Facts and Figures

When I first got started on my fitness journey, I focused a lot on numbers. Being a data-driven person, this felt natural. There are lots of numbers to watch: weight, heart rate, body fat, pace, how much you can lift, and a myriad of other numbers.

So here are some current numbers: My weight is down almost 30 pounds, my body fat has dropped about 13%, my mile time has dropped by about one minute thirty seconds, the weight I can lift has gone up 30% to 40% across various exercises, I can hold a plank longer, my resting heart rate has dropped 11 points, I regularly run 4 to 5 miles at a time and 12 to 18 miles a week. All of the numbers are trending in the direction that I want.

I am happy about all of those things, but, the longer I progress down this road, I find the “metrics” that matter are the ones that I can’t quantify with numbers. I find myself increasingly measuring my progress in terms of “things I couldn’t do a year ago.”

So here are a few more facts: I was able to move around bags of mulch without getting winded, I was able to go stand-up paddle boarding with my daughter, I was able to balance on a ladder to paint a hard-to-reach spot, I was able to lean over other items and lift a case of water out of my wife’s car without worrying about my back. None of that was true a year ago, before I got serious about this.

In the end, those are the reasons I am doing all of this, not the races and the numbers. Those are merely steps along the way. The goal is to be able to live life well and participate in things that matter with my family. A year into this journey, I am beginning to understand, in relief, how far I had gotten from that.

The war on cubicle body continues.