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The Story Of Me Getting Off My Bum For a While

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Prior to covering and working from home all the time I was semi-active. If I went to the office the amount of walking between the home, the train, the office and back again (along with lunch or whatever else i did) was close to my exercise and move goals on my Apple Watch. I went to Sainsbury’s something on the way home I would go over my goal with room to spare. That’s not to say I was extremely active. I would force myself to get up and walk around at the office when my watch beeped at me that it was time to stand up. Even then I knew I needed to do more.

Then the lockdown happened in March and I worked from home. Things deteriorated from there. I bought a bike in April hoping that I would use it to ride around. I did for a while however not every day. I have loved riding bikes since I was a kid and I still do. What I keep remembering is when I try it is not something for me that I will do everyday. I am glad I got the bike however it is not my daily exercise.

Over the summer and early fall I cannot recall. I decided that I would go for coffee every day since that would force a walk. I was actually pretty good at doing that for most day is however not all. It would give me a lot of the exercise I needed. It just wasn’t enough. I tried to walk more however I had an issue with walking that i wont go into detail on.

I needed something more and I knew it. My sister and one of my good friends said I should buy a Peleton Bike or Treadmill. When I stopped laughing I realised they were serious. My sister and my brother in law swear by the Peloton. M and my experience with exercise equipment is they take up a lot of space. We had one in our apartment in New York and I don’t know how many times are used it but it was probably less than two dozen in the 4. Years we owned it. We were lucky that the local fire department needed one and they came and took away for us and were happy to do it. Fight story they offered to bring the kids out to the fire truck some of them climb around as a thanks. They showed up with a pickup in the firetruck am at the lights wire on the street and my girls were petrified and did. To go anywhere near it. I thought it was cool though.

Besides the space a bike or treadmill takes up I am not for a $2000 or more so piece of equipment and $35 a month in subscriptions for the service. I never went to a gym other than the one in my building because I didn’t want to pay money for a plan that I would not use.

When Apple announced Apple One and Fitness+ I thought it sounds interesting and moved on to other news. When it launched in early December there were many reviews on some of the tech sites I read. So I read one review. That I read a few more. If the service came out a year before I would have totally ignored it. It is launched at probably the perfect time for me. I need something easy. I needed something with a low barrier to entry. I didn’t want to spend a ridiculous amount of money per month. Fitness+ offered all of that from me. Sidenote nice a low barrier for entry I am talking about me personally. I already an Apple Watch. I already own an Apple TV and iPad. That means I can do the workouts with nothing more than the service. With homepods in the house instead of echoes (i will likely write about that in another post) we switched from spotify to Apple music family plan. With our iCloud plan getting the Apple one bundle with fitness+ was cheaper and i got even more stuff I will write about later.

With my new trial Fitness+ and a yoga mat I borrowed from one of the girls I was doing a work out in the home office or living room. The girls even joined in with me. I have been doing yoga every day of my holiday. I am hoping this is a habit I will adopt. And setting aside 30 minutes a day and I can do the work out literally feet from my desk. The beginner courses are perfect for me. For the first week I did the 10 and 20 minute beginner course. Then I would do a 10 minute wind down that was really a lot of stretching that I needed anyway. I have since moved on to 20 and 30 minute regular yoga classes. with a 5 or 10 minute wind down of stretching. I am now looking at doing a 20 minute and then a 10 minute yoga course in a row to get my 30 minutes of exercise a day. I am finding the 30 minute courses are a little too fast for me. 10 and 20 minute courses seem a bit more geared to beginners or at least slower paced.

M is even getting in on the action. Since i got the Apple One bundle she can use it too. I have been trying to get her to use my Series III Apple Watch I had spare since I upgraded to a series 5. It wasn’t worth selling so I kept it and was just using it at night. She wanted something for when she did bike rides. she never took it then. With me trying this she seemed eager to give it a go. At the moment we were competing in a seven day activity challenge. It is too close to call so I will not trash talk.

