2012: Q2 By the numbers

    Continuing my quarterly tradition of posting a few health stats and training mileage has turned into one of my favorite things to post about. I look back on my years spent in obesity and declining health and I know that the greatest factor in "letting myself go" was simply not caring. Not caring about weight, not caring about BMI, not caring about Body Fat %, not caring about energy levels...just a lack of caring in general with regards to all things fitness and health.

     These quarterly posts serve as a self enforced "holding my feet to the fire" exercise for helping me remember to care about quality of life issues. My hope is that in addition to the benefit I get from subjecting my personal stats to public scrutiny, that some other person may one day try something similar and find that it works for them as well. Routine monitoring is not an obsessive behavior. It only takes a few minutes a day and its a good way to show that you give a frack about yourself.

Weight

     I started weighing myself differently back in early May. Most people are probably aware that their weight

fluctuates throughout the day and being aware of this I wanted to experiment some to see if I could gain a few pounds of muscle without gaining any fat. Basically, I started weighing myself 1st thing in the morning and recording that on my HealthMiles graph, then I would only record my post breakfast, post exercise, pre lunch weight on my Garmin graph IF my 1st thing in the morning weight was above 170lbs. (Previously I only recorded my weight after exercising when it was at its lowest point for the day.)

This chart uses different criteria for Jan-Mar than it uses for Apr-July, so only looking at Q2 stats I have to say my 1st thing in the morning weight is up about 2 lbs on average. Perfectly acceptable, and I intend to keep it in the 169-172 range moving forward.

This chart has also started using different criteria, but to a lesser degree. Prior to May I recorded my weight here daily, now I only record my weight here when I wake up above 170. The days that do not have an entry could be well reasoned to be less than the average.

BMI

BMI is essentially a worthless measurement for me since it does not differentiate muscle from fat, but I record it anyway.

Body Fat %

Looks like my Body Fat % has edged up slightly, but my strength is also up and I'm still way below my 12 month rolling average. I can be happy with this.

 Blood Pressure

No Meds! This is all clean eating and cardio!

Running

You can see how my weekly run mileage dropped sharply after Aprils Blue Ridge Half Marathon.

Cycling

Cycling mileage dropped sharply after Mays Storming of Thunder Ridge

Swimming

Swim mileage is up by just a hair, but hardly enough to mention.

Combined

All mileage including swim, bike, run, elliptical, walking and hiking. I've really been taking it kinda easy since May to encourage rest and maybe a few lbs of muscle growth. All in all it seems to be working.