seem to be catching up to me, as I guess it does for anyone if their lifestyle changes. After what seems like a lifetime of Covid-19 worry and lockdown, things seem to be calming down somewhat here in New Zealand and time to reflect on what changes this has had on us mentally and physically is here.
For me personally, Covid-19 has not directly affected any of my close friends nor family so I am grateful for this, it has also not directly affected me, aside from turning me into even more of a hermit than before, however it did do one thing, it made me extremely busy at work. Working in IT, many organisations were suddenly forced to cater for remote working for the entire workforce, rather than say a select few, maybe the on-call engineers or road warriors etc. Challenging times for some, and being a network/security consultant, this meant an increase in workload resulting in long hours sat in a chair looking at screens and being sedentary, which leads me to the sad realisation that I am teetering on brink of no longer being considered healthy!
So what ‘is’ healthy – to me it is pretty simple, how I look (body fat/physique) and how I feel. I know that I have been working more, eating badly and not exercising as much as normal, to really hammer this home I stepped on the good old trusty Tanita scales to take a look at how unfit I really am!
| Body Fat | 20.5% |
| Weight | 79.7Kg |
| Body Water | 52.1% |
| Muscle Mass | 60.2Kg |
| Physique Rating | 5 |
| Basal Metabolic Rate | 1839cal/7693kcal |
| Metabolic Age | 38 |
| Bone Mass | 3.2Kg |
| Visceral Fat | 7% |
Some of the data here makes sense, some doesn’t so if you are wondering what it all means, then have a look at this old blog article here. Long story short, I think that this is the most I have ever weighed, most fat I have had, the most dehydrated I have been and the closest to my real age in the ‘metabolic age’ field.
Time for a change is needed! Whilst my workload is still very, very high I can change my diet, and force myself do at least go for a walk each day to stretch my legs or at least get some fresh air! We’ll see whether I can stick to the 10,000 steps per-day, that is a baseline goal for many.
Those who know me, or have read one of two of my posts know that I am a fan of the Paleo diet. Well, I’ve well and truly fallen off that wagon, so time to get back on it. I’m aiming to update the above table once a week for a month, then write a follow up post to see whether I feel better, as well as discuss the results of the monthly weigh-in.
Cheers, Graham
Mountainrescuer - the blog of Graham Brown 