January challenge log

I did get my first proper (though short) walk in yesterday.

I was hoping to do another one today, but events are conspiring against that. Firstly, the temp is dropping rapidly, and it'll be quite cold and windy by this afternoon.

Secondly, I got called overnight for work and was up half the night for that...which meant I unintentionally slept in, so when I woke up and saw it was 10 in the 🤬 AM (!), I started scrambling at breakneck speed to get cleaned up and breakfast made, and now I'm sitting here feeling like I've just sprinted a marathon...and I really need to make bread today...and figure out supper...and get to the grocery for that...I'm exhausted!
 
I thought you liked it cold. :happy:
It's less the cold and more the amount of things I have to do today. Being up half the night is just really hard on my whole system, and I have a lot to do today, and I'm not sure if I can be done before the sun goes down, and by then, I've got to be making supper.

I'm just incredibly overwhelmed today. One of those days where I just wish the house would explode...with me in it.
 
Short morning walk with hubby before he starts work. Currently it's not too warm at 7am to worry about climbing a hill. Much passed 8:30am is another matter though! It's already 23°C and the UV has already reached 6
(The Australian scale goes to 15. The UK scale is the same scale but stops at 8 because that's the highest the UK reaches.)

2.50km and 79m climb.

Since the New Year I've done

DateDistanceElevation
1st Jan1st walk1.92km26m
1st Jan2nd walk2.12km42m
3rd Janhike7.47km272m
5th JanHike8.17km87m
7th Jan1st hike2.78km135m
7th2nd hike3.24km81m
10th Jan1st2.50km79m
Total28.20km723m
 
Not that I'd planned it but today I had quite a work out.

Last night one of the gate light bulbs expired.

This morning I first had to walk to the gate to determine whether I needed a pair of pliers or a screwdriver to remove the globe. It was a screwdriver but I went back and go both just in case. The screws wouldn't turn. I returned to the house for the WD40 and applied that to the screws. Then returned to the house and had a rest until the oil took effect.

After about 10 minutes I managed to unscrew the screws to permit the globe to be removed. I took the globe back to the house to be cleaned/washed. I then removed the bulb to check whether we had a suitable replacement (daylight, cool daylight, warm daylight, etc.*). We had so I returned to obtain it, back to the gate to fit it and thereafter returned to the house to turn on the switch to ensure the bulb worked which I could only see if I returned to the gate. Then I returned to the house to collect the cleaned globe and then fitted same. Then returned the pliers, screwdriver and WD40 to the house.

Given that the house to the gate is around 35 metres that constitutes a total of 700 metres of exercise before I even got around to my normal daily chores.

[Edit - * the color temperature of the bulb had to match the other one. These are both cool daylight.]

79100

 
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I've got 3 lunchtime walks to report.
Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday... bins and letterbox run.. 0.54km each time.

Otherwise, until we've got our covid PCR tests back, we have to remain in the house & 'backyard'. What constitutes a backyard on an atypical farm (Aussie farms are totally different from UK farms) is anyone's guess, but the walk to the top of the hill is unfair on our landlord & lady and the farm workers until we know our results. There are a couple of gates that are currently closed to keep the sheep down in the bottom fields and there is a lot of activity on the farm yesterday & today, so waking up the track through the 'farm yard' isn't really on. If the gates were open and we knew that no-one was going to be around, then with the UV hitting 12 or 13 at present (remember the UK scale stops at 8 on the same scale) then I'd risk it but the gates are not open and others are around... So we're limited to walking to the letterbox once a day.

If I feel better tomorrow, I might just use the treadmill or exercise bike but I'm exhausted at present.
 
I am doing a writing challenge on another (non-food) site. So far I'm up to the writing I've set myself. Should be at 31K words at the end of the month. Aim is to average at 1000 words per day.

I want to do a walking challenge, but I ain't walking on the residues of ice storms more than is absolutely necessary to take care of my chickens. We also have a big snowstorm aiming its eye to arrive this coming Monday - predicted 9-14 inches. Not walking in that, either.

I do like walking challenges - they just don't happen for me here in January.
 
I don't have things like specific challenges listed, but when it rolls over to the new year, all the incentives my health insurance pays money into my health savings account reset to zero and I can start those again.

A major one is daily walking, through step counting. If I walk 5,000 steps, I get a couple of bucks dumped into my account, if I walk 7,000 steps, a bit more, and it maxes out at 10,000 steps, for the most money.

It takes them a few days to get everything zero'd out and set up for 2022, but once they do, I participate in that. I earned $800 last year, through walking, getting my vaccines and flu shot, and other healthy behaviors.
Curious about step counting - Those Fitbit things measure your arm movements. If you are moving stuff around and want to count steps - say, hauling chicken feed down to the coops - one's arms aren't moving. Little will be counted. Or, if you just move your arms around a lot while being mostly inactive - that counts as steps.

When I CAN walk for a distance again - I'm going to go by distance, not steps. Or have these devices decided to take such above vagaries into account??
 
Curious about step counting - Those Fitbit things measure your arm movements. If you are moving stuff around and want to count steps - say, hauling chicken feed down to the coops - one's arms aren't moving. Little will be counted. Or, if you just move your arms around a lot while being mostly inactive - that counts as steps.

When I CAN walk for a distance again - I'm going to go by distance, not steps. Or have these devices decided to take such above vagaries into account??
I think they take it into account. My phone (that's what I use to track steps) is either in my hand, a shirt pocket, or my back pocket, and it seems to count about the same regardless.
 
Lullabelle I have finally started exercising again, now that covid is behind me. Yesterday I did 30 mins on the Peleton which works out to 9.3 miles and approximately 500 calories according to the app.

Well done! But the cals seems high to me. Depends how vigorously you cycle and maybe you cycle really fast with pedal resistance. Not swearing by this source but other sources say roughly the same:

For an average woman*, just a 30 minute moderate cycling session will burn 202 calories, an average man* will burn 225 calories. Increase this to an hour and women will burn 404 cals, while men will burn 450.

Up the effort level to a more vigorous pace and an average woman will burn 314 calories in a 30 minute session, with an average man clocking up 358 (that's 628 and 716 cals burned respectively for an hours cycling).

Cycling - Burn Calories and Lose Weight
 
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