So, What’s Been Going on the Last Several Weeks?

Well, as I noted in my last post a month ago, depression struck. I have issues every year-or-so, but with the COVID situation, it’s happened a bit more frequently. That death I mentioned early in August didn’t help. I don’t actually have it to the point of major depression, but sort of a minor depression (even though that was only recognized in the DSM IV-TR, not V, and you couldn’t get it more than once every two years otherwise it was something else).

Fitness-wise, I’ve effectively been maintaining what I’ve been up to the last several months. I’ve made extremely meager gains, but I’ve kept things up so I haven’t been taking any real steps backwards (except cardio kinda suffered). In general, though, it’s been hard for me to work up any motivation to do much of anything (which, for those who don’t know, is one of the classic criteria one needs to meet for depression; I mean, it’s also “life” in general at times for people who aren’t clinically depressed, but that’s why you have to meet 5 of 7 criteria for depression, that’s just one of them).

The Bad:

• My mild seasonal allergies kicked in a few weeks ago, meaning my eyes have been red, feeling sore, are watering, and my nose has been stuffed at times. As I said, mild allergies, but still there, and like depression it takes me awhile to realize it and figure out what I need to do about it.
• I went for my first walk in months up the hill two weeks ago (since mid-May; see “The good” below), and my knee started to hurt again. That’s the left knee and why I’ve been sleeping with a pillow under it for a few months. To compensate, my quads (specifically the aductor magnus and vaslus medialis) over-compensated and that made both legs sore at the time.
• I’ve decided I really hate the elliptical. It’s just so friggin’ boring!
• I have been failing to get even close to my goal on cardio due to a lack of much of any motivation for much of the last few weeks. Don’t even ask about core exercises.
• Weight and bodyfat percentage have gone nowhere (but at least not up), until last week when things started to go down again.
• The blower on the air conditioning went out, so some evenings it’s been in the 80s in the basement (Fahrenheit) further diminishing my desire to do exercise. It’s been fixed since then, but the air conditioning takes up >100% of all the household electricity use, so we’ve been running with it off when we can (as in, normal use here is around 40–50 kWh, which includes three large computers running code, overclocked, 24/7, a large server, normal household appliances, and a 210 W grow light; when the air conditioning is on, electricity use is over 100 kWh).

The Good:

• I have been sticking within my goals for food, except a few days, though everything has met my goals for the week.
• Weight and bf% are not going up.
• I have at least kept up with my weight lifting, 3×/week, despite everything else.
• I have been walking a bit more outside, three times so far in the last month, but two factors stop me from doing it for my main cardio these days: (1) Temperatures are still flirting with 80–90° here in Colorado, and (2) the AQI (air quality index) has been >100 many days for the last ~month, breaking 233 one day, due to smoke from all the fires.
• I’ve been doing a lot better about not eating one day and counting it on a future day, since I made it part of my overall tracking system for points.
• My hydroponics that I started mid-August are really doing well, which makes me happy. We were having no luck with growing things inside, and I didn’t know if it was light, soil, or water that was the issue (or possibly crappy seeds), so I decided to eliminate most of the guesswork and variables and try growing things hydroponically. Got some bins at Costco, got the nutrients, cut my holes, got some new seeds, and stuff’s doing quite well so far with the herbs and lettuce. I’m trying a few vegetables, just to see what happens, and if things go well then I’m going to expand and will be planting every week, and have a steady supply in +2–3 months after each planting of vegetables. I know it’s grossly inefficient to do it myself, but it’s still fun, and lawdy knows I need something I enjoy in my life right now. I have found myself just sitting by the plants for 5–10 minutes and feeling the leaves and smiling. (okay, that might sound weird or slightly creepy, but, whatever)