Another wellness day. I actually had a bunch of extra things happen today that distracted me from my fitness stuff. So I missed my situps/pushups/plank/stretch for the first time (sigh).
I did get my 5 miles in this morning and choose Zen mode where I could just bike at my own pace (and of course I decided to break a 3 minute mile pace…). Grabbed my jump rope for 50 quick jumps and managed to play a little minigolf with my team at work this afternoon (much needed team building!) Tomorrow it’s back to fitness to wrap up the week. I’m confident I can end strong!!
A very busy middle of the week, but I got through all my items and it’s not even 7pm when I am writing this (versus after 10pm like usual).
I am adding in my average “per/mile” pace for the Spin Bike, as I attempt to ramp up without overdoing it. Maintaining throughout the week, and push a little harder each new week sounds like a do-able plan.
I finished my 9 day “Fitness Reset” which featured all the Supernatural coaches and a “Low” intensity. Next week I’m starting another program, ramping up to “medium” intensity. Should be interesting. Not too slow, not too fast. It’s all about finding balance.
Tuesday is always very busy. Today was no different. My theory that grabbing my 5 miles first thing in the morning proved solid today. I don’t know if I would have had time for everything I managed to do today if I hadn’t jumped on the bike before my morning coffee.
VR Mini Golf is intended to be “low intensity” but standing. That’s the whole goal. I didn’t have anyone to play golf with today, but I did download a new application called “Fly”, which has you steering a hovering platform around 3D cities. I flew around the Golden Gate Bridge, under the Eiffel Tower, and straight down 7th Avenue from Times Square to Central Park. So I consider that my “low intensity” for the day.
I’m gaining back some of the weight loss that I backtracked on over the weekend, so that’s encouraging. It is encouraging that those moments can be corrected. But I also don’t want to become a servant of the scale. Fluctuations have to be okay. Anything else is not healthy, no matter how much weight I lose. So keeping that focus, and sharing that thought here, so no one who stumbles across these words gets the wrong idea about the scale. Back to Fitness Day tomorrow. Gonna go for the Grand Sablon again! 11 miles in the Sahara Desert sounds fun!!
I spent the weekend in Nebraska and off my Noom nutrition plan (read: I ate pizza and cheeseburgers). So stepping on the scale Monday morning meant I lost all my progress from last week. But the goal today was not to punish myself. I had planned to ramp up the bike from “medium” to “hard” and I did that. But I did NOT ramp up Supernatural VR yet. I have one more day of my current “getting started” program and then I intend to go from Low to Medium intensity there too.
I continue to love the spin bike. I have been using the music of Audiomachine, which is basically “film trailer music”. It makes every bike ride feel way more epic than it actually is, and it keeps me motivated. Stuck to all my goals today. I was thankful Supernatural was a little shorter than normal. Tomorrow is a longer session, ending my current 9 day program.
Getting back on task is never easy, but pushing too hard as a punishment for slip-ups is always the wrong choice. I’m confident I will again find my groove this week, and get back to losing weight, gaining strength and feeling healthier every morning.
Week 2 had many ups and downs. But the weight loss continued, which was good. I’ve updated the “health metrics” so I can more easily see the change week to week. I will do a full 8 week analysis at the end of all this madness, but for now that will have to do.
I have been neglecting the treadmill this past week, so I hope to use VR to get me walking more. I want to improve my “inactive time” tracked by the Oura ring. Figure the treadmill will help with that hopefully.
Water consumption dropped this week, so that’s another thing to focus on. I don’t know what I would do without the Hidratespark smart water bottle. I need those visual reminders to drink!
Short post for Week 2, as I was traveling over the weekend. Week 3 didn’t start strong but hoping to turn things around now that I’m back home.
This week marked the 6 month anniversary of Mini-Mindfulness. These are 10 minute meditation sessions I do every weekday morning before my work day begins. I’ve been lucky to have a couple co-workers join me the majority of the time (and they sometimes go without me when I have a conflict), and I am so grateful!
Working as a remote worker means a lot of “working alone in your office”, but with a tool like Mini-Mindfulness, I have been able to have a consistent start to my day, which I am confident increases my productivity, while it also improves my mental health!
You don’t need a formal Meditation App (though there are a few solid choices if you are okay with solo sessions). Thinking creatively we turned a mini-golf game into an oasis for starting the day mindfully! Our favorite locations at the moment are Quixote Valley, El Dorado, and 20K Leagues Under the Sea. Give it a try!
Disclaimer: it’s worth noting that in August 2022 the makers of Walkabout Minigolf (Mighty Coconut) introduced a partnership with Lumenkind, also called “Mini-Mindfulness”. We are okay sharing the name with them. 🙂
The crazy thing about this video is that I shot it in the evening with my wife and kiddo (instead of asking my co-workers to take evening time to film with me). My wife used my avatar. My kiddo used a generic avatar (because she didn’t want to “be on camera”). Kind of wild the tools that VR gives us for producing these types of videos. The camera was just me “flying around”.
Carrier Pigeon XR 