Weight A Minute!

I’ve been monitoring my weight – albeit somewhat loosely at times – with Garmin Connect since 26 August 2011 (apparently) when my weight was 93.3kg (14st 10lbs) and I was starting out on my fitness journey.

After getting off to a good start thanks to running and then adding some cycling, my weight fell to 85.1kg (13st 6lbs) by the end of January 2012, but began to rise gradually into 2014, falling back again in 2015 with a low of 84.1kg (14st 3lbs) before we went off to Hong Kong, Vietnam and Ko Samui. 2015 was also when we ran the Berlin Marathon.

My weight then gradually rose – with a big dip in the summer of 2018 for our wedding – until late June 2019 when it hit 95.4kg (15st). And then the crash happened… A month laying in bed eating pureed food meant that my leg muscles atrophied so by the time I weighed myself in August 2019, my weight had fallen to 85.8kg (13st 7lbs).

Bride & Groom
Bride & Groom

The aftermath of the crash affecting my mobility and exercise capability coupled with our love of eating well and lots of travel – for work and pleasure – meant that one more my weight gradually increased, peaking at 99.3kg (15st 9lbs) in October 2021.

It stayed pretty constant after that until last summer when my knee was becoming particular painful with the necrosis that had been diagnosed back in 2012.  That had affected my ability to run, so I saw my consultant privately again and he encouraged me to do more cycling (also referring me to a sports physiotherapist who’s excellent) and to lose some weight, possibly trying some fasting or kept dieting. That led to the purchase of a fixed cycle and that explains the manic cycling, both indoor and in the real world since.

So since August 2022’s high of 98.2kg (15st 6lb), trying to limit my carbohydrates and this exercise (with some riding challenges to keep things interesting), I today hit 85.3kg (13st 6lbs), so that’s two stones lost since August and my second target of 85kg in sight (about 1lb to go).  Once I hit that, the next target is likely to be 80kg, or roughly 12½ stone.

January 2023 Stats

Another month flies by! We’ve spent all of January 2023 out in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, which means that all my exercise has been outdoor. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the weather has actually felt really wintry – for Fuerteventura, anyway! – with strong winds, cloudy conditions and the occasional bit of rain, even!

On the days it’s been too windy to cycle, I’ve tried to walk. So here are the stats from Garmin Connect:

January 2023 Stats

January 2023 Stats

Activities: 33; Distance: 346.85 km; Time: 22:41:46; Calories: 15,798.

As for my weight, this morning it’s 87.5kg after a really bad weekend for eating out (and drinking) but at least it’s still down by 0.8kg from the end of December when my weight was 88.3kg.

Here’s a little video of today’s ride. I’m actually wearing a new cycle helmet after I got stopped yesterday by the Guardia Civil for not wearing a helmet on rural roads:

December 2022 Stats and 2022 Summary

Well most of December 2022 was spent on the Schwinn doing FulGaz challenges but we flew out to Fuerteventura at oh-dark-hundred hours yesterday and today I finished off the year with a real-life 15km road ride on the MTB. So here’s December’s stats showing the 650km overall distance:

December 2022 Stats

December 2022 Stats

That means that 2022’s stats overall are:

Activities: 306; Distance: 2,960.23 km; Time: 194:39:42; Calories: 122,924.

As for my weight, well it’s too late to measure like for like today because I’ve had coffee, freshly-squeezed orange juice and croissants out in the garden this morning, but yesterday’s weight was 88.3kg.  That’s down by 9.6kg (21.2lbs or 1½ stone) from New Year’s Day 2022 when my weight was 97.9kg. That’ll do, pig!

November 2022 Stats

Well thanks to that utter shitshow that is Brexit, we had to fly back to the UK mid-November so as not to outstay our welcome in the EU.

This meant that there was a switch from the longer real-world rides I was doing on a relatively heavy mountain bike back to indoor cycling on the Schwinn, so it was back to using FulGaz again.  I’ve mentioned I decided – very rashly – to do their “LEJOG Challenge“, so the mileage (and time in our gym) has risen a tad…

This month’s total therefore is up to 554.59km.

My weight at the start of the month was 91kg and at the end it had surpassed my first goal and stood at 88.9kg.  This is down from 98.2kg as recently as mid-August (1 stone 4lbs weight loss).

FulGaz LEJOG Stage 1: Lands End to St. Ives

As I mentioned in this post, I’m doing the Land’s End to John O’Groats challenge on FulGaz and this was the first day and first stage:

One small problem: although the 20-stage challenge runs until February 2023, I won’t be near the Schwinn to ride it after Christmas as I’ll be back out in Fuerteventura then. Ah… Looks like it’s going to be a tad intense.

October 2022 Stats

We flew out to our place in Fuerteventura again on Saturday 1st October and after the weekend I started back with the real-world cycling on the Monday, having decided to up the ante a tad with my distances and to make sure I was following my consultant’s orders to do at least 30 minutes a day.

I’m still pleased with the result: 331.33km this month (including walking).

October 2022 Stats

In other news, we’ve gone a bit keto with our diets and the results are promising: I weighed 93.3kg on the Garmin Index S2 scales we have here at the start of the month and today I weigh 91kg (up 0.5kg from yesterday morning, which was a new low since the crash and muscle-wasting in July 2019).

First ‘Run’ in 5½ Months

This morning I went for my first attempt at running since last October.

My Garmin f?nix 7S records or interpolates from the stride data/cadence when you’re running and when you’re walking which is useful.

In other blog news, I’ve long been sharing my Garmin Connect activities with Strava, so in the absence of ‘proper’ integration with Garmin Connect, I’ve added Strava’s activities list over there in the margin and a separate page up there at the top.

Garmin f?nix 7S

I’ve been using a Garmin f?nix 3 Sapphire for quite a while now; it’s a big, chunky lump of a fitness watch but then it is feature-packed and suitable for many forms of exercise.  I also have an Apple Watch Series 4 which works really well, but doesn’t measure blood oxygen levels like my wife’s latest one does.

I pair it with a heart rate monitor that clips to a strap you wear around your chest and then shower and dry it after exercising. We bought my wife a Garmin Forerunner 735XT a few years back and that has heart rate measuring built in (like the Apple Watch).

Now that we’re splitting our time between the UK and Fuerteventura I’m having to cart the Garmin back and forth, so I decided to leave it there where I work out more and use the Apple Watch in the UK. That’s not perfect because I then have to manually add each one to Garmin Connect.

So for my 60th birthday, Alison has bought me the new Garmin f?nix 7S, choosing the smaller S model so it’s not as chunky and large, especially as it encourages you to wear it 24/7 to monitor heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep tracking, etc.  It’s early days yet but the results are fascinating. I expect over the next few weeks it should get to know me properly and calibrate all its reports around me.

Garmin f?nix 7S

Daios Cove Treadmill

Three weeks after surgery on my pelvis for the removal of my metalwork and pins and six months after my last attempt at running, I was never going to set any records…