I am hoping this is not one of those things that in a few months I will look back and go yeah that was something I did. I am hoping that the habit will take it has such a low barrier to start doing every day.

The Story of Me Buying a Bike

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I originally started writing this in May or June 2020. I have been pretty slow getting things published.

Even before the Corona Virus lockdown I thought about getting out with the girls on bikes. It wasn’t until last Summer 2019 that both of them were able to bike ride. They could not get very far on their scooters even though they both scooted for years. With biking skills I figured by this summer they would be strong enough bikers that we could at least travel locally around with them. Then the virus happened and we got locked in.

When I commuted to work my walking to and from the train, and walking to and from getting lunch was typically just enough to get my entire activity requirement for the day. At least according to my Apple Watch. When I worked from home prior to lockdown i would need to take a walk to the store or something to get most if not all of my activities requirements. Even before lockdown I figured one way to keep active when working from home would be to get a bike and use it as my daily exercise.

One of my friends at work told me about a bike purchasing scheme the company had so you could get tax relief on a bike if you wanted to bike to work. My luck the scheme closed at the beginning of the tax year on April 1. I was looking to buy something in the middle of April. I had to figure out plan b. I did some research online for a decent all around “hybrid” / street bike. I figured out what brands the local shop sold and found what would work for me online. I then went to the local bike shop on the Saturday before Easter. The bike I wanted was exactly what the guy at the bike shop suggested. I wanted a simple Giant Escape. I was half convinced before going to the shop to get the Giant Escape Disc. It is basically the bike I wanted with slightly more expensive Disk Breaks. The guy at the store told me the same reasons I told myself why I wanted to spend the £50 or so more on the better breaks. More bad timing the bike i wanted in my size was not available in the store. If I had stopped by the day before I would’ve been able to buy it since he had one in stock that he had already sold. Funny enough I did go to the store on Good Friday however it looks like they were closed. I figured since it was Good Friday they were. It turns out he had the shutters down but was open. I was lucky in the sense that he could still order the model and size I wanted online and have it shipped. Apparently several other models and sizes were no longer available since they were having trouble getting shipments from Taiwan.

The bike was supposed to arrive a week later however it took about two before it showed up. It was ready on Friday afternoon so I biked it home to give it a quick test drive. I hadn’t owned a bike in years. The Trek I had when I lived in Manhattan and Long Island city was long stolen from the bike rack in the long-island city apartment.

What could be considered even more bad luck was in mid-May due to the coronavirus lockdown my company announced they were re-opening up the cycle to work purchasing scheme that I originally could not use. Apparently due to the lockdown and concerns about commuting when the lockdown lifted there was lots of inquiries about it. Even though I bought something already I am still tempted to purchase a Bromley folding bike the of the scheme. With a folding bike I could go places with it and then fold it up and take it inside with me where as the bike I have i cannot. The bike I have I would never really lock it up and leave it anywhere. In all honesty I am not sure if I would actually use the folding bike the way i describe. The idea of it does sound very promising though. The other advantage to the folding bike is I could keep it in my home office versus having to keep the regular bike in the shed in the back garden. It’s a minor nuisance have to get it to get through the house and outside. The main reason I want a folding bike is I just want it. I know myself well enough to know that all the other reasons are pretty much rationalizing that. I’m trying to see how much I use what I have before I decide to get something better.

I knew I missed biking. I didn’t realize how much until I actually had one was able to go exploring the neighborhood. That though is maybe another story.

The Story of Me Getting off My Bum For a While

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Prior to COVID-19 and working from home all the time I was semi-active. If I went to the office the amount of walking between home, the train, the office and back again (along with lunch or whatever else i did) was close to my exercise and move goals on my Apple Watch. If I went to Sainsbury’s or something on the way home I would go over my goal with room to spare. That’s not to say I was extremely active. I would force myself to get up and walk around at the office when my watch beeped every hour telling me that it was time to stand up. Even then I knew I needed to do more.

