Friday, December 1, 2023

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

 I've always loved Christmas.   It is by far my favorite holiday.   I like Christmas movies, TV shows, decorations, the meals and of course Christmas day.   Coming from a divorced family I usually spent Christmas with my mom and as such associate it with family.  It's not meant as a slam or slight against my father, but I lived with my mother and my sister after the divorce and they *were* my family.  Sadly my mom passed away almost 17 years ago, but we're going to spend Christmas in Ireland with my mother-in-law, and I'm excited to finally get to have a true Boxing Day :) 

That said, I had a great November.   I'm maintaining my weight, actually I've lost a little more despite Thanksgiving, and have maintained my focus on exercise and demolished my mileage target for the month.  Let's look at what I wanted to accomplish:

  • Maintain Weight
  • Ride 450 miles - I am trying to hit 500
  • Walk 20 miles
  • Perfect Month in Apple

Weight results:
  • Starting Weight: 225.9
  • Ending Weight: 219.1
  • Net Loss: (6.80)
  • Total Loss: (108.90)
Exercise info:
  • Number of rides: 99
  • Time on exercise: 01:08:18:09
  • Distance on rides: 608.24
  • Number of walks: 6
  • thTime walking: 2:38
  • Distance walking: 7.3
Results:
Well as usual I didn't get my walking goal.   I tried to get there, but for some reason I seem to fall short of it.   Why?   I've been riding a lot this past month and I'm usually too tired to go for a walk afterwards.  I'm not going to mince words, it is what it is.   I thought I'd walk more when I was in Virginia for Thanksgiving, but ended up using my sister in law's bike instead.  I'll try again this month, and with us being in Ireland for 10 days or so, I'll need to walk to hit my exercise goals.   That said, I crushed everything else.   I set distance goals every month and I thought after hitting 500 the past two months I'd probably be around that.   Boy was I wrong...   I ended up hitting 600 miles this past month which was a substantial jump in distance.   It's almost assuredly from the challenge I joined but I'm not goign to complain.  In line with that I exceeded all my apple goals, as well as some other challenges I joined.  I don't expect that kind of mileage for December since I'll only be home for 21 days, but I am gunning for 450 miles which will be a stretch.   Good thing Merinda is away this weekend so I can try for a 50 mile day.

Alright lets set some goals for December:
  • Maintain Weight
  • Ride 450 miles
  • Walk 20 miles
  • Perfect Month in Apple
  • Apple December exercise goal
  • Gold in my December challenge
These look familiar because these are the same goals I set last month.  With the exception of the mileage goal, which I would have set at 550 this month if we were staying home, these will stay consistent going forward.   I just want to stay healthy and fit.  I really can't work out in Ireland, so it's going to be mostly walking and lower goals while I'm there.   Since Apple wants me to hit 79 minutes of exercise for the December goal I'm going to be busy.  I also need to be a little more careful with my weight.   I lost some more weight this month without trying so I need to tweak my diet a bit.

Final Thoughts:
I was pleasantly surprised by this past month.   I thought I'd gain some weight over Thanksgiving, but that wasn't the case.   Yes, we had food, hell I ate at two disparate Thanksgivings as well as some other junk, but I don't remember feeling like I'd grossly overeaten.  I just don't want to drop any more weight and I think 215 should be my floor.  Another thing from this past month is that I was able to set a bunch of PR's on Teresa's bike.   It's a lot "easier" so I will miss it because I have records that are going to take a long time for me to match.   I guess that's ok because I need to stay focused, but I'm not gonna lie...   It was fun finishing first in a class, and I did get a second today, but as they say those are  first world problems.  Maybe I'll try to buy her bike :)

Pretty busy at work today so this is going to be short.   Have a great month and as my year echelon anniversary is coming in 2 weeks we'll talk soon.  

No comments:

Post a Comment