Into Phakding

Note: My Start Walking posts can easily be found by clicking on the label Start Walking 2008.

I've presumably got a goal this week & this month to get at least 7 hours of sleep per night, but I've not been doing too well with it. Especially last night. Thus, I slept just a teensy bit later than usual — no dancing, but I did my 15-minute row though finishing with a good couple hundred meters less than two mornings ago.

Perhaps the most important thing I did today healthwise was to sign up for Individualized Health Planning (IHP) sessions, which is part of the university's Health in Action program. I'd been reluctant to after my experience two years ago with the over-the-phone "wellness consultants" that came out of having filled out the health questionnaires we'd been sent the prior winter. The over-the-phone folks were well-meaning & enthusiastic, but they also seemed to be going from a script that I wasn't quite adhering to. For example, I'd tell them I was prediabetic, they'd start telling me the conventional American Diabetes Association-style advice about nutrition, I'd counter with the information that in my opinion that the ADA is making people sicker with that advice because of its emphasis on high carbs high carb high carbs, & the phone consultant at that point wouldn't quite know what to do. Basically, I was doing a lot of research on my own about what I should be eating & when (as can be seen from this blog), & how I should be exercising, & they weren't quite able to keep up with me. I didn't get the impression that they were knowledgeable beyond a very basic course on standard conventional health/nutrition advice. They had the demeanor of college kids doing a job for extra pocket money. The calls became chores for me more than anything that actually helped me.

But the IHPs are face-to-face with people with names & qualifications that we can actually read about. The person I'll be seeing, for example, is a nutritional educator with a Masters in nutrition from Bastyr University. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, she's someone my naturopath suggested to me a couple of years ago when I ran into her at Natural Pantry — someone who knows a lot about nutrition for diabetes & insulin resistance, & something tells me it won't be the standard ADA high carb advice. Aside from that, other people who've already been to IHP's have said some pretty good things about it. I've got to give credit to the university for working to get it right for employee health.

So I feel pretty good about signing up. My initial session will be in a couple of weeks.

When I got home tonight, I knew I'd find waiting for me the Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells & weight bench I'd ordered, which Jesse (my partner's nephew) had accepted delivery on earlier today. But seeing as I needed sleep, I intended not to unpack them until I got done with my scheduled Turbulence Training workout. Alas, I had no choice, because the boxes filled my bedroom. No choice but to open 'em, get the stuff out & move it out of the way, & take the stryofoam packing material to the garbage & the broken-down boxes out to my car for a trip to the Recycling Center this weekend. Okay, so it got me a few extra steps.

And then the workout (30 minutes bodyweight & dumbbell exercises, rowing warmup, rowing HIIT intervals 3x1:00/1:00r, rowing cooldown). And then dinner. And in a minute, to bed.

Progress today: With rowing, walking, & strength training (& my cool drink of water), I accumulated 17,834 steps or their equivalent. Cumulatively, I've done 65,180 steps or their equivalent, bringing my on my expedition to Everest into the village of Phakding.