Then the lockdown happened in March and I worked from home all the time. Things deteriorated from there. I bought a bike in April hoping that I would use it to ride around. I did for a while. It just was not every day. I have loved riding bikes since I was a kid and I still do enjoy it. What I keep remembering is as much as I like bike riding since i do not like riding in every weather condition it is not something I will do everyday. I am glad I got the bike. It is just not what is going to be my daily exercise.

Over the summer and early fall I cannot recall. I decided that I would go for coffee every day. I figured that would force a walk. I was actually pretty good at doing that most day’s. It would give me a lot of the exercise I needed. It just wasn’t enough. I tried to walk more however I had an issue with walking that I wont go into detail on.

I needed something more and I knew it. My sister and one of my good friends said I should buy a Peleton Bike or Treadmill. When I stopped laughing I realised they were serious. My sister and my brother in law swear by their Peleton. M and my experience with exercise equipment is they take up a lot of space. We had an elliptical machine in our apartment in New York. I do not know how many times I used it. It was probably less than two dozen in the 4 Years we owned it. We were lucky that the local fire department needed one and they came and took away for us and were happy to do it. Funny story about that was the Firemen offered to bring the kids out to the fire truck and let of them climb around it as a thanks. They showed up with a pickup for the elliptical and the firetruck with the lights on. The girls were petrified and did not go anywhere near it. I thought it was cool though.

Besides the space a bike or treadmill takes up I am not up for paying nearly £1,750 or more for a piece of equipment and then £35 a month in subscriptions for the service. I never went to a gym other than the one in my building because I didn’t want to pay money for a plan that I would not use. That is a story on its own that I may write about

In September 2020 when Apple announced their Apple One bundles and Fitness+ I thought it sounds interesting and moved on to other news. When it launched in early December there were many reviews on some of the tech sites I read. So I read one review. Then I read a few more. If the service came out a year earlier I would have totally ignored it. It is launched at probably the perfect time for me. I need something easy. I needed something with a low barrier to entry. I didn’t want to spend a ridiculous amount of money per month. Fitness+ offered all of that from me. Sidenote, a low barrier for entry I am talking about me personally. I already had an Apple Watch. I already own an Apple TV and an iPad. That means I can do the workouts with nothing more than the Apple Fitness+ service. With homepods in the house instead of echoes (i will likely write about that in another post) we switched from spotify to Apple music family plan. With our iCloud plan it was cheaper to add the top end Apple One bundle for Fitness+ than just adding Fitness+ for me. By doing this we got Arcade, TV+, News+ and M got to use the services too instead of just me. It seemed well worth the price

I signed up for the Apple One trial. With the new trial account and a yoga mat I borrowed from one of the girls I was doing a work out in the home office or living room. The girls even joined in with me. I did a yoga every day of my holiday. I turned that into doing 30 minutes of work out every day since mid December with the exception (as of this writing) for one day in January.

I am hoping this is a habit I will adopt. And setting aside 30 minutes a day and I can do the work out literally feet from my desk. The beginner courses are perfect for me. For the first week I did the 10 and 20 minute beginner course. Then I would do a 10 minute wind down that was really a lot of stretching that I needed anyway. I have since moved on to 20 and 30 minute regular yoga classes.

M is even getting in on the action. Since i got the Apple One bundle she can use it too. I have been trying to get her to use my Series III Apple Watch. I had spare since I upgraded to a series 5. It wasn’t worth selling so I kept it and was just using it at night. She wanted something for when she did bike rides. She never took it. With me trying Fitness+ she seemed eager to give it a go. At the time of this writing we are competing in a seven day activity challenge. It is too close to call so I will not trash talk.

I am hoping this is not one of those things that in a few months I will look back and go yeah that was something I did. I am hoping that the habit will take it has such a low barrier to start doing every day.

It’s Not You Fitbit, it’s Google, So I Guess it is You

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When I last wrote about my Apple Watch Series 3 I thought I solved the challenge around using the smart watch versus a regular watch. The solution was to use both. Since then I’ve continued to use the Apple Watch as just a data device on my right wrist. I wear the regular one on the other. Surprisingly not many people even notice I am doing it. After a while I got used to it and it second nature now.

