Co-Pilot update

The first month of co-pilot (not sponsored– if you want a discount, wheezy waiter is sponsored) seems to be going fine. I’m doing exercise exercises for 15 minutes 3 days a week and stretching for 15 minutes 3 days a week and I take Sundays off.

I started out with two weeks of calisthenics because I was traveling the first week and I needed another week to get used to the new program (also my person likes doing two week sets).  These were two days of cardio and full body strength and one day that I would term “leg day.”  The first two workouts were about the right level– I was left sweaty and breathless but didn’t feel like dying.  My first time I did leg day it was too easy, I guess because my legs are in better shape (from walking) than the rest of me, so I let her know.  She calibrated a bit too much in the other direction to fix it the next week but it was still doable.  Each task is ~30 seconds (a few are longer if they’re based on number of reps, and some of my stretches are a full minute) with a 20-30 second break in between.  It keeps things interesting and doable.  (Note:  YMMV– DH does things longer for longer because he started out in better shape!)

Then I had two weeks with weights.  This time I had a full body day, an arm day, and a leg day.  These were a bit harder than the calisthenics were, but still doable.  My arms definitely felt much weaker after doing these exercises, but by the end of the two week set, the exercises had gotten easier and my arms had gotten stronger.  But it wasn’t like I was feeling stronger right away– I definitely was feeling weaker and more tired with the exercise, even on days I didn’t exercise.  I assume this is the whole muscles tearing and rebuilding thing going on.  For all of these, I would do some warmup (always including arm circles for some reason), then a set of exercises, then I would repeat that set, and then I would end with stretches.

I currently have a 4 week set going where she’s breaking up things a bit differently.  I have a day of upper body then lower body, then full body, then the next week it’s a different upper body, lower body, and full body.  These also don’t have the thing where I do a set of exercises followed by a repeat– instead it’s a longer single set in the middle of warmup and stretching.  The first arm day was a little too hard so she adjusted one of the exercises to make it doable for me.

DH’s trainer and my trainer have different personalities.  DH’s is very business-y and pushes him.  Everything is very matter-of-fact.  Mine is more chit-chatty and doesn’t want me to ever feel bad exercising.  She came late to exercising and understands that I don’t know what I’m doing.  Any pushes for me are gentle.

I have not yet gotten any magical increases to willpower.  Exercising is not a real habit yet even though it’s the first thing I do in the morning, and it does seem to take some of my willpower away from other things I would normally do in the morning.  Infinite things cannot be added to my day.  If something goes in, something else goes out.  That may change as it becomes an actual habit and I start doing it without thinking, but for now it becoming a priority has displaced other things that had been priorities.

One thing that does seem to be magically working better– she asked if I had any stretches that I wanted to do on alternating days, and I was like, what do you have for people who spend their days sitting at the computer?  And she was like, I’ve got you covered.  So now I’m doing a set of really great stretches, including this leg thing where I roll my knees to one side and then the other that “loosens my hips” — I did not know my hips were tight until said exercise.  DH also told me to suggest that she add another back exercise where you alternate toe touches while lying on your back, which she did because that’s supposed to be really good for strengthening your back for people who sit at the computer a lot.  And I do seem to be able to sit at the computer without my back hurting.  I think my posture is a little better too, though I don’t know if that’s a side effect or just coincidence.

If you’re wondering if I’ve had any weight-loss, the answer is no.  I am currently weighing more than I did any time in my life except when 9 months pregnant.  Fortunately weight-loss isn’t a very good measure of health, and as they say, muscle weighs more than fat but takes up less space.  I don’t know that I’ve done anything spectacular in the muscle area (unlike DH whose 40 min 3x/week for over a year has given him lovely definition from his shoulders to his calves), but it’s a good reminder that health and weight are not equivalent.

How’s your exercise routine going (or not going)?

Trying to become physically fit take number *mumblemumble*

It is unbearably hot this summer.  So hot that even walking across the parking lot is enervating.  Add to that the extremely high covid rates and the anti-masking feelings among my colleagues who actually go into work in the summer, I basically haven’t gone into work since getting back from Europe.  That means I haven’t been doing my daily walks around the pretty floral area with my friend.

