this thing doesn't care (from fb - 20200328)

(this is a post I originally made on facebook, copied here and backdated so I can look back on it later)

This thing doesn't care. It doesn't care if your area is red or blue, wealthy or poor. It doesn't care which candidate you support or which you despise. It doesn't care if a politician wants everything to go back to normal by Easter. It doesn't care if you think it's "just" a flu, it doesn't care that you take your vitamins, it doesn't care that you "never get sick". It doesn't care if you think you feel fine, it doesn't care if you think you are invulnerable.

It doesn't care if you are young, old, healthy, ill, strong, or weak. But it does hit the weakest, the oldest, the sickest, the most vulnerable the hardest, so your actions ripple out and have consequences even more than they normally do. Every single one of us is only a few degrees of separation at the most from being affected, with many of us already suffering.

Now is the time to trust doctors and health officials, to listen to the people who have spent their lives studying and working with situations like this. It's time to realize that this is bigger than you, bigger than your personal wants and needs, bigger than demographics and borders and biases and colors and creeds. Now is the time to remember that those lines on the charts and numbers in the reports are *people*, with lives and loves and hopes and dreams.

Now is the time to realize that in spite of the necessary physical isolation, we are not alone. We can get through this, and we will see the other side.

We can do this.

listen to the experts (from fb - 20200323)

(this is a post I originally made on facebook, copied here and backdated so I can look back on it later)

Please do not let politicians and economists sway you during this health crisis. Listen to the doctors, the medical experts. These are hard times, but we *need* to think beyond ourselves right now.

This is a marathon, not a sprint. Be safe.

24.9

For the first time in about eleven years, my BMI is in the "healthy" range (yeah, I know BMI isn't a great metric to use because of how generic and "one size fits all" it is, but it's a good rough guideline).

Not going to lie, it's embarrassing that I gained so much weight. Oh sure, I can explain why: mom dying, family drama, dad killing himself, family drama, job drama, health issues, broken ankle, life changes, five years (and counting) of nerve damage fun. And it sneaks up on you...less than a pound a month over years adds up to more than you would like to think. But ultimately it's on me to own it and make the effort.

About eight months ago, I started to change things. It started out really small: ten minutes a day of walking around the outside of the house. Flip flops and pajama pants, a big floppy hat. Just something, anything to get moving. Will joined in, so I had a walking partner to make the time pass a bit quicker.

I used a Garmin watch to track steps and started at about 4000 steps a day. Used the "move alert" feature to remind me to get up and walk around every hour. Starting ramping up the daily steps as the weeks went on, adding more minutes or more sessions to the daily walks.

A few months in, I got some good walking shoes and started using MyFitnessPal to keep an eye on calories. (One cool feature of the app: It estimates what your weight would be in five weeks if every day were like the current one. A good motivator.)

It became a daily routine: Get up, get changed, walk. Garmin kept track of streaks and totals, which helped keep me motivated (we humans are easy to manipulate, just show us a high score and we try to beat it).

The calorie watching was the biggest factor in the weight loss, far more than the exercise. Not a diet...I've been saying "if you go on a diet, you'll go off a diet". Instead, we simply tracked what we ate and got a better idea of just how many calories and macronutrients were in everything. I still eat mostly the same things, just a bit less of them. Still have Taco Bell and pizza, still snack and graze. But now I am a lot more aware of how those seemingly small things add up.

---

Fast forward to today. I'm now regularly doing 15,000+ steps a day and walking about 3.5 miles each morning. I'm down over 80 pounds (and would still like to lose a few more). I've got a streak going of over 250 days of hitting my daily step goal; with luck, I will get to a full year.

According to Garmin, I've logged nearly 4 million steps and over 1700 miles in the past eight months. I take more steps than 99% of their other users of any age range. I now compete regularly in online "step challenges" against other Garmin users, and I've placed in the top three multiple times (including some first places, woot).

I'm definitely seeing a change in my breathing, my stamina, and my endurance. Gone down a few clothing sizes, donated boxes of old clothes, and now have a full section of my closet dedicated to fitness clothes (which cracks me up).

Will has been an awesome partner through all of it. He's also lost weight and slimmed down, and we keep each other motivated. I've got good friends who are also cheering me on and helping me see the changes that I can't. 

The most important part for me was making sure it was sustainable. I needed this to be something I could do wherever I was, whatever I was doing, for as long as I was able. I didn't want to completely restrict what I ate; I still wanted to have fun and eat tasty foods. So far, it seems to be working...I still have a bit more to go, but so far, so good. <crosses fingers>

And now some pics for my future motivation (and a reminder to not let it get out of hand again):

 

(You can tell I started to actively track my calorie intake
right around the beginning of August.)

 

 

Left: March 2017 - Right: March 2020
(Isn't the drooping eyelid lovely? One of the presents the
shingles/neuralgia left behind. Ugh.)

Left: May 2019 - Right: March 2020
(and that lovely drooping eyelid)

thinking beyond ourselves (from fb - 20200315)

(this is a post I originally made on facebook, copied here and backdated so I can look back on it later)

I have a cousin who is extremely pregnant, I have a friend who is extremely pregnant. I have friends who are at severe risk because of cancer and other illnesses, friends with kids who are immunocompromised because of leukemia. I have older friends, sick friends, young friends, healthy friends...all are at risk.

I'm guessing that most people have someone in their lives who is in danger because of this virus. Even if you are healthy, if you are not showing any symptoms, you could unknowingly spread it.

We need to make sure our emergency facilities and hospitals can handle what is coming. This means slowing down the spread, "flattening the curve" of people needing emergency help, slowing down the spikes of need. People will still get sick, they may still die, but we need to do all we can to make sure that our hospitals and emergency personnel aren't overwhelmed and helpless.

Please please please think beyond yourself right now. Skip the party, avoid the festival, don't go to the bar, give each other space. Everything we can do now could save lives in the coming days.

Don't panic. But do think, and empathize, and realize that this is a *global* issue, and only by thinking beyond ourselves can we get things under control.

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center