Of Health and Hockey

I go back to the doctor in May to follow up on the latest blood pressure med, to make sure it's still working and not having unpleasant consequences for my liver or whatever*. With that in mind, and given how gung-ho my doctor is about me exercising, I decided that it would be good to have some numbers to show him (you know how I like the metrics).
*I think it was the liver he was most concerned for, but whatever: keeping track of that is his job. I'll just do the blood test and go to the appointment, then listen to what he has to say and take it from there.

For starters, I'm looking at the numbers of minutes I've been biking, since that's something I keep track of for motivational purposes, and (unfortunately) I can't look at recent weight loss numbers (sad trombone). Maybe by May, I'll see some of that! But in the meantime, I put the number of hours per week that I've exercised, going back to last May so I'll have a year's worth to show him, into a spreadsheet. This time period especially makes sense since it was at an appointment with him in November that we spoke of my trying to ride longer at lower resistance, so I'll have six months before that and six months after.

In looking it over, it seems clear that I upped my numbers just before the appointment, which was during week 27 (and that's no surprise, right?), but prior to that little push, I was doing less than an hour per week, sometimes less than half an hour. Lately? An hour, hour and a half, two hours or more. As the sock progress has shown!

May 2014 through last week:

(The low note at week 16 was the end of the SF trip [tons of walking] and jet lag; then the dip at week 32 was when I was away Christmas week, during which time I also walked nine miles on the beach over 4 days. So this chart, although showing most of my exercise, is not 100% comprehensive.)

Right now, it looks pretty good, in terms of improvement, and I'll make it my goal to continue and improve that over the next few months.

And keep trying to eat better. Last night I finally made a recipe I saw recently on Facebook, that seemed both somewhat healthy and too cute to pass up. I love rainbows (and loved a recent mood board from Tanis, as proof of that), and a rainbow pizza? Had to try it. Lookit how cute! Even in my kitchen's awful lighting (which seems fine in the moment, but is awful for photography).

From the left, that's purple potato, red onion, red pepper, orange pepper, yellow pepper, green pepper. See?

Mine didn't come out too badly, I think, not like some recipes or projects where yours looks totally unlike the original. The before shot in oven light was a bit better, actually.

And it tasted pretty good, though to be honest, from a taste perspective, I don't actually see the need for all the varieties of peppers, as cute as the rainbow is, and I would prefer the onions mixed through, and I couldn't taste the potatoes at all. But if one could cut down on the chopping, it's a pretty easy, fairly healthy meal to make, and I will keep it in mind to do again.Tonight, in fact, to use the other flatbread that came in a two-pack. I'll report back on my mods.

*****
The Bruins managed a win last night, despite all the OMG-Tyler-Seguin-trade-we-can-talk-of-nothing-else-when-the-Bruins-play-Dallas* nonsense; given the 8:30 start, I listened to the third period on the radio, in bed, even that keeping me awake too late. Tonight's 10 PM start will happen without me, and I'll learn what happened tomorrow morning.
*Yes, Seguin scores a lot of goals. No, he would not be playing the same way had he not been traded. First, it was a much-needed kick in the ego, and second, Dallas put him back at center, which the Bruins couldn't do without bumping Krejci or Bergeron down, which, you know, was not going to happen. Let's get over it and move on (I wish).

The long-time Bruins fan in me is saddened to note the death last week of Bob Wilson, who was the radio voice of the Bruins for my childhood. He was an amazing announcer; my family routinely turned the volume off the TV coverage and listened to the game on the radio. I can still hear him, in my head, after a tying goal had been scored: "It's all brand new and shiny..." In addition to the obituary, there was a nice piece about him in the Globe on Tuesday. And this blog post has some clips of interviews with him, as well as of his work, so that was a walk down memory lane.

Also, have I mentioned how much I love a sense of humor? Because I love a sense of humor. From the NHL, of all places!

And then this, which is AHL but also awesome. 

I don't understand this, and how it doesn't slide, but it's damned cool, I think.