Thursday 12 May 2005

Pic of the day: Watch those hearts! Screnshot from the anime Final Approach.

I <3 my watch

(<3 is the emoticon for "heart" which again is a symbol for love. Used by lazy people and where there is little time to write, such as in chat rooms. This time it is a pun, because my watch also watches my literal heart.)

The sports shop "Löplabbet" certainly know what they're doing: I did not need to "walk in" my new jogging shoes, after a minute I had forgotten about them and could walk as long as I wanted. The next day I walked to the shop and back without even thinking about the fact that I was wearing new shoes. With most I have had in the past, I would have returned with blisters. So, good job.

But the thing that really makes it fun is the pulse watch. It has four different "zones" in percent of the maximum heartbeat. In my case, I set it to "light exercise", 104-123 heartbeats per minute for a 46 year old. I still haven't trusted the machine to make its own test of my max pulse by measuring how I react to five exercises. Perhaps when I know it better.

The watch always shows the pulse while you are exercising. It can also show various other displays, such as a running tally of calories. ^_^ But the view I use the most is a line with a small heart on it, showing where you are in your chosen interval. (Light exercise in my case.) If you slow down, the heart moves to the left, and if you speed up, it moves to the right. If it passes outside the margin, the watch begins to beep. (This is a good idea, since you will probably not spend all of your time with your eyes on a watch!) If you slow down below the lower limit, the short beep will have longer interval, echoing your slow pulse. If you pass the upper bound, there will be faster beeps, echoing your fast heartbeat. So you will never need to be in doubt (although I really cannot imagine how you could mistake 103 and 123 beats per minute... perhaps it is different on higher levels, but probably not).

I consciously reminded myself that the fast beeps were not a danger warning. It's a few years since last time, but during the 6 years of my journal I have had my heart tested twice at a hospital (because of seemingly unnatural fainting). In each case, I got a clean bill of heart. The health personnel seemed more envious than worried. If I do indeed take after my mother's branch of the family, my heart could easily last as long again as it has done till now. (Although I suppose my unhealthy lifestyle without a social network, laughter and pets is likely to subtract a bit.) In short, barring divine intervention there is no reason for me to worry about my heart. But there's no reason to let it just wilt from lack of activity either. I always used to walk more than the average 40 year old, but now I can actually measure what happens to my body while I do so.

During the trip to the shop and back (which turned out to take less than the hour I have always claimed), I burned enough calories for 200 grams of chocolate. Wai! But I didn't eat that chocolate. Being suddenly very health-conscious, I ate yogurt instead. Besides, I really like yogurt too, so it is alright. I am becoming so healthy! And it's all because of my new watch!

Not really. As the voice in my head said:

Water tastes good when you are thirsty,
bland when your thirst is slaked,
repulsive when you are full.
This is not a property of the water, but of the mind-body.
Those who understand this in all things have found a wisdom;
they can no more be snared than can a cloud.

I may perceive that buying the watch is the cause and moving around more is the effect, but the opposite could just as easily be true: That I bought the watch in order to walk more. Definitely my actions are properties of the cooperation and compromise of my body and mind. To place the responsibility for them on any outside object, be it a watch or a computer or a person, is just an excuse. Still, in this case it is a very nifty excuse. ^_^

Another side effect, it seems, is that I get sleepier earlier in the night. I now sleep seven hours instead of six. I am also a little hungry at almost all times, but I might have been that anyway since I am under my natural weight (normally ca 94 kg against now 89). Feeling slightly hungry is a good sign, really. If I didn't, I would either be eating more (which would be a bad idea) or my appetite would be missing (not a good sign). As long as it is not enough to keep me awake in the night, I don't mind.

***

Reading up on related topics, I was disturbed to see propagated the claim that if you eat very little (less than 1000 kcal a day) your body will burn your muscle tissue instead of fat. That makes no sense. It would be a case of exception handling, and neither God nor Evolution has any motive for putting in such an exception. It would amount to a kind of "self destruct in case of famine" programming, and given how common famine has been through history, this would be a pretty bad idea. Men should definitely burn their fat first (and indeed we do), saving the muscle to hunt down more prey (or pay). Meanwhile women first burn upper body fat, then unused muscle, then lower-body fat (which is normally reserved for pregnancy and nursing). Skipping meals a couple days is utterly harmless and is indeed routine in some religions. Long-term starvation, on the other hand, tends to lead to infertility, lifelong reduction in metabolism and strength, and a lifelong craving for fat.

But there's no risk of that for me. Even now that I mostly eat juice and milk products, I probably get about 2000 kcal a day of the recommended 2500 for men. When I stop walking so much (in a few days), I'll probably not burn much more calories than women do, 2000 a day or so. (True, they are better insulated, but I am more lazy!) So I'll not be reduced to skin and bones anytime soon, unless something much worse happens to me. And that could happen anyway, to anyone, so why worry now?