It seems odd to think of as a haircut as a source of joy. I’m not talking wanting a different look, or someone getting their hair done for a wedding, or anything fancy.
Our story for haircuts during the pandemic looks a lot like many people’s story. Early on, we ordered a home clipper set, Andrea found some videos, and we decided to cut Jacob’s hair. She did a good try for both Jacob and I, not bad for the first time, if a little stressful with her constantly saying, “Oh crap” or “Ugh” as she worked away on my head.
The next round, I did Jacob’s while Andrea supervised. Then Andrea did mine, with less swearing by her.
Another round came, and I did my own for the most part and then Andrea fixed it up, and I did Jacob’s. Similarly for the last round. I think there have been four rounds in total, might have been five, hard to remember.
Overall? They turned out fine. Jacob’s were eminently viable, as were mine, and nobody pointed at us in public when we went outside, so we’ll take that as being as good as an endorsement.
But some time ago, I started thinking about a “pandemic” dashboard indicating how I’m doing at re-opening my life, our lives within our bubble of 3. When I asked Jacob what he wanted, a couple of things popped up. He wanted to eat in a restaurant again, which we’ve done. He wanted to go play mini-golf, although I’m not sure they were really closed that much, but he felt that was something that represented being “open” again.
And he wanted to get a real haircut. Back in June, we were just about to pull the trigger on it, and we chickened out. Partly for timing, partly for safety, we just did another round at home.
But this time? He wanted a real haircut. Truth be told, I don’t really care about it for myself. I’d be perfectly fine just continuing to do the same thing for me. Both of us have really simple cuts, so nothing terrible can happen.
Yet the difference is obvious. His crown is right, no extra hairs left on the back of his neck that I have to touch up later. The bangs that hang over the front of his head look “right”. Way better than anything Andrea or I ever accomplished.
We had made an appointment for first thing this morning, went in at 9:00 a.m., did his and mine, and made our escape. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, done in about 45 minutes.
And it did give me joy to see him “back to normal” so to speak. Sure, there’s no place to sit and wait. Sure, we had to have appointments. Sure, we had to wear masks. But it was all good.
So I’ll add it to the #MoreJoy column for the month.
So Thursday was the last day of my blogging about a month of “nudging” myself to make more organized decisions that improve my life. A good portion of them were about workouts or my website, or making my life a bit easier for something simple (like paying someone to assemble the BowFlex). I will still do a summary of them at some point.
But I liked the premise of focusing on one thing for a month. Something that might nudge me in other areas. Except instead of three things in a day, I only want to do one. Something significant or insignificant, doesn’t matter, it just had to improve my life. And I’m embarrassed to say, my source of inspiration is cheesy.
I watch the TV show New Amsterdam about the caring medical director whose motto with his staff is, “How can I help?”. It is not great art, it is not amazing writing, sometimes it’s not even great acting. But it’s message is usually positive if simplistic, and I watch it. The first EP of the new year is about Max, the main character, trying to find ways to improve his life and his temporary new motto is “more joy”. He wants more joy in his life. And because it is TV, that translates to finding a new love, blah blah blah.
But I’ve been struggling to find a term for something I wanted to write about. It’s not gratitude for something in my life. It’s not counting my blessings. It’s not about a decision that improves my life. It is, in fact, just wanting a bit more joy in my life. Some of them are going to seem really really silly as something that gives me joy. Maybe a simple app, for instance. But I didn’t know what to call the series until I watched the EP. More joy. I like the idea.
I, too, want to find more joy in my life. To take pleasure in simple things without judging myself for enjoying them.
Tonight, Andrea and I watched a pre-recorded “livestream” from September of the NAC Orchestra performing. We used to go in person for the Pops series, and that’s pretty much still shot, but they had sent out a promo newsletter and they showed an upcoming show. As it turned out, Andrea was out of town for the nigth of the show or we would have watched it live, but the ticket allowed us unlimited rewind watching too. Which allowed us to timeshift it to tonight while Jacob was doing an epic quest in Minecraft with his friends. There were five pieces played by the Orchestra, and it seemed like a double bonus event.
But before I talk about the pieces, let me say that everything that should have conspired against enjoyment was present. First, it’s a recording, basically, not the live show. Secondly, we are watching it at home, not a big sound stage. Third, we’re watching it on an internet feed. And fourth, we were doing it through a simple laptop. Should have been poor sound, right? Wrong. It was crystal clear. Like if a pin had dropped on the stage, we could have told you which side it came from. The recording was incredible, the sound amazing.