I could, in theory, go to our HOA pool, which is outdoors, but I would have to drive *because it is so hot*, which seems silly, and we just have not done it.

If I walk around the house too much without being careful, I set off plantar fasciitis, so just idly walking while watching youtube isn’t going to work.  I can exercise bike, but I don’t keep it up.  I can calisthenics but I don’t keep it up, plus I sometimes hurt myself (ditto yoga).  And I got stuck on a squat task with the Ring Fit and just kind of gave up last summer.

So… this year I’m trying something drastic.  DH has really enjoyed co-Pilot (not sponsored), and it has made him more energetic, stronger, etc.  While it is really not my thing, I am at a stage where I need to do *something* and this is something I haven’t tried yet.

This was both kind of a spontaneous decision and the culmination of a year of pondering.  Spontaneous in that I found myself between work projects (waiting on coauthors etc.) and I suddenly had time to think about my long to-do list of neglected things, including my health, but also over the pandemic my physical health has measurably gotten worse– even my eye-sight has deteriorated!  But DH’s has gotten better, because he’s been doing these workouts with the help of co-Pilot.  This is probably not the best time since I’m recovering from Covid and I have some more work travel coming up, but if not now, then when?  I am so rarely spontaneous that I’ve learned to jump on the impulse because I almost never regret having done so.  I signed up for a full year (~$100/month with a free month from DH’s recommendation and a discount for paying for a year upfront).  We’ll see what happens.

I’ve got a different trainer from DH since his is booked. From the options they gave me, I picked one who works with people with immune disorders and meets people at their level over the one who helps people with marathon training and pushes people to strength.

I also told DH to get a new Apple watch and I would use his old one.  You don’t need an Apple watch to do co-Pilot, but it helps.  DH’s trainer does use the info it gives her to adjust his workouts.  I will not be using the Apple watch for anything but this since I prefer my decades old Casio for telling time.  #wealth  (Actually, the whole spending ~$1K/year on an online personal trainer is also kind of insane #wealth.)

I’ll let you know how it is going!

DH’s Delta Trainer/Co-Pilot Review

DH decided it was time to start working out again.  He’s done a number of different things, but they’ve all had drawbacks that keep him from continuing.  Often he’ll just get bored and stop doing it.  We’d often talked about him getting a real in-person trainer, but then the pandemic happened and an in-person personal trainer did not.

He was making noise wondering what he should try next when I watched this WheezyWaiter video:

Basically it’s a sponsored ad for an online app called Delta Trainer.  (This blogpost is not a sponsored ad– Delta Trainer has no idea who I am and I don’t want to deal with an affiliate link.  I guess you can use WheezyWaiters’ link?)

What intrigued me was that WheezyWaiter (or should I call him Craig?  I don’t think we’re on a first-name basis, so maybe not) talked about exactly the things DH was complaining about.  DH doesn’t like to have to think about what exercises to do or remember where he is in some list (like the ladders), and he doesn’t like to have to keep track of how many of something he’s doing.  Remembering and counting are boring.

So, he looked into this.  And he looked into the Peloton app that lots of women talk about a lot.  And he decided this was better for what he wanted, even though it’s a bit more expensive (~$60/month give or take).  He’s not that interested in live classes, which seems to be the main benefit of the Peloton app if you don’t have their bicycle.

On top of that, with Delta Trainer, there’s someone, an actual real person, who is expecting him to do these exercises.  She provides him feedback after each session and there’s a little back and forth.  That’s an accountability partner right there.  He says that usually with exercise, if he misses a class or stops doing regular exercise, he tends not to come back until he gets the exercise bug again months later.