When the Apple Watch Series 4 came out the upgrade didn’t seem compelling enough for me to upgrade. I was tempted with the bigger screen but not enouhg to buy a new one for that reason alone. When the series 5 came out I was intrigued. The always on face was the single biggest issue I had previously with Apple Watches. Now that I can look at it and the time is always visible without having to lift it to my wrist and wait for it to light up. The always on plus the bigger screen on the smaller model was enough to make a compelling case for an upgrade. I treated myself to the 40 mm version.

When I bought my Series 5, the plan was to sell my Series 3 on eBay. I always try to make some of my purchase price back. One of my friends at work suggested using the Series III as a sleep tracker. I have been using my Fitbit for that. Until then I was happy with that solution. Then right around the time I was thinking about the new watch Google announced they were buying Fitbit. That immediately got me wanting to find a replacement for my Fitbit. I want to minimize as much Google exposure as possible. The thought of them having my health data was not cool.

The Fitbit sale development got me wanting to try my friends suggestion about using the watch as a sleep tracker. My issue was I did not want to use the same watch I used during the day, then all night. I was afraid I would forget to charge it right before bed and again in the morning. I would need to do both in order to get a full day and night sleep out of it.

I hesistated to waste potential extra money by not selling the Series III. That was until I tried to trade it in. The research I did said if I was lucky I would get hundred pounds out of it. If I wanted the dedicated sleep tracker I probably have to spend around that amount of money anyway. I wasnt sure of a good Fitbit alternative either. I opted to keep the Apple Watch Series 3 and see if it would work as a sleep watch.

I did a bunch of research on apps for tracking sleep like the Fitbit would. It turns out there were several options. I settled on Sleepmatic. Compared to the Fitbit I’m not sure how accurate it is. Its supposed to be pretty close. From what I can tell it’s good enough for my use. I was worried the bigger watch on my wrist at night wound not be comforatable. I was also worried about turning on the screen or pressing other functions while I slept. Neither in the end was a problem. I disabled the raise to turn on function. I do not recall having any issues with pressing anything by mistake after that.

By the time I wrote this post I had been using the Series III as a sleep tracker for several months. Overall I’m generally pretty happy with the switch. I’m extremely happy that I deleted my Fitbit account as well. As a side benefit I can use the watch regularly as a silent alarm. I was able to do the same thing with Fitbit however it required going onto the app on my phone to adjust anytime I needed to. User experience on that was mixed. For that reason I did not always use it. Making changes on the Apple Watch is trivial. Now I use it all the time.

Overall I’m happy with series 5 for everyday use and my new “sleep” tracker. Lastly I will note that I offered my wife the Series 3 before I used it. She declined. I would have liked that also since if we did that we would have had push to talk option!

My Third Apple Watch

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I have previously written a lot about my experiences with the Apple Watch(s). I have had a 42mm Stainless Steal original Apple Watch. I sold that after a while.  When the Series 1 & 2’s came out I decided to give it another try. At the time I bought a Series 1 38mm. I wrote about my reasons for selling the original Series 0 and why I bought a Series 1 back in Dec 2016. I had the Series 1 for a while again and decided it still wasn’t for me as my main watch. Selling that Series 1 justified to me that I am still an old school watch person and I bought a Submariner that i was thinking about for several years.

Another year, another shinny new thing from Apple.  This time its the Series 3.  The Apple Watch Series 3 has been out for a while. I didn’t give it much notice since i was happy with my analog watches. I previously wrote about all the reasons for having a smart watch. Telling time, notifications and as an activity tracker. Both times I owned Apple Watches either failed or were simply ok in all three categories. As a watch they were too slow for me to show the time when i lifted my wrist. The notifications were ok but not earth shattering. The activity tracker was nice however I used a Fitbit for sleep so I was wearing it when i wore the Apple Watch anyway so to me i didn’t care much about the activity stuff it did.