So, first on the playbill for the night was Beethoven’s Fifth (in C minor, Op. 67, for those who know about these things). Probably the most accessible classical symphony, and one of the most well-known for its beginning movement. The second and third movements are not as well-known, but there are segments that are sublime. I saw it way back in the 90s for the first time, and a number of years ago live in concert with the NAC, and tonight was the third time. Each time, I am reminded of the reviews at the time it first debuted by Beethoven. Some contemporaries were so affected by the piece they thought it was almost dangerous and such music so moving that it should never be performed. Each time I hear it, I hear a different part and get lost. It truly is one of the things that I think everyone should experience once in their life, even if just the first movement.
After that, the night moved to a violin focus which is the “double bonus” since Andrea and I also like violins. The NAC’s artist-in-residence, James Ehnes, was performing and started with the second piece of the night, Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Introduction and Rondo capriccioso in A Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 28”. There was an interview with Ehnes beforehand, and he kept referring to the “virtuosity” of the piece. While normally I would think of that as “great skill”, he was referring more to the range of the piece. If there is a note on the violin, the piece required it. It was astounding. I don’t think I’ve heard such range ever before.
After that, James moved on to Lili Boulanger’s “Nocturne for Violin and Orchestra, arranged by Sarah Slean”. An interview beforehand also described how it was a challenge to arrange since the original was meant for violin and piano, not the instruments of an orchestra. It was interesting to hear her approach to arrangement, but while the piece was interesting and technically impressive, I didn’t feel as much for that one. At one point, it DID feel like I was strolling along an Italian river listening to someone play.
The fourth piece of the night was Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum”, which combines a range of elements of the violin and strings, with some parts of the orchestra strumming while others are using their bow, for an interesting sound. But I expected a bit more from it. Good, certainly, but it didn’t blow me away.
Finally, they ended with Pablo de Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) for Violin and Orchestra, Op 20”. While it didn’t have the “virtuosity” of the first piece, it definitely brought the air of the nomadic life of the Roma, or at least as the music is often portrayed in movies or TV.
Like I said, “More joy”. It was highly enjoyable, and as Andrea said, we didn’t even have to worry about parking. And you know what? It was only $15 too. Normally our tickets and parking set me back close to $150-$200 for a night.
If I can spend $15 for that much joy, sign me up anytime.
(While not the NAC show, I’m including some links below if you want to hear/see versions of the above.)
Note this is definitely not the version we saw, as this is for piano, and we saw a new arrangement for full orchestra.
Today is the last day of my nudging blogging and I’m only going to talk about one thing today, instead of the usual three. Because it was surprisingly all-encompassing for my day.
As today is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and I’m a federal public servant, we were off work. A time for quiet reflection perhaps, a bit of reading on the issues.
And in my case, to focus a bit selfishly on me. I’ve been working on body transformation in the last two weeks, or more accurately, setting myself up physically or organizationally for a long-term body transformation project. It has generally been going well over the last 2+ weeks since I had the BowFlex assembled, I would say.
But today was about something bigger. I’m at the end of the month, and I’ve been planning on a monthly check-in to see how I’m doing, where I’m going. Yet I struggled with a bunch of issues today, and it may sound nigh on to impossible, but the organizing of my “monthly update” took me most of the day. Which is impressive since I had already started it LAST night before I went to bed.
I’ve written the full blog about it, but it was a full day of work to get it done. Emotionally, physically, intellectually. I’m happy with it, but it was way more work than I expected. It’s HERE if you want to read about it.
I’ll do a summary of the month of nudging a bit later, and I start my new theme tomorrow.
Time to do my check-in for my efforts to transform my body. The big day is here!
Or is it?
I confess I spent way too much time this week thinking about my check-in, and how I wanted to hold myself accountable. Should I do it on the last day of the month, thus emphasizing the past month’s efforts and results? Or should I wait until the first of the next month so that I cover the WHOLE month and also trigger the start of the new month?
Any day I choose is arbitrary, but I am a great believer that what story I tell myself is as important as how I tell it. Retro results vs. forward planning? In reality, I know it doesn’t matter. I could do the measurements ANY day this week, and post on the last day or the first day, it doesn’t change the outcome, it’s just changing which day I took the snapshot in time. Yet it still bothered me all week. I was wondering, for example, if I would have time on the 1st (Friday) to get up, weigh-in, do all my measurements, take the accountability pics, and have time to run Jacob to school before I started work. I do want to do the stats in the morning, same time every month, but does it matter if it was today (Thursday) vs. tomorrow (Friday), or could I even wait until Saturday when I generally would have more time? Should I aim more for the first Sunday following the end of the month?
Holy squirrels. My brain KNEW it didn’t matter, but part of me was trying to get it “perfect” somehow, like “perfect” was even a thing in this case.
In the end, I decided at least for this month to take advantage of the day off to do all my measurements and posting today. Next month? I’ll see.
