Perfect socks for a Monday (gift from my sister)!
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A Blue Sky
The blue sky kept on calling to me today from my office window. And it was relatively warm, at a balmy 45°F. So, I decided to go for a short walk this afternoon. A walk. The road was dry, so I also decided to try out the new running shoes that my wife got me for Christmas.
I don’t know if it was the blue sky, or my new blue shoes, but halfway through the walk I thought… “I’ll run just a bit”. I haven’t run at all since last October, so I figured that maybe I’d manage a half mile. A half mile turned into a mile, and then into 1.3 miles. And I even managed my fastest pace yet (with my bulky sweatshirt and winter coat no less).
I can’t wait for more blue skies and warmer weather!
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Three Hundred Sixty Five
Yesterday marked 365 days in a row that I’ve met my Apple Watch Activity Move goal and logged my food with Lose It!
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Physical Books
A physical book. The feel of it in my hand. The way the text appears on the paper. I can’t stand it.
Recently, I started reading the book “Design is Storytelling” for work. The content of the book is good, but the physical format of the book really limits my enjoyment of it. It is full of tiny text. I can’t easily highlight key bits and go through them later. I only bought it as a physical book because no Kindle version is available. If I had it on my Kindle (or iPad, since it is full of color illustrations), I’m sure I would have finished reading it a few days after getting it. Instead, I have to remind/force myself to read it for a few minutes every day.
When I got my first Kindle five or so years ago, my love of reading was reawakened. The ability to easily take multiple books anywhere, in a small form factor, opens up more opportunities to get a little reading in. Even if I forget to bring my Kindle, I can use the Kindle app on my iPhone to pick up right where I left off. And holding a Kindle in one hand (or even my iPad in two hands), or resting it on my knee, is much more comfortable than holding any physical book.
My eyesight is no longer what it once was. Being able to adjust the typeface, font size, and lighting of my Kindle is so much more accommodating than a physical book. When I have to read a physical book, it feels like I’m taking a huge step backwards.
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The Difference a Real Bowl Makes
This past week I started eating my breakfasts out of real bowls, instead of the glass Pyrex containers I usually used before. Why did I use the Pyrex containers? Good question. Maybe because I had heated up the food in it? Maybe because it was ‘easier’ or a ‘better’ fit? Maybe because it seemed more durable? Honestly, I don’t really know!
What a difference this has made. It’s a little thing, but it has improved my mood and elevated the whole experience of eating breakfast. Even if I am just eating it at my desk in front of my computer (don’t judge).
Now I just need to get a proper bowl for my large lunch salads!
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Cold Brew Coffee
I have enjoyed the flavor of coffee for years. But, I used to avoid it because the caffeine really affected me. I couldn’t have even a single cup of coffee without it really messing with my sleep and making me jittery.
A few months ago I decided to give coffee another try. I figured if I started to get into coffee, it might, in some sense, provide me with a similar enjoyment that I get from beer, especially my favorite style, imperial stouts. Now, that makes me sound like I have a drinking problem. I only had one or two beers a week at most, and nowadays I only have a beer once every few weeks. Seriously! I still enjoy a nice beer every once in a while (last night I shared my last bottle of Genealogy of Morals from Hill Farmstead with family and friends), but the calories from a pint of great craft beer can be upwards of around twenty percent of what I aim to consume in a day, and the alcohol also affects me much more easily now, so it is now a rare treat.
Since I never drank coffee regularly, and my wife doesn’t care for coffee, we don’t own a coffee maker. I had heard of cold brew coffee, so I decided to look into how to make it. Turns out, it is incredibly simple to make, no fancy or expensive equipment required!
What you need
- A 1 quart mason jar (I used a regular mason jar initially, but now I’ve upgraded to a Simple Life Cycle Cold Brew Mason Jar and Filter that my parents gave me for Christmas)
- A fine reusable filter/strainer
- 1 cup of roasted coffee beans (I recently have found a fantastic local nonprofit place, Coffee Connection, which supports women in recovery from addiction)
- 1 quart of water
What to do
- Coarsely grind coffee beans.
- Place coffee beans in mason jar.
- Fill jar with cold water and cover.
- Brew on counter for around 24 hours.
- Filter resulting concentrate.
- Store in fridge.
To drink, dilute concentrate as desired. I usually do around 1 part concentrate to 1 part water, but it depends how strong the concentrate is. The longer you let it brew, the stronger it will be.
If you want to drink it hot, just pop it in the microwave.
Experiment with different brew lengths and different beans. You can also add other ingredients to the mason jar when brewing… I’ve tried a variety of combinations of things such as coarsely ground cocoa nibs, vanilla beans/extract, dried chilis, and star anise.
A cup of cold brew coffee is now a key part of my daily routine. I love sitting down to drink it at my desk after I’ve exercised!
And, the caffeine no longer bothers me. I’m not sure if it is because my body is used to it now that I regularly consume it, or if changes in my body over the past year made a difference. But, in any case, I can have a cup or two of coffee a day without worry!
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Routine Interrupted
This morning, I was going to write a post about my morning routine. But, today it was interrupted. Life is quite the jokester sometimes.
My recumbent exercise bike decided to stop working, which threw me for a loop. The display still turned on, and I could change the resistance, but it didn’t really make a difference. The bike was extremely difficult to peddle. I like a challenge, but this was taking it too far!
So, I did ten minutes on my old NordicTrack ski machine (which isn’t really ready to be used regularly yet… I still need to tune it up), and although I worked up a good sweat, I still felt unsettled. I can’t stand having unknowns floating around in my mind… how was I going to fix the exercise bike? What was I going to do if I couldn’t fix it? In the winter, I can’t really get out and walk/run regularly in our neighborhood (or more accurately, I don’t really like walking in the cold, rainy/snowy weather that is so frequent). And, I have really grown to love the ability to work and read while I bike. Would this mess with the routine I’ve grown to love so much over the past few months?
I took apart the bike, didn’t see anything wrong, and sprayed some WD-40 in it because that is about the limit of my mechanical abilities. Online, I searched for a manual for the bike and eventually found one. No troubleshooting section. Wonderful.
Then, I decided to just run to the store and get new batteries. It was worth a shot. And wouldn’t you know it, that was all it needed!
So, my routine was interrupted today, but I’m back on track for now. I can rest easy knowing that I don’t need to concern myself with figuring out anything with the bike. And now I can proceed to the next phase of my morning routine that I equally enjoy.
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Pushup + Cat = Plank
Surely, whoever invented the plank exercise must have had a cat and been trying to do pushups!
Our cat Nix loves to walk underneath me when I’m doing pushups, forcing me to hold a plank until she moves. Then, she’ll plop down at the end of the mat and show off her yoga poses.
(Sorry, no photo of this… would be kinda difficult for me to take a photo of myself doing a plank! Update: But, here’s a photo of Nix lounging on my mat afterward.)
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The Year It Finally Clicked
When 2017 started, I couldn’t have imagined what the year would end up holding for me.
Towards the end of January, I completed the Ring in the New Year Challenge in the Apple Activity app on my Apple Watch, which meant that I closed all three Activity rings—Move, Exercise, and Stand—each day for a full week. I don’t know why I even really wanted it. It was just a silly sticker. I didn’t even have any friends on the Activity app to share it with.
But, it triggered something inside me. As 2017 comes to an end, I am on a 343 day Move streak in the Activity app. And I’m also on a 343 day streak for logging what I eat in Lose It! I’ve lost 75 pounds and gained health and energy that I haven’t seen in years.
What will 2018 hold for me? Again, I have no idea. But, I’m excited by the possibilities!
Trying To 