Then a few things changed that gave me different perspective. After having my Submariner for a few months i stopped using the Fitbit every day for activity tracking. I didn’t like the Fitbit banging into my watch. For some reason with the Submariner it was much more noticeable than with my other watches. I started to use my iPhone to track activity. I carry it with me most of the day so it was pretty accurate and the reviews said the same about it. For years i have been very big on tracking data points about my activity and health.

One guy at work I noticed had an Apple Watch on one wrist and a regular watch on the other. I asked about it and he liked the activity sensors and notification however was a nice watch guy. I didn’t think wearing a watch or anything for that matter on my dominant wrist so I didn’t give it any more thought. Then a few weeks later I realized I wanted to track my heart rate. I also rethought my opinion about the phone tracking activity. Since switching to the phone to track activity I was less aware of how much i moved a day. I had the data but it was less in my face. I also was less motivated or gameified to be more active. Going back to a smart watch only was a non starter for me. I then thought about my friend who just had both. I was never one to really care about fashon or what others thought about having two watches. Especially when I wear long sleeves most of the time. The issue came down to would a watch on my dominant wrist be comfortable.

Before spending a not insignificant amount of money on a new Apple Watch I decided to wear my Fitbit for a few days on my right wrist. I wanted to get a feel for if a band on my dominant hand was uncomfortable or a distraction. Initially it was very annoying. Then after a few days it became much less so. I had a feeling about that and that’s why I tried the experiment in the first place. I contemplated just using the Fitbit on my dominant hand going forward. I decided against that since one of the main driving forces for me to buy the Apple Watch was the heartbeat monitoring. The Fitbit was pretty good for step count and sleep however fell a little short.

Those nonscientific findings I went to the Apple Store to pick up a series 3. I was originally going to get the standard sports black 38 mm. I ended up spending the extra 50 pounds and got the cellular version. My justification for the splurge was I really liked the band that came standard on the cellular sport version. Since I’ll be putting the watch on and off with my non dominant hand (the watch will be on my dominant wrist) I have trouble with regular clasps. The Velcro like sport and was nice. I know I could’ve bought one As an accessory. The reason I didn’t was that I did not need to bands and the one that came with the lower end watch I did not like. For a slight difference in price then buying the cheaper  watch and extra band I got the cellular version of the watch and the band I wanted. I’m not currently using or even signed up for cellular plan on it. I’m not even sure if I ever will. I do like options, so having the option to do it later was worth it.

As of writing this post I have had the watch for a few months now. My overall impression of it is positive. I have been using it for exactly what I bought it for. It’s doing its job perfectly fine. I do use it a little bit for notifications however not very much. As an activity tracker it is great. The motivations to get up and move around are very helpful. The semi use of notifications and the heartbeat in my mind does justify the extra cost of getting it versus Fitbit. It was more about wanting and not needing for me. I thought that having something on each wrist would look odd however I haven’t had any issues so far.

I Have Given Up (Sort of) On Activity Bands

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Ever since before I decided to lose it weight I was tracking my activity. Originally I used a Jawbone Up. I went through several versions of them and then I try to Fitbit for a while. I ended up going back to jawbone and then again back to Fitbit. For about a year I have been using a Fitbit Alta.

That was until last month I stopped using an activity tracker during the day. The annoying clanking of the band against my watch finally drove me to stop using an activity band altogether during the day. I did some basic research and I found that the accelerometer on my iPhone is relatively comparable four step count to a wristband activity tracker. The downside I read were you don’t always have your phone with you so the phone doesn’t always capture your total activity. For me I generally do carry the phone with me most of the time and the level of accuracy the phone would give me versus wristband was worth the trade-off.

Several weeks into this change my step count seems pretty consistent. I still use my Fitbit to track sleep however I stopped wearing it during the day. Generally pretty happy about that decision since having my watch and a wristband was always annoying. It was worth it when there was an alternative however now that I found a decent one I don’t see going back to wearing a dedicated wristband with the feature set that are currently offered.