A. TL;DR
I have lots of “noise” this month around getting set up and going, which was the primary focus for almost all of the last 2+ weeks. I have a full dashboard to track everything, I’m taking pictures I hate, I have achieved 15 mini-milestones, and for the most part, there aren’t any discernible changes to point to as a success. I’ve increased overall weight per workout, but I feel more like I’ve been right-sizing the workouts so far. This month will be the real test.
After 15 exercise sessions (weightlifting, stretching and walking), I’ve lost 1.2 lbs, which is 7.8 lost in total this year. And I’m feeling pretty good about the workouts and after the workouts. My body isn’t screaming at me to stop.
B. Overall dashboard
I created a Transformation Dashboard to keep track of my stats, and to be honest, I put WAY too much time into it this week. Sure, I won’t have to do that NEXT time, it’ll be a simpler update, but still, it took some time.
The dashboard has a number of components spread across two pages:
The “accountability” photos;
My physical measurements showing the original high of 350 lbs with my revised baseline in mid-September when I started the big process + last totals, new totals, incremental change from last time, and total change from the original;
A pseudo-bar graph to show my progress towards my eventual weight target of 185 lbs, which I aim to reach in 2028;
My Bowflex stats in terms of Maximum Weight that I can do 10 reps at, as well as my standard workout totals;
My fitness sessions, sense of my body (negative and positive), and psychological; and,
General milestones along the road, spread across commitment, measurement, workouts, and differences that I see as time goes on.
I’ll also go through each of those areas below.
C. Accountability photos
The front, side and back photos are a work-in-progress to figure out how to show enough detail to make it worthwhile to take them for any other reason than to fat-shame myself. I like to delude myself that it is “accountability”, but there is a masochistic component in there somewhere. I struggle to do things like selfies in any situation, as I don’t normally take pics of myself. I could have others take it, but the whole point is personal accountability, so I’m trying to do them all myself.
For this month, there’s not much (hah!) to see in the way of progress, not that I expected to see anything yet. If I was harsh with myself, I’d say they actually look WORSE, not better.
D. Physical measurements
The big one, of course, is my weight, and since mid-September, I basically dropped 1.2 lbs, meaning my weight is 7.8 lbs less than my high of 350 lbs. I have an extra indicator to add for the future on this, a “time reference” so to speak, but I haven’t got to filling that out yet. It was a bit weird choosing my weight total, as there is some differing views out there as to which weight you should record. Here’s a small graph of my weight in the last two weeks showing minor fluctuations (it seems big because the graph is scaled differently):
I chose the one right on the prediction line, i.e. from today, but for example, earlier this week, my weight reached a weight that was a full lb even lower. I’d love to use THAT one, of course, and some people advocate taking the lowest measurement of the last week. Others suggest averaging the last two or three readings, depending on how often you record your weight. In the end, precision and perfection is not the goal. It’s a simple snapshot, so I went with the weight I registered this morning.
With such small changes, there is no change in BMI. I had to drop the calculation for the % of body fat as the app doesn’t seem to want to update properly for that heading. I show the first five lbs lost in green (locked in) and the next bit as yellow (pending) in the progress towards target.
For the remaining measurements, there’s no good news yet. My neck seems to have gone down a bit, while three others seem to have gone up, and five are bigger than my original refs. I think I’m doing that a bit wrong, as the “original” should probably be the largest I was at any one of those measurements in the year, as opposed to the measurements I was tied to the weight, but I’ll leave it for now.
E. Weightlifting exercises
Back at the beginning of my routines just over two weeks ago, I was doing 9 exercises, two of which were a bit cumbersome. I did a raw calculation at the time of my maximum weights at all the exercises in the batch, but I kind of messed up.
There are two general philosophies about calculating maximums. The first is the standard weightlifting competition idea, i.e., how much weight can you do on each exercise with only 1 rep (which is what I registered previously). The second view is one that I like more, namely that your maximum should be the weight you feel comfortable with and in control of moving for a set number of reps. For me, ten reps seems like a good control number, and today, I reset all the max rates with Andrea’s help.
If I was to do 10 reps of the 7 remaining exercises, at my maximum, I would move about 7800 lbs of weight. And if I was trying to simply increase muscles, I would do that type of routine once a week while doing other sets of about 80% of max elsewhere in the week.
But I’m actually trying to shed weight and improve overall tone. Which means I do lower weights, more reps and more sets. For the 7 exercises on the list, I’m actually moving 18300 lbs of weight per session. And, to be honest, I can do more. The only real challenge is not adding to the existing ones so much as needing to add three new exercises too (2 are for legs, as replacements for other ones). But as I add those and try to add reps and sets, plus 45s rests between sets? It all adds time to my work-out.
