Fitbitten!!!

About a month ago, my wife and I each bought a Fitbit. I realize that I probably am a bit late getting on this bandwagon. The fact of the matter is that I spent a bit of time researching personal "metrics" devices for a while. After talking to some of my friends and my wife's friends, and polling Facebook, I decided on a FitBit. But what kind? I have so many things that I am keeping track of and have to remember to put in my pockets everyday. With that in mind, i decided that something that I didn't need to remember to shove in a pocket and take out to avoid putting through the spin cycle. With that in mind, I chose the FitBit Flex.

It wears just like a wristwatch. Unfortunately, it looks a bit silly on my wrist next to my regular watch, so about the only time that I wear the two at the same time is when I am out on a run. I have just been using my iPhone as my watch and just wear the FitBit. Most people I know most people use their mobile device as a clock, so this isn't a big thing to work with, however, I am use to wearing a watch and I lost count of how many times I have looked at my FitBit expecting to see what time it is. Maybe that is something that can get worked into the next iteration of the device. (Hint, hint FitBit).

As you can see from the chart above, I have become somewhat FitBitten. I doubt that I am the first one to say that, but, I am going to go with it. The bar graph shows how many steps I took each day for the first month that I had the device. Seems unreal to me that I traveled almost 132 miles on foot in one month. 

The business productivity expert, Peter Drucker, said "What gets measured, gets managed." I have found this tool to be great for measuring more things than just my activity. I can manually input what I eat over the course of the day into the FitBit Dashboard as well as how much water I drink. The biggest challenge I have with this is figuring out how to accurately account for dinner. I think I may actually be calculating high for that. 

The other thing that this FitBit Flex tracks for me is how I sleep. It measures restlessness as well as how long I sleep. I just need to tell it when I go to bed and when I wake up. I have a moderate case of sleep apnea and this really tells me if my CPAP machine is doing the job or not, besides my wife telling me when I have kept her up with my snoring.

Part of my day job is looking at things from an efficiency standpoint. Doing things in the least amount of time and with the fewest possible steps. I have found that with my FitBit, I have taken the time to walk down to a work area to talk to a coworker, versus sending and Email or calling them on the phone. I think this interaction actually helps get work done a bit faster and clearer with the direct conversation versus trying to interpret the subtext of an email. 

Overall, this has been a great tool for me to make more intentional decisions about what I do, how I get there and what I put into my body. Now, if only I can stop looking at it to see what time it is.

What tools do you use to keep track of your day? Your goals? Your Fitness?

A Powerful Lesson from an Unexpected Place

Today, I was in a conversation with some people about work assignments and performance goals. One of my coworkers was venting about some performance goals that were assigned to him. He said that he thought the goals were “impossible” to achieve. Then my mind, for just a moment, went long ago to a galaxy far, far away…

I have been remind of scenes from the Star Wars films as I go through life. As a parent, husband, or even an employee, there are life lessons in those movies that come from the most unexpected places. I was reminded on an iconic scene in the Empire Strikes Back, on the little, swampy planet of Dagobah.

I feel like the part of the movie that I am referring to will be familiar to most people who read my blog. If the Star Wars movies are something you have yet to experience, I think you will get my point just the same.  

Coming back to Earth, my coworker who thinks that the goals that have been put in front of him are impossible. So, he as already set himself up to fail in his mind. Instead of using his mind creatively to come up with ways of meeting this goal, he uses it to fill him mind with doubt. It is that doubt that will defeat him if he cannot see the need to overcome it.

Since I became a manager, I have been researching a lot about leadership and one subject that I have seen little to no useful information on is how to lead a procrastinator. That is because, there is no way to effectively make a procrastinator not procrastinate. Regardless of how this ends up, I have learned a lesson from this that will help me keep my own attitude in check.

