 100
Not bad for a "Rest Day".1 -
Monday 5/23
TDEE: 4,128 cals
Steps: 24,268
Active Minutes: 255
Ahh, the difference of having another man on the crew who can ride the mowers. Numbers back where I like to see 'em.0 -
Tuesday 5/22
Rain-out halfway through the day. I used the treadmill for about two hours to meet my 20K steps goal.
TDEE: 3,436 cals
Steps: 20,785
Active Minutes: 140
Got my 20K steps in, but missed my goal burn (3,500) by only 64 cals. i.e. another 10 minutes on treadmill.
That's OK. Now I know and knowledge is power!0 -
Wednesday 5/25
TDEE: 4,083 cals
Steps: 20,492
Active Minutes: 175
Rain-out first half of the day and then yards too soggy to put mowers on, so did maintenance the first half and odd jobs the rest day. Did get two yards mowed by end of day.
Had my burn goal from all the odd jobs but did need about an hour on the treadmill to get my 20K steps in. I think I have a handle on the process now.0 -
Thursday 5/26
TDEE: 3,966 cals
Steps: 22,439
Active Minutes 118
12 plus hours mowing. No need for treadmill to meet my activity goals.1 -
I worked 14 hours yesterday. But unlike you that 14 was either sitting behind a desk or laying under a motorcycle.
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Friday 5/27
TDEE: 3,646 cals
Steps: 22,165
Active Minutes: 136
Got our mowing list caught up during afternoon drizzle. That, with Thursday's 12+ hour push, has given us the whole holiday weekend off. Three wonderful days! (So, of course, I'm planning on mowing my place and then trim two burning bushes (Euonymus alatus) that have gone pretty wild over the last few years.)
Pretty sure I'll still need the treadmill to reach my activity goals for today. Wondering if I still have a 5K run in me from all the work I put in over the winter.
My RHR has been creeping up is why I'm wondering. I was down to 58 bpm just before growing season started 11 weeks ago. Its been bouncing between 60 and 66 the last few weeks. Today its 63 bpm.0 -
Saturday 5/28
TDEE: 2,944 cals
Steps: 8,350
Active Minutes: 102
Took all morning but got the two wild burning bushes under the leash again. Those two monsters were over ten foot high and around. They are now down to about five, maybe six foot. Nothing but sticks, but ya can't kill a burning bush in the Spring. They'll be "burning" again by Fall.
Also trimmed up a dogwood, redbud, my small sassafras grove, and removed a wild volunteer maple (12 foot tall) in our spice bush (4 foot), all in the front yard. Debris filled the back of my pickup over the cab, with me jumping up and down on it to smash it down.
Didn't get my yard mowed as wife and I went to replace her phone and then saw a movie (Captain America, Civil War). Stayed within my calories (just) but didn't reach my burn or step goals for the day.
Belly full of popcorn and candy is not motivation to workout.0 -
Sunday 5/29
TDEE: 4,269 cals
Steps 20,668
Active Minutes: 272
Started the day with a 30 minute jog @ 5 mph (no walks) but still needed another hour on the treadmill @ 2.5 mph in the evening to get my step goal in.
Haven't jogged since growing season started 3 months ago. (And feeling it this morning.) Good to know I still can. RHR 61 bpm this morning.
True rest day today in honor of the Memorial Day holiday. Nothing planned but time with family and the charcoal grill.1 -
Monday 5/30
Memorial Day (rest day)
TDEE: 2,452 cals
Steps: 6,067
Active Minutes: 11
Missed my calorie goal but my intake was still under my burn... by 23 calories.
BOO-YAH!!0 -
Tuesday 5/31
TDEE: 3,837 cals
Steps: 26,245
Active Minutes: 140
Back in the "Zone"!
Four days to get five days of mowing in. And, if we make it, the reward is shrub trimming all day Saturday. Also... yup, chances of rain every day. Super.
Gotta love short holiday weeks.0
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