My title in my app was simply a 20-minute full body workout, but if I do what I’ve got planned, allowing for proper form (3s out, 3s in), 45s between sets, and perhaps a minute between exercises, it comes to…78 minutes. And now you see another reason why people do alternate days for some exercises. If I add in my stretching that day, and walking, I’m easily at 2h.
It’s not sustainable, I know.
F. Physical fitness sessions
I managed 8 formal workouts, plus 5 stretching routines, and 2 formal walking outings. The WOs and stretching are likely close, but the walking is off. I forgot to log a bunch of quick walks with Andrea or Jacob, and I’m not really calculating distance yet. I need to get my FitBit going again. But at least I’ve got my MapMyWalk account reset so I can pre-plan distances, and hope my knees hold up.
G. Body sense
I don’t know if that is the right title for this area, but I was trying to capture the idea that there are a series of “negative” or “positive” indicators for how my body is doing or responding, or perhaps just “working”. The two negative ones that stand out in the last month are headaches (they’ve been more persistent in the last month) and my blood pressure (it’s been higher at night, a common problem when my allergies kick in, and contributes to my headaches). I’ve taken more Tylenol in the last month than I would like to be taking. Other than that, I’d say sinuses were next on my list, but overall, nothing noteworthy.
On the “positive” side, I don’t feel there have been any improvements in my movement/flexibility/agility or my sleep, but I have felt better for my energy levels and overall fitness. I can even feel a difference from the last two weeks that the BowFlex exercises are flowing a bit more easily. I haven’t had that “high” from a few years ago (I remember a fall day stepping out into the garage and feeling like I was in the best health I had been in for some time, and my weight wasn’t even down then, but I just felt GREAT for about an hour), but that’s the feeling I want to find again.
H. Psychological
So. This one is harder to quantify. I put in indicators for my overall sense of health, which goes beyond simply fitness. It kind of combines the two “body sense” ones together, I suppose. Social flexibility (willingness to try new things), social confidence (doing physical things in front of other people), and lifestyle confidence (willingness to be more physically “out there”) aren’t really moving the needle, not that I expected them to yet. I would say I’m experiencing a bit of a bump in mood and overall mental health from the exercising, although COVID stuff on the news and in feeds is bringing down my MH a smidge over my mood moving it up.
I. Commitment
I’m showing 8 milestones in the commitment list, although some of them were already mentioned when I launched. I committed to the journey, announced my goal, created the dashboard, set up my workout routine, and set up apps to track. And then did the first workout with the BowFlex plus had my first week with 3 WOs in it and my first week with 3 stretching routines in it. I didn’t count the stretching routine as fully set up yet as I’m still tweaking it.
J. Measurement
I have 6 milestones tracked, but they are very similar to the above elements — set up tracking and photos and did my first weigh-in / measurements / photos. But I also lost my first “new” pound too.
K. Workout changes
I had a whole bunch of initial tweaks this month, but I didn’t really count any of them as actual changes or modifications, they were still just adjustments to drafts. The only REAL milestone I counted was the new list of new maximum weights that I calculated today. We’ll see where that leaves me in a month.
L. Differences
Nada, nil, rien, zilch. I have more energy, sure. I feel a bit of a bump in mood, sure. But actual “visible differences”? Not yet. I didn’t expect to and some of them are not going to show up for quite some time.
M. Conclusion
Noise, planning progress, down a pound, and a bump in mood. I’ll take the small win.
29.1 was some simple liaison work for, well, work. Connecting people as sort of a networking thing. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn’t. But seems promising so far. Not part of my day job so to speak, just a bit of extra simple networking.
29.2 was attempting something new for lunch. I’m not very creative with lunchtime options, and since J went back to school, I’ve felt very uninspired, often even skipping lunch entirely or eating late. Today, I tried a Supperworks frozen meal — freshly prepared, frozen, and nukable. It was a turkey meal, with some turkey, bit of stuffing, peas and corn, and then the surprise. It had mashed potatoes but with sweet potatoes, not regular. I may not fully hate sweet potatoes, but I’m not a fan. Blech. Except, not blech. It had some sort of maple crumble mixed in with it, and with kernels of corn mixed in, it was awesome. Forget the rest of the meal, I’d take that as a side all on its own.
28.3 was a full workout. I’ve been feeling a bit down, extra headachy over the last week (most likely allergies), and I’ve not been hitting the workout as much as I wanted. Certainly no EXTRA ones, that’s for sure. Well, today I tweaked the stretching routine fully with the new exercises, tested them all, tweaked the set again and then printed the new poster. After that, it was time for my full body workout, minus two leg exercises that I’ve replaced with extra stretching for now. Anyway, the workout went really well, and some of the exercises were too light for me. I’ll need to up the weight in October, but for now, I’ll focus on increasing reps and sets.