Goals

The year 2013 is in the books. There is a common thought that goes through our culture about making New Years resolutions. There are all kinds that people try. While the options are totally up to the individual, there are some common ones that are often picked. Some people decide that it is time to stop smoking, or lose weight, or learn something new. The common driving force that I see in all resolutions is that people see in them selves that there is something that they are unhappy with and want to change.

I personally am not a resolutions kind of a person. I don't see the value in waiting use a new calendar as a trigger to make a change. I like to think that I am more of goals kind of a person. A goal is just a valid to start in the middle of March as it is in the beginning of January.
In 2013, I set for myself some goals that I wanted to achieve. I am happy to say that I successfully achieve one of the goals that I set out for myself. You read that right, one goal.
At one time, I would have found myself thinking that being 17% successful would be pretty disappointing. This is a line of thinking that I am making a conscious effort to avoid. I have come to think of it as sort of an eighth goal. Not really a goal in the sense that I have not come up with a way to measure it. I can define it, but not gage it. I have written before about goals. It has been a long time and I think that my real understanding of what constitutes a goal has changed.
The Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, from Star Wars Episode I said it well when he stated "Your focus determines your reality." Inspiration comes from all different kinds of sources. The recovering perfectionist inside of me would have preferred to go 7 for 7 this year, but, having completed one goal is better than not finishing any. I can focus on what I might have classified as failures, or I can be pleased with the success. Focusing on the success will drive more success. I may be tempted to say to my self that I cannot run a marathon, but, I can look back on what I did achieve and remind myself that I did accomplish something, so there is a precedence  for success. 
Another way of looking is, I already have some 2014 goals laid out in front of me.

Digital Detox

While I was on vacation this past week, I decided to go on a fast from social media. This is a scaled down version of something I did around Easter back in 2012. Back then; I stayed off of social media for the term of Lent. My goals were more around experimenting with self-discipline. This time around, I just needed a break from all of the different sources of input. My day job is very e-mail dependent and it seems like I can’t look at my phone without seeing a notification that someone posted something that Facebook wants me to look at right away or that there are 10 new emails that have come in since the last time that I looked.

The idea of a digital detox is not something new or I can take credit for coming up with. I was somewhat relieved that I was not the only one who felt overloaded and needed to unplug from the Internet. I have read a number of posts from people who talked about their experiences with getting away from it all, 21^st century style.

I started with the day before my family and I were scheduled to head off to one of our favorite places to camp. It is a place that my wife and I have been to nearly every summer since we got married. The start to my media fast was not as intentional as it would seem. With all of the stuff we had to do to get ready to go, I accidentally

left my phone in my car for a while after running errands. I am not sure this is something that only I experience, but, sometimes, I get these muscle spasms in my legs that feel like my phone is ringing on vibrate mode. I didn’t realize that my phone was not on me until I had one of those muscle spasms.

One of the great things about this camping spot that we go to is it is truly out in the middle of nowhere. Cell phones do not work and I think that any Internet access that the local business may have has to be by satellite. That was the easy part of the fast. Nothing like being cut off that makes it easy to deal with internal temptations. The real challenges came when we got home.

We came home after camping for three days. The plan was to leave the following day for another campground after we took care of some appointments. The plans were changed around completely after my wife got second-degree sunburn the day before we came home. She was in no condition to try to camp anywhere else after that. After we decided to cancel the second trip, we still decided to make the rest of the week a staycation. This is where the real temptations started to kick in.

             It was really challenging not to stop and look at Twitter while I was balancing or bank account or peak at Facebook with the movie that the family was watching was paused for a bathroom break. I was able to stay away from it, but it really showed me something about how these little programs and devices can be real distractions from living out live if we let them.

            All told, this is something that I recommend that everyone try to do, even if it is just for a long weekend. The day that my fast ended, I got on to Twitter to see at least a dozen comments on my feed about people being upset that a different person has been chosen to play Batman. I think I ended my fast too soon.

