Football Epilogue

I'm over 1/4th done with my time in work limbo and thought it would be a good time to check on and tweak the self-imposed "Honey-do" list from last time. Two days ago was more of an "action day" with plenty of time spent in the yard. Yesterday was more of an "out and about" day with a couple of appointments and a "farewell" happy hour to cap off the evening.  I think the biggest thing so far was getting my garden areas tilled and planted. First was my little flower display at the end of the driveway. Here I put the geraniums from my son's football fundraiser as well as a couple perennials. This year I added some lily to the middle and hope it comes out well and not too crowded. The next was the vegetable space up closer to the house. I planted a mix of seeds, home starts and store bought starts this year. It's definitely not much to look at yet, so I overlaid the planting map; partially for my own reference. I'd like to get more o...

Image by Pexels from Pixabay Friday May 27, 2022. My last day of work for the company I've been with for over 13 years. By most accounts, I should be still heading into the office today. After some toying with the idea of making a job change over much of the pandemic, I had decided to be content. The work was challenging and there were new opportunities to advance the state-of-the-art (in magnetic sensing) for some potentially big customers falling into place. Despite the usual grumbles that come with any workplace, I was happy-ish.  Enter the cliche irony of opportunity presenting itself when not looking. One of my colleagues, and former customers, had moved from his previous company to a much larger entity. As fate would have it, his division was spun off into a private company via a merger. The spin-off was to create investor opportunity for a now hot technology: Quantum computing. The company, Quantinuum, is poised to grow fast and their hardware development side was in need o...

Image by Jeon Sang-O from Pixabay Spring is officially here! The vernal equinox was this past week and now we have more daylight than night. It is amazing how fast the days have become long, extending natural light well into the evening hours. One of my favorite things about Minnesota are the long summer evenings with light on the horizon until nearly 10 pm Naturally, the season change, here in Minnesota, was greeted with sub-freezing temperatures. It is also quite blustery out with a stiff north wind with what is perhaps winter's last hurrah. However, it is more likely the penultimate or antepenultimate hurrah. Snow in May has happened in recent memory.  With the weather fluctuating between nice and friggin' freezin' we dance between getting outdoors and hunkering down. The earlier week witnessed temperatures in the 60s F. Comfortable enough for a jog around my favorite little lake (sub-20 minutes for two miles!) in shorts and a light jacket. It was a little cooler a coup...

The first lift up. This is going to be a quick one. I took my kids skiing in Montana a little over a week ago. It was a fun trip. The snow was great (at least for a Minnesota skier) and we left the rockies on Sunday sore, but ready for our next outing.  As with my recent flurry of trips, it's a good opportunity to reflect on the food and activity choices. So here's another report card: Item Score (1 to 4 with 4 = best) Notes Water Intake 2 I made sure to drink morning and evening glasses of water. I also bought a case of sparkling water. Intake in normal conditions was likely adequate, but the activity, high altitude and dry air had me feeling dehydrated. Alcohol Consumption 3 This was limited to beers at dinner.  Steps/Activity 4 Two full days of skiing and a decent chunk of time wandering mammoth hot springs. This was well covered Positive Attitude 4 Hell yeah! ...

I've been using this blog to keep on with my fitness journey quite a bit. I've been writing less frequently as habits are being instilled. Still, it's good to check up and it might be getting time to pivot on to other things that this journey is enabling.  First off, a quick check in though. Since the holidays, I've been maintaining my weight fairly well. The added level of consciousness from daily weigh-ins along with having some good baseline habits is making this task easier. In rambling on with a friend this week, as well as some past discussions with others, being able to maintain in challenging times like winter is a victory in and of itself. I'll take it. When the weather warms and heading outside becomes more comfortable, work can continue on the "next level" goals. That's not to say I can't and shouldn't take advantage of some extra walking or cardio time when I can. Nor does it mean I shouldn't keep working on better eating habits...

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay While I love the song, I have to admit that getting the daily 10k steps leaves much to be desired in winter walking. Before delving into my recent walking challenges, I do have to make a very real brag. With the help of Noom, and may some luck, I was able to maintain my weight through the holidays! I consider this a sizeable victory, as it is tough for anyone to do.  That said, the colder winter weather and Covid weariness has made for some challenges to the habits that ran smoothly in fairer weather; particularly for getting in those precious steps not to mention my overall activity level.  I was fairly gung-ho at the start of the cold. My smart goal of at least 5,000 steps during the workday and filling in the rest at the gym in the evening was working well.  Then the real cold came along with the snow and ice. In one particular moment of feeling invincible, I went out for a walk and within 500 steps had a nice slip and bruise on the...

Image by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay And just like that, Thanksgiving 2021 is a shrinking speck in the rear-view mirror. I'm grateful for having written my previous post as it helped keep me mindful during the feast. Still, there was a mix of good things and areas of improvement. Thus, similar to my travel report card , I came up with one for social/holiday eating scenarios (again I used this handy table generator website ) so here we go: Item Score (1 to 4 with 4 = best) Notes Water Intake 4 I conscientiously chose water throughout the celebration Alcohol Consumption 4 No alcoholic beverages were consumed Appetizer Grazing 3 I started strong, but found myself making a couple more passes than necessary once the desserts came out Meal/plate 2 Considering it was Thanksgiving, I think I did okay. I took modest portions of most foods, but did go back for some seconds on the ...