Thursday, January 5, 2017

EXERCISE IS 1 STEP FORWARD

As I have tried to remind myself often, the secret to weight loss is alleged to be diet and exercise. Less food in the diet combined with more time with exercise. Although I have falling short in the diet part of the equation lately, I had remained steadfast in my adherence to daily exercise. And then I skipped two days in a row on Monday and Tuesday. My fitbit step counter showed a grand total of 3842 steps on Tuesday. That anemic number is hard to achieve. Assuming that one can move about and find the refrigerator or bathroom a few times over the course of a day, it is truly hard to accumulate such a small number of steps. I did much better yesterday. My eating improved. My exercise recovered. Although it was 17°F when I set out for my urban hike with the idea of logging 10 miles, its as not until that I had logged 20 miles that I finished. My daughter who knows that I will never say 'no' to a request to 'take a walk' asked to walk to the store once I returned home from my twenty mile jaunt. By this time at night the temperature had fallen to about 14°F and we managed a late evening 3 mile hike. Sure, my legs felt like jelly at the end of the day. The feeling of accomplishment, no matter how dubious, is a good feeling indeed. I am on my way back from my short-lived despair. Exercise is 1 step forward...BUT a poor diet is 2 steps Back! If you are going to be eating poorly, you better at least be exercising. Everyone knows what to do. It's the 'doing' part that is so challenging.

This is what a 20 Mile Urban hike in Chicago looks like.

Your Food Diary For:

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Kirkland - Pre-Cooked Bacon	200	0	15	15	875	0
Quaker - Grits - Instant - Original	600	132	0	12	1,860	0
	800	132	15	27	2,735	0
L U N C H
Medium - Anjou Pear, 2 pear	200	50	0	2	0	34
Kind - Blueberry Vanilla and Cashew Bar, 2	380	46	20	8	50	22
Sushi Spicy Shrimp With Brown Rice	400	46	18	19	640	6
	980	142	38	29	690	62
D I N N E R
Cream corn	120	28	0	0	0	0
Turkey Bolognese	300	15	15	23	1,550	8
Polish Kielbasa Smoked Sausage	400	5	35	16	1,342	2
	820	48	50	39	2,892	10
S N A C K S
Vita Coco - Pure Coconut Water, 32 oz	180	44	0	0	300	44
	180	44	0	0	300	44

Totals	2,780	366	103	95	6,617	116
Your Daily Goal	5,972	746	199	299	2,300	224
Remaining	3,192	380	96	204	-4,317	108
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 4,042 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today... You'd weigh 188 lbs in 5 weeks

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Twenty Mile Urban Hike	289	3,571
Three Mile Urban Hike	50	471


Daily Total / Goal	339 / 30	4,042 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	340 / 210	4,092 / 4,130

Don't let the sunny blue skies fool you. It was bitter cold in Chicago on Wednesday.

That is not a flying saucer behind me. It is the Adler Planetarium.

It's not everyday that I go outside wearing two hats. Yesterday I wore my balaclava under my ski cap.

Monday, December 12, 2016

IT'S COLD OUTSIDE

It is not much of a breaking news story that during winter it is cold in Chicago. Although with the arrival of the so-called polar vortex, it will be extra cold this week.

Coldness is course relative. For example, after a few days of sub-freezing weather, a day where the mercury rises to 40°F can feel warm. Here is the ten-day forecast for Chicago.

I thought that we were due for some unbearably cold weather, until I checked out the weather forecast for Yakutsk, Russia. Now that is some cold weather! Perhaps I will temper (no pun intended) my complaining about the falling temperatures. During the next ten days in Yakutsk, Russia the warmest temperature that they can expect to experience will be -22°F sometime on Tuesday. That 'heatwave' will be short-lived as the temperatures will plunge to -43°F one week from Wednesday. During this same period, the coldest it is forecast in Chicago is -2°F. So what, really, do we have to complain about! By the way, Yakutsk is a very real city with a population that exceeds a quarter of a million people.

Your Food Diary For:

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Butter Flavored Grits	600	126	6	12	2,040	6
	600	126	6	12	2,040	6
L U N C H
Tostitos - White Corn Tortilla Chips	200	24	9	3	166	0
Taco Bell - Hard Shell Taco	850	60	50	40	1,550	5
	1,050	84	59	43	1,716	5
D I N N E R
Spaghetti With Meat Balls	800	0	24	0	1,149	0
	800	0	24	0	1,149	0
S N A C K S
Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chips Cookies	480	66	24	3	330	33
DARK COCOA MELTING WAFERS	400	44	24	5	82	38
	880	110	48	8	412	71

Totals	3,330	320	137	63	5,317	82
Your Daily Goal	3,987	498	133	200	2,300	149
Remaining	657	178	-4	137	-3,017	67
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 2,057 extra calories from exercise today

Your Exercise Diary for:

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Elliptical Trainer	99	1,032
Elliptical Trainer	99	1,025


Daily Total / Goal	198 / 30	2,057 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	1306 / 210	12,861 / 4,130

Yakutsk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Yakutsk (Russian: Якутск; IPA: [jɪˈkutsk]; Yakut: Дьокуускай, Jokūskai, pronounced [ɟokuːskaj]) is the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located about 450 kilometers (280 mi) south of the Arctic Circle. Population: 269,601 (2010 Census); 210,642 (2002 Census); 186,626 (1989 Census).

Yakutsk is a major port on the Lena River. It is served by the Yakutsk Airport as well as the smaller Magan Airport. It is a major supplier of diamonds. Its population is almost 300,000 and its average winter temperature is −34 °C (−30 °F), which makes Yakutsk the coldest city of its size or greater in the world.

Climate

With an extreme subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfd), Yakutsk has the coldest winter temperatures for any city. Average monthly temperatures range from +19.5 °C (67.1 °F) in July to −38.6 °C (−37.5 °F) in January, and only Norilsk has a lower mean annual temperature for any settlement of over 100,000. Yakutsk is the biggest city built on continuous permafrost, and most houses there are built on concrete piles.

The coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast of Yakutsk, making it the coldest inhabited place on earth. Although winters are extremely cold and long – Yakutsk has never reported a temperature above freezing between 10 November and 14 March inclusive – summers are warm (though rather short), with daily maximum temperatures occasionally exceeding +30 °C (86 °F), making the seasonal temperature differences for the region the greatest in the world. The lowest temperature recorded in Yakutsk was −64.4 °C (−83.9 °F) on 5 February 1891 and the highest temperatures +38.4 °C (101.1 °F) on 17 July 2011 and +38.3 °C (100.9 °F) on 15 July 1943. The hottest month in records going back to 1834 has been July 1894 with a mean of +23.2 °C (73.8 °F)^[14] and the coldest January 1900 which averaged −51.2 °C (−60.2 °F).