When you sign up, you get a two week free trial which starts after you first meeting (facetime) with the trainer.  When you sign up, you either tell them that you have an apple watch, or they will send you a refurbished older model apple watch.  You also pick a trainer from three people that they suggest. DH took the one who was interested in health (Kris) and avoided the one who said he was all about weight-loss.  The third looked fine.  In his meeting, they talked about his goals for Delta trainer, and he said he just wanted to be healthy but wouldn’t mind a bit more muscle, but was mainly interested in cardio, flexibility, and strength combined so that he would feel well-rounded. She asked about any injuries or things he was worried about and he mentioned RSI, and that hasn’t been an issue.  (With pandemic yoga, RSI sometimes became an issue.)  He initially said he wanted to work out 5 days a week but she suggested starting at 3 and said he could add more later on.  They’re flexible on the scheduling.  Three days seems to have been the right choice to start with– initially he was kind of sore the next day, but after a few weeks that stopped and he’s no longer sore after exercising and is thinking of adding a weekend day going forward.

Every Sunday the app populates with the exercises for the entire week so he can see what days they’re on and what exercises they are, what equipment is needed, and how much weight and time and how many reps etc.  (Some things are time-based and some are repetition based).  Initially they were all calisthenics, but after he got weights, she added weights to the routine and he’s also got jump-rope exercises now.  There’s also instructions from the trainer about how to do things, why things are being done, and so on.  He can click on each exercise and it will show a little repeating video of someone doing the exercise so he knows what it is supposed to look like.  If he’s not sure, he can also talk with the trainer and she’ll send her own instruction video.  The app has a chat with video built in which is really useful.

When it’s time to do the exercises, he opens the app on his watch, taps on the workout and hits start.  On his iphone he tends to listen to audible which is fantastic because he doesn’t have to think!  Previously he’s tried watching shows while exercising but he couldn’t either exercise well or watch the show well, but audio works.  Because it’s on the phone, it quiets when the delta trainer app talks so he can hear instructions.

Then he does the workout and if it’s too hard, he modifies it himself and then at the end tells the trainer that he modified it so she can adjust the next workout accordingly.  There’s a rating page after where he can provide feedback about the specific workout and the app and can type in comments.  He usually uses the chat to talk with the trainer separately.  The app also has some other things like calories burned and his heartrate overtime and so on.  The heartrate graph also includes the exercise you were doing at each point.

He says it’s nice for him to just have someone who knows what they’re doing to talk with about these things.  He wouldn’t have bought weights and would never be doing any of the weight exercises because he’s just not familiar with them.  But after talking with the trainer and getting instructions from her, he feels comfortable with them now and it’s something he’ll be able to continue doing in the future, even though he never would have started without her.

He was also worried about overdoing certain exercises and hurting a specific part of his body, like straining his lower back, because he’s done that in the past.  But he’s actually been doing more work and harder work than he would have set for himself, but it’s been feeling good, not stressful.  His back feels healthier and stronger. The trainer really does seem to know what she’s doing.

After a month the app suggested he have a video check-in with the trainer and he hasn’t, but it is nice that they do that.

Some frustrations:  Sometimes the app doesn’t track when it should, and it will not realize he’s started or it will think he’s stopped when he hasn’t and then it will just go onto the next set.  He hates that.  Sometimes the app will tell him to go higher or lower, but he’s already as high or low as he can go.  Basically, the apple watch doesn’t always track perfectly.

Overall:  DH says he would recommend Delta Trainer.  He’s doing exercises he wouldn’t have done otherwise and he’s glad for it.  He’s kept up with it for a longer stretch than almost any other exercise stretch and he says that he just feels better.  He loves not having to think about it and how flexible it is in terms of when and where to do it. If you have an extra $60/month to spend on exercise, this seems like a good choice.

We bought exercise things!

Sadly, summer has begun in earnest and it’s regularly hitting triple digits outside.  That limits our exercise options.  DH has also been getting wrist problems along with my back problems doing online yoga, so he’s cut down substantially on that.  DC2 has been used to getting a ton of exercise at school and camp and it looks like camp won’t be happening so zie needs something to get the zoomies out now that we can’t just kick the kids out of the house at any hour.  If we sign a waiver we can use the HOA pool… but … masks don’t work in pools…

I did not think we would ever get an exercise bike, because we have real bikes and exercise bikes take space.  But DH’s SIL put one on her amazon wishlist that she’d done a lot of research on, and it seemed reasonable, so we bought one for ourselves too (amazon affiliate link).  It was around ~325 all told and is light and smallish (not small, but smaller than my parents’ old exercise bike).  We like it fine.  DC2 especially likes it.  I’ve been breaking up my walking around while I watch youtube videos with exercise biking while watching youtube videos.