Unintended Legacies

A pair of shoes that my brother designed in the memory of Dave,

I am writing this post on 8 November. Normally, I dont get that specific on my posts. I like to think that when something is written doesn't have any bearing on the content. My post this time is a very rare exception.
For the last eight years, today has been a difficult day. I share this with others who had a the opportunity to cross paths with a rare individual. Today is the anniversary of the death of Marine SSGT Dave Ries. Dave and three other Marines in his unit were killed when a cowardly terrorist put a road side bomb in the path of their Hummer. I could write a lot about him and what made him so memorable. As I sit here writing with a 6 day old boy asleep in the bassinet, I have thought about the kind of legacy that we have the potential to leave without even knowing it. While there are three kids who had called Dave "Dad", I dont think Dave ever thought about where he had an impact on people. Do any of us really think about that?  Maybe it is good thing that we don't think about things that far ahead. We would stop being ourselves and act how we think we want others to think of us. A legacy only really comes from who we are. It comes from how genuine we are. It is too bad that it takes painful events to remind us of this simple reality.

If a Person "Goes" in the Woods....

Over the past 12+ years of being married, my wife and I have had a number of dogs. We have had different ages, from new puppy to full-grown. We have had different breeds from Lab to Terrier to Boxer. I have heard it said that dogs don’t “poop where they eat”, or “pee where they sleep.” I will unapologetically admit that I am a cat person and I don’t understand the whole idea of people treating their pets like they are people, but, in terms of instincts, it makes sense to me that an animal will pick a different place to eliminate waste than where they eat or sleep. It is too bad that there are people out there who don’t grasp what even animals understand.

Over Memorial Day weekend, my wife and I took our kiddos camping. We are avid campers and there are some places that we go to annually.  One of those places is on the Washington Coast near some amazing lighthouses. It would be a reasonable guess that I am writing about camping with babies.  Reasonable, but wrong.

At the last minute, another couple that we know decided to come camping with us. The campsite had enough room for two tents and the spot was already paid for, so we thought it wasn’t going to be a big deal. This was our first trip of the season and our second since we went back to tent camping.

Between trips with my family when I was a kid and my time in the Boy Scouts, I have done a lot of camping. I am comfortable in the woods and can handle nearly any imaginable situation. There are some things that Wilderness Survival training cannot prepare you for.

While we are tent camping, it is not an uncivilized set of conditions.  About 110 yards from our campsite, there is a bathroom. Not a pit toilet, but an actual bathroom, complete with running water, sinks, and a working shower. This is so much more developed than the pit toilets that I have used in other places. Also, the path to the bathrooms is really a paved road.

On our first evening in camp, after getting things set up and putting the kiddos to bed, the four adults decided to stay up and play games. In the middle of playing, our female companion declared that she needed to use the bathroom. She got up from the table and disappeared from sight, and then she returned in less than a minute. Not only was the speed of her constitutional a surprise, but, she did not have a flashlight on her. I am comfortable walking in the woods in the dark, but I really don’t think that I could have made that round trip, while conducting business in between in less than a minute. When my wife asked how she did that so fast, she told us that she just went behind their tent. To say that I was shocked and offended would be more than an understatement.

One of the tenants that are taught in Scouting is a respect for the land. You leave a campsite in at least as good of condition as you found it in if not better. From a survival perspective, eliminating waste near where you sleep or eat presents a large potential to contaminate available water as well as attract other animals in the area. I tried to explain this to her, but what I had to say fell on deaf or uncaring ears. When we arrived in camp, the Park Ranger told us that there was a bear spotted in the general area where we were going to camp.