Jawbone Up to Fitbit

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I’ve been using a jawbone up as my activity tracker since they became a product. I love that they were small bands that I could wear in addition to my watch that did pretty much all I needed them to. I was frustrated that the first generation recalled however pleased that that the company Jawbone was smart enough to give me a full refund. I was excited when the second generation came out and waited weeks for one to come in stock to purchase. Later I was frustrated at how often my second-generation band would break however pretty pleased that the company would continue to give me new ones. After upwards of five bands however that got old pretty quick. I have blogged in the past around my challenges with my jawbones. (http://scottodyssey.com/?s=jawbone+up&submit=Start+searching).

Even with all my problems with the UP I continue to choose it over the Fitbit Flex  as far back as late 2013. After the second generation UP, i purchased the UP24 (possibly 2 of them) I then bought an UP2 when the 24 finally died. My first UP2 started to lose its battery charge earlier this year. It also lost top paint covering on the metal that rests against my watch. It didn’t look good but it worked until the battery started dying. I then bought another one with a more rubbery strap. This weekend that latest UP2’s rubber strap ripped. I was able to wear it for a little while longer however became so frustrating to wear and looked really stupid I decided I needed to buy something else.

The challenge for me was I did not want to buy and other band from Jawbone after going through at least 10 of them in three or four years. Granted I didn’t end up paying for many of those since they were warranty replacements I did have to  pay for more than one or two of them.

For me technology purchases usually work out the best when they are well thought out. I know myself and I have specific requirements. Because of that I tried to remember why I selected the jawbone over the fit that when I owned both at the same time. I do remember that the jawbone felt like a more accurate step count. The silent alarming also felt like it was better however I know that fitbit has improved on that since I last owned one. Separate from my previous owning a Fitbit I do not like that Apple and fitbit do not work very well together. Specifically Fitbit does not talk to apples Health application. After some brief research I did find out that there is an app that will sync that data between the two devices. I also found out that both myFitnessPal, and Withings can talk to Fitbit with no problem. That will allow me to continue to use my Withings scale and myFitnesspal with a Fitbit. With all that information in mind I went out to the store to check out the new Fitbit Alta compared to the Fitbit Flex. Both appeared to be the same size however the Alta had a small display. I wasn’t fully clear if the altar had significantly improved sensors for the extra price it cost. Since I wasn’t sure I erred on the side of caution and splurged the extra money for the Alta.

Set up of the device was pretty trivial. Syncing between all the apps that I use was equally simple to do. The device feels pretty sturdy on my wrist. I’m curious how long the battery life will last. I confirmed for me the displays useless since I turned off all notifications such as text messages and phone calls. I also turned off the auto on function or whatever they call it that turns the clock on when I lift my wrist up. I have a watch I don’t need this band to act like one. I just needed to track my activity and silently alarm me to be more active. So far it’s been pretty successful at doing that.

A minor side benefit to switching to Fitbit over jawbone is apparently several people I know have Fitbit’s and I’m already in competition with several of them to keep my step count up. Several people at work have talked about doing something similar with Virgin Pluse activity trackers that our health insurance company is offering for free. I don’t like the idea providing medical and activity details to my insurance company so I opted out. This gives me the gamification of working out that I want but doesn’t share the data as much.

I’m hopeful that this was a sound purchase and it will last more than a few months.

3 Million Steps

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Today my Jawbone UP told me I had walked 3 million steps since I got my first UP. So first thanks UP for pointing that out, and second way to go me!

I do need to not there was a 10 month break on accruing steps when my first up broke and Jawbone recalled the first gen to when I got the new 2nd gen one so here is to hoping the next 3 million is achieved much sooner.

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3 Months and Counting

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Today marks 3 Months after I hit my weight loss target.   So far I not only kept the weight off I am slightly down from my target.

I am watching what I eat but generally I am not hungry and when I splurge bad I bounce back rather quickly so I am very pleased.  I have 9 months to beat the odds since apparently 80% of people who lose weight gain it back within a year.