Speaking of walking around, I was doing it so much that our carpet stopped being as protective as it had been and my feet started hurting so I got some house slippers with arch support from zappos (amazon affiliate link).  They’re kind of hot for summer walking, but they do help when my feet start to hurt.

DH also got a boxing game for Nintendo Switch, though he’s a bit squicked out by the sexualization of the female characters in it (you can buy them skimpy clothing as rewards, for example).  He says it’s a work out.

AND, Ring Fit, which is the whole reason DH bought a Switch to begin with before the Pandemic, finally became available locally (~$80, as opposed to the $250 resellers were selling it for).  DH put on a mask and high-tailed it to the Target the next town over (our Target was already sold out!) where they took one out of the back for him since they hadn’t had time to stock the shelves from that morning’s shipment yet.  Ring Fit comes with a ring that you push and pull on to provide arm exercises, and a thing for your leg to attach the other controller.  You run and push and pull etc. to move your avatar forward in a video game and collect coins and fight enemies.  It is definitely fun and it’s a workout for all of us (set at different levels– mine is set one lower than the kids who are set one lower than DH :/ ), though it is very good at reminding me how terrible my coordination is compared to normal people (just like DDR used to back in the day).

One of my friends bought a stroller for her cat(!)

Have you discovered any new exercise things since summer started?

Exercise?

So… I haven’t been getting my 6 hours/week of walking around the class plus 20-30 min/weekday of walking around the pretty landscaped area near my office.  The first week I did a lot of string playing with Nice Kitty and walked around the back porch reading, but it’s not really the same.

We’ve been tossing the kids out for bikerides (with instructions not to stop at the playground), but currently only have 2 adult-sized bikes (we were waiting for DC1 to stop being in a growth spurt before getting hir a more permanent bike, and then we forgot about it because zie has been using mine) and I really hate biking in the streets (the norm in our neighborhood is that kids bike on the sidewalks, but adults bike in the streets).

DH says we should walk around the neighborhood but… there are a lot of people walking around the neighborhood which makes it harder to social distance than usual.  Also it’s been raining a lot.

My sister, ever helpful, has been sending me links to things because she always thinks I should exercise/etc. more.  Here’s a meditation app she recommends.  Here’s more meditations.  Free workout classes.  30 days of yoga with Adreine.

My students got to rent exercise equipment for free from the (now temporarily closed) Orange Theory they would usually go to work out in.  It’s probably too late for us to buy a decent treadmill (or exercise bike etc.) and I’m not sure where we’d put one anyway.

After some discussion, DH and I have decided that we’re going to do something new each week of the quarantine to keep things interesting.  But we’re trying to decide what.   This week we’re doing the fitness ladder.

What are you doing to get exercise from home?  Do you have any suggestions?

 

February Challenge Fitness ladder update

Recall this February challenge I did the calisthenics Fitness Ladder.

I got up to Rung 4 and was on the cusp of Rung 5.  The sticking points are push-ups (my arms have gotten weak) and, oddly, running in place.  I keep getting lactic acid build-up.  DH tells me that as my circulation gets better the lactic acid build-up will gradually become less of a problem.  The fact that I have this as a problem makes me concerned about my lack of circulation!

My progress wasn’t as impressive as when I did the 7 min workout (for example, I can barely do 5 pushups, but I ended that challenge with 9).  I don’t know if that’s because I’m 4 years older and in worse shape, or if it’s just not as intense a workout.  However, I did not hate this workout.  I kind of like it (except the lactic acid part), and DC2 and DH are also into it.

Of course, on March 1st when the challenge was over, I was like, I don’t *really* need to do this, so I didn’t.  And March 2nd I completely forgot until after I’d showered and was already in bed.  If it had been February I’d have gotten out of bed and done it, as happened a few times, but since the challenge was over I felt I didn’t need to.  I have no willpower.  March 3rd I decided to do it in the morning.  I kind of felt like doing sit-ups which is the first time I can say that in 4 decades, give or take.