This practice of peeing in the campsite continued over the course of the weekend. I don’t think she even saw the inside of the restroom that weekend. A mistake that I made was probably keeping my mouth shut for as long as I did. In the afternoon of the second day camping, we came back to the campsite to put the kiddos down for naps. We sat in the campsite and read while our companions decided to spend more time sightseeing. They arrived a short time after we did and it was decide that we would play some more games. My wife asked me to go and get something from inside our tent. While I was inside looking for whatever I was supposed to find, I heard a sound that reminded me of someone slowly pouring out a water bottle.  My first thought was that an animal decided to go near our tent. I hurried outside to shoo the animal away and was surprised to find out that the animal is human. Our companion decided to go behind our tent instead of going the short distance to the building that is the bathroom. There are some things that happen in life that you wish you could unsee. This was one that I wish I could use some sort of mental bleach to wash the image away.

I am a pretty easygoing person most of the time. I don’t anger easily and I think I am pretty good about thinking about what I am going to say before I say it. That was all tested in those few moments.

It may seem obvious, but I was really upset. I looked at the event as her giving us a visible example of how little respect she has for my family and me. She could have missed and urinated all over our tent that she chose to go behind and that I was in at the time.  For some people I think it would be like peeing in the corner of the hotel room instead of the bathroom. Difference is that you are less likely to be caught doing this while camping.

It was a battle of wills that I had a really difficult time fighting. I am not a yeller, but I yelled. I think I made it clear that I was angry. While didn’t call names, I wouldn’t let her get nearly me let alone hug me like she tried to do. Not only because she didn’t washed her hands afterward, but, I also, I was pretty sure the hug may have turned into strangling on my part. I wished there was a Park Ranger nearby so she could at least get a citation. I am sure there are laws about doing this sort of thing.

What happened next didn’t do anything to calm me down. She tried to justify what she did. Her argument was that when you go backpacking, you did holes and go just wherever. Keep in mind, we were not backpacking and at no time did her hands ever touch a shovel on this trip.

The rest of the trip was a challenge for me. The tension was tangible and while I love to camp and be outdoors, I was more than anxious to get home. On the last morning, as we were breaking camp, I could tell that we were all getting frustrated with each other.  All of my time and experience camping has given me the skill of being able to break down a tent and make it fit in the bag that it came in. I do it almost as well as the machines they use in the tent factories. As I was rolling up the tent, I put my body weight on the roll to force the air out. The same companion who didn’t use the designated facilities all weekend, decided to jump on my back as though she was trying to dog pile on me. This upset a back injury that I suffered in a car wreck a few years ago. I yelled at her to get off of me. She got mad at me for yelling at her, even though we had just told her about the injury. They didn’t stay too much longer after that. This is just a small snap shot of our weekend., but that is another blog post.

My wife and I had the best time on the trip after they went home. We got to explore and do things with the kiddos and just enjoy being with each other without worry about outside pressures and schedules. That, in my opinion, is what a weekend get away is supposed to be about.

I want to know what your opinion is. Do you think I overreacted and I had no business getting mad, or do you think we went camping with crazy?

No Longer Caffeine Free. End of this study

This blog post is a bit past due.  House is filling up again and I can't be happier. After two weeks of having no caffeine in my system, I have determined that the caffeine was not the reason why I was having such problems staying asleep at night.
The science makes sense.  According to a number of studies, caffeine processes through an average adult in 5-6 hours. When I drink coffee, it is pretty consistently in the early mornings only and stops by 9 am. The caffeine is totally out of my system by the afternoon and well before I go to bed, even when I go to sleep early.
Since caffeine has been eliminated as a reason for my sleeping issues, I have started to drink coffee again as I did before. The question still remains, why am I having problems staying asleep? I am going to keep working on figuring it out. It will be harder to figure out with a newborn and an infant in the house.  Good thing is that I do not have to figure it out any time soon.
Between this caffeine study and going 40 days with no social media, I have been thinking about trying different things over a month period and blogging about the experiences.  I am trying to think of ideas.  Things like, only drinking water for 30 days, or no TV watching for 30 days.  Those sorts of things.  I am looking for ideas. If you have any ideas, please leave them in the comments. I only ask that make sure that the suggestions are safe. I don't think I could do 30 days of riding a bike to work on the freeway.