I think the big thing for me if I want to keep up with this is to have some sort of regular time and reminder for me to actually do it.  Mornings would make sense except that I am barely making it to my 8am classes this semester.  There’s just too much packed in the mornings already (and I don’t shower in the morning like DH does, so if I get to the point of sweating stinkily I’ll have to add a second shower to the day).  Right before bedtime is what I’d been doing because that’s when I would remember, but now that there’s no challenge going on, that’s not a great idea because I have no willpower before bed.  Though I suppose it could be fit in before the shower in theory.  I also don’t know if I have willpower to do it right after work– usually at that point in time I’m trying to get dinner ready.

I’m still doing a walk every day at work– generally sometime between 10:30am and 1:30pm.  That happens because I have a motivated colleague who also needs an exercise and gossip/work break in the middle of the day.  It’s also a good vit D pick-up for me since I’ve given up on trying to stagger my pills (I generally forgot the second one and it would take a couple hours to realize why I’d been so tired) and just take both of them after I brush my teeth in the morning.

It may be that I need to set a timer for calisthenics for sometime in the evening.  It helps if DH is doing it at the same time too.  I don’t know if he’ll be going back to doing it in the morning though.  I also think I should add some stretches because the ones in the workout are kind of silly… or at least seem silly to me because they’re not stretching the muscles that my American education has taught me should be stretched.

For any of the self-care things I need to do every day, showering, teeth brushing, etc. it’s important that I have a regular process for each– finishing showering means it’s time for teeth, and so on.  For things I really don’t want to do, it’s extremely helpful to have someone else there to nudge it along.  Though I can’t use another person as a crutch or excuse– I just need to be grateful for being included.

How do you get yourself to do self-care things regularly? 

RBOC

• DC1’s algebra teacher quit to join administration a couple of weeks after the second semester started (after a week long absence).  I guess we’ll have to keep a closer eye on the rest of the semester since algebra is so fundamental and I’m pretty sure zie doesn’t now how to factor polynomials even if zie does know how to multiply them.
• Super bummed that Teen Vogue is no longer doing a print edition.  The last few issues were AMAZING, including one guest edited by HRC.  Irritatingly, they switched DC1’s subscription over to Allure magazine “the magazine for people who care about beauty” or something like that.  Full of “beauty tips.”  This month’s issue was on nudity and had a nearly naked airbrushed stereotypical model on the cover.  Completely not appropriate for an 11 year old or really anybody.  And very different from a magazine that features people like Malala Yousafzi on the cover.  I will be getting a check for $2 in the mail for my cancellation– Teen Vogue should have been charging more.  It’s a different market and was worth much more than the ridiculous $10 for 2 years or whatever it was I paid.
• Forgive me, for I have referred to a paper about fertility as “seminal” in published work.  Next up:  referring to a paper about religion as “canonical”.  And a paper about building cities as, “ground-breaking” (or should I save that one for agriculture?).
• it is weird to me that my kids have had macarons before having had macaroons.
• DC2 has moved onto chapter books at school.  Zie is in love with the Geronimo Stilton that DC1 read maybe once or twice.  They have such different taste in books.  Really the only commonality is that they both love Jim Benton, author of Franny K Stein and Dear Dumb Diary.  I so wish we had Scholastic so I could indulge in buying sets of series we don’t have (like Thea Stilton!)
• Preserved walnuts are really good.  If you ever get the opportunity to try/buy them, take it!
• My cholesterol is fine this year (whew!), so maybe all that additional lunchtime walking did some good!  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have helped with my vitamin D levels (which may explain the fatigue I’ve been having), so my doctor wants me to go from 2000 iu to 5000 iu.  I’m going to compromise and do 4000 iu because that means I can have a 2000 iu when I brush my teeth and keep another bottle of 2000 iu in my office when I get my mid-day slump.
• It isn’t a bargain if you can’t afford it.
• We owed an additional $2846 in taxes this year, not counting the estimated taxes for this next year.  [Update:  We forgot a whole ton of donations– didn’t go through the school email folder or the check register, so it’s actually $100 less than that.  With the additional donations, we’re just a little over the standard deduction.  Also turns out there’s no point for us to declare a home office since we don’t get anywhere near the minimum for it to count for us– We make too much and our house is too big and too cheap.]
• DC2’s school was having a performance for parents/relatives and one of their dances had them shooting with finger guns.  This disturbed DC2 enormously given that they started practicing right after the FL school shooting.  Thankfully someone decided to change that number to something in less bad taste.

Ask the grumpies: non-team sports for kids

Sandy L asks:

What non team sports do you think are useful to learn for a kid (swimming, biking, etc)

Well, as you say, swimming is a big one here– that could save a life.  Biking is also useful… biking is a great form of transportation.  I’d never really thought of the option of not learning how to ride a bike, though to be honest, I didn’t learn until I was 7 and we moved out of a city and had a place to practice.

In terms of “etc”… I am honestly not thinking of any.  There probably are things that would be useful like, say, martial arts, but we’re not having our kids do them.  My sister would argue in favor of dance because of strength and balance and stuff.  Others could make that argument with gymnastics.

Grumpy Nation, what non-team sports do you think are useful to learn?

What kinds of exercise do people like?

#2 is going through a lot of situational depression right now (bad things keep happening, starting with her FIL’s death several months ago).  Back when she lived in a hellhole, one of the things that kept her sane (along with increased meds) was weekly horseback riding.  In graduate school, it was fencing.

Horseback riding is too expensive and doesn’t work with her work schedule now that she has a day job.  She had to fire her fencing master when she found out he voted for Trump and the other fencing options are too far away.

Paradise has every single kind of exercise in the world, but you have to know what you’re looking for to find it.  She hates sweating.  She hates exercise.  But she’s thinking about maybe looking into something else even though she hates exercise and she hates sweat (so do I!).   So I said I’d ask Grumpy Nation what’s out there.

So, don’t tell her what she should do or what she should try.  Yes, she knows that John Green started liking exercise after doing it a few months in a row (we’re both watching 100 days).  Don’t lecture her about exercise etc.  That’s not going to help.  [update:  And will be deleted.]

Instead, answer these:  What kinds of exercise do you enjoy or did you used to enjoy?  What kinds of exercise do you know that other people enjoy?  What kind of exercise would you like to try?  What’s out there?

For me, I like swimming and hiking.  I used to like field hockey and gymnastics.  My sister is into ballet and yoga and modern dance.  My mom loves kickboxing.  DH used to do fencing and kendo.  How about you?

How many steps: February challenge update

I spent the week trying to do better about carrying my phone so I’d have a baseline step information.  This was complicated by two factors:

1. Not all of my pants pockets are cell-phone compatible.
2. At the end of the day I need to plug my phone in so it can eat yummy electricity (I usually do this as soon as I get home so I don’t forget).

Add to that that my DH and I did the exact same hike on Saturday but somehow he ended up walking considerably “longer” in miles according to his phone than I did in addition to taking “more” steps even though I’m much shorter (probably because his was in his pants pocket and mine varied between my jacket and a bag used to carry jackets), and I’m fairly sure that the actual number of steps is incorrect.

However, incorrect they may be, so long as they’re consistently incorrect that’s a reasonable baseline.

Here’s what we’ve got:

Jan 25: 1761
Jan 26: 2127
Jan 27: 1519 (incompatible pants day)
Jan 28: 2134
Jan 29: 2362
Jan 30: 10862
Jan 31: 6430

So that tells me that I can get 2000 steps per day pretty easily.  Here’s my plan for the month (minimums):

Week 1: 2500 steps/day
Week 2: 3000 steps/day
Week 3: 3500 steps/day
Week 4: 4000 steps/day

I know it seems pretty modest, but it did take a 2 hour hike plus grocery shopping and walking to the library to get that 10,862 step number and I have some deadlines this month so two hours+ of exercise each day just isn’t feasible.  Plus I don’t wear the phone all day, though I bet by week 4 I’ll be better about remembering it during the day even if I still plug it in when getting home at night.

I will allow myself to take a break if I am genuinely sick (not the irritating cold I’m nursing). If I break my leg or something I’ll find an alternative exercise.

Wish me luck and a lack